Kiran Khalap's Halfway Up the Mountain is a "sharing of an answer"

Adman Kiran Khalap’s first full-bodied work of fiction, Halfway Up the Mountain, was launched at Oxford Bookstore, Mumbai, late yesterday evening

The term ‘mediocrity' is noun for ‘mediocre', and we all know what that word means. But, as per etymology, the word ‘mediocre' is an amalgamation of two Latin words: ‘medius' meaning ‘middle', and ‘ochris' meaning ‘rugged mountain'. In effect, ‘mediocre' means middle of the mountain. Or Halfway Up the Mountain, as adman Kiran Khalap would rather have it said. For that's the name of Khalap's first full-bodied work of fiction, which was launched at Oxford Bookstore, Mumbai, late yesterday evening by advertising veteran of yesteryear, Arun Kolatkar.

The 217-page novel, published by Jacaranda Publishing, is, to quote Khalap, "a sharing of my perspective on life". Halfway Up the Mountain is, to borrow from the blurb, the story of a village girl Maya whose life is intertwined with men of exceptional talent. While Maya looks up to them, she soon realizes that as human beings they continue to be mediocre. A shloka (the Atma Shatakam, or the Song of the Soul, composed by the eighth-century philosopher Shankaracharya) that Maya's father sings to her in her childhood forms the leitmotif of the story, as Maya comes to understand the true meaning of what her father taught her, but never understood himself. The publisher's note adds that the book attempts to answer the question of whether bliss is accessible to ordinary human beings.

Khalap, who has, in the past, published a significant body of non-fiction, spoke to agencyfaqs! about his motivation for writing Halfway Up the Mountain. "At the cost of sounding egotistic, my core value is sharing, be it wealth or knowledge," he says. "I believe I have an answer to some of life's questions, and this is my way of sharing that answer. You might not agree with what I have to say, but share it I must." He adds that it was his love for the language that made him write fiction. "Literary fiction is a delight. The rhythm, the crystal-clear imagery that words allow, the turn of phrase… non-fiction would have been too dry."

Advertising people writing books is not unheard of. However, one would expect the fruit of such pursuits to have something to do with advertising or a related universe. But advertising was obviously the last thing in Khalap's head when he put mind to matter. "Advertising is only a part of the whole. Advertising is what you do, not who you are. Who I am is not defined by advertising. Yes, we use creativity in advertising to solve problems, but there are higher, larger and more inclusive definitions of creativity. To quote Pere Teilhard de Chardin, ‘To create is to unite.' While advertising is about combining two frames of reference to make a third frame of reference, here I am attempting to bind minds and being together. I am attempting to unite things at a much larger scale."

That is the reason Khalap has chosen a universal theme such as mediocrity. "I feel all talented people get trapped by their own talent, and that makes them mediocre," he says. "All human beings have tremendous insights locked within us, but ninety-nine per cent of us don't use these insights for larger and more inclusive goals, which is to unite at various levels. The divisions of the outside world reflect the divisions inside you." Khalap reveals that his journey in this direction was set in motion by his learnings from philosopher J Krishnamurti. "I was always curious about the meaning of truth, and by the age of eighteen I had read everything from (Emmanuel) Kant to the Upanishads. However, it was only after reading J. Krishnamurti that it all became clear. We have spent a lot of time perfecting our bodies. But we who are above the poverty line do not spend time understanding the larger goal. And till that happens, we will not change at the level of who we are."

Khalap is pleased that his book has finally seen light of day. "I wrote the book in over year, but it took two more to get it published, as I had no idea the publishing industry moves at such a slow pace," he smiles. "I am thankful to my literary agent and publisher Jayapriya Vasudevan who not only helped me edit and reconstruct the book, but went ahead and published it because she believed the book was good. And I thank N Chandar who was responsible for keeping the spirit of the book in tact." Incidentally, Khalap is already into his second book, titled Two Pronouns and a Verb. "I have started the research, got the plot and the characters and have completed three chapters," he says. Obviously, here's a man who is enjoying every bit of his second innings. © 2003 agencyfaqs!