An outsider goes within

Small town boy. Muslim. Brown. Omair Ahmad is used to labels. "I've always been an outsider, wherever I've been," says the 35-year-old, who grew up in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.


Omair Ahmad

But there is one label that he objects to: Writer. "I don't identify myself as a writer. I don't come from a literary background or discipline," explains Omair, who has a degree in international politics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

He goes on to add that the 'idea' of being a writer conjures images of someone "smoking a pipe, living in the mountains in a chalet, and thinking up ideas that will change the world".

The author of The Storyteller's Tale says that the only 'relevant' question he hopes for his writing to raise is: Does that make sense? A question he often bounces off his close friends over "conversations and kebabs", when he gets an idea for a story. "I tell them the story, so they can poke holes at it. I don't get professional advice, as much as personal advice," says the author, who is based out of New Delhi, and works as a Programme Executive for conflict resolution/ human rights programmes for South Asia.

The teller of stories
His latest novel, Jimmy The Terrorist, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize, tells the story of a boy who grows up in Rasoolpur Mohalla in Moazzamabad, UP, and traces his transition from Jamaal Ansari to Jimmy The Terrorist.

Omair says that the story is a personal one, inasmuch that personal politics are ultimately of more consequence than "grand politics". "Jimmy is an apolitical character. Personal politics is obscured by the analysis, the rhetoric, which is also why he is ultimately 'Jimmy The Terrorist'," he says.

The author elaborates that while one's religion, class and geographical location play integral roles in shaping an individual's identity, it is not the sole determinant. "I am the sum of many parts. Of course being Muslim is important to me, of course it shapes my background, but does it determine me? (I'm) Not sure. At the end what determines me is my will; ultimately that is what defines me," says Omair.

Home at last
Having travelled the world and lived in different cities -- he studied in Saudi Arabia and at the Syracuse University in New York -- Omair says that those experiences have afforded him a different perspective on India, though he would not want to live anywhere else in the world. "I like the feel of the sun in the summer, though I can't take it for too long," he laughs. "Yeh meri zameen hain (this is my land)."

Jimmy The Terrorist, Omair Ahmad, Hamish Hamilton/ Penguin; Rs 350. Available at leading bookstores.