The source and inspiration of Siddhartha SmilesSiddhartha Smiles was altogether unique. It was 2004. I don’t know how and for what reason, Siddhartha, the Buddha, kind of entered into my life. My only contact with Buddhism up until that point was the information on life events of Buddha in school text books and in the first year of Philosophy in college with just a chapter in the Indian Philosophy paper, which was nearly nothing in comparison to the vast literature on the subject, I was not even peripherally aware with. I am not aware with even now.

While waiting at a traffic red light in my car one day, a street vendor pleaded with me to buy a laughing Buddha statue. The golden colored statue made of clay appeared metallic. Not wanting to buy, I quoted an unreasonably cheap price. The vendor said, “take it”. The statue was placed in a corner of the drawing room. I didn’t give any significance to the event. Then, few days later, I was looking for a gift to present to someone who had purchased a house. The sales person at the gift shop counter strongly recommended me to buy a metallic bell with a baton that Buddhists use to produce musical effect. I bought it on the recommendation but for some reason couldn’t present the gift to the intended person. The object was now a Buddhist memorabilia in my house. Since the images and objects relating to Buddhism began filling in my house, I guess I might have begun thinking or discussing on Buddhism related topics. I felt a strong urge to write a book on the topic. One day, as soon as I woke up quite early in the morning, even before I could leave the bed, I heard a distinct voice speaking whose words I remember verbatim: “Ajit has written, what Romain Rolland wanted to say about me”. The statement was hugely surprising for I hadn’t written a word. I had heard about Romain Rolland but had absolutely no idea about his works or what he had said on Buddhism. The next day, I searched for Romain Rolland’s association with Buddhism on google but couldn’t access relevant information, so I lost interest and forgot about it. I haven’t clearly understood what the statement means till this day.

Nevertheless, I began writing from the next day and completed the work within three to four months writing at least 500 words everyday without a break. I had no plot to work on. I had no idea what I was going to write and I didn’t use any reference. I just wrote whatever occurred to me, non-stop. My usual writing routine was to write after coming back from office till late night. Many a days, I remember I used to write in a state of semi-sleep. It was like my pen going on and on, while I would not know what I was writing. As I said, I had not made a plot of the story. Only, I was broadly aware that I had to write something on Buddha and his philosophy. I wrote factual events from Buddha’s life and then I went on to concoct fiction to embellish facts. I was at the time as I am now least competent to write on the topic of Buddhism.

We are told that we must be an expert to write on any topic. I don’t agree. We must write on anything that fascinates us. What actually fascinates me about Buddhism is its theory of “momentariness” – that this moment, an infinitesimal point in time is the true reality. I wondered on the implications of this philosophy. An implication of this philosophy is that true understanding of time may possibly help us distinguish between real and unreal. The present moment is real, while past and future are not. In other words, material objects exist only for a moment, while change is constant. The other implication of this theory is that we conceive of change only within the dimension of time. The corollary of this theory is that if we overcome the dimension of time, we attain changelessness. Kant and Einstein in modern times have come to nearly the same conclusion that Siddhartha, the Buddha came to nearly 2500 years ago.
Fascinated by the notions of momentariness and time, I wondered if it is possible to collapse events – past, present and future – into a single point or “moment” devoid of time. In other words, it is theoretically possible to conceive of a timeless universe. Inspired by this idea, I merged characters from different era and ages to show them converse and interact with Siddhartha.

During the course of writing this work, something more fascinating was to follow. One day, I was feeling too tired to continue writing. I had exhausted the stuff I could write and was feeling too sleepy, yet I continued to write because of the promise to write 500 words each day. I was writing the seventh chapter, while I had planned to write ten chapters in all. I finished the seventh chapter with the sentence, “The exchange of cultural ambassadors from Magadh to the other civilized states was a phenomenon, which almost began during the reign of Ajatshatru and kept on gathering strength since then.” I folded the register I was writing in with the pen in it feeling utterly sleepy and crashed in my bed. The next night as usual, I opened the register to continue writing. To my surprise, as I opened the register I saw the word “God” written just below where I had finished writing. I still have the register with me. I interpreted it to mean that the Infinite Intelligence (we address as God) who had used me as His writing instrument had meant to complete the work by putting His signature at the end. So, the writing came to its logical conclusion with the seventh chapter, not the tenth as I had originally planned. However, when I gave my work to a professional editor to edit, she recommended me to expand the work. More specifically, she wanted me to write till the very end of Siddhartha’s life in this world. I followed as instructed.

While writing is one thing, getting it published and marketed is quite the other. I sent the book proposal to at least 50 publishers and publishing agents but none of them found the work meriting further step ahead. Some of those who showed positive interest in the work declined it because they said they were not sure if they could also market it. Finally, a literary agent accepted the work but it has been several years, since I have heard from her. I completely forgot about this work, when suddenly I read an article on internet recommending authors and writers to take advantage of self publishing, if their work was sitting idle in the desktop. I am extremely thankful to Amazon for making a huge difference in the lives of authors, who now have control over their work. Thank you Amazon.