About The Author: Dipnanda Bhaduri Roy is a professional content writer at a Bangalore-based KPO that serves clients from all over the world. A management graduate, Dipnanda believes that passion drives creation. While doing ghost-writing for her clients, Dipnanda has often had a feeling of emptiness that has been constantly questioning her identity. With several accolades in her professional resume, Dipnanda is now destined to set up a real identity in the world of fiction as a leading romance writer. Her short stories in different genres have been published in a number of anthologies.
Chit Chat session
Briefly Introduce Yourself to the Readers.
A struggling author now, but the future “Love & Relationship Guru” of India
Acquaint the Readers with Your Debut Novel.
I am in love with a shudh desi firangi: Hey Shiva, I see You in him is all about…
Blending and Acceptance: Loving interactions between Hinduism and Christianity, which redefine selfless love towards Lord Shiva and humanity. If you truly love your God, you can find Him in any religious or cultural setting. You would end up seeing Him and feeling His presence everywhere.
It is a romance. A fairytale romance. And this love story will impress teenagers and mature minds alike. This is the love story of 25-year old Kattyayni, who saw Shiva and His various ‘Gunas’ in a man. In a firangi, to be precise. Yes, you read it right. A brown-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned, 6-footer firangi, born from an American father and a Spanish mother.
Kattyayni, who grew up in a traditional Bengali family, has always felt fascinated about the sweet-cute-dutiful, passionate, and sometimes tragic Shiva-Parvati romance, the stories of which she has been hearing from her grandmother since the onset of adolescence. Deep in Kattyayni’s mind sits the Lord, spreading His aura throughout her conscious and subconscious mind. So when Kattyayni meets ‘Rudra’, the firangi who demonstrates a ‘shuddh desi’ way of life by embracing yoga, rudraksh, dhoti, khichdi, and his beloved ‘Shiva’, Kattyayni finds a deep connection with him. This is a connection that goes beyond the level of her heart to touch her soul, to a point where love becomes totally unconditional. She sees Neelkanth, Adiyogi, and Vaidyanath in the firangi. But at the same time, she feels a deep desire to know Rudra’s actual identity. Who is Rudra?
Set in the mixed cultural backdrop of Goa and flavoured with the ethnic specialties of Kolkata, this romance will surely knock at the minds of those who are in love or looking to find true, selfless love.
How do you manage writing along with your profession?
I am a full-time content writer; I have to manage my time well so as to fulfill the requirements of my day job as well as to focus on my novels. I start working on my novels after 10 pm and sometimes even continue till 3:00 am. And believe me, I don’t feel tired at all because my passion drives me crazy. People say that 3:00 am is the time when the veil between the physical world and the paranormal world gets lifted. And yes, I see the other world too; this world connects me with my own spirit!
What is the most fulfilling part of writing this book? And what is the most challenging?
Writing is a healing mechanism for me to get de-stressed. I can write for hours without feeling exhausted. The more I write, the more vibrant I feel. The most fulfilling part was being able to feel Lord Shiva in every feeling that I expressed through every word I wrote.
To be very frank, I didn’t see any challenge. I have so many stories in my mind and as a matter of fact, the stories for my next 10 novels are already in my head and it’s just a matter of time before I can roll them out into the market. However, the fear that I won’t be able to reach a large section of my readers kept haunting me. And then I remembered one of the most important lines from Bhagvad Geeta- “Keep doing your work without expecting any result.” So I pushed myself into focusing more on my actions rather than worrying about the results. I had to console my mind to let it believe that the rewards were hidden and that I would definitely achieve them at some point of time.
What Is unique about your book?
This is a Shiva-Parvati romance set in modern Indo-Western context.
I have grown up watching my grandparents worshiping Lord Shiva. There was a strong ‘Shiva-culture’ in my family. I was told that in every Jeeva, there’s Lord Shiva. I was told that Lord Shiva had the virtues of an ideal husband. His ‘simple living-high-thinking’ lifestyle and His ability to denounce wealth and the worldly pleasures of life fascinated me. I felt that He believed in gender equality and empowered His wife to successfully fulfill Her responsibilities of protecting the creation from evil forces of destruction. So I was looking to write a story with a hero who will have a strong presence of Lord Shiva in him. I was looking to create a sort of a modern-day Shiva-Parvati romance and what resulted was “I am in love with a Shuddh Desi Firangi: Hey Shiva, I see You in Him”.
What are your Future Projects that Readers are expecting in 2020-2021?The story of my next novel is set in the beautiful coffee plantations of Coorg and would depict the lives of people during the 1990s when cell phones and the internet did not touch people’s lives. This would be a romance-tragedy and a tale of self-sacrifice. I have also found a romantic, mellow title for the novel, but won’t reveal now.
How would you like to inspire the creative people wishing to make their career in the field of literature?
Never get discouraged by rejections. Rejections mean nothing. How can a few people determine your fate and decide on the behalf of hundreds and thousands of readers who are waiting to read what you have written? By paying attention to rejections, you will end up rejecting yourself and nothing can be worse than that. By feeling ‘rejected’, you will be rejecting all possibilities of your life. Focus on marketing your book very well and hire reputed publicists.
