In this exclusive interview from the Jaipur Literature Festival 2026, we speak with celebrated author and co-author of two bestsellers — The Leapfrog and The Leak Spark — Mukesh Sud, also known affectionately as Mickey. He shares his experience at JLF, his love for short stories, his personal writing discipline, and powerful advice for aspiring authors. Mukesh Sud encourages writers to focus on storytelling rather than giving lectures, and to let readers interpret stories through their own experiences.
00:00With me, I have a celebrated author, co-author of two bestsellers, the Leak Spark and the Leap Frog, Mr. Mukesh Sudh, whom his loved ones call Mickey.
00:13So I am taking the privilege to call him Mickey. I hope you won't mind, Mr. Mukesh.
00:18So Mickey, what does the JLF mean to you?
00:22JLF is a fantastic opportunity to meet a number of people from many, many backgrounds, have conversations, meet other writers and exchange ideas.
00:34And I think this is one of the world's best festivals. I've attended their festival in London too.
00:39But the size and the number of ideas floating around from this place is unbelievable.
00:46And Mukesh, what is the special about the two books which you are signing here for your readers?
00:50You know, I like writing short stories. And these two books are a bunch of short stories.
00:57One of them tells you about how to thrive for young people.
01:01And the other, as you know, is about how to be frugal and still scale something.
01:06But both of them are around stories. I don't like giving gyan.
01:09I think aash kal gyan koji ni sunta. In fact, people have more gyan than you and me have.
01:13So the idea is to give them a story and let them draw whatever influences they want from the story and use it.
01:20You know, I give an example of that if you look at painting, you don't ask the artist, why is it green or white?
01:25You bring your own life experience to the painting and interpret it.
01:30You can interpret it yourself.
01:31And your experience may be more than the author.
01:35So, what is your message for young authors and young audiences?
01:41If you aspire to be a writer, it's not about writing. It's about rewriting.
01:46You have to be dedicated. You have to allocate time every single day.
01:50Or shai idea ho na ho. Bait jaiye.
01:53When the ideas come, they will flow. And stories will write themselves out.
01:57But you have to persevere.
01:58Be there everyday. You know, we talk of the showing up on a daily basis, sit down there, no ideas and hide, put your phone off and just focus on your thoughts and something will come out.
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