Author INTERVIEW

Could you share a bit about yourself and how you started writing?

I am an English teacher by profession in a senior secondary school of Calcutta. I have always had a penchant for writing on anything that excites me. I got to see my name printed for the first time on quite a few academic books I wrote. Travelling places and meeting people helped me branch out to another domain of writing I have always enjoyed, travel writing. Writing books, I should honestly say, was serendipitous. Deep down in my heart, I always wished to see my own book on the stacks in the city bookstores I loved to pass the time. It was so humbling as that happened when my first book hit the stores three years back.

Your passion for music and photography suggests a deep love for art. Can you tell us how these interests began and if there were any particular incidents that inspired you?

My love for photography came mainly from my latent wish to be a poet. You know perhaps every Bengali loves to be a poet at a certain point of their life. When I sadly discovered that my talent doesn’t go beyond writing silly limericks I tried to play with my camera. Then I felt well, with my camera at least I can write some haikus here, if not a long poem. And like those closet poets who take pleasure reading their own poems thinking that their compositions are second to none, I am happy being a closet photographer regaling in a self-absorbed world. I can’t remember of any particular incident as such but I do love to remember the encouraging words from my friends who instilled in me the confidence and belief of writing books. They still do.

How did you go about exploring Shankar Mahadevan's personal and psychological aspects to understand his fears, ambitions, and vulnerabilities that influenced his journey?