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Fall Winter Collections- Author Koral Dasgupta takes us behind the scenes of writing the book.
Hello, everyone on the Niyogi books. Wellcast, today I am joined by Koral das Gupta. She's an author, painter, entrepreneur and professor. She's a compulsive storyteller and has authored over seven books. She is also the founder of Tell Me Your Story, biz. A story ecosystem led by crowdsource. Narratives. And she joins me today as we talk talk about her book Fall Winter Collections
And whenever it rained, I would just pull my cycle out and I would start cycling. So I was like that. I would just explore the place by myself in my own way. And I would discover a lake somewhere in the outskirts. I would discover a tree which looked very different. I would discover hybrid trees that grew among nature. Coconut tree which is spiraling around Bunyan tree. And these kind of things were like for me, it was like that
Absolutely. Karl. It's very interesting to know that many of the places in the book are actually inspired from real places in and around Shanti Mikaen. No wonder they literally drew me into the narrative as I was reading the book. Also, the detailed imagery and the richness and that almost lyrical quality of your language has a certain Tagorian feel to it. So would you say that your writing style was in some way influenced by your readings of the work of Tagore and maybe your time at Shanti Nikitin?
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And he was so much ahead of his times that even when we read so many years after his death, his writing felt very modern, the characters felt very modern. So yes, when we were growing up, or when I was growing up let me talk about myself, there was a huge level of reading that I was doing. It was in my home, the reading habits and reading practice and tegor, especially not just Tagore
I would love to know how it was in the case of your protagonist in Fall Winter collections. Did the plot come first? Or where the characters of some Mitra and Anirud already there in the back of your mind and you went about crafting a story around these characters. How did it all fall in place?
Beyond that, I don't think anybody will say that you cannot do this. At least in those days it didn't. So I had an open access and there was abundance in front of me. Everybody was so learned, everybody was so Craftful. So while I was studying there, Kalahaban was a discovery that I made. I was not training into fine art, but I was still exploring their world
I think I shall leave you with one final question. There are many fictional women characters who have deeply resonated with me and those who are known for their incredible and unbelievable strength, power and will. These are characters who have stayed with the readers with their strong courage of conviction and wonderful self discoveries and unconventional ideologies and thought processes. I think Sangamithra is one such character who lingers on your mind long after you closed the pages of the book
Thank you again. Ramya the significance of strong female characters in literature is profound because in real world, at least till even a decade ago, people didn't think that women had and people had an original mind. Women had an original mind. They thought that whatever men said, women would resonate that and that is the woman's mind. So when literature pushes those boundaries, a lot more comes out. So if you look at the more classical literature, you will find that women are thinking differently
This has been a really great conversation, Coral. Thank you so much. And I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading the book. I'm definitely going to be posting an audio review of the book on Swell and maybe inviting you to it. So, yeah, just giving you a heads up. And thanks again for taking the time out. I look forward to having you back on Swell, talking about books and more books, of course