The Literature Times: Your career has been rooted in technology, digital transformation, eCommerce, architecture, and leadership. What inspired you to step into fiction writing and explore mystery, horror, and the darker aspects of human nature?
Sumit Saurabh: I’m a tech person at heart. I’ve always loved technology, and even today most of my career revolves around it. But writing has been with me for a long time as a hobby, something I did for myself. Somewhere along the way I realised people actually enjoyed reading what I wrote, and that gave me the confidence to take it more seriously. So you could say a hobby slowly grew into a real interest, and that interest is what led to the book we’re talking about today.
The Literature Times: The Room Remembers is your debut novel. Where did the central idea of Hillview Hotel and a room that seemingly remembers everything originate?
Sumit Saurabh: I love travelling, especially long drives on the highway. Over the years I’ve passed so many old hotels and motels that look like they’ve been standing there forever. Every time, the same thought comes up, and I think many of us have had it: a place like that must hold so many memories. That thought stayed with me. Slowly it became an idea about secrets that were buried deep for years, and what might happen if they started coming back to the surface. Given the genre, horror and thrill became the way those secrets find their way out.
The Literature Times: The novel brings together mystery, psychological tension, family secrets, emotional trauma, and supernatural elements. How did you balance these different layers while developing the story?
Sumit Saurabh: To be honest, I never really thought about balancing them. I wanted to write something that gives the reader a thrill, that kick you get when secrets come out one by one. The emotional side came in because I wanted readers to connect with the characters and feel what they’re going through. I never set out to write a regular ghost story. I wanted the story to mean something.
The Literature Times: Ananya and Arjun are strangers who find themselves trapped in an isolated hotel during a violent storm. What drew you to this setting, and what role does the isolation play in the story?
Sumit Saurabh: The story begins when Ananya meets Arjun. Whether it was really a chance meeting between two strangers or something that was meant to happen, you’ll find out later in the book. The isolation was very important for the story to work. Too many characters would have pulled attention away from the heart of it. Keeping them cut off from the world let me stay focused on the two of them and the hotel.
The Literature Times: The forgotten diary, hidden corridors, and unexplained encounters gradually uncover a decades-old conspiracy. How important were secrets, clues, and gradual revelations in shaping the narrative?
Sumit Saurabh: If you want readers to stay hooked, you can’t reveal everything at once. I wanted readers to sit with each secret, process it, and then, just when they think they’ve figured it out, get caught off guard by the next revelation. The uncovering had to be slow, but the story itself had to stay fast paced.
The Literature Times: The story explores the idea that buried memories and unresolved truths can return in unexpected ways. Is there a particular aspect of human memory or psychology that you wanted readers to reflect on through the novel?
Sumit Saurabh: We all make mistakes in life. Some of them people know about, and some we keep to ourselves. We tend to believe a certain secret can stay hidden forever, and maybe it does for a while, even for a lifetime. But secrets have a way of coming out, one way or another. So keep your secrets hidden for as long as they can stay hidden. One day they’ll come out anyway.
The Literature Times: Nisha, Asha, Sameer, and the events surrounding the illegal experiments add another dimension to the mystery. How did you approach creating characters whose personal histories are closely connected to the central secret?
Sumit Saurabh: The whole story takes place over one night. Two strangers meet and explore a hotel, uncovering secrets that are linked to them. So their lives had to be connected somehow, otherwise neither of them would have had much impact. Instead of writing a book around one lead with everyone else in the background, I wanted both characters to have a strong presence of their own. It was the same with Nisha, Asha and Sameer. They’re all tied to the same mystery, so their stories had to be closely knit.
The Literature Times: Your professional life involves technology and leadership, while your fiction explores emotions, trauma, and the supernatural. Do you see any connection between the way you observe people professionally and the way you develop characters as a writer?
Sumit Saurabh: By nature, I’m someone who analyses things first and then reacts. I’m a very observant person. In my leadership I try to bring in EQ, because it keeps me connected to the people I work with. I don’t mix personal and professional life, but my nature stays the same in both. I think that shows in the book as well.
The Literature Times: The title The Room Remembers suggests that places can hold memories and secrets. What does the idea of a room remembering mean to you beyond its supernatural significance?
Sumit Saurabh: Most of us have heard since childhood that a house holds on to its memories. Everything in a room that has been there for a long time carries a story, and that story never really dies. That’s what The Room Remembers means to me: every object in a room quietly holding its own story. Sometimes they remember things even you have forgotten. You look at an old object or a diary, and suddenly an entire story comes back to you.
The Literature Times: As a debut novelist, what has writing The Room Remembers taught you about storytelling, and what would you like readers to carry with them after finishing the book?
Sumit Saurabh: I learnt that the more you describe each element, the more the reader can picture the scene and feel like they’re right there in the room with the characters. You could tell a story in two pages and it would still have a storyline, but readers might not feel its impact. As for what I’d like readers to carry with them, it’s this: there’s always a way for secrets to come out, whether through something supernatural or something completely natural. So only keep secrets you can handle when they do come out. Be honest, and try to wear fewer masks.
