Ratnadip Acharya:"I was completely unaware of chick lit literature that young Indian readers love" (Interview)

Ratnadip Acharya have written a very wonderful and shocking book recently which is purely based upon life of a deer where the protagonist is itself a deer. I am amazed by his work which compelled me to take his interview to know the author better. A very straight-forward answers has been given by him. Do read to know what he feels about his writing journey. 

1. How’s life after becoming a published author? What changes do you feel?

Answer: Life has not changed much since I became a published author. I am a loner and deeply enjoy my solitariness. Only change, if at all it can be called a change, is that now I write with more conviction as I know there is a handful of people who will definitely read my work. When you love someone you get courage and when someone loves you, you get confidence. So is it with my writing. When I know some readers love my work I get confidence.  You can call it the only change.   

2. How has been the response to your first book “Life is always aimless….”?

Answer: It was better than what I had expected. At that time I was completely unaware of the entire world of contemporary Indian reader. I did not even a facebook account. I grew up reading British classic like that of Somerset Maugham, Graham Green, A. J. Cronin and many more and was completely unaware of the trend of chick lit literature that young Indian readers love to read. My first novel introduced me to a new generation of readers. 

3. Tell us something about your 2nd and latest novel, “Paradise Lost and Regained”?

Answer: It is always a heart-warming feeling to talk about this book. Frist of all, you need immense courage to write an entire book on a small deer or any other animal when everybody is writing on Romance, suspense, thriller and retelling mythological story in their own way. I do not think in the history of Indian literature there is any other novel where an animal is telling its story with which we can all relate ourselves. I do not think any reader will regret giving its time to read this work of fiction.  

4. Didn’t it worry you how will a concept based on story of a deer be accepted?

Answer: No, I definitely did not worry. Should I worry I could not have written this large novel effortlessly. As the book says ‘trust and worry do not coexist’, I did not have an iota of worry while writing it. In fact I did not even think if anyone will ever read it. I knew the idea was entirely a godsend idea and I must deliver my best. In fact, while writing, I often felt, someone is guiding me to write. It is an inexplicable feeling.   

5. What kind of research you did to understand the lifestyle of a deer?

Answer: I did not do any research apart from reading a bit about deer to bring authenticity to my work. In fact the novel which are based on research work (I do not wish to name any author here) though appear well-informative, when it comes to love and passion for life, they are empty and hollow. I read a good deal of novels based on research. I find them shallow. They are good for learning English language but stories are mundane and lack spark. To my understanding, greatest novel ever written in any language is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. He did not do any research to write that masterpiece, nor did he do any research work to write War & Peace. Read it and you will find it has voluminous information, intertwined with complex characters. But Tolstoy did not do any research for it. Tolstoy rightly said, ‘What we really need to accomplish anything successfully is deep love.’ 

  

6. Why do you always attempt serious novels with no humour and punches in between?

Answer: Brother, I am not a chick lit fiction author. Even if it does not qualify me to reach bestseller list I am perfectly okay. I do not wish to write predictable shallow stuff. Secondly, I do not want to add unwanted humour or cuss words to my work to garner more readers. For me, most important thing is if I really believe the story that I am narrating. I do not voluntarily make them serious or humourless. I write every word that I stand by. I do not know if sincerity pay off or not. But I am a genuine and sincere author. I do not know what you mean by punches. But if you mean by it unpredictable turns and twists in the story, I believe, Paradise Lost & Regained, has no dearth of it. However, I do not know how the readers of chick lit fiction will take it. 

7. It’s been two publishers with two books, why so?

Answer: Just a stroke of luck. I do not even know if I will write any other book or not. I do not even know if one day any publisher will accept it or not.  

8. Tell us something about your next book that you are currently thinking/writing about?

Answer: It is a very premature stage to talk about it. But, well, I can say is that novel, probably, too, will have no human being. Probably, again I will create another mystical world that I have developed in Paradise Lost & Regained. The prime thing is that I must write something that I love. Otherwise the entire journey is joyless. If I cheat myself as an author just to please readers I am already emotionally a dead man. What the use of becoming a bestseller author then?

9. How do you see yourself as an author after 5 years?

Answer: Probably you remember those lines from Paradise Lost & Regained. ‘All my understanding sums up in three words… Trust, Hope & Love’. I have a deep trust in myself. Otherwise I would not have written such an unusual story. Every day I live with hope. Pray one day readers will experience deep love in my work.     

10. Any words for your fans who have liked either of your books.

Answer: Be with me in my future endeavour, too. I assure you I would never produce a commonplace stuff and fail you.  

Paradise Lost and Regained by Ratnadip Acharya (Book Review-3.75*/5)!!!

       What impression will it create upon you if I tell you that I have read a story which had only one character? Well, what if I tell you the one character I am talking about is not any human being but story of a deer? Shocked? Well, that's what happened to me when Ratnadip Acharya, the author of the book, told me the same. I was very skeptic if I would like this book or not but I had a belief because I have read author's debut work named "Life is always aimless until you love it" which was quite philosophical and partly motivational. Hence I knew that with a deer, he would have certainly created some magic. And yes, we has definitely written a better book than his first. I will any day recommend you "Paradist Lost and Regained", the book I am talking about, than his debut novel. And any author who is on the path of improvement becomes my favorite novelist by default. :-)

 

           Ratnadip Acharya does not use superfluous and big words to make his book sound literary. He keeps the things simple and that makes it easy for you to complete his book without picking up dictionary for reference even once. The book has a kind of magic that even if you'll want to finish it in one sitting, it won't let you. It will ask you to read it in days than finishing it in few hours as there's lot of things that it wants you to adopt. Author has once again written a philosophical and self-help kind of book using fiction as the theme.

            The concept of deer is something very new at least in Indian popular reading segment. With the description of a deer's life, its routine, regimen, lifestyle and some unfortunate and fortunate incidents, author have tried to tell us how we can achieve few basic things in life rather than complicating things. The book starts off very well telling us how this deer takes birth and her mother's love and affection towards her. 

           Later on, the author also tries to tell us about how the deer learns things by herself, ask several questions, understand few things herself, observe other species, adventures in the forest, witnesses mating of her mother with a male deer, tryst with humans, life in zoo, escapade, new learning in life etc. Using all these elements, Ratnadip Acharya makes us feel and realize how bad we do when we trap the animals who aren't meant to live in confinement. The book also tells us how scary we are to these animals just because of our behavior towards them. With this, author does not forget to compliment nature and every lifeless things that plays a big part in our day-to-day life but we do not consider them. 

             Summarily, I am very impressed how author have used deer to tell us many philosophical facts about our life and way of living. There are many learning that you will derive out of this book. Yes, I feel that the book is 50-70 pages thicker as it could have been easily summed up in 170-200 pages. It becomes stretchy sometimes and boring when few struggling stages of deer is over described. That's the only point which makes this book little weak otherwise even the climax is a happy ending which I was quite unsure about the way this book is written with all the seriousness and no nonsensical attitude. Haha! I give this 3.75* definitely. Edit the boring part and it could have been easily above 4 but I wish writer keeps this in mind while writing his next book. Looking forward to it.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

          

The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen by Salil Desai (Book Review-3.75*/5) !!!

        There are not many writers who try thriller or crime thriller in India. I have majorly liked Ravi Subramanian and Ashwin Sanghi in this genre. Even picking up a new author brings huge amount of skepticism as you are scared if they would have treated the word called "Thriller" as one. Somehow I got my hands upon Salil Desai's "The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen- The 2nd book in the "An Inspector Saralkar Mystery" series. I haven't read the first one but the 2nd book is a great attempt of 335-pages by Salil Desai. It keeps you hooked until end. On the name of thriller, he has actually thrilled his audiences with his great talent of story telling. FingerPrint publishers are definitely playing big in the literary industry of India. The kind of work they are publishing is definitely at par with the quality published by bigger players like Penguin and Random House. 

 

           Salil Desai uses easy words to tell this story of how a girl is murdered and the culprit has to be found. He uses pacy language and wonderful narration to keep you hooked to the book. I read 50 pages daily just because I was enjoying the thriller so much that I wanted to be in it for a longer amount of time. This whole week I was only thinking about all the characters mentioned in the book and predicting who might be the killer. Another greatness that Desai have handled is the number of characters in the book. The names chosen for each of them makes it easy for you to identify them whenever they are mentioned after a long break. This is where many authors fail while writing a book with lots of characters. 

           I also liked the way book mentions the background of Saralkar and his chemistry with his wife. Similarly, another approach that makes this book a single-sitting stuff is the author's propaganda of leaving a scene in the midst itself and starting to discuss another sub-plot. You want to read it more fast after this to know what happened after that dialogue which a specific character had spoken. I liked this book mostly because writer didn't waste time in describing how work takes place in a Police station and thus boring his audience. Saralkar, Salunkhe and Motkar accompanied by others are always on their toes working on something rather than discussing FIR and several sections under which they should charge the culprit. 

           Coming to the drawbacks- I didn't like the climax as I had very high expectations. In the first 25 pages itself, the first person that you predict as the murderer of Sonia is the one who's actually is. This is where the author failed. I was expecting something that will make me jump off my seat but nothing of this sort took place. I was also waiting to read what finally happens with Saralkar and his wife's argument on a topic but even that's closed abruptly. Also, Sonia's cousin's role could have been used more significantly but it's just another special appearance in the book. I was with 4.5* for the first 2/3rd part of the book but because anti-climax and climax just didn't take this book to another level, I am going with 3.75*. I wish I could give it 4 but climax is the biggest drawback here and when we talk about thrillers, climax is what fetches you marks. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!