Rajat Chaudhuri (Chutney Post)

Pre-release excerpt of new novel--The Butterfly Effect

2018-08-07T11:39:00.003+05:30

For all updates about the book go here.

The first pre-release excerpt of my new novel The Butterfly Effect (Olive Turtle, Niyogi) appeared in Asian Review of Books, Hong Kong.

Excerpt from The Butterfly Effect by Rajat Chaudhuri

Detective Kar had slept badly. He had eaten nothing during the long hours of interrogation at the NIS headquarters and the raw beef at dinner hadn’t gone down well. His stomach was aching when he awoke. He didn’t feel like getting out of bed but the phone had been ringing off the hook. Read it at Asian Review of Books here.

Three part essay on Road Novels

2018-08-07T11:32:00.003+05:30

Jack Kerouac

Published a three-part essay on `road novels' by Jack Kerouac, Doris Lessing and Cormac McCarthy in Scroll.

‘On The Road’: Jack Kerouac’s madcap novel about wild people in a car gave a voice to a generation

The first in a series on novels with road trips at the heart of their narratives.

Who remembers the orgone accumulator today? Perhaps people of a certain age with an interest in curious objects do. But their numbers must be dwindling. Surely many more of us can recall a story, which has become literary myth, of the frenzied writing – fuelled by caffeine and Benzedrine – of a road novel over a period of three weeks on a 120-foot scroll of paper. A book which would – though its author Jack Kerouac didn’t appreciate the media attention that followed its publication – exert a wide-ranging influence on a generation, embedding its DNA in the culture, literature and ways of living of the decades that followed. Read it at Scroll.in here

Read the other two articles at Scroll.in here (Cormac McCarthy) and here (Doris Lessing)..

Essay on Climate Change Fiction

2018-08-07T11:17:00.000+05:30

Published a three-part essay on climate fiction (cli-fi) for Scroll.

Climate-change in these three novels is even more terrifying than in real life

Fiction-writers can do a better job of convincing us that cataclysms are coming.

“Out at sea, beyond the grey stone bulwarks of the port, zigzags of lightning electrocuted the water, bringing poltergeist winds that sucked random objects up to whirl and dump. Passionate gusts punched at the sails of struggling boats and then headed inland, flattening corn, uprooting trees, smashing hop silos and storage barns, whisking up torn rubbish sacks that pirouetted in the sky like the ghostly spirits of retail folly.” Read here

Essay on Classic Dystopian Novels

2018-08-07T11:11:00.000+05:30

Aldous Huxley

Published a three-part essay on classic dystopian fiction by Aldous Huxley, Geroege Orwell and Zamyatin in Scroll.in.

Orwell vs Huxley vs Zamyatin: Who would win a dystopian fiction contest?

Revisiting three ground-breaking novels in the genre. Which one’s closest to our world today?

In a city of glass, where people who are just Numbers living in glass-brick houses, and everyone’s daily routine is determined by the Tables of the Hours set down by the Well-Doer, one particular Number, D-503, is developing a dangerous affliction. Read it at Scroll.in

American Book review article on Chitpur

2018-08-07T11:02:00.000+05:30

Published an article on Calcutta's old cultural hub Chitpur, in American Book Review.

Chitpur Local and the Rip Van Winkles of Calcutta
Rajat Chaudhuri (bio)

The field in north Calcutta where Minerva theatre stands today had been bustling with spectators from early morning. There is a nip in the air and the grass, a fiery green, is being ruffled by a mild breeze blowing from the river. The two babus in their red bordered dhotis, shirt, collar, and lightly worn chador had arrived early with their troops of sycophants, servants, and the curious and were now settled down in facing tents. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for the bird fight to begin. The fighting bulbuls, perched on the arm of their European trainer, watched their opponents through a daze of intoxicants, ready to tear them apart. The excitement was palpable, no less than an Indo-Pak cricket match. Read it here.

Judged Asian English Olympics--Short Story Competition

2018-08-07T10:43:00.000+05:30

For the second year in a row, I had the honour to co-judge the Short Story Writing competition at Asian English Olympics, 2018, organised by BINUS University and BINUS English Club,

Jakarta, Indonesia (Feb 2018). More than a dozen countries participated.

National Book Week Storytelling Competition and Workshop

2018-08-07T10:27:00.002+05:30

Judged a storytelling competition and organised a storytelling workshop at the Indian National Library on the occasion of Children's Day, 2017 and the beginning of National Book Week.

Children from twenty schools participated in the day-long programme.
News report. from India Today:

National Book Week inaugurated in city

Kolkata, Nov 14 (PTI) The National Book Week has begun in the city by a day-long creative workshop for school children at the National Library here today.

Almost 100 students of class II to VIII from 10 schools participated in the activities like creative writing, craft-making and story-telling.

Singing and dance competitions also formed a part of the activities organised for children.

The creative-writing and story-telling workshops were conducted by prolific writer and a Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow (administered by British Council) Rajat Chaudhuri, who urged them to inculcate the habit of reading because books are like windows to the outside world. Read the full article at India Today..

News report from Business Standard.

Creative Writing Classes BINUS University, Indonesia

2017-07-06T10:30:00.000+05:30

Appointed Creative Writing (Short Story) trainer and coach for college learners by BINUS English Club, BINUS University, Jakarta, Indonesia (July 2017). This is a jointly certified writing course of BINUS University, BINUS English Club and Rajat Chaudhuri. More information on the Writing Classes page of this website. This is a Moodle enabled classroom.

Book Review - A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church

2017-03-11T12:41:00.000+05:30

Reviewed James Church's, minimalist noir North Korean crime fiction `A Corpse in The Koryo' by James Church:

`Unless we are talking about the deadly poison attack on Kim Jong-nam in a Malaysian airport, these days we rarely find North Korean special agents making headlines. In the present case, packed with its own surreal twists, two of the attackers (one a Vietnamese man and the other, an Indonesian woman) had initially told investigators that they were duped by someone to believe that they were on reality TV. Truth, if news reports and the suspects’ accounts are to be taken at face value, is indeed stranger than fiction.....Read at Scroll

https://scroll.in/article/831502/the-inspector-o-novels-are-one-of-the-best-ways-to-understand-north-korea

Book review - Amitav Ghosh: The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

2017-01-15T12:44:00.002+05:30

Reviewed Amitav Ghosh's masterly work on climate change, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable - for Asian writing website Kitaab.

What did the Celt tell Alexander when Alexander asked him what it was that his people feared the most? The Celt had replied that they feared nothing, so long as the sky did not fall or the sea burst its limits. I remembered this anecdote from a book on druidry while reading The Great Derangement, a path-breaking work on climate change that sweeps across a vast landscape of scholarship, finally reaching out to chart new maps for understanding the greatest crisis that humanity faces today.

But we will return to our druid later. To structure this review, we will attempt to discuss the book in the same way that the author has organised his material in three sections: Stories, History and Politics. Continue reading at Kitaab.org

Interview in peer-reviewed Caesurae journal (Spring 2016)

2016-05-10T10:47:00.001+05:30

There is an interview in the Spring issue of the peer-reviewed Caesurae journal (ISSN: 2454-9495) of literature and the arts. Me and Suvasree Karanjai who teaches English literature in north Bengal discuss my book Hotel Calcutta, the city in fiction, writing in two languages and my dystopian transcultural novel in the works. This link goes directly to the interview page. Click here to read stories, other interviews, poetry and all the other content in this issue of Caesurae.

Photo © 2016 Rajat Chaudhuri. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from new novel in Caesuare journal

2016-04-24T23:06:00.000+05:30

The peer reviewed Caesuare journal (Volume 1 : Issue 2, ISSN: 2454-9495) of literature and the arts

has published an excerpt from my ongoing fiction project -- a transcultural novel that travels across continents. This relatively new arts journal has tons of good writing, academic and creative. Click here to read the excerpt.

Image copyright: Rajat Chaudhuri 2015

Book Review: Calculus - My Bengali short story collection (Ekak Matra)

2016-02-11T13:47:00.003+05:30

My short stories written in Bengali, set in and around Calcutta, were published as a collection last year. This book - Calculus - has been reviewed by essayist and journalist Ashish Chatterjee for the Bengali magazine `Ekak Matra'. Ekak Matra is a popular bi-monthly magazine focusing on contemporary socio-economic and cultural issues. The book is available from online stores like Amazon India and Indic House, at bookshops like Deys in Calcutta and can be ordered from the publisher: Gangchil.

Here is an excerpt from the review: লেখক ভ্যানিশ’ও গোয়েন্দাগিরির গল্প। তবে অনেক বড় গল্প। এটাকে ছোট উপন্যাসও বলা যায়। এখানে লেখকেরা উধাও হয়ে যান। আর তাঁদের খোঁজার দায়িত্ব পড়ে গোয়ান্দাদের ওপর। পরে অবশ্য এক অদ্ভূত পরিস্থিতিতে সেই লেখককে পাওয়া যায়, যেখানে লেখক আর লেখক থাকে না, হয়ে যায় লেখা-মজুর। Read the full review here

(একক মাত্রা' পত্রিকায় আমার ছোটগল্প সংকলন ‘ক্যালকুলাস’ (গাংচিল) নিয়ে আলোচনা, লিখেছেন আশিস চট্টোপাধ্যায় ৷) http://ekakmatra2013.blogspot.in/2016/02/blog-post.html

Calcutta in 2016 - Hopes and Wishes (The Beacon magazine)

2016-01-15T19:01:00.000+05:30

The Beacon magazine which runs online and print editions focussed on youth, asked some of us what change we wish to see in Calcutta this year. Here is the report:
2016 is here and while all of us are busy making new year resolutions, here is a list of 16 things 16 noted individuals from Kolkata want to see change in the city in 2016. All of them happen to be change-makers in their respective fields and have an inherent Kolkata Connect. Read it here

Essay about Calcutta's Chitpur in American Book Review journal (University of Houston-Victoria)

2015-12-17T11:41:00.000+05:30

Thrilled to have an essay and a couple of photographs published in the current issue (Volume 36, Number 6, September/October 2015) of American Book Review (University of Houston-Victoria) special focus: Little India. My piece -- Chitpur Local and the Rip Van Winkles of Calcutta -- engages with the history of folk theatre (jatra) and printing, exploring how a north Calcutta neighbourhood is waking up from decades of slumber, thanks to the `Chitpur Local' initiative. Tonnes of great writing, here in ABR's Little India. A longish excerpt is at this link or at http://americanbookreview.org/currentIssue.asp (Subscribers and institutional members can read the full article which is also available in the print edition)

Hawthornden Fellow in Scotland

2015-11-01T21:09:00.000+05:30

For the past few weeks, I have been working on my new book at the Hawthornden castle in Scotland as a Hawthornden Fellow. There are four other Hawthornden fellows, a Scot, two Americans and one Russian, working here with me. I received this fellowship on the basis of excerpts from my work in progress, and a chapter from my previous book - Hotel Calcutta.

Really lucky to win this prestigious fellowship administered by the Hawthornden Literary Trust set up by philanthropist and patron of the arts, Mrs Drue Heinz. Mrs Heinz supports several literary and arts initiatives besides establishing the Drue Heinz literature prize. She publishes the literary magazine The Paris Review.

Some photographs of Hawthornden castle and the picturesque surroundings below.

Hawthornden castle

The Castle Walk

Telegraph report - Session with British Council Creative Writing students

2015-06-28T09:48:00.000+05:30

It was a privilege to meet creative writing students of British Council and discuss writing, publishing and books. Also a short reading from my work-in-progress. Here is a report in The Telegraph.

Essay about Stories by Chekov, Hemingway and Calvino in Thresholds (Univ of Chichester)

2015-06-21T22:28:00.000+05:30

Italo Calvino

Three well known stories about tensions in human relations and the mutability of love‬, written by masters of the short story‬ form -- Chekov, Hemingway and Calvino. My essay about these three stories was published recently in Thresholds (University of Chichester, UK).

Three Stories About Love

‘Hills Like White Elephants’, ‘The Adventure of a Wife’ and ‘The Lady with the Dog’ are three remarkable short stories about love. But they stand at a distance from the happily-ever-after fairy tale narratives and star crossed lovers of romantic love stories. What ties these stories together and sets them apart from others is an undertow of tension. Tension as a manifestation of the vicissitudes of relationships. Read the full essay at Thresholds

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Literature and Death -- Essay for Scroll.in

2015-06-18T18:31:00.000+05:30

Published this article in Scroll.in about the tragic news from Robinson Street, Calcutta,

where a middle-aged man was found living with the corpse of his sister, eerily echoing fiction. An essay on life, death and art. What can literature and especially the works of Faulkner and Poe tell us about this incident.

The man who lived with his dead sister: what can fiction tell us about the facts?

In an upper-class neighbourhood, south of Kolkata’s tony Park Street, a middle-aged man was found to have been living in a room with the corpse of his sister, who had died six months ago.

The old house on Robinson Lane had once belonged to a British gentleman. The sister used to be a music teacher. Her photographs were in the papers and students must have remembered the music lessons. For six months continue reading

Image source: Wikipedia

South Korea Diary for Times of India blog Esplanade Chatter

2015-05-20T18:56:00.000+05:30

Published this article at my Times of India blog, Esplanade Chatter about my time spent at Toji Cultural Centre, South Korea, ((supported by Arts Council Korea and InKo Centre) working on my new book.

A South Korea Diary

With South Korea in the news because of PM Modi’s visit and the `special strategic partnership’ between our countries, we take a look back at an autumn spent in The Land of the Morning Calm, while dwelling briefly upon the spiritual roots of our connection with the land of Galaxy phones and Gangnam style. Read it here at Times of India (with pictures)

Upamanyu Chatterjee's Fairy Tales at Fifty - Book Review (Outlook)

2015-03-16T14:12:00.001+05:30

Reviewed Upamanyu Chatterjee's new novel, Fairy Tales at Fifty for Outlook magazine. If you enjoyed reading his English August in your youth you will definitely want to read this new novel.

Blessed by Shakyamuni

Near the end of this fractured fairy tale of a novel, there is a scene where Anguli, who is a long distance taxi-driver and serial killer and named after the Buddhist murderer-turned-monk Angulimala, arrives on camelback to pick up someone in the badlands of central India. Having reached the spot, Anguli tries to stop the animal and unmount but the camel goes on, first at a canter then slowly, in circles around the other person. Exasperated, he threatens the animal with a knife, coaxes, kicks, taps its head but to no avail. Finally, he “sang the opening phrase of Jana Gana Mana. The last half worked, for it made the beast pause to half-turn ... Read the full review at Outlook magazine.

Six Calcutta Characters - Article in India Unbound

2015-03-15T14:17:00.000+05:30

The London based online web magazine India Unbound published my piece about six quintessential Calcutta characters who add texture to the urban experience.

Six Calcutta Characters

Write about what you know caws the crow sunning himself on my windowsill. He is like that. He brings nothing new to the table. It’s not possible for him to know how complicated it gets when you are writing fiction about a city where you have lived for ever. You have tried many tricks all with the same result. You switched languages hoping it will open some doors but things did not work out as well as you had expected. Stuff came in the way. Read it at the India Unbound website (Image copyright www.sanchitachatterjee.com )

Article about Listicles in Prabashi Post (Bengali)

2015-02-23T14:27:00.000+05:30

Published an article about `listicles' in Prabashi Post magazine. Written in Bengali this article discusses this particular form of writing articles that is popular on the internet. The word `listicle' was included in Oxforddictionary.com in 2014.

লিস্টিকেল

হুড়মুড় করে বলা চলবে না কিছুতেই। রসিয়ে রসিয়ে প্রাবন্ধিকের ছন্দে এগোনও মানা। বিষয় হোক যতই রোমহর্ষক, তাতে থাক না জড়িয়ে ভয়, ঘেন্না, প্রেম, ঈর্ষা, রুদ্ধশ্বাস নাটক অথবা শুধুই তথ্যের আতিশয্য। হোক না তা নাৎসিদের নরককুণ্ডে মানুষের শরীরে টিটেনাস জীবাণু ঢুকিয়ে দেওয়ার বর্বরোচিত পরীক্ষা অথবা দুনিয়ার সেরা প্রেম করার জায়গাগুলির বর্ণনা। রাজার হুকুম লিস্টিকেলের ক্রাচে করে লেংচে লেংচে এগোতে হবে। শব্দটা নতুন, সবে মাত্র অক্সফোর্ড ডিকশনারি ডট কম এর অন্তর্ভুক্ত করা হয়েছে। কিন্তু রাজা প্রজা সকলেই লিস্টিকেল নিয়ে মেতে উঠেছে বেশ কিছুদিন হল। Read more

Reclusive Authors, Litfests and Writing in Scroll.in

2015-02-15T21:59:00.001+05:30

Published an article about reclusive authors, literary festivals and writing in Scroll.in The piece is titled: Authors who don’t: being a recluse in the time of literary festivals
June 2013. Alice Munro was being awarded Ontario’s highest literary honour – the Trillium Prize - for her book Dear Life. This was the second time she was winning the prize. The 81-year-old author, one of the brightest stars in Canada’s literary firmament, dropped a bombshell after the award ceremony. Speaking to the National Post newspaper, Munro declared she was retiring from the writerly life. You can read the full article at Scroll.in

Pen image: Creative Commons license.
Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stipula_fountain_pen.jpg

Writing for Times of India Blogs -- Esplanade Chatter

2015-02-15T21:45:00.000+05:30

I am writing about Calcutta and the world for Times of India. The posts are at the Times of India Blogs site under Esplanade Chatter which is the name of my new blog. "Esplanade Chatter is a Calcuttan’s corner table view of his city and the world. Here we walk down little known alleys, eavesdrop on imaginary conversations between the present and the past, strike up friendships with panwallahs and fishmongers and take rickety rickshaw rides, following strangers through the night. We don’t deal in claptrap or purvey rumour but we love to blur the border between fact and fiction, colouring true accounts with urban legend and telling our stories with a sprinkling of pictures. In those rare moments when our Calcutta fever is in remission, we discover new places, talk about books or geopolitics while always weaving our way back to writing and culture in the spirit of adda -- that background chatter which animates this eastern metropolis."

You can read my the posts at ToI Blogs from the links below:

Who was Oriental Jones of Calcutta - II ?
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/who-was-oriental-jones-of-calcutta-ii/

Who was Oriental Jones of Calcutta - I ?
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/who-was-oriental-jones-of-calcutta-i/

Sulphur Nights in Calcutta
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/sulphur-nights-in-calcutta/

Five Escapes for Lovers
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/five-escapes-for-lovers/

Calcutta's Best Kept Food Secret http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/calcuttas-best-kept-food-secret/

Zero Street Rendezvous – Reimagining Calcutta Names http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/esplanade-chatter/zero-street-rendezvous-reimagining-calcutta-names/

or by visiting Esplanade Chatter at the Times of India Blogs website.