Twinkle Khanna Reflects On Writing, Books And Akshay Kumar’s Advice

MUMBAI- Author and columnist Twinkle Khanna has revealed that husband and actor Akshay Kumar’s “only contribution” to her writing career is telling her “Mat kar.”

Speaking on World Book Day on April 23, Twinkle Khanna said that while discussing topics for her next column, Akshay Kumar advised her to avoid certain issues.

“This morning, I was discussing the topics I plan to touch upon in my next column, and he told me, ‘Mat karna…do not get into that issue’. Mat kar is basically his only and biggest contribution to my writing career.”

Twinkle Khanna, who has authored books including ‘Mrs. Funnybones’, Mrs. Funnybones Returns,’ ‘The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad,’ ‘Pyjamas Are Forgiving,’ and ‘Welcome to Paradise’ also spoke about the way she approaches writing.

“My job is to make people reflect on the things that are visible. But our own conditioning blinds us to those factors. It might make people uncomfortable, and they might call it offensive… (But) I think about how I will unravel the layers of conditioning not just around them but also around me, because I also find my way through life as I write.”

She said what matters most to her is what she has contributed to the medium she works in.

“It is what I was able to give that medium, and books have always been my life and actually so has cinema. So much of what I write has been because of the experiences that I also had as a young actor, whether it was seeing the basic inequalities between men and women, which I only realized much later in life.”

Twinkle Khanna said her skill set aligned more naturally with books because of her love for poetry and language.

“It comes a little bit from perhaps, my father, late actor Rajesh Khanna, because I have a distinct memory when I was very young and I said, ‘Will you pick me up from school?’ And he said, ‘Are you a pickup? I will fetch you from school.'”

“That kind of just set my parameters of what language can do. And I grew up in a family of readers. My sister, former actress Rinke Khanna, reads more than I do.” She added that her 20-year-old self-read much more than she does now.

If she could meet her younger self today, she said: “Just keep doing what you’re doing and finish the book you started when you were 18. I’m 52, and that one book I haven’t been able to finish yet.”

“I’ve tried three times in my life. I’m just unable to write that particular book. Maybe it’s too close to home, so my emotions get in the way of transferring that onto the page.”

Sharing some of her favorite books, Twinkle Khanna said: “I would say Fredrik Backman’s ‘A Man Called Ove’ is a book that I love. Arundhati Roy’s ‘The God of Small Things’ is something that I have read several times and I continue to read it.”

“Kiran Desai’s ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’; Haruki Murakami’s ‘Men Without Women’; Octavia E. Butler writes fantastic feminist science fiction; anything by Ursula Le Guin; short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri…. F. Scott Fitzgerald, P.G. Wodehouse… My god! I mean, I am standing in front of my bookshelf, so tell me when to stop!” (IANS)