You might know him as a serious actor thanks to roles like Satya, Shool and the latest Jail, but actor Manoj Bajpai also has literary inclinations. He is a voracious reader and a regular blogger. In fact, Manoj is the only actor who blogs in Hindi. Manoj tells CS where it all started:



Love for writing
My acting guru, Barry John got me hooked onto writing. Like him, I too developed a liking for it. I used to write occasionally before, but now I'm addicted to blogging. Since no actor was blogging in Hindi, my actor friends coaxed me into starting the trend. Since it's my mother tongue, it's easy for me to express myself in Hindi. I have been blogging for over a year now, and my blog has a loyal following.u00a0

My platform
Through my blog, I tell my fans about how my current week has been and discuss the current affairs that have affected me. I don't believe in using it as a platform for criticising someone or passing snide comments. Moreover, I also refrain from reacting to statements made by politicians as they generate unnecessary publicity, which I like to avoid. For me, writing is like a catharsis, where I try to present my perspective in my own way.

A bookworm
My wife Neha is a voracious reader and reads much more than I do. I enjoy reading because it gives me different opinions/perspectives on life. A well read actor can easily create a sketch of his character in his mind, which helps him in acting. As a reader, I don't enjoy popular fiction; I like something more concrete like philosophy, society related issues, etc. However in my childhood, I used to love reading detective fiction of a writer called Manoj Bahadur.

Writers I love
My wife and I love Franz Kafka a lot. I would love to play the role of one of the characters in his novel The Metamorphosis. I also like Amitav Ghosh's Circle of Reason and Arthur Miller's plays. Among the Hindi novelists, I enjoy reading Uday Prakash, a modern writer; while in poets, I like reading Suryakant Tripathi and Ramdhari Singh. Urdu literature also appeals to me. Ghalib, Firaq Gorakhpuri and Saadat Hassan Manto are some of my favourites. I love Hindi literature as it's my first medium. However, I also like to read translated Marathi and Gujarati novels.u00a0