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A.X. Ahmad talks about writing, how he created a fast-moving thriller that was so sensually descriptive, surprise endings–and of course, some thoughts on being a good (or not so good) man.
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A.X. Ahmad was one of the original contributors to The Good Men Project anthology and now has gone on to become a best-selling author. Publisher Lisa Hickey talked to A.X. about his newest book, which she found to be the ultimate page-turner.
Book Synopsis: Ex-Indian Army Captain Ranjit Singh works as a cab driver in New York City. He thinks his luck has changed when he gives a ride to a beautiful Bollwood film actress. But the next day she is found murdered–and Ranjit is accused of the crime. With a Grand Jury arraignment looming in 10 days, and Ranjit’s teenage daughter about to arrive from India, he must find the real killer.
1) One of the things that I loved about the book was the plot drives breathlessly forward, and yet you find the time to dive into the details of the surroundings — the food, the sounds, the scents, the fabrics, the topography of both New York and India. The result makes the entire book both thrilling and sensual. Was that balance easy to achieve, did it feel intuitive, or did you have to write more and then edit out a lot in order to get that beautiful tautness?
Thanks for that great question! The main plot line of the novel is simple: a cab driver in NYC is accused of the murder of a Bollywood actress, and he has 10 days to clear his name. The clock is always ticking as my cab driver protagonist desperately tries to find the real murderer. His search takes him into the immigrant underworld of New York City: he finds out about human hair trade, the world of ‘bottle girls’ who work in nightclubs, and the Indo-Guyanese community.
And since he’s looking for clues, he has to notice everything: all the details, the conversations, the expressions on people’s faces. This is where the descriptions in the book come in! When I was writing, I wrote a lot more about these worlds—and then I went back and edited so that only the necessary details remained.
I wanted readers to get a vivid mental picture of New York during a hot summer, so one of the senses I relied upon was smell: each neighborhood in NYC even smells different! The Upper East Side, for example, is air conditioned and perfumed, but the Indian neighborhood of Jackson Heights is hot and sweaty and full of the smell of cooking.
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2) The plot alternates from the point of view of Ranjit, a man, here in America in the present day, with that of two sisters, whose lives unfold from when they were young and in India until they, too, come to America. Did you find it more difficult to write about the women even thought the point of view is clearly Ranjit’s?
Yes, here are two story lines in the book: Ranjit’s search for the actress’s killer in New York, and then the back story of the actress as she grows up in India, and her path to stardom.
It was really fun writing about the actress’s life in India, and her relationship with her sister. I made her exactly my own age, so in a sense I was writing from my own childhood experience of living in Mumbai. And I grew up in a family of women- my mother is the matriarch, and I had many aunts, so I drew upon those emotional dynamics to create the actress’s world. I also cannibalized my memories of Bollywood movies to invent a series of movies that the actress starred in!
One thing that was not completely natural to me was the relationship between the actress and her sister. But luckily I have many women friends, who would read my writing, and say, “Hmm, that’s not believable. What would really happen between sisters is…” And so I took their advice, and gradually that story took on reality and shape.
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3) Since we are The Good Men Project, there was a sentence that jumped out at me, where Ranjit is in conversation with another character and that character says “You are a good man.” Do you see goodness as something men struggle with? Is it something they aren’t told often enough? As you were developing the characters, did you have the urge to make them very clearly “good” vs. “bad”?
THE LAST TAXI RIDE is the second in a trilogy about my protagonist, Ranjit Singh. All three books map out Ranjit’s life as he tries to make a new life for himself in America. Not only is he struggling with a new culture, but he’s also struggling to be a good man.
He gets divorced, and then has to figure out how to raise his teenage daughter by himself. He’s also dating women who are very different. All the old traditional models of life have vanished since he left India, and now he has to re-invent himself, and he is constantly asking himself: “What is my role as a father?” “How do I fulfill my duties?”
As men, we are in uncharted territory. That’s why it’s so important to hear from someone else that we’re doing the right thing: because all the old markers–salary, status–are now meaningless.
I know plenty of good men: men who are kind, thoughtful, great fathers and partners. But we all struggle to re-define our roles. For example, my own father is a very good man, but I can’t be a father in the way that he was a dad to me. His idea of being a good man was to work hard, pay the bills, take care of his family—but we never, ever talked about anything real. He was a distant father, that was his role. I can’t parent my son that way: I have to talk to him, to engage him in a real way, understand what he is going through.
As men, we are in uncharted territory. That’s why it’s so important to hear from someone else that we’re doing the right thing: because all the old markers–salary, status–are now meaningless.
Now that I’m in my 40s, I don’t see people as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ anymore. Life has taught me that people are complex, with many facets. One of the characters in my novel is an Indian businessman, Jay Patel, who is up to all sorts of murky stuff. But he’s not just a bad guy, he’s a real, complex human being—he does yoga, he meditates, he’s very intelligent, he’s a sharp businessman. He is a real student of history.
I think that in fiction, it’s my job as an author to create complex, real characters—resorting to stereotypes is the easy way out.
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4) I remember once listening to an interview with M. Night Shyamalan, the director of The Sixth Sense. And he was saying how he was so sure he had given away the ending early in the movie that he had this sense of panic that the moviegoers would see the ending coming a mile away. Which of course they didn’t. With your book, I found it fascinating that the pieces all fell in place for me at the exact moment they did for the protagonist. That is, I didn’t have to be told — I just came to that moment of clarity right at the time Ranjit did. Which to me was a sign of brilliant craftsmanship of the plot. Did you also go into a “bit of a panic” as the plot unfolded — worrying that you were giving the audience too much or too little information?
I love The Sixth Sense! And I know what you mean about structuring the plot so that the reader has enough information along the way, so that the ‘Aha’ moment at the end makes sense.
Writing is a process of exploration: I wrote 4 drafts of THE LAST TAXI RIDE, strengthening the story each time. When I started writing the book, I knew the beginning, and a few of the plot points, but I didn’t know who was the murderer. I wrote the book in order to find answers! So I allowed myself to write early drafts where the plot was not really working- then, once I had made my discoveries, I went back and strengthened the story.
It was like building a machine. You wind it up, and see if the gears mesh, if the wheels turn, if the engine is powerful enough. So in the early drafts, the machine was barely working, it was sputtering along, and in each draft, I had to go back and tinker, fix, edit…
I’m so glad that the plot worked for you! I worked hard at it!
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5) What is your favorite thing about the process of writing? And how does that help define who you are as a person, as a man?
I grew up in India, but moved to the States when I was 17. I am really at heart an immigrant, still caught between both worlds, never really at home in either country. My writing is where I feel most at home, where my worlds come together. It roots me in a profound way.
I’m the happiest when I’m deep into a long writing process. I go every day to my coffee shop in downtown DC, sit at the same table, drink green tea and write. I lose all sense of time—sometimes 4 or 5 hours will feel like 15 minutes. When the story is cooking, characters come alive, and things happen that I could not have anticipated. It’s a feeling of a whole world coming into being.
I only started writing full time in my early 40’s, and it was a huge risk. I gave up a successful career as an architect in order to pursue my dream. The turning point came when my son was born. I though to myself, “How can I tell him to lead his own life, if I’m not leading my own?”
Now my son is a teenager, and he’s spent hours sitting with me. I write, and he draws comic books—he’s an amazing graphic artist. Sometimes we discuss story structure, and how to develop characters. I send him my stories, and he reads them and gives me very thoughtful feedback. So storytelling is an interest we share. As a father, that gives me a tremendous sense of connection: what more could I ask for?
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The post The Last Taxi Ride: A Talk With A.X. Ahmad About His Sensual Thriller appeared first on The Good Men Project.