Author interview: Uttarayan Deb on his Bengali book 'Bachai Pyanchforn 50'
It was his readers who inspired him to become an author from a columnist, says Uttarayan Deb.
Congratulations on the release of 'Bachai Pyanchforn 50'. How does it feel to have your book published for the first time?
Thanks! It might be that I had a lot of expectations and dreams about my first book just like one's first baby or lover. Now I feel that I had a hallucination which threw me to the ground very soon. But yes, got lot of experience which will guide me for my next book.
You have several of your works published in newspapers. What made you go for 'Bachai Pyanchforon 50'?
Pyanchforon was the humorous articles I was writing every Friday in the Editorial page of Uttarbanga Sambad (circulation almost 20 lakhs in North Bengal) since the past five years. I had a large number of readers and fan followers of Pyanchforon in North Bengal. Basically my readers inspired me to bundle those write ups into a book which I mentioned in the preface of my book. Already I have 250 published Pyanchforon columns in my archive. Among the entire bunch, I selected 50 for publishing in this book. So I was motivated to publish ‘Bachai Pyanchforon 50’ by the readers.
We have heard that you wish to donate the royalty earned against the book to NGOs catering to social issues. Any particular reason why?
I do not want to be a typical self centered person in life. Apart from everything, I am a social worker. So yes that was my plan. But now I have changed my decision. I expected to donate at least Rs 10,000 to the NGO (Siliguri Welfare Organization) from my royalty. But without any planned publicity, sales have been slow. I don’t want to cheat that NGO and so has kept my plan on hold. But yes, I plan to donate the royalty amount received from the book named Rater Sesh Train (a bunch of published short stories) due to be out before Puja.
Which among the 50 stories are your absolute favorite?
All are my babies, so as a mother, I can’t differentiate among them. Every write up has already been appreciated by the readers. So all 50 stories are my favorite.
Do you plan to translate the book to English?
Yes it will help me to explore the panorama of the readers, but right now I don’t want to invest. But yes may be in some time.
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