Book title: The Abundance of Nothing
Author: Biddu
Publisher: Times Group Books
Pages: 304
Biddu ventured into Bollywood with the sensational composition ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’ for ‘Qurbani’ and popularised Indie-pop in India with another best-selling album, ‘Disco Deewane’. He later produced the 3 million-selling album, ‘Made in India’ that kicked off Alisha Chenoy’s career. From this connoisseur of music and the receiver of a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Rolling Stone magazine comes a spellbinding tale of a young rag picker.
Set against the backdrop of Mumbai in the 90s, the novel takes you through a journey of a young man who comes to terms with life when he’s suddenly left alone in a big bad world. The rise and fall of the vagabond kid amalgamated with the impeccable use of metaphors captures the heart and makes you realign your perception about materialism.
How did the transition from music to writing come about?
I decided that at my stage, and dare I say age, I should walk away quietly from the music scene. Creating pop music is for the young, not for the young at heart. Anyway, I was sitting in my house in Spain, watching the sunset and the surf washing the shoreline and I thought what next? I did not want to go through life with just one experience, one career. The idea of opening a restaurant was tempting, but everyone said ‘You crazy’, you’ll be tied to the restaurant 20 hours a day. So then I thought about writing a novel. Since I had always written my own lyrics (in English), I thought I’d go down that avenue.
Did you hear from your fans after publishing books? How have they taken to your literary abilities?
Almost everyone has been impressed by the stories and my grasp of the language. But then I was brought up in Bangalore, where Hindi was a foreign tongue and English was the lingua franca of the middle class.
What according to you killed Indie-pop in India? As one of the pioneers of Indie-pop, do you feel saddened by the same?
A lack of talent and a plethora of sub standard music killed the Indie-pop industry. Also for a while Indie-pop ruled the waves, because Hindi film music was stuck in a time warp. But they listened to Indie-pop, got the ideas, and sounds among others , plus they had the Moola. A music video of Shah Rukh Khan fronting a song from a major film with the attendant heavyweight promo and publicity is going to have more impact than some unknown doing the same in a pop video.
What inspired you to pen down a story detailing the journey of a young rag picker on the streets of Mumbai?
I had already written my first novel ‘Curse of the Godman’ which was set in Darjeeling circa 1951, when the British had left India. So, I decided to bring my next novel to the present times and set it in Bombay as it’s the city which gave me my fondest memories as a youth in India.
The novel provides a perfect description of Mumbai’s subculture. How did you manage to delve so well into this part of the city despite moving to England long ago?
Writing is all in one’s mind. That and the Internet. The first novel ‘Curse of the Godman’ was set in Darjeeling. A lot of people emailed and wrote to me saying I had captured Darjeeling perfectly. I had to lie and say I spent time there. Why kill the illusion. You can travel the world sitting in front of your computer. But coming back to Mumbai’s sub culture, I lived there for four years and visit it every year. So, in many ways, I used to think of Mumbai as my home in India.
From where do you draw inspiration for your characters?
Inspiration is usually from perspiration. You let your mind wander, sometimes ideas come when you’re swimming, sometimes when you’re walking along the beach and sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. The mind wanders, ideas spring up, you filter them, the good ones from the bad and in the morning you rush to your lap-top and hit the keys.
What has been the biggest surprise or learning experience while writing the book?
The biggest surprise is when you read back a few chapters of what’s been written and if it’s impressive, you ask yourself ‘Did I really write that?’ and a smile percolates through and you get a warm all over feeling and the confidence and adrenalin pumps through your body. It was the same feeling I got when I used to compose a song and it felt like a winner and you knew it would be a hit.
As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
As a child of 12, I want to be a 13! But seriously, from a kid, I either wanted to be a film star or a singer. I couldn’t act out of a paper bag (like a lot of stars today!), so I became a singer. When I went to London, I took up writing, arranging and producing because I couldn’t get any work or gigs. So, I made my own records. Which on reflection was a far more lucrative way of doing things.
A literary figure who has inspired you in your life
Shakespeare for sure. I’m not a guy who has heroes. There are people I admire like Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi. But the truth is, even in the world of music, I had no heroes or people I looked up to. You put people on a pedestal only to be disillusioned or disappointed when you actually meet them. Then you bring them down.
Readers interested can order their own copy of the book here tgb.indiatimes.com.
(Originally published on June 09, 2014)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Life & Style> Books / by Pallavi Bansal, TNN / June 28th, 2014
