ProtoStar: Kinza Asghar Khan

Kinza Asghar Khan a.k.a "Akasious" is one of the most talented writers of our era. Belonging from the city of Saints, Multan, she is dedicated and high spirited personality. Her books, Lone Wolf till last breath and The Ashes of Feelings is in the publishing process while her book Ice is black is currently being written. Unlike many, she isn’t a conventional writer and she writes on really unique topics. Her choice of topic is something that makes her prominent, as well as her topics, are informative and her stories aren’t just stories but come with an education in a way that matters. She is so full of talent and apart from her writing journey, she is on her journey to be a pharmacist, something that is so cool about her. There aren’t many people who can go in the line of creativity and technicalities together and I have no idea how she manages story writing ideas and organic chemistry together.
Ladies and gentlemen, here we present you, the star of Multan, Kinza Asghar Khan.   

1.       How would you define yourself?

Loner, a writer, a pharmacist in making.

2.       How proud are you of being yourself as a writer?

I am very proud of myself. People in my circle are either pharmacists or writers I am both and I believe being both was never easy. So proud is something I earned through hard work.

3.       Do you realize that you belong to an only very small percentage of people who can have a huge impact on the world?

Yes. There are two superpowers on earth one is the tongue that got the confidence to speak words in an efficient way to convince even an illiterate mob of people and the other is the pen which can write words to convince the literate people. By the grace of Allah, I got both. So, yes I can have a huge impact but it depends on what Allah has planned for me.

4.       How proud are you of being an introvert? Does it cause you any problem?

No, as I am still confused even if I am an introvert or not? As I have so many certifications in public speaking but on the other hand I am weak in sharing emotions and feelings. Anyway, I am proud of whoever I am.

5.       Where do you see yourself in future?

Somewhere near the moon. The most shining star. Inshaa’Allah.

6.       What genre you like to write in?

General Fiction

7.       Do you want to focus on one specific genre or be an explorer?

I write fiction mingled with facts. I’d never write anything out of purpose as I am too much into facts, history, politics, autobiographies and motivational stuff. I write what I have read for years. I haven’t grown up reading love stories or teen fiction. I grew up reading Newspaper, watching news and debating on world issues so. So my focus will involve the real issues mingled with fiction which is of course non real.

8.       How are you as a reader?

I am an avid reader but I am the worst kind of online reader. I always read in hard and I have a great collection of books in my personal library.

9.       Name your favorite Book(s)?

The secret series by Rhonda Byrne

Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak

Daughter of the East by Benazir Bhutto

Shahabnama by Qudrat Ullah Shahab

Namal by Nemrah Ahmed

10.   How would you want to be remembered as?

As a good human before anything else.

11.   Tell something funny about yourself?

I don’t know. I guess I am too serious a personality to have something funny in me.

12.   Why do you write?

It’s my passion. It keeps me alive. It keeps me going. So far I am writing nothing can break me.

13.   When did you start writing and how?

I wrote my first poem titled ‘A sleeping bear’ in grade fourth. I wrote it just by the way on a chart paper. My mother loved it so much that she pasted it on the door of my room. I later read the poem in my school assembly. While returning back to classes after the assembly I heard a few students singing my poem that was the very moment when I felt that I can never leave writing. And I never left.

14.   Have you ever cried while writing?

I cry almost in every chapter of ‘The ice is black’. Writing this book is really hard for me because there is a huge story behind it. I can’t share now but I’d share in the final author’s note. May Allah give me the courage to complete it.

15.   What is your most prized piece of writing?

‘The ice is Black’ will be the one Inshaa’Allah.

16.   Who is your ideal as a writer?

Elif Shafak and Nemrah Ahmed

17.   Who is your mentor? If there is one?

I am my own mentor. 

18.   Do you want to be a full-time writer or think of it as just a hobby?

I believe in doing multiple things in life. I can never be just one thing in life. However, all other things belong to my averages but writing can include excellence or something near to it.

19.   Have you ever fall in love with someone, you were writing about?

I fall in love with all my characters before writing them.

20.   Have you ever been heartbroken? Explain (5 marks)

Many times.

1-      When my  grandfather (Dada) died I had so many sleepless nights but nobody knows (now they would know)

2-      When I lost my entrance test to get into medical school

3-      When I left English literature to get into pharmacy school

4-      When I bear corruption and violation of merit around me and I know I can do nothing literally breaks me.

5-      I have been betrayed by people several times that broke me and now I trust no one.

21.   What is the inspiration that gets you going?

My mother

22.   People usually talk about success stories after being successful, how would you define your success story in making? How hard it is?

No two success stories are related to each other. Everyone has their own struggles. Mine involves a story of a girl who realized that at the end of the day it’s n0ot only about survival, it’s about living. So I am a girl who lived, who smiled, who never left hope for the things she always wanted to do. It was hard, it is still hard but then again life is not a bed of roses.

23.   What kind of help you think you can get in this phase?

I am not sure maybe a creative writing class would help me to polish my skills.

24.   What is your favorite color(s) and why?

Red. It defines me well. It’s the color of love and anger both. I love fiercely, my anger is wild too. So I am all about red.

25.   How are you as a person? Talk about your strengths and weaknesses?

I am not a good human, I am working on it. No one can use emotional tools to convince me this is my strength. I get distracted easily that’s my weakness also the people whom I love i.e friends and family are my weakness.

26.   Are you scared of taking risks?

No, Never.

27.   What is your phobia?

I don’t know if I have any phobia at all but if someone touches my books I behave like a wild cat. Also, I never lend my books maybe it’s a phobia that they won’t return me books in the condition I give them. So many people hate me for this.

28.   How hard it is for you to answer these interview questions?

I don’t think answering interview questions can be hard for anyone as far as you can say ‘No comments’.

29.   How do you deal with writer’s block?

In writer's block, I read more than usual particularly about the stuff I want to write and this helps me getting back to writing without consuming much time.

30.   What is your area of the profession and how hard was it for you to challenge the standard being either a doctor or an engineering mindset?

I am a pharmacy student. I am against those set standards which children are made to chase all through their lives and when they don’t get it they often realize it was not really what they wanted to be but society never allows you to live. On the other hand, as you see I never challenged it that’s why I am doing pharmacy. I believe one can be a good writer by studying engineering, medicine or any other sciences but one can never be a physician by studying literature. I guess this is the thing we need to understand before challenging our elders. Things would have been way easier for me if I’d have been studying literature but proving to be excellent in one (writing) and at least average (pharmacist) in other is fun and I am doing that well.

31.   What is one stereotype you want to break?

I want to break the mindset that worships two professions only doctor, engineer. It’s not about science because even other professions involving science are not valued as much as these two why so? Arts and other fields of science such as space science, psychology, law, politics, and arts such as photography, painting and writing are no less to be studied and adopted as professions. I believe anything done with passion has the scope and I want to see this thought prevailing in the society. I know this thought is not contagious and has got all the potential to be extinct though.

32.   Do you think gender plays a role in success? If so, How?

It depends where one belongs to. All I know is I am a daughter of a gentleman who did no less to his daughters in comparison to his sons. For a background like mine, gender has no role in success. All through my life, I got no plus points for being a girl neither did I get any minus points for not being a guy.  However in poverty-stricken areas, in rural areas and in other small cities across Pakistan (I don’t want to mention the names of those areas) I believe gender has a huge role.

33.   Literature, History, and linguistics today falls under the umbrella of social sciences department, do you think they are sciences? Does everything has to be science to be cool or Arts are something which is an equally cool department?

Yes, they are sciences.  Science is something that exists since the existence of the Universe. We tend to relate science with modernity but no this is not true. Everything on earth works on certain basic principles of science which involves complex principles of Mathematics, Newton’s laws, Fibonacci sequence. Everything tells Allah is the biggest of scientists. It's just that man recognized Him first as an artist then as a scientist because he understood science later. In real Allah’s every creation is ‘science first, arts later’. That’s how everything is created in its finest form because science is perfection, arts is beauty only. So in short anything can be science but everything cannot be arts. Science is a broader entity that engulfs everything into it while arts is a separate entity. If you ask what is cool. Nothing can replace arts. Arts is peace, arts is a human lover, arts is near to nature, and of course, arts is cool but science has always been the need of the hour.   

34.   How are you as a friend?

I am not a good friend.

35.   What are your goals in life?

I want to be a better human being. I want to earn respect and honor for my family, for my parents.

36.   How much gratitude helps you in life?

It is magic. It changes everything that is going wrong in life. Only if we pay it from the core of our hearts.

37.   What is one book that touches your heart?

This might sound stupid to most of the people out there but still, ‘Lone Wolf till last breath’.

38.   What is one book you will recommend to people? One for new readers and one for regular readers?

For new readers ‘The Alchemist’

For regular readers ‘Secret the Power’

39.   What are your aims or goals in your area of the profession?

I can’t rely on averages so my goal is to be excellent in at least one thing in life.

40.   What makes you happy and what makes you sad?

One word of kindness or motivation from my father makes me happy. Whenever I am misunderstood by my near and dear ones (in truth I have never been understood by anyone)

41.   Do you get emotional easily?

No.

42.   How would this interview help you in your writing path?

Well, I guess it will be really helpful. Still, it’s the exact outcome is something only Allah knows

43.   Share a nice quote?

“Live happily if you can’t learn to pretend” -Akasious

44.   If you have to help a person starting their writing path, what would you tell them?

Stop thinking, start doing. Do more writing and more reading every day.

45.   What would you like to say to your readers?

I am nothing without you all. Also if you read anyone’s work not only mine to tell them. Your feedback has all the potential to help a writer write their bestselling book in the near future. Your kind sentiments can save a good writer from giving up on writing.

Guys, I believe you get to learn a lot from her. She is not just a rising star but a source of inspiration for many people. I am telling you guys to keep an eye on her and learn from her journey because in a few years she is going to be among top writers of Pakistan. Our prayers and support is with you Kinza.  We are proud of you.

Learn more about her, Follow her on Instagram at The.Akasious