Kathmandu The Gurkha’s Daughter released in 2012, and became a number one best seller in India. With the book’s popularity — that has eight short stories that explain the experiences of the contemporary Nepali speaking community — its author Prajwal Parajuly was noticed as a writer, and “lots of change happened” in his life. He was nominated for a leading prize for young writers — Dylan Thomas Prize in 2013. And, The Gurkha’s Daughter, first published in the UK was also published in the US, Canada, South Africa, and India. His mother, Sarala Bhattarai and father, BC Sharma translated the book in Nepali language — Gorkhaki Chhori — and Nepalaya published it in 2015. With the book’s reach and his popularity, “now people know me as an author who writes about Nepali speaking community”. This recognition has made him responsible. “I feel like I am responsible for this community,” confessed the author whose second work was a novel — Land Where I Flee (2013). The 31-year-old author, born in Gangtok, India is now up for a new project which is a “top secret and would be different from what he has written till date”. The Indian-Nepali author was recently in the country for a trek in Pun hill of Annapurna region. So, was he finding stories for his next venture in this visit? “Maybe, but I am not sure,” stated the author during an interview with The Himalayan Times. He thinks his new work may be “published within a year or it may take 10 years too.” Since Parajuly does a thorough research of the subject matter before starting to write on it, probably he was here for the same purpose. But what pulled him into writing? His parents wanted the author to join their legacy of being a lawyer but he never wanted to be a lawyer. “At the back of my mind I may have known that I was a decent writer but it never occurred to me that I will make my career out of writing. I reached a point where questions were raising within me about the meaning of my life. This desperation inspired me to write,” recalled Parajuly. And as he starts to write if his characters “sprout wings of their own” he would have a good writing. “At times I have written continuously for 18 hours a day.” Then there are worst writing days as well “where you can’t write anything good enough”. Every writer has such bad days, but “I don’t cry about lack of writing ability. I just leave it there”. He has been writing for about four and half years now and he feels “privileged” that he is a writer. “Writing is something that has worked quite well for me and it has treated me well. It’s something I was passionate about at one point,” he shares. “But these days I dislike writing more than I like it because I don’t enjoy writing the way I used to do before. Maybe it’s not a new thing any more. I have been doing it for about four and half years now,” revealed the author who likes to read extensively. For the aspiring writers, what does he advise? Parajuly, who has a Masters in Creative Writing from Oxford University says, “Those who want to start their career as writers should have the basic knowledge of the language and its use.” But he points out, “These days everyone is a writer where they have their own blogs and write on Facebook. They even get numerous ‘Likes’ from friends and family. This growing trend is dangerous because one doesn’t get critical feedback. If you are serious about writing then you must have proper critics who can judge your writing ability.”