I am a businessman at the end of the day. I have grown up with Excel sheets. I start out writing my novel with spreadsheets and the milestones in each chapter highlighted.

Character is what you are. Reputation is what people think you are.

Our country has the oldest tradition of storytelling, and this was much before writing stories even became a norm.

What I would not like is to be ignored. I write from the heart. I don't write for me. I write for my readers.

I believe that every writer evolves with every successive novel. I view myself as work-in-progress.

Winning an award is a great feeling but winning the Vodafone Crossword Popular Choice Award is particularly exhilarating because it is based upon public voting. I find it a strange quirk of fate that Chanakya's Chant, a political tale, should end up winning an election!

Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a storyteller more than a writer. The story - and hence the extensive research that goes into each one of my books - is much more important than the words that I use to narrate it.