Pankaj Tripathi: I'll never write a book on my journey

Pankaj Tripathi recently visited the New Delhi World Book Fair to interact with attendees and spoke about his love for literature. He said, "Science makes our lives easier, but life is for poetry, arts, and literature, and that's why I have come to this book fair."
He also discussed the influence of books on his life and said that he no longer feels like attending events or giving interviews. However, as it was about promoting the culture of reading, he thought he wouldn’t give it a miss.

Pankaj Tripathi said that the kind of actor he became - books have played a huge role in it. "Some time back, I was discussing with someone that while many books have been written on how to handle failure, and we can find numerous motivational speakers on the subject, nobody tells us how to handle success. There are no books written on handling success. This is simply because there is no market for it - very few people are successful. Maybe only 1% achieve success. Failure ka bazaar hai, success ka bazaar nahi hai." Talking about importance of literature he said,"Jeevan ko agar sahi se chalana hai toh keval vaigyanik drishtikon (scientific perspective) se na dekhein, sahityik drishtikon (literary perspective) se bhi dekhein."

In response to a question about whether he would ever write his biography, he said, "If I have to write a book, I'll write satire. Struggle - girna, uthna - mujhe lagta hai woh sabke jeevan mein samaan hi hai. I'll never write a book on my journey; it is the same as anyone else's. If I ever have to write a book, I'll write satire or poetry because in a poem, you can say a lot in just a few words."

Pankaj shared that he no longer feels like talking, giving interviews; instead, he prefers staying quiet. He told the audience that the organisers of the Bharat Literature Festival at the Book Fair had been following up with him for over a year, which is why he decided to attend - because it was about books.
A couple of months back, Pankaj's brother-in-law passed away in a car accident, and his sister was severely injured. Talking about the impact of that accident, he shared, "Uss samay mujhe laga ki rangmanch mein, kirdar mein ki hui vedna (pain) kitni nakli hoti hai aur real life ki peeda (pain) kitni asli hoti hai. Main hil gaya tha. In many of my interviews, I used to speak a lot - logon ko lagta tha main pravachan karta hoon, toh ek dhaarna ban gayi thi ki main kaafi shaant aur gyaani kisam ka vyakti hoon. Ye meri dhaarna khud se tooti ki main shaant aur gyaani nahi hoon. Main adhjal gagri chhalkat jaye (an empty vessel makes the most noise). Chhota sa gyaan tha aur main bahut bolta tha."
Pankaj Tripathi also shared that he lost his father (in 2023) and said, "Pita ko samajhne ke liye pita banna padta hai. Jeevan bahut fragile hai. Baad mein shunyata ka ehsaas hota hai. 30 saal se main babuji se rai (suggestion) nahi leta tha. Unke jaane ke baad mujhe laga ki main kis se puchhunga."