Faran Kiani turned to fantasy during a time when reality was particularly harsh. Through literature and fantasy he found respite that later helped him channel his creativity. However, the literary landscape in Pakistan proved to be another untoward hurdle for him. The lawyer-turned-fantasy author launched his series called, ‘Five Wishes’ that follows the tale of five sisters and their pursuit of those wishes. Upon the launch of his second book, Five Wishes and the Battle of the Black Mountains, The Express Tribune sat down with the author to learn more about his journey.
ET: How did you get into fantasy novel writing?
FK: When I was a kid, I was very much inspired by J RR Tolkien. When The Lord of the Rings move was released in 2001, came out and I watched it and really enjoyed it. I later read the book and then right after I read Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. When I was in the third grade, I read Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I think it was natural reader consumer behaviour at that time [to read fantasy]. The same way many are amused with this genre, so was I. I was a reader to the extent of amusement but my start in writing itself was in some ways accidental.
I wanted to study bioinformatics and become a genetic scientist. However, my mother was hospitalised continuously from 2010 to 2015, where she underwent a series of surgeries and amputations. So due to those hospitalisations, I got late applying for universities and lost a semester in that process. I didn’t however, want to waste time and I ended up enrolling for a degree in literature. I was generally only doing this to kill time while I had this free semester but once I began, I started enjoying it. My literature teacher was really good and took a lot of time to engage with his students. His approach combined with the course curriculum itself, ended up inspiring me and that’s how I began to move towards the writing end of things. I first began writing poems. I started writing a novel too around this time but then I left it unfinished after writing three chapters.
My mother’s condition took a turn for the worse too. She underwent about a hundred major and minor surgeries. Her left leg was amputated, her foot had to be removed too. There were multiple diseases as well that were causing her illness. Seeing her in pain in every single day made me turn to the fantasy world.
ET: What inspired the plot for your series?
FK: The plot of the story is based on an old Indian folk tale about a black wolf and a white wolf. According to the Native American philosophy every human being is born with two wolves inside them – a black wolf and a white wolf. A black wolf basically represents evil and white represents good. So as a person grows older, his inner wolves grows with him too. As his/her personality develops, he nourishes one wolf or the other depending on his deeds and that is what determines, which wolf is going to be more dominant. My novel follows the tale of five sisters who transform into witches, so it’s a transition from good to bad, all in the name of the pursuit of wishes. Their fate also gets entangled with a prince along the way. As is the case with most fantasy, the story is symbolic in many ways. Fairies represent good and witches represent bad so it’s that transition that is chronicled through the course of the novel.
All you need is the will to be susceptible to corruption. No one turns bad overnight. Everyone is born inherently good or pure but it’s the process of committing one sin after the next - from minor ones to more egregious ones - that is when we reach a point where we can inflict mental or physical harm upon another person.
ET: One’s transition from good to evil- why do you think that was important story to tell?
FK: I am a lawyer as well and I encounter a variety of people on a daily basis. I don’t practice criminal law but I do take partial criminal cases. The clients that come to me always present themselves as innocent. In the case itself too, there will be two sides to it and one will win whereas the other will lose. However, both sides will think they are innocent and the other is in the wrong because no one considers themselves bad or wrong. Even someone who could be a really bad person, he will have a logic for why he/she has chosen to do what they’ve done.
If you recall the serial killer Javed Iqbal who killed a hundred boys, he spoke to journalist afterwards and to him, he revealed why he did it. So even someone who does that, has a reason behind why he’d commit a crime of this nature. Similarly, Joker from Batman had a philosophy for why he was this way too.
Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia on the other hand are not as philosophical and you could say they are children’s stories. However, The Lord of the Rings on the other hand, even though the premise is fantasy and adventure, the concept behind it is very mature. Similarly, with my story, while it may seem like a children’s story on the surface, the philosophy behind it is very mature. While the target demographic of my book is teenagers, even an adult would be able to relate to it because it has tragedy in it and even love, to some extent. The love shown in the story is of different natures: love between a mother and a child, a young couple, father and son and even brothers.
Also, I felt that something like this hadn’t been done before in Pakistan. We celebrate international books in the fantasy genre such as Harry Potter but we don’t have anything of our own in this area. We mostly copy Bollywood and occasionally, we copy Hollywood and are proud of ourselves for the accomplishment. But why is there a need to copy anyone at all? Why not create something original to begin with. So that was also a motivating factor. In a sense, I am disappointed that our country still isn’t fully ready or receptive to such stories. More so because we don’t have enough of a culture of reading in Pakistan.
ET: How did National Book Foundation come to publish your work?
FK: Initially I self-published my first novel. I had no idea how to go about it but I figured it out along the way as I hired an illustrator, self-published and then launched a book revival movement. For the movement, I went to different schools, colleges and universities and tried to kick off a reading culture. However, other than a few Cambridge schools, most government schools and universities were not interested in supportive of it, which is very unfortunate in itself. So after I invested in this initiative financially and in terms of my time as well, I conducted a presentation for the National Book Foundation and they accepted my proposal.
However, this was also quite a strenuous process because unfortunately, I couldn’t even find a single literary agent in Pakistan, which is also something that needs to be addressed. Over here, there’s only a handful of published companies and since the book is in English, the readership demographic is also lower. I have a five-book target and I will try to launch it internationally as well. Hopefully both in the United States and the United Kingdom.
ET: Can you tell me a bit about the initiative you took to revive the reading movement in the country?
FK: I basically used my book as excuse to launch it in different places and just the way I told you my story right now briefly, I included that within that launch. So within that platform I tried to motivate the kids by saying, ‘If I can do it, you can do it too.’ I tried to encourage children to read. I even made my book available for purchase at a discounted price for schools, even though I’d invested my own money in publishing it. Some schools even bought my books and were supportive. There were also writing competitions in different schools where I was invited as a judge.
Excerpt from Five Wishes and The Battle of the Black Mountains:
"Hmm.” Naznim drawled as he witnessed the fly struggling in
between his fingers and tried to escape, but it couldn't as its wings were
tucked in-between his finger-bones. He then shifted his eyeballs
towards Rob. “You must be thinking, I enjoy keeping prisoners," He
breathed slowly. "To be fair, I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy hearing
their miserable wailing... not as much as I like to see them cry and beg for mercy.”
The fly continued to make a buzzing sound as it tried to escape his grip.
“You know the problem with having prisoners?” he added. "They think
as long as they're alive, they have a chance of an escape. They think
they can just run away into the blue with nothing to hold them back."
Naznim then turned his hand and showed Rob the struggling fly in his
hand. "Look at this miserable creature." he said, looking at the fly
with malcontent. "It thinks it can escape my clutches. It thinks it has a
fair chance of slipping out of my fingers." He then grabbed the fly with its wings. "What it doesn't know is that my name is Naznim," he
continued as he ripped the left wing of the fly. "And I kill for pleasure,"
He added and ripped the right wing of the fly as well and dropped it off
onto the table. The fly still struggled to stand up and run. Rob could
feel it screaming in pain and agony. "Look at it..." Naznim instructed
Rob. "Even after losing both its wings, it thinks it has a fair chance of escaping…”
"Pathetic!” He spewed with disgust and then picked up the fly and
threw it into his wine glass. The fly struggled to get out of the wine
glass once more but couldn't. After wriggling around in the wine for a
while, it finally gave up at the end and drowned."
Naznim nodded, looking towards Rob in a way to ask him to come
closer. Rob stepped towards him with his hands tied in front of him.
"Yes, my lord," he uttered hesitantly. Naznim picked up the wineglass.
"This is what I'm going to do with these maggots." He said in the most
gratifying tone, followed by a wicked smirk. "Ye-yes, my lord," Rob
reiterated unwillingly. "Let them make their plans.." said Naznim.
"I know the extent of their wits; the length of their scans
Let them make their schemes
For | am bound to hear their screams
Faranoom - the Healer, Faranoom - the Fool
He thinks he can end my reign, end my rule
l am the wrath of the Darkness and a punishment for the weak
I am the fire that draws life and a pain that draws shriek
Do not stop them; let them do their thing
Let them sing, as their hope hangs by a string
I want to see what they've planned, of where they stand
I want to see that look on their face; their ending in despair
The look of defeat after defeat, the look of loss after a dare
Let them crow, let them hiss, let them wish
For they'll die in the end and shall never accomplish
ill deeds await ill news
A flawed plan and a foul end. "