Can You Make a Living as a Writer in India

Shashi Warrier, who lives in Mangalore, India, has written sixteen books since giving up a career in information technology

April 6, 2025

A Global Indian Times Interview

By Cherian Samuel*

Shashi Warrier’s latest novel, My Name is Jasmine, is to be published this month. Set in the Indian State of Odisha, it is about Jasmine, a woman who suffers from amnesia, following a head injury. She wakes up in a hospital not knowing who she is. As she recovers, Jasmine faces a dilemma: should she betray the former group of people who supported her, when she was down and out? Or her current set of two acquaintances, a psychiatrist and a lawyer, who believe in her when no one else would?

Warrier, 65-years-old, is the author of sixteen books, including fairy tales, thrillers, literary fiction, satires, and romance. His 2000 novel, Hangman’s Journal, was based on the life of Janardhan Pillai, the last executioner in the Southern Indian Princely State of Travancore.

In 1994, Warrier gave up a career in information technology and turned to writing full-time. Earlier he spent nearly fifteen years working as an economics journalist, a consultant, a software specialist, and a project manager. He earned an MA in Economics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India, 1976-81.

Warrier was born in Ottapalam, Kerala. His father was a soldier and so the family lived in different parts of India. An avid motorcyclist, in 2004, he travelled around India on his Royal Enfield Thunderbird, covering nearly 7,000 miles in six weeks. He lives in Mangalore, on India’s west coast, with his wife, Prita, who is a painter and writer. They were married in 1999.

In a chat with Global Indian Times, Warrier spoke about trying to make a living as an author in India, abandoning a job with a regular income for freelance work so he could write fiction, support of his wife Prita, and plans to write a book on the axioms of Hinduism.

Global Indian Times: Congratulations on your book, My Name is Jasmine. How is it different from your previous works?

Shashi Warrier: Two of the three narrator characters in the book are women. That is one of the big differences. Another is that it explores the notion of how compulsions rule our decision-making and behavior. I try to show this in language as simple as I could make it.

GIT: What drove you to write sixteen books?

Warrier: My inability to do anything else. Most people are familiar with the struggle to express a thought or find the perfect word for a situation. It is a state of discomfort. Well, that is how I live all the time! I would much rather have a comfortable life in industry, but I know from experience that I cannot handle that…

GIT: Many of your books are thrillers. But you also write children’s books. How do you balance these two entirely different types of stories?

Warrier: I like fairy tales. My ambition is to write a good one. A really, really, good one. The rest of my writing is practice towards that goal.

GIT: Your 2000 book, Hangman’s Journal, has gotten much attention. Is it fiction? How did you choose the topic which is grim?

Warrier: It is a work of fiction in that it is a reconstruction of the life of a hangman. Yes, the topic is grim. But I use it to explore philosophy and morality.

The story idea was not mine. Ravi Singh, an editor with Penguin, India, suggested I write about the life a hangman who was based in Uttar Pradesh (a state in north India). That was too far away for repeated visits to do my research.

Then I read about a hangman in Nagercoil (in the neighboring southern state of Tamil Nadu), near enough to Ottapalam, where I was living when I wrote the book. He had died by then, but I met his brother, his widow, and two of his children several times. I was curious about why and how he made such a living. and about some of the criminals he hung. That is how the book came about.

GIT: You were in the United States in 2001 attending the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. How long? What was your experience?

Warrier: A very useful program, especially for someone like me with no formal education in English literature. A group of writers from all over the world were fed and watered for four months and left alone to discuss their writing and reading. One of the highlights was meeting V.S. Naipaul, at a University of Chicago literary festival where writers from the Iowa program read from their works.

GIT: Would it be accurate to describe you as self-employed for over 30 years? How have you done it?

Warrier: With support. First from my parents. Then from Prita, my wife. It would not have been possible otherwise.

GIT: Given the tough odds of finding work in India, even as a skilled professional, it is very rare for an Indian to give up a career and take a chance on becoming a writer. What led you to do this?

Warrier: I could not bear living a life that did not offer lots of time for reflection. I can’t stand big cities and crowds for long periods. Focusing on writing made me almost financially broke but I felt free.

GIT: Hear that writing books is not a way to make a living for almost all writers in India? Your view?

Warrier: Yes. With few exceptions, we work on our books in addition to our day jobs. I teach part-time and write newspaper columns and consult.

One thing that helps me manage my other work and writing is that I write better after dark. Between nine at night and two the morning. Besides, the college where I teach allows me to work on a flexible schedule.

GIT: Any films?

Warrier: I have worked on one movie script with Shyama Prasad. It is called Bokshu: The Myth. It was a commercial failure. I did try to persuade film makers to make movies of some of my other books but...

(Photo: Shashi Warrier)

GIT: You are a columnist for the Deccan Chronicle. How do you choose what to cover?

Warrier: The columns are mostly about light-hearted issues. So, I discuss failing to follow intermittent fasting routines; strange people I meet at the beach near where we live; and how astrologers contradict themselves. Anything that is unusual.

GIT: How is your teaching experience?

Warrier: I taught communication at Justice K S Hegde Institute of Management from 2019 to 2023. It was okay except that class sizes were about 60, which was too large. I now teach writing at Nitte Institute of Architecture. The valuable thing about teaching is that you spend time with young students, some of whom ask tough questions that keep me alert. It is my favorite way of staying young in mind.

GIT: You earned an MA in economics. How did the experience shape you?

Warrier: I learnt very little economics. But I learnt a little of other subjects, such as science and philosophy. I also had some exposure to a regular workshop, working with machines such as lathes and planers, and to engineering graphics. So, I ended up a sort of jack of many trades. It equipped me to learn.

GIT: Did you work as an economist?

Warrier: I spent about three years working as an economics journalist at the Tata Economic Consultancy Services, Bombay, as it was called then. This was in the early 1980s, after I graduated from BITS. Some of what I learnt was very useful. Nothing I have done after that had anything to do with economics.

GIT: You have travelled around India on your Royal Enfield motorbike. By yourself or in a group? Why? What have you learned? Have you written about it?

Warrier: I travelled alone. It was quite an experience. One of the things I learned is that you have to keep cool when there’s trouble. I have written about my experience but nothing has been published.

GIT: Where did you grow up? School; college; sports?

Warrier: My father was a soldier, so I grew up in half-a-dozen army camps around India. His last posting was Trivandrum, as it was then called (in Kerala state). Living in several states, I experienced their different cultures. You learn that underneath the cultural differences, people are the same.

Then came my college education at BITS, Pilani, where I lived for nine semesters. After that I travelled a lot for work, besides wandering around when I could afford it. Since switching to writing in 1994, not much travel. We now live in Mangalore, near a beach.

GIT: What got you interested in writing?

Warrier: I started reading a lot when I was about ten. We spent a week in Kamptee, near Nagpur (in central India), where there is a big military hospital. My elder brother had to undergo some medical tests. He and my parents spent much of their time at the hospital.

While they were at the hospital, I stayed at the guest house. I had nothing to do but climb the jamun tree in the garden, and try not to slip and fall. The sons of one of dad’s colleagues lent us several story books by Enid Blyton. I then spent most of my time reading. That was the beginning of a lifelong habit.

When I was about eleven, my father got a membership to the British Council Library in Trivandrum. So, I got to read more children’s books by Enid Blyton and other British authors, including Captain W. E. Johns. Some months later, Dad got a membership to the Trivandrum Public Library, which widened my range of reading to Indian authors Manohar Malgaonkar and Raja Rao.

GIT: Who are your favorite writers? Anyone who has influenced your interest and style?

Warrier: Mahatma Gandhi for his autobiography. Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first Prime Minister), for Discovery of India. Others include John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, and Will Durant. Thriller writers Martin Cruz Smith and Stephen Hunter and Lee Child. Humorists Stephen Leacock and P. G. Wodehouse. James Thurber for satire. Arundhati Roy for her God of Small Things.

I am not sure who has influenced me the most. In the early years, I was like a cushion, carrying the imprint of whoever I liked at the time. But once I developed a voice of my own with Hangman’s Journal, I am no longer sure. I’m the wrong guy to answer this question. My editors may have an answer.

GIT: Your wife, Prita, is a writer and painter. Do you both discuss your work, seeking inputs? Have you done any joint writing?

Warrier: Prita reads all my work before I send it off to publishers, including columns and book reviews. She does ask for my views on her paintings. But I’m not very good at that. For some years now, we have been planning to write a mystery together. We hope to get started on it soon.

GIT: What are your hobbies?

Warrier: Music, yoga, cooking. I gave up motorcycling after a crash.

GIT: Your future writing plans?

Warrier: I am working on a non-fiction book. I am trying to understand and define the foundational axioms of Hinduism. Many people deny that there are any such axioms, but I think otherwise.

This book is going to be partly autobiographical. Starting with a month-long stay in a hospital after a bad motorbike crash in January 2023. I then spent several more months recovering from the injury. It was five months before I could walk without using a walker or a crutch. Modern pain medications are quite advanced and I was never in any real discomfort. My library is spread across my cellphone and tablet. So, I had easy access to lots of books.

The recovery gave me plenty of time to read and reflect. That was when I began exploring writing the book. I have made some progress. I am now going through a Malayalam book of history/myth titled Aithihyamala, Garland of Legends. It has been a major resource and I hope to include parts of it in my book.

I have no idea what shape the book will take. It is a difficult book. I do not have a deadline for it.

*Cherian Samuel, a writer based in Washington DC, retired from the World Bank. He earned a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland.

To SUBSCRIBE to Global Indian Times, send email address to: gitimescontact@gmail.com