The king of exposé, a journalist/editor, a publisher, and author Tarun Tejpal is an angry man. Or so it seems. He says one has to be angry if one has to live in a country like India. Tejpal's second book, The Story Of My Assassins, is perhaps an extension of his anger. In the book, Tejpal weaves a story surrounding a journalist who escapes an assassination attempt. And then he goes on to deconstruct the lives of the people who plot to kill him. In an interview, Tejpal tells BW Online's Sanjitha Rao Chaini the genesis of the book, the "moral slipperiness" in Hinduism that allows people to justify their acts and why financial investigative journalism doesn't exist in India.
The protagonist in The Story Of my Assassins doesn’t have a name. Was that deliberate?
It's unimportant, whether he has a name or not. It's of no consequence to the book or what he is saying. He is telling the story, it doesn't matter what he is called. Who he is comes — his profession, class, religion, everything -- comes through the narration.
What inspired you to write this book?
The idea of the book came to me in 2003 and was basically based on a simple conceit. It was simply examining and exploring the idea that the lives of the assassins are no less or more worthy than the one they wish to assassinate. But then it developed into multiple sub-themes which is what happens with novels. But it took me a long time to find a narrative voice to tell my story. And that took me a few years. So I only began write only a few years later. I was hunting for the voice through which I could distill the material. It took two years to write this book. I finished writing The Alchemy Of Desire in 2003 when the idea of this book came to me.
Why are there so many profanities in the book?
The challenge of writing authentic literary fiction is clearly to capture life as it is. It is not to provide a sanitised view of the world. And if you exist in India and exist in certain classes, it's a very obvious uncommon place occurrence. Everybody I know uses them and if you go to different classes of people, there are different kinds of profanities that are used. They have always been done universally from the time of Aristotle and Plato to now. It's a very guttural, real way that people have of dealing with their lives. They are very common. Whether you use it in English, Hindi, Punjabi or Bhojpuri — it's a normal thing. Most cultures, in a very visceral way, express themselves through their profanity.
Do you think editors make better authors in terms of knowledge they have and command over the language?
No, I don’t think so. There are no qualifications for a better writer than just being a better writer. For literary fiction at least, you need several things. There is no easy qualifier that makes you a better or worse writer. You need language, empathy, knowledge, insight, intuition, imagination – you need all kinds of things I would imagine a fiction writer should possess. Editors may or may not have them; a shop keeper could have all them. One of the greatest poets of the 20th century Wallace Stevens was an insurance agent. T.S Eliot worked as a banker. On the other hand, you could be a street bum and produce great imaginative work. There are really no easy qualifiers. So, I don’t think editors are better or worse qualified to write literary fiction. They are better qualified to be journalists.
People are taking up writing as an alternative hobby. They always have something to fall back on. In this case you have Tehelka...
I think it’s the other way round. For me, Tehelka is my main line. It is not something I fall back on. Ninety-nine per cent of my life is the work I do here. Many people have many parts to our life. Life is a multiple. The question to be addressed here is: are you a good writer or a bad writer, good player or a bad player.
So, how successful was your last book The Alchemy Of Desire? Have you made money on it?
It has made a lot of money. The Alchemy Of Desire has been a success globally. It sold more than 300,000 copies. It continues to sell steadily. It sold well in England, in Italy, France and in India. It has been translated in 11-12 languages.
If you take out the author’s name and sell it, do you think the book would still be popular?
I think it would have done better. It’s a cross that someone like me has to carry. I don’t think people can approach literary novels without putting me in between because I have a public profile and a journalistic profile which I think comes in the way of reading the text. The only frame of reference in which it should be read is the text. The work should be the only framework. Unfortunately with me that’s not the case in India. That’s the reason in other countries where there is no framework of Tarun as a journalist, the book has received astonishing attention. France, England, Italy, Romania, Russia — people are only looking at the text and reading into the text. When you come to talk to me, you don’t come to me as a writer of The Story Of My Assassins, you come as Tarun, Tehelka, Journalist and writer of The Story Of My Assassins and that comes in the way of reading the text. I would be the happiest person if the book was read for what it is and if people didn’t read it through the prism of Tarun Tejpal. It is a loss I can’t really escape. I wish it was less mixed up with who I am.
What kind of research did you have to go through for this book?
I don’t believe in extensive reach. I don’t believe imaginative writing or literary fiction should be over researched, because then it just tends to become scholastic. The great triumph of literary fiction is the emotional end of it. Does the writer have empathy? Can he inhabit the skin of 10 different characters in the course of the book? Can he understand what moves them what motivates them, what makes them work? The emotional landscape is the critical skill set that a writer should have. The image I often use is that research is like the string of a kite. It should tether the narrative to the ground. The kite is the narrative, the story. You just have to do minimal research so the landscape is authentic.
You quoted Gita very extensively in your book. Any particular reason why?
It’s part of India, part of the story. Quoting Gita was just an interesting play in the story. We are at the core of a civilisation and we are morally a very slippery civilisation. The moral slipperiness comes from the fact that we have an ability to almost absolve everything we do. So, if you notice in the book, there are different characters at different times absolving their conduct by quoting the same text. That’s the moral slipperiness at the heart of Hinduism. Unlike Christianity and Islam, we don’t have a very clear sense of right and wrong. And a lot of that is derived from the classical and central text like the Gita, which almost make it possible for you to justify any kind of life.
What is the kind of response you are expecting for this book?
I expect nothing to be honest. There are only two ways to judge the value of a literary novel. The first is readers and second is time. We live in an age of marketing and hype so time is the only guarantor of the real value of any work. Alchemy... was written four years ago and is still selling. I still receive e-mails from readers about this book.
Personalities 
The king of exposé, a journalist/editor, a publisher, and author Tarun Tejpal is an angry man. Or so it seems. He says one has to be angry if one has to live in a country like India. Tejpal's second book, The Story Of My Assassins, is perhaps an extension of his anger. In the book, Tejpal weaves a story surrounding a journalist who escapes an assassination attempt. And then he goes on to deconstruct the lives of the people who plot to kill him. In an interview, Tejpal tells BW Online's Sanjitha Rao Chaini the genesis of the book, the "moral slipperiness" in Hinduism that allows people to justify their acts and why financial investigative journalism doesn't exist in India.
