Mohit Khare is a financial services technology professional who has worked with various multinational IT and banking firms. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Lucknow and currently works as a Product Manager with one of the largest banks in the world.
He completed a Diploma in Scriptwriting in 2016 from Writer Prepares, Mumbai, to marry his passion for writing and movies. Mohit is credited as the associate scriptwriter for few episodes of an Indian television series called “Khwaabon Ki Zamin Par” that was aired on Zindagi channel.
An Indian Farrago is his first book published by Leadstart publishing.
TBE: Can you tell us a bit about your book ‘An Indian Farrago’ and what inspired you to write it? I find the title very interesting. What does it mean and how it is employed?
Mohit Khare: I have been writing ever since my junior college days. I started with poetry and then moved to prose. I have been doing that over the years now and that’s what culminated in putting them together in a collection in the form of my book. There are stories here that are written just about a year back and some that I wrote almost two decades ago.
I get a lot of questions about the title. A farrago, as you know, refers to a confused mixture, and this collection of stories and poems is just that.
The characters in the stories are different from each other, all looking at life in their own way. Life, as its spent through the eyes of young boys, youth, middle aged men, wizened people, crooks, dancers, poets and even gods gentle creations- animals and birds.
There is no common thread binding the contents of the book, these are works that stand independent of each other, some of which you will find complete, fulfilling, while some others will leave you with a question, a gap, a hiatus. One will lead you towards the bright light, and another one towards the dark. And that’s the confusion that exists in the stories as it coexists in all of us. The experiences are all set in my dear land, India. And that’s why the name of the collection- An Indian Farrago.
TBE: Where’d you get the idea to do a collection of short stories instead of a full-length novel? How did you settle on the short-story form—or did it settle on you?
Mohit Khare: I wanted to preserve the experiences that I had in life and the interesting characters I met, in my writings. Poems were too lyrical and short for that and articles were not that engaging. Short stories on the other hand presented a powerful medium to convey things without taking too much of a reader’s time. Its like an affair, short but intense. And hence I started writing short stories blending fact with fiction. I found it not only enriching but also sustainable given the fact that I was also pursuing a career in Information technology simultaneously.
TBE: Why, or how do you think stories are able to create that kind of reaction in people, where they touch something viscerally inside of us that relates to our own past?
Mohit Khare: “Real life is not black or white, it’s grey”, you must’ve heard this a lot. I believe in it. We humans think about things differently in different situations, we have different parameters and principles that we hold dear, which can very easily be seen as paradoxical to one another, if looked at from outside. That is how we are and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Fiction is somewhere based on reality too as it emanates from an author’s experiences and not just his or her imagination. And since the entire human race is connected in a way we relate to the feelings and emotions which we experience while reading. It might seem like the actions or thoughts are of a story’s character but down somewhere the reader is knowingly or unknowingly experiencing a side of himself which they aren’t consciously aware of, all this while no one is judging them, not even themselves.
TBE: Beyond the satisfaction of the happily-ever-after ending, in your opinion, what else does reading your short story collection offer its readers?
Mohit Khare: Well, firstly not all of my stories in the collection end in happily ever after. There are some that celebrate life, but there are others that allude to the dark side.
I see my collection nudging the readers heart and mind in a way that is seemingly very familiar to them, almost as if it happened to them. These are essentially life’s reflections, pieced and cemented together to create a mosaic to give it a shape, in the form of stories and poems. You will feel that the characters that bring alive the stories are known to you, the thoughts in the poems your own. Depending on the life-stage you are in, each piece will resonate with a younger, current or future you.
TBE: Did you have any goals for this collection when you wrote it? Any particular theme you want to explore?
Mohit Khare: No. As I stated earlier this collection doesn’t have a common thread.
And hence the use of the word ‘Farrago’ in the name.
And I think, in a way it’s good as you get to experience various facets of life in a single collection rather than be attuned to a single theme.
TBE: Do you remember the first story you ever wrote and what it was about, going way, way back?
Mohit Khare: It was called The Wind: An Elegy. It was a three page story of a forlorn man who is grieving the untimely demise of his love and who apparently sees her apparition that cajoles him to continue with his life and cherish it as it comes.
TBE: What’s more important: characters or plot? What triggers your story ideas: a character, a setting, plot or dialogue?
Mohit Khare: A plot is definitely what will make a story tick, it is essential to its success. The characters need to be strong and relatable to keep the interest.
In my view, a story can be weaved around either a plot or a character or even a setting. For instance in my collection two of the most loved stories by readers : Gattu and Purely Business started with characters. While for others like A Phone Call or Leopard in Powai I had a distinct plot in mind. Wildfire and Chandani were created out of settings that excited me.
But for each idea, once germinated, you have to go back to building the plot and subsequently the characters.
TBE: When you were writing in the early days, were there other writers you consciously modeled your work on, writers you cherished?
Mohit Khare: I would not say modeled but I was surely inspired by the way Ruskin Bond described the characters and the setting in his stories and very gently set up the plot. I also liked the way O’Henry created a twist in the tale in many of his stories to surprise the readers.
TBE: Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Mohit Khare: I realized that Editing takes a lot of time and a lot of re-reads. There are always those small little things, expressions, punctuation, that you keep uncovering each time. I also learnt that it always helps to get your final draft read by a few near and dear ones to get an outside view of things before its finalized.
TBE: How was your experience with Leadstart publishing?
Mohit Khare: Fantastic. Leadstart have a great dedicated team who understand their business. Very professional and meticulous handling of processes and communications.
TBE: Ultimately, what do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Mohit Khare: I hope that they smile and sigh, feel joy and sadness as they go through the stories and poems. I hope they relate to the characters and what’s being communicated as closely as I, as an author, had envisioned they would. If after reading they feel, “That was a collection!”, or if their lives are enriched in anyway by even one of my writings , my goal is achieved.
TBE: Is there anything you are currently working on that may intrigue the interest of your readers?
Mohit Khare: Something with the Ganga as a backdrop.
