When did you first start writing?
I was ten years old, or perhaps nine. But I really became serious about writing around 15 and 16, when I came across the novel "Herzog" by Saul Bellow, and had also read Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage." I felt I had a story to tell. Writing of this sort, which was different from the story books I had read as a child, excited me.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in Mangalore, a small South Indian town full of tall coconut trees, mango, cashew, and jackfruit trees, and with a church or chapel every mile or so. Churches and chapels were very important in my childhood. So were nuns and priests. My parents were away for a significant part of my childhood. Writing was a cure for my loneliness, it helped me escape into a fantasy world. Almost as soon as I could write full sentences, I started writing imaginary things. It culminated in a story about a John F. Kennedy character, a hero, on a horse, who went around conquering countries till, finally, he became the benevolent emperor of the entire world.
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