I sugarcoat my agenda in a love story: Ravinder
Author Ravinder Singh is known for penning romance tales such as I Too Had a Love Story, and Can Love Happen Twice? But in his writing, the love story is more like a “wrapper”, he says. The real deal is the issue he tries to address through his novels.
Like how, his latest book, Will You Still Love Me?, follows two major themes, says Singh. “The first is road safety, which I know is completely different from love but I try to maintain a balance between what I want to convey and the medium in which readers would be willing to consume my work. I sugarcoat my agenda in a love story; it’s just a wrapper,” he says.
And, the second? “Inclusivity. The book talks about the issues of accepting someone from the northeast region. Hum apni movies mein ek chhota sa character le aayenge from the Northeast and we say we’re inclusive, but are we really?” he asks.
In the book, Singh’s protagonists, Rajveer Saini from Patiala and Lavanya Gogoi from Assam, meet on a flight. “While they eventually fall in love with each other, problems strike when Rajveer ends up becoming the villain of his own life. He does something that Lavanya has been telling him not to do from day one, and he ultimately pays the price for his carelessness — something to do with his own girlfriend,” teases the author.
The underlying emphasis on road safety in the book is close to Singh’s heart. He felt drawn to it after two accidents rocked his life — his girlfriend died in a car crash. And three years later, his father lost his right leg in an accident.
“With people here, in most cases, it is reverse psychology that works. Koi kahega seat belt pehen lo, beta helmet pehen lo – and people are like, the more you tell me, the more I won’t do it. So I’m trying to evoke people’s conscience and trying to make them realise that you’re an idiot if you drive crazy on the road,” he says.
Singh strongly believes in the power of the written word. “It’s why we say: ‘Jaha na pahunche Ravi, wahi pahunche kavi’. Everything has to be written, whether it’s a movie before it reaches the screen, a song before it becomes a hit, or anything else,” he concludes.