About love and life

Living alone and working in a city comes with its advantages and disadvantages. While some choose to weigh the advantages over the disadvantages others take a longer time to come to terms with the fact of living and working in a new city. Love, life and all that jazz by Faiyaz Ahmed is a coming of age story about the lives of young twenty somethings set in Mumbai.

In the words of the author, Faiyaz, “the story is about Tania, Sameer, Vikram and Tanveer, who start by exploring their lives after college and how they evolve by discovering the changes in themselves and in their loved ones, and the choices they make. It's about how these changes affects their relationships and shape their personality. This is the journey of life in a new India where the friends support each other and evolve through their experiences and missteps in Love, Life and all that Jazz.”

The first time author Faiyaz drew inspiration from his surroundings when he was working and living in Mumbai all by himself. “The characters are real but the situations are fictional. There are several things that influenced me to write the book, the mannerisms of the characters are one of them,” explains Faiyaz.

Full report here Hindu

The writing on the wall

It’s amongst the funniest things I’ve encountered while browsing the net and it set me thinking. Try looking for ‘Kolkata writers’ on the net. You should be smothered by thousands of pages that talk about young writers from Kolkata, about the early Lord Byron influenced Macaulayite Michael Madhusudan Dutta and about how Kolkata led the way with thinking, philosophy and literature, barely a century after the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Now try looking for ‘Bangalore writers’. There are more than enough pages to fill a modest library but, oops, all of it is to do with dull and boring technical and content writing jobs at technology companies. Literature — story telling, reflection and inspiration — don’t figure anywhere. Tells you something about us, doesn’t it?

Last Sunday, Ahmed Faiyaz, who grew up in Bangalore but now works in Dubai, was back in the city for the release of his first book, Love, Life and All That Jazz. It’s a light read about growing up, fast-and-furious relationships and the choices we make in a society that is changing. Listening to him read parts of his book, which is set largely in Mumbai, it was difficult to imagine a story placed in a Bangalore setting. It was even more difficult to imagine Bangalore nurturing credible, interesting, powerful, thoughtful and influential writers in English.

Full report here Todaynews 

A long way off?

For 28-year-old Ahmed Faiyaz, the secret of a content life does not lie within the pages of a self-help book. Instead, he believes in taking every day as it comes, exploring relationships and seeing where it leads one to — either on the path to happiness or otherwise.

And that is exactly what he writes about in his debut novel titled Love, Life and All That Jazz. The CA-turned-employee at the Dubai Health Authority says, “My book deals with how lives are shaped for young adults right after they finish college and step out into the bigger world.

Because of work and other commitments people grow apart and relationships change. People get pulled apart for various causes.”

The author also admits that several incidents in the plot that revolves around a group of youngsters trying to find the true meaning of love and life have been inspired from his own life. Faiyaz says, “Yes, the book has been a product of my experiences and those around me to a large extent. But also being an author, it has to draw from my imagination as well.

Full report here DNA