There’s the quintessential meet-cute between the girl and the boy. There are amusing incidents in and around them, their friends and family, as the two of them fall in love. There are obstacles and winning over them, crisscrossed with reflections on life. All of this and more, more often than not, take place in a college campus setting in many Sudeep Nagarkar books. Emotions run high and so does the speed of turning the page as you are taken into a journey of love, friendship, relationships and life. To that, add a spin of the feeling of having seen or heard the story yourself somewhere in life.

Sudeep Nagarkar, the author of 13 best-selling books, the recipient of the Youth Achievers Award, whose works have been translated into Hindi, Marathi and Telugu, brings you his latest book Can’t Quarantine Our Love (Penguin; Rs 199) that puts the age-old concept of true love to the test of the trying circumstances in life.

A chat with the author.

Why did you settle for Can’t Quarantine Our Love as the title of your new book?

I totally believe that you cannot cage love and the book also highlights it, that you shouldn’t hide your emotions but express your feelings to your loved ones and friends. I felt that it is appropriate because now we know what quarantine means and how difficult our lives were in 2020. So, just going with the trend, and I felt the title exactly fits with what I wanted to showcase through Avni and Sidharth’s story, where Avni finds it difficult to come out of her shell. However, when she meets a guy who helps her break the set rules of life, she overcomes them and expresses her emotions, which is what the story is all about.

It is a love story that also explores hard truths of life like death...

Death is something that I wanted to highlight; it is part and parcel of our life. We cannot escape death, like we cannot escape our past and fears. It’s about accepting them and moving ahead. The major aspect that I wanted to show was the journey of Avni where she loses her grandmother and is totally heartbroken. She gets to know Sidharth around the same time and he helps her overcome her fear and anxiety. So that was the journey that I wanted to highlight — even if you are an introvert, and even if you are someone who just loves to be in your own space, if you have someone who loves you, you shouldn’t lose that person, because we take a lot of things for granted in life.

Cover of Sudeep Nagarkar's book Can't Quarantine Our Love. Picture sourced by the correspondent

What elements are essential for writing a good love story?

I think the most important factor for writing a love story is the connectivity factor. Thinking as a reader, if your characters are able to connect with them, even if it is a very simple love story, it will be loved, but if your readers are not able to connect with your characters, then even if your incidents and the love story itself is amazing, the reader will not be able to invest in the character. So for me, whenever I think about writing a love story, it’s about how I am building the character and how I am taking the journey of the character ahead. Whether it’s on a positive note, or a negative note, the character has to evolve.

In the times of speed dating and so many labels for relationships, how do you think the youth looks at the old-world ideas of love at first sight and true love?

The concept of true love, going mad for each other is still there. Only, the way of expressing it has changed over the years. During my college days, I had to actually face the girl to propose her. But now it happens on Facebook, on WhatsApp or a video call which wasn’t possible in 2004 or 2005. So, that is how it is. But everyone of us feels that we should be loved and that is the most beautiful thing that can happen to you in your life.

It’s been a decade of your writing journey. Do you think there is a pattern that may have come up in your books that define your authorship and make it stand out from the other writers in the young adult romance fiction genre?

It’s very difficult for me to judge that, but I am quite sure that there must be some pattern. But, I am someone who doesn’t believe in say a three-act story or such precepts that go into the storyline. I am not that technical when it comes down to plotting a story. I am more interested in building a character and in giving minute details of the life of the character because that is something which enthrals me and keeps me on my toes whenever I am writing. If the reader is invested in the character, he is absolutely going to love the storyline, maybe even if it’s a simple story. If as a reader you can relate to the character then the work of the writer is done.

How do you think the genre of young adult fiction evolved over the years?

Indian authors have been in the dominance for the last decade, which was not the case in the early 2000s. Nowadays, people love to read love stories that are happening around them. If I am able to write down about a couple who stays in Mumbai and connect them to places there, I am quite sure that Mumbai residents are obviously going to connect with the storyline. So that’s the connecting factor that has really changed the adult romance in the last decade.

Do you follow the works of your contemporaries?

I do read works of my contemporaries, if I talk about Durjoy (Dutta), or Ravinder (Singh), Savi Sharma, we are all good friends and we are connected with each other. And I do read their books. But everyone’s writing style is different. Maybe someone prefers to write about dark humour, someone prefers to write about pure love, someone probably prefers writing about friendships. So, whatever it is, you should stick to your strengths.

Have you ever faced writer’s block in your writing career so far?

I have faced it many times but I also think that there is too much hype around writer’s block. If you feel that you are not able to concentrate on the character or plot, just switch off for some time, because this is not a 9-to-5 job where you have to work mandatorily and there is no fixed time when an idea can strike you. It can happen anytime. One has to be very alert whenever a thought strikes.

What according to you is the toughest part of being a writer?

For me, the toughest part was not to come to the decision of leaving my job. That was easy because I knew what I was planning ahead. But the toughest thing in India is to explain to your parents, your friends, your relatives the exact nature of your job and the factors that determine it. The social pressure is so much on us that sometimes it gets difficult to take the decision. And for a writer, that peace of mind is very necessary.

The uncertainty factor is there, even for established writers. That feeling of nobody reading your works any more. In any creative field, if you are not the best version of yourself, someone is going to take your position. There are many authors who are doing well, but if you see the ratio of the number of books that get published in India every year and among them the new authors who are coming up every year versus the number of authors you remember after that particular year, the ratio is miserable. So, that uncertainty is still there. But, I feel you should continuously put in efforts.

Do you feel that being a best-selling author might sometimes delimit your horizons as a writer as you are to cater to an established readership with every book of yours?

It is true but I feel that if you are confident about writing any particular subject, then you should just go ahead and write it. You cannot sit here and judge yourself from your readers’ perspective. They might hate what you think they would love. But then, if you have genuine people around who can give you honest feedback, you can take those suggestions and implement them in your writing.

You must have got used to the ‘what next?’ question by now in every interview...

(Laughs) Oh yes! That’s the trickiest question that I always face. Maybe after a month or a couple of months, I will sit down and think what next.