Chennai: “Find a purpose in life and work on it. Everyone has a meaning to live in this world – find it and live it,” were the wise words of author Bill K Koul, whose three books were launched here Friday.
The guests for the evening at Starmark bookstore in Express Avenue were political analyst and television anchor, Dr Sumanth C Raman, eminent psychiatrist, Dr N Rangarajan, author and happiness coach, Murali Sundaram, and deputy executive editor of NewsX Latha Srinivasan. The publisher of the book, Renu Kaul Verma of Vitasta Publishing, was present.
News Today caught up with Bill Koul on the sidelines of the launch and here are the excerpts from the interview:
Q. Tell us about your first book ’22 Years – A Kashmir Story’.
A. The book is my memo about Kashmir. I left Kashmir in 1989 December, a month before half-a-million Kashmiri Pandits also left the place. And this is about how I left and how I returned after 22 years. There is a message about everything I experienced. I was not a happy man then.
Q. The second book, My Life does not have to be Unhappy, what is it about?
A. It is a self-help book that talks about the sharp rise in rates of mental illness and incidences of suicide that is becoming increasingly common in this fast-paced world. It tells readers they don’t have to be unhappy always. Their lives can be happy. The pursuit of happiness haunts happiness, So, we should identify the purpose we have in life and find meaning in life.
Q. Is there any solution in the book for leading a happy life?
A. Find your own purpose and it should be selfish; everyone has a purpose in life and they should follow it. Mediation and exercise help a lot. There is topic on Oxygenation in the book. It tells about how exercise helps. Bring joy to others and you will be happy: it is proven scientifically not just philosophically.
Q. What kind of topics does the book talk about?
A. It talks about God concept, relationship problems, social media, unhappiness deciphered, suicide, meditation, oxygenation, how to socialise, choosing your career, myth of love and all problems afflicting youth.
Q. What does the book ‘Issues white-anting India’ talk about?
A. India seems to be paying a heavy price. In Australia the air is clean but here in India it is crowded, full of vehicular pollution. I come here and go back and think about it. Air quality is going down. More traffic, more emission, more people because of this, food will fall short. Growing day by day they need more power sources and every emission goes into the air. We lack fresh air.
Q. What can be done about this problem?
A. Unless India has a debate and talks about what should be done, we will suffer in the future and our children will suffer more. Sixty per cent of people in India suffer from malnutrition and 36 per cent have tuberculosis and nobody seems to care about it.
Education is important. Empower the teacher, empower the child and every youth should say stop the population. Let youth be the teachers.
Q. When did you start writing your books?
A. I started on my first book in 2016 and finished it in just 72 days, the other was in September and ‘Issues white…’ was started in November.
Q. You being an engineer, how did the interest to become an author come about?
A. I am specialised in foundation work. My work is not visible but a building stands on our work. As an engineer, the foundation should be strong. I deal with the foundation of the country now: they are termite-confested and that has to change. I don’t want to carry my story with me, the future generation has to know.
Q. What are your plans? What else do you have on mind?
A. Art and philosophy of engineering will be my next attempt, and next I want to write about human relationship. It will be a fiction. I have interest in human beings and their expectation and values. I also talk about unhappy marriage in the book. I have a mind to write about Anting Australia. Writing books, this is my purpose in life.
Source: News Today Net
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