An Interview with Author Jithin Shaju

Author’s Background: Author, Jithin Shaju was born on 1st of July 1991 in the state of Kerala, in Southern India, He is a self inspired, visual eyed writer and an avid dreamer. The author is the eldest child in his family among the three and he got graduated from Mahatma Gandhi University. While after his graduation, he worked in India as well as in abroad till he decided to stick on to his passion for storytelling.

Questionnaires:

The Literature Today: Firstly, Congratulations on your book, “To The World Of Happiness” Well, can you please share your experience about making your work come into the form of book!

Jithin Shaju: Thank you, The Literature Today. It was a wonderful experience. As a first-time author, there have been so many hurdles on the path, mostly unexpected. But I enjoyed the experience overall. And the pleasure getting after it’s published can’t be matched with anything else.

The Literature Today: What inspired you to write this book? What was the impetus behind this work of yours?

Jithin Shaju: It all started as a game I played with my friend Liz, writing a short story based on a prompt the other person give within 24 hrs. And we both have written more than 100 stories like that within a span of two months. This was one of those short stories I wrote.  I myself liked the idea very much and send feedback from my friends who also liked the idea. That’s the beginning of expanding this work.

The inspiration was from the concept of neural waves I happened to read accidentally in the later half of the first wave of Covid-19. And from the very beginning, I don’t like the idea of war and humans killing other humans. I have always thought that if every country decided to disperse their army, the world will be a more happy place, will be more economically stable, and more free. 

The Literature Today: Your book title, ‘To The World Of Happiness’ is definitely a catchy one! Therefore, can you please explain the reasons for going with this book title!

Jithin Shaju: You can get many reasons for the title in the story. Basically, the story is a journey of a man to achieve a world of happiness when the world around him is nothing but chaos. The research and the discovery he made in the story were also related to happiness. Like there are many references throughout the story where happiness is the need, happiness is the vaccine.

The Literature Today: Well, can you please explain that how is this book different from the other books of the same genres?

Jithin Shaju: This one has no aliens or machines attacking humans. No space navigation or something like that. It’s just humans and human minds here. It is not a long or difficult read. While I write this, I had an intention, even a non-reader could read it during the time of watching a movie and enjoy it like they watch a good movie and bring some new readers to this literature world. I hope I could achieve that with this.

The Literature Today: Apart from science fiction, in which other genres would you like to make your contributions?

Jithin Shaju: Fantasy, psychological thrillers or psychological drama, social commentary or social sarcasm, and historical and mythical fiction seem interesting to me. I would definitely try on these.

The Literature Today: Studying the subject matter of this book, I’m greatly impressed & I want you to explain to us, in your version, that how this book will appeal the readers of the present day!

Jithin Shaju: Everyone needs to be happy nowadays, it becomes a necessity and people realized the importance of mental wellness. But is our world really going towards a happy world? If so, the army strength of every nation will get reduced. You can see it’s increasing and everyone wanted to increase the strength, even with new and new weapons coming alive every two or three months. With constant exposure to these ideas, people’s mindsets can get altered. A journey of a scientist in that situation is what my story is.

The Literature Today: Next, I want you to tell us about some of those writers, who had inspired you!

Jithin Shaju: There are many. In the sci-fi genre, like most, I also started reading H.G. Wells or Mary Shelly. At newer age, I was inspired by “The Illuminae Files” by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I liked the difference in the format of their presentation and narration, I didn’t see something like that before. Dan Brown is another one. Among Indian English authors, I like Amish. And there are some in Kerala (Malayalam) who inspired me so much like M. Mukundhan, T.D. Ramakrishnan, Benyamin, Vinoy Thomas, etc.

The Literature Today: Is there any message that you would like to convey to your readers? Or any piece of advice, which you would like to give to the readers out there!

Jithin Shaju: I’m not someone who gives advice to others, I think nobody has the right to say how others should live. The only thing I can say from my ideology is never chose to hurt any other person or animal in any case in any way. There’s always an alternate choice. I hope in the future world will move to a state where every boundary in the human mind will fade away and a wonderful harmony will come around the globe.

The Literature Today: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.

Jithin Shaju: Most of my works begin with a dream, When I woke up, I will note down whatever I remember and if that story made me sleepless for the next two days I will write a short story on that. And I had many short stories written like that, and there’s one such story which is so exciting and whenever I think about it, I am having goosebumps about making it to something epic. I am researching it now.

The Literature Today: Thank you so much for answering all my questions. All the very best to you for the future and your book too!

Jithin Shaju: Thank you, It was wonderful talking with me and expressing myself through you. Thank you again.

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