The 40 But 10: Ajesh Chacko

 

I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!

Today we are joined by Ajesh Chacko is an Indian author interested in the ordinary moments that quietly shape a life. The Hours We Never Entered is his literary novella about grief, attention, love, and what it means to be present when life refuses to follow a plan.

Why do you write?

I write because I’m interested in the parts of life that are easy to overlook while we’re busy trying to get somewhere else. A conversation we almost miss, a room after someone has left it, the way a small regret can stay with us for years — those things feel ordinary until they suddenly don’t. Writing gives me a way to stay with them long enough to understand what they mean.

 

What made you start writing?

It wasn’t one dramatic moment. I kept finding myself thinking about the same questions: Why do we postpone the people we love? Why are we so good at organizing life and still so bad at being present for it? Eventually those questions stopped feeling like thoughts and started feeling like a story. That became The Hours We Never Entered.

 

What’s your kryptonite as a writer?

Trying to make every sentence perfect too early. I can spend far too long adjusting a line that may not even survive the next draft. I’ve had to learn that sometimes the best thing you can do for a story is keep moving and come back with clearer eyes later.

 

Describe your book in three words.

Grief. Attention. Presence.

 

Describe your book poorly.

A man ignores a nineteen-second voice note, goes to the coast, meets a dog, and slowly realizes his calendar was not actually the meaning of life.

 

If you met your characters in real life, what would you say to them?

I think I’d say less than I imagine. Tom has enough people telling him what he should do. I’d probably sit with him for a while and tell him he doesn’t have to turn grief into a lesson. To Lucy, I’d say thank you. Even though she is absent for so much of the book, her warmth is one of the things that keeps the story alive.

 

Would you and your main character get along?

Probably, but I think we would annoy each other first. Tom likes control, efficiency, and having an answer. I understand that part of him more than I’d like to admit. We might spend the first hour disagreeing and the second hour realizing we were arguing about the same fear from opposite sides.

 

Do you read the reviews of your books or do you stay far far away from them, and why?

I read them. I’m a new author, so pretending I don’t care what readers think would be dishonest. At the same time, I’m trying to learn the difference between listening and chasing approval. A thoughtful negative response can teach me something. A positive one can encourage me. Neither should decide what I’m allowed to write next.

 

What’s the one thing you wish you knew when you were younger?

That life does not begin after the next achievement. It’s very easy to live as if the real version of your life is waiting somewhere ahead — after the right job, the right amount of money, the right plan, the right timing. I wish I had understood earlier that ordinary days are not the waiting room. They are the life itself.

 

What scares you the most?

Not failure in the usual sense. What scares me more is reaching the end of a year — or eventually the end of a life — and realizing I was physically there for it but mentally somewhere else. That fear is probably one of the deepest reasons this book exists.

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Purchase the book here

A NINETEEN-SECOND VOICE NOTE.

He listens too late.

 

Tom Kerr is good at measuring attention. His job is to make people look, click, and return. Being present in his own life is harder.

 At 8:17 one morning, his younger sister Lucy sends him a nineteen-second voice note. Tom listens too late.

In the weeks that follow, grief fractures his routines, his relationship with Rachel, and the version of himself he has spent years building. He leaves the city for Bellwether, a wind-worn coastal town where a widowed landlady refuses easy answers, a nurse with a dry sense of humour keeps him honest, and a stray dog named Finn begins following him home.

Tom goes looking for quiet. What he finds is messier: guilt that cannot be solved, love that cannot be scheduled, and moments that ask nothing of him except that he be there.

 The Hours We Never Entered is a literary novella about grief, attention, love, and the difficult grace of staying present when life refuses to be fixed.