Interview
Sounds and syncopations of syllables
Abu Zubair is an author, an electrical engineer and a California farmer. He was born in Dhaka. At the age of fourteen he was awarded a scholarship to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Since then he has been living in the US. He holds degrees from Boston University in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering and is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Honorary Engineering Society. He was awarded the Bendix Award for Physics. His debut novel, The Silent and the Lost, was short-listed in the 2011 Sharp Writ Book Awards from America, making the top three finalists in the fiction category. In an interview with Takir Hossain, Zubair talks about his work and what motivates him to write fiction. Takir Hossain: How did you get to write this book? Abu Zubair: It's been my life-long ambition to write a historical novel telling the brutal story of the birth of Bangladesh and the suppressed genocide. The Silent and the Lost uniquely places the birth of Bangladesh in the global context, in the light of America's South East Asian policy of the '70's driven by the Vietnam War, covering the back story of '47, and reaching all the way to '97. Spanning fifty years, centered in a pivotal point of time, 1971, my novel chronicles the most revolutionary change in the socio-political landscape of the Indian subcontinent. I have tried through my novel to tell the story of our country from the point of view of a war baby, Alex Salim McKensie, tormented by the enigma of his birth, that leads into the tale of his mother, Nahar Sulatana, a Birangana. It is about untold accounts of heroism and betrayal, family and friendship, love, anguish and of course our suppressed genocide. Across the world, sadly very few people even know about the bloodbath that led to the birth of Bangladesh. I believe it is impractical to think that justice can be rendered to the people who were killed in 1971 but we can at least have the world acknowledge the atrocities inflicted upon us during that time. TH: What is the theme of the book? And what motivated you to write it? AZ: Briefly, Alex Salim McKensie, a war baby of Bangladesh, is adopted by the McKensies of California who lost Frank, their only son, in Vietnam. Alex's search takes us into the boiling cauldron of clashes in East Pakistan in 1971. There through the eyes of the newlyweds, Nahar and Rafique, we are immersed into the revolution that created Bangladesh. Writing has always come naturally to me. And significant experiences throughout my life drove me to write The Silent and the Lost. At an early age I started writing poems and published "Freedom" and "Curiosity" in the Morning News and Young Observer. Then I wrote "Memoirs of a Child," my recollection at eleven of the horrific events of 1971, of the Razakars coming to our house, looting it. It won the Shankar Prize from the Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1973. Meeting her in Delhi, saluting her as she was smiling at me, saying "Thank you for saving my life," was the highlight of my early writing life--- and what a thrill and motivation to keep writing that has been! In 1974, I was awarded a scholarship to Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts. I have been living in the USA since then. While at Smith House at Andover, I was caught between the sons of an American and a Vietnamese army officer who were always fighting over the Vietnam War that was on constantly on TV. At Andover I researched and wrote a paper about America supporting Pakistan with arms during the Liberation War. At that time, I used to write for the school paper. I learnt that General Yahya Khan had served in the British Indian 4th Division during World War II and was captured by the Axis forces in North Africa and sent to a war camp in Italy in 1942. The inhuman torture inflicted by Yahya's soldiers on the people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War was practically the same torture technique used by the Nazis and Mussolini. At Andover I studied German and later travelled to the Dachau concentration camp. That is when I realized the intricate link between the Nazi torture and mentality and Yahya's techniques and how it all affected the birth of our nation. I then starting gathering information on the Liberation War and have been working on this book since 1997. TH: Who or what inspired you to become an author? AZ: Brother James. John Steinbeck. These two people come to mind immediately. When I was at St. Gregory's High School in classes seven and eight, my mentor was Brother James. He was translating the "Gitanjali" and he took me under his arm and gave me great literary works to read. One day he gave me John Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flats." I immediately fell in love with it, devoured every book that came near my fingertips that said Steinbeck. Writing comes from reading and it was no different for me. Even when I was writing "Memoirs of a Child," I was inspired by Steinbeck's writing style and techniques. I am also inspired by the writing techniques of the Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz. To tell the story of a people, the birth of a nation, I had to cross many genres and forms starting from poetic, to staccato, to journalese to narrate the different events and emotions. In John Steinbeck's writing of 'The Grapes of Wrath,' you will find vignettes embedded with the story of the Joads. Just so, I have 'Refugee,' my vignette about the ten million who fled to India embedded with the story of Rafique, Nazmul, Nahar and the Rahmans. If you look at Junot Diaz's Pulitzer winning 'The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao', you will see the embedding of footnotes in his novel telling the story of the Dominican Republic. I know people will comment on footnotes in my book, but that is my decision. As an author I must give immediate and at the fingertips facts to back up this historical novel. Diaz certainly did it, and he takes much more freedom and flare in his footnoted comments. TH: What kind of experience and education does it take to be a writer? AZ: Experience. There's nothing like it. That's the ingredient that separates the great authors from the also wrote. A writer is a muse. A medium. Through the eyes, the ears, the skin, the senses of the writer flows in the world, thrums in his veins and finally is etched in black and white on paper. A writer should be true to his experience --- that usually leads to the best writing taking the reader on a journey into a place, a time he or she will enjoy. Where I sleep, where I wake up is what I write about. I live in Orange County, California. My novel starts there. My childhood was spent in Kalabagan and Gazipur --- that is where the story of Nahar and Rafique, the protagonists of my novel, unfolds. And to answer your question about education. Well, a well rounded education is most important for any writer. My writing started at St. Gregory's in Dhaka. Then to Phillips Academy, Occidental College and Boston University. These are great schools. I really feel that most great writers are born on the road, in the open, in the thick of the story, and not in ivory towers. Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner and Tagore were primarily self-taught. Pen and paper is all you need. And will and determination. I started to write pieces of my novel back in 1997. Some pages I wrote, re-wrote many times. I could not get it right. But I kept on writing, or more appropriately re-writing. My encouragement to the young writer is to keep on writing. Writing does writing. Nothing else. Set aside five minutes a day. Just scribble the first thing that comes into your mind. Don't shoot for goals you will never reach. You will find those five minutes will lead to fifteen in our harried lives. And it is through just these scribblings that you can become a writer. I also do timed writing with a notebook. Get a cheap notebook. You won't think twice about filling it up with just nothings. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. Just write. Fill up a notebook. Random or focused. Soon maybe on page 30 of a piece you will find the opening hook to a great short story. Writing cannot really be learned from books. It has to be done. Be a wordsmith. Find good words. Build on good dialogue. Read aloud. Make sure it sounds good. Ultimately it is the sounds, the syncopations of syllables that drive me to the final word on the page that is printed. I am a California farmer. I am either driving a truck or working on the farm most of the time and have written this book during my spare time on a clipboard in the truck, in the fields, with muddy boots on or when I was taking a lunch break. Quite obviously, my technique is very different from most writers.
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