'I always knew I was a writer'

Saaz Aggarwal belongs to the breed of writers who choose not to categorise themselves too firmly. While she does admit that most of her work is coloured with humour, she doesn’t appear to be very particular when speaking about style, genre or target audience.

What seems to work for the author, in fact, is sticking to simplicity — “For many years, I’ve been content with writing very simply – without flourishes, and in my own voice,” she says. Metrolife spoke to with Saaz recently to find out more about her latest book, ‘Songbird On My Shoulder’.
Ask Saaz when she first began to write, and she, rather enigmatically, replies, “I always knew I was writer — I just didn’t write for many years.”

Truth be told, she picked up the pen at a very young age, and recollects having one of her poems published in her school magazine when she was all of seven.

“I took up writing seriously in my late twenties, as a single mother with a young child, using it as a way to earn a living without leaving the house,” she explains.

The transition from writing for pleasure to converting it into a full-time career isn’t something that happened seamlessly, though. “I studied math in university, and taught it in Mumbai for many years. I grew up in the Nilgiris, so moving from that kind of cloistered, privileged life to the rough-and-tumble of Mumbai was quite a culture shock — because of this, there was a number of years when I didn’t write at all. But there came a time when I needed to do something, so I started writing and it just took off,” she recollects.

She finds it difficult to pinpoint a particular source of inspiration.  “Mostly daily events — my thoughts and ideas,” she explains, adding, “As a child, I wanted to write like P G Wodehouse — though not anymore, I’m afraid! As a teenager, I loved Kurt Vonnegut, and there’s no writer I’ve enjoyed and admired as much since. Now I tend to read mostly South Asian writers. One of my favourites is Manu Joseph.”

Her latest book, ‘Songbird On My Shoulder’, is a compilation of some of the pieces she’s written over the last couple of decades.

Ask her about the somewhat unusual title and she replies, “It’s pinched from a poem of the same name written about ten years ago, in which I described the feeling of seeing my own creative output on a page, and wondering where it came from. The book is an anthology of work published over the last 20 years; mostly personal experiences and insights in the form of light essays and poems.”
All the pieces in the book, she adds, are a little funny and she believes they cater to all kinds of readers.

“Over the years, I’ve had feedback from so many different kinds of people that I don’t really have a well-defined person in my mind when I write. The book has had encouraging reviews and I’ve been gratified by the attention it has received so far,” she concludes.

Saaz’s book will be launched on April 30, 6 30 pm at Landmark, Forum Mall.