KARACHI: Transforming ideas into novels, local and foreign publishers, the grinding publishing process, audiovisual books and great authors of fiction were some of the subjects touched upon by Barrister Irshad AbdulKadir, author of The Deriabad Chronicles, in conversation with Sabyn Javeri at the Oxford Bookshop here on Wednesday.

Published by the Oxford University Press, The Deriabad Chronicles traces the lives of the offspring from different wives of the deceased ruler of Deriabad, a fictional former princely state of British India that has acceded to Pakistan.

About his inspiration and idea for the story, AbdulKadir said the idea for all his stories germinates within his mind based on something someone has said which he heard or read somewhere.

“The idea for this particular book was born when I heard a young descendant of a ruler of such a state describing in detail the funeral of the ruler. The memory stuck in my mind and I thought of putting it in a chapter,” he said.

“Someone told me never to start a novel with death so I pushed it further inside and created characters around it all to move the story. Then with the characters in place you need to create satisfactory conclusions for each of them. Once the theme is laid out, streams of consciousness come into play as you weave your tapestry. But quite frankly I wasn’t going to write it the way it has turned out,” he admitted.

AbdulKadir said that The Deriabad Chronicles is actually his third book of fiction and first published novel as his initial attempt at penning stories came in the form of a collection of short stories titled Clifton Bridge: Stories of Innocence and Experience from Pakistan.

“I was lucky that HarperCollins picked it up and said that they would publish my book,” he said.

“I also got a great editor who called my stories gems,” he added.

“But this book and the one coming out later passed through various publishers who returned them,” he said, while explaining that his second work of fiction, the one he wrote before The Deriabad Chronicles is still in the process of getting published while the novel he wrote after came out first.

About the kind of work being produced these days he said that there are certain trends that one sees.

“They are mostly out of the world fantasies. I don’t write that kind of stuff. I am a realistic writer. I write within the parameters of the socioeconomic realities of Pakistan,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018