Connecting The Dots by Ashwin Sanghi

Rashi Jaiswal | Assignment Editor

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.That’s because they were able to connect experience they've had and synthesize new things.”  - Steve Jobs

Navi Mumbai: It was the first time that an eminent personality like Mr. Ashwin Sanghi aka Shawn Haigins visited SIES Graduate School of Technology, Nerul to have a korero.  The interactive and intriguing talk session was hosted by Vinay Hegde who started by giving a brief introduction of the guest. Ashwin Sanghi is one of India's best-selling conspiracy fiction writers and an author who thrives on the amalgamation of history and fiction. He has been included in the Forbes India Celebrity 100.

Ashwin then began his talk about how he developed his love and passion for writing, and the things that inspired him. Like Steve Jobs, writing and creativity to Ashwin has always been about ‘Connecting the Dots’. Everything present around us is connected in some way or the other and it is just upto us to find the connection. He then explains this further by giving various instances. Like in Hinduism and Zoroastrianism we can find that for good- it is Devas in Hinduism and Ahuras in Zoroastrianism, while for evil- it is Asuras in Hinduism and Daevas in Zoroastrianism. So according to him may be due to differences of opinion between two identities, these words might have come into existence in the way they are. He even apprised that how numbers like 5, 18, 108, 786 are significant and how they relate totally different subjects, topics or religions in a significant manner. Being a Major in Economics and an MBA graduate from Yale, he also opined that he did not want to be a rat in the rat race and writing was something that helped him stand out from the crowd.

We also come to know about the author’s background where he shares about his personal life and how his grandfather ignited in him the passion of enjoying books by sending around 600 books during his entire childhood, and to all the readers of ‘The Rozabal Line’- the character of Pandit Ramprasad Ramgopal Sharma was inspired by none other than his grandfather! 

Having faced about 47 rejections initially, Ashwin Sanghi was determined and persevered to get his first book published.

Later he gave very elaborate explanations for every question in the question-answer session, where the audience asked him about his views on reincarnation, connection between God and humans etc. With the last question that he really admired and found fascinating was-his opinion on the connection between demigods (mythology) and aliens(technology) and the existence of aliens, where he explains that if we haven’t seen or aren't aware of something, doesn't mean that we doubt its existence.

With Ashwin's deep interest or obsession about history and eventually the dating system of- A.D and B.C, the host Vinay concluded with the vote of thanks, hilariously commenting that may be Ashwin’s teachers jumbled up and taught ADBC instead of ABCD, to which Ashwin politely asked, "Could I use this in my coming novel?"

In the end all the admirers and readers got the opportunity to get an autograph from their jovial and quick-witted author Shawn Haigins!