Udayaditya Mukherjee is the author of By the River Dibang: Stories from the North East, Once Upon a Time in Sundarban, Rhythms in Solitude – Love, Nature, and Life through Poetry, the poignant short story “A Beautiful Life” in the anthology Twilight’s Children – Chronicles of Uncommon Lives.
His short story “The Boy Who Dreamed of Trains” was adjudged as the best story in a theme-based story competition held by Readomania in September 2018.
Having served in the Indian Army, Udayaditya has travelled far and wide across the country and has been particularly fascinated by the diverse ethnicity, customs, and culture prevalent in various regions. His poetry and stories are reflections of his experiences encountered during his stints at various remote places in the course of his military service.
He is a sports enthusiast and calls himself a helpless dreamer. He resides in the beautiful city of joy—Kolkata.
Readomania caught up with this upcoming star on his writing and more.
Readomania: What is the foremost task of a storyteller? Entertainment or Societal Reflections? How do you approach your storytelling?
Udayaditya: The foremost task of a storyteller is to tell a story. As you keep narrating a story societal reflections, perspectives about people, places, and other things automatically form a part of the journey. So you are entertaining and at the same time continuously giving inputs about many aspects of life, society, customs, practices and whatnot. But I am of the view that the purpose of telling a story should not be to create social reflections solely.
My approach towards writing is based on developing a plot and lead it to a culmination.
Readomania: That is interesting. So do your plots get influenced by your armed forces background?
Udayaditya: Very much. It’s said once a soldier always a soldier. Most of my stories are picked up from real-life experiences that I have encountered or witnessed. They might have been about service life or otherwise but almost all of them have formed up owing to interaction with people and surroundings in the course of my innings in the Army. And consciously I try to finish my stories with a glimmer of hope that is imbibed in a person in uniform who always looks at the brighter side of life in spite of hardships and adversities.
Readomania: Apart from the armed forces background, where else do you get your story ideas from?
Udayaditya: Interaction with people. The knack of reading lots of articles for the sake of knowledge also helps in fictionalising events and characters. The stories in the anthology “By the River Dibang” were purely developed from the myths and realities encountered during my stints in North East. I had read a lot about the local folklore and heard many stories. I put all of it in that book. It is a collection of four short stories that range from the spoken fables that venerate the mythological heroes to the present-day conundrums of daily life in the region, the tales are varied and enthralling.
Readomania: Now that we know, where do you get your ideas from, let us ask a more philosophical question. Why do you write?
Udayaditya: The restlessness that brews inside me propels me to write. And when my first story submitted to Readomania for the Anthology, “Twilight’s Children” got selected it was a major boost for me. I started believing that what I wrote could appeal to the readers and publishers. That prompted me to start writing short stories. And now I don’t want to stop. I published my first collection, ‘By the River Dibang’ in 2019. My next story, ‘Once Upon a Time in Sundarban’, was published as a Readomania Single recently, and my next story, ‘Karma, By Chance’ will be released in the next few weeks.
Readomania: In such a short time, you have written across multiple genres – Crime, Historical, Mythology, Folk, which one is your favourite?
Udayaditya: Indian mythology and history. I feel drawn towards lesser-known characters in Indian epics and history whose deeds probably have not been portrayed deservingly. In fact, there are such wonderful characters in Ramayan and Mahabharat shadowed by more prominent and popular figures. The same one can find in Indian history. Very few people have even heard of them. You will see a lot more stories from me, based on these characters.
Readomania: Are there specific types of characters that appeal to you? Do you base them on people you in reality or are they completely fictional?
Udayaditya: I have a penchant for tragic heroes. People who fought against all adversities thrown at them sacrificed a lot yet did not get the due recognition they deserved. Like Karna and Hector. I also get drawn towards characters who have strong contrasts in their nature. Many characters in my stories have a resemblance to real-life people.
Readomania: Your work in historical fiction is full of research. When one reads, ‘Once Upon a Time in Sundarban’, the details picked from history are amazing. Tell us something about your research process.
Udayaditya: Well, I like reading about historical characters and events. So whenever I feel that I would develop a story with a historical background I specifically read about that era from books and on the internet alike. Nowadays research has become quite easy with Google; you just need to know what you are looking for. It’s also about getting the feel of that period. There are many nuances belonging to a particular period that one needs to delve into like dresses, foods, life style, habits of people, social system, etc.
Readomania: What works better for you - fiction based on truth or fiction that mirrors truth?
Udayaditya: That’s an interesting one. I would say truth is the mirror. Rest all get reflected from it. So even if a work is purely fictional somewhere it originates from true incidents or people in reality. Any writing will have both the components of being based on and mirroring realities of life. As a writer, you can’t distinguish between the two. They just form up in your writing naturally.
Readomania: What has been your favourite story that you have written so far?
Udayaditya: I consider all my stories like my children so can’t be partial towards anyone of them. Having said that, “The Boy Who Dreamed of Trains” had given me immense satisfaction while writing as I always felt that the plight of the Bengali refugees who had to migrate from East Pakistan had not been portrayed adequately in Indi literature. Also, this story won in a contest held by Readomania and fetched me my first contract for publishing a book. You can read the story on Readomania Premium. Click here.
Readomania: Given that we now know a lot about your writing, let us understand a bit about how you write. Do you have a specific way of writing books? What is your method in writing?
Udayaditya: I am not a habitual writer. Suddenly some idea will crop up in my mind. Then I keep pondering over it for some time. Further, I develop a plot and sequence as to how it should progress. Finally, when the plot wants itself to spill out of the mind I start writing. I take a reasonable amount of time to finish a story as there are research works involved. Sometimes the flow of keying in is smooth while at other times I feel lazy. Finally, somehow I get to finish the stories. Once I have finished I go through it again and make minor changes at places for qualitative improvement.
Readomania: Are there any writing quirks that you follow?
Udayaditya: I try humour in bits and pieces in all kinds of stories. Whatever may be the genre, I feel if there is a dash of funny anecdotes added at places, it breaks the pattern and reinstates the attention of the reader back to the plot.
Readoania: What are the challenges that budding authors face?
Udayaditya: Getting the manuscript read. I wish there were more publishers who would give a patient read to the stories sent by budding authors and revert back to them. Another challenge of course is the promotion of one’s books. This is a daunting task as not many media houses are willing to write about your work if you are not an established author.
Readomania: We are passing through a very difficult time. How do you motivate yourself to write in these times?
Udayaditya: Keeping myself engrossed in reading and writing something calms me down. So it is a kind of refuge or shelter where I can try to keep myself composed and positive in spite of the trying times around.
Readomania: As we end this interview, tell us who are your favourite authors?
Udayaditya: Difficult to name one or two. But I am particularly fond of works by Saradindu Bandopadhyay, the creator of Byomkesh Bakshi for the multiple genres he had written on. His historical novels and short stories are gems of Bengali literature.
Another mention would be of Wilbur Smith, whose novels on Africa and ancient Egypt are just mind-blowing.
Readomania: Thank you Udayaditya, for this wonderful interview. We look forward to a lot more stories from your pen.
Comments