When Smita Mishra, Editorial Director of AutHer Awards, asked me if I would like to be part of the awards jury, I did not respond at once. An emotional obstacle in my throat would not let the words flow.
And a reel unrolled in my mind.
2014: I decided to chuck a highly-paid corporate job to write my first book. Two years later, I had not written a single word, only wallowed in black holes of despair. How do I spin 60,000 words into a tale that made sense to a reader or a publisher?
I was ready to give up on an impossible dream when I had a serendipitous encounter with a young, intrepid publisher.
Dipankar Mukherjee came to meet me because he was passionately keen to start a publishing house. He wanted advice, suggestions, contacts…anything I could dredge out of my 15 odd years of a publishing career. On the way, I revealed my own dilemma and for some unfathomable reason, he decided to adopt me as a project. He pushed and prodded, encouraged and rebuked and infected me with his own furious zeal.
2016: I handed over my first manuscript, a psychological thriller called Dangle and he published it.
The sight of my name printed on its blue cover was like a snort of smack! I was hooked and how.
My debut book was nominated for the Anupam Kher Debut Book Prize which was one more fillip to my elation.
2017: Padmavati was my next book, a historical narrative about the renowned queen of Chittor. At the time I was writing it, a vociferous debate was raging across the nation on glorifying jauhar in a film about her. Not to be caught in the middle of it, I began to validate facts about her. Researching about the historical figure was quite challenging, for I found scanty data about the historical queen, her only claim to fame seemed the jauhar. However, a nugget came to my notice that whetted my curiosity. Apparently, Padmavati was only a girl of around 13 years when she committed jauhar. A lot of questions began to churn up in my mind.
Who was the real Padmavati?
Where did she get such courage, determination and clarity at a young age to simply walk into fire?
What was the clue to her extraordinary strength?
To find answers, I went off to Chittorgarh. I wandered through the fort speaking to the locals and so many stories about Padmavati emerged. There was her white palace floating in the lake, the ruins of a fort she had come to as a young bride, the high ramparts that Khalji tried to breach. It was like Time was standing still, especially when I stood outside the tunnel where she had committed jauhar. I was
conscious of a strange eerie aura around me as if she was hovering nearby. My emotional connect with Padmavati was complete. She was not just a figurehead from history but a woman of flesh and blood with her own conundrums.
She was as real as I.
This visit was the pinnacle of my research for it convinced me not only of Padmavati’s existence but her astonishing reality. It guided me as I attempted to bring her authentic world to life in my story. It is probably my credibility in her delineation that makes Padmavati a bestseller even today.
This experience left me with a strong conviction about the significance of research in book writing. I decided to give myself time and space to conduct deep research for all my future books. More importantly, assuring myself of the certitude of historical facts was paramount so that I could transform a name and image from a history book into a real person. My aim was to leave the reader with a lasting impression of an individual who was as human, with strengths and failings, as they were.
2018: The Legend of Genghis Khan was my next historical book. I envisaged it as a series of stories about powerful conquerors who invaded India over years and called it the Invader Series. The first one was about the Mongolian ruler, Genghis Khan of the 11th century. While I could not travel to Mongolia (I wish!), I ripped into books, documentaries and blogs about the man. And I discovered Dr. John
Man, a British historian and an avid mongolist. Conversations with him guided my research so that it was not hijacked by sensational half-truths. He also led me to a unique epistle, The Secret History of the Mongols, commissioned by Genghis Khan himself. The ruler turned out to be a mesmerizing personality with an extraordinary life and my book tried to bring him to life for readers.
2019: The Curse of Nader Shah happened to be my second Invader book. In this case, I pored over Michael Axworthy’s books about Nader Shah and our email discussions proved to be invaluable. This book went on to receive the AutHer Award’s Best Fiction Award in 2019.
2020: The pandemic shut down printing presses and book sales. I still managed to publish a couple of e-books with Readomania.
2021: The Cursed Inheritance. Itching to get back to another thriller and write for the young adult reader, I resurrected an old dream. In my meanderings through Kolkata’s older neighbourhoods, I had come across mansions of the British era. Homes to zamindars in the 18th century, they were now in disrepair. I would often wonder if the mansions could speak, what grand tales they would tell us of bygone days. That was the idea on which I based this cosy mystery set in an old Kolkata mansion that tells its story to its young inheritor. With elements of murder, paranormal and hidden treasure, it caught young imaginations. Amazon Audible translated this book into a Hindi audio book too.
Princesses, Monsters and Magical Creatures, my translation of a Bengali children’s heritage book was another highlight of this year. It was a terrifying struggle to translate well-known lyrics and chants from the resonance of Bengali to the more sedate English language. The eventual rendition was very satisfying. Bookstores in Kolkata claim this bestseller is dearly loved by kids.
2022: The Birth Of My Nation, a nonfiction YA book was the other tough provocation that I gave myself, earnestly encouraged by my publisher. The story of India’s integration between 1947 and 1950 and the birth of modern India was the core concept. However, it also encapsulated the history of each of India’s present states and UTs. It took me nearly a year to trawl through books, articles and government documents to gather the relevant material.
What added to the challenge was it was meant for readers aged ten years and above. The language and ideas had to match their mental capacities. Besides, one more history book would only bore them, so I conceived a conversation between a group of kids and a storyteller wherein the facts are not just exposed but even analysed. Questions, answers and viewpoints were posed by children.
In this case, I was careful to not express any personal opinions rather leaving the reader to decide implications of historical events. This book is popular not just with kids and parents but with educationists, too. For the last three years, The Birth Of My Nation has been prescribed by several schools as supplementary reading.
2022: Sutapa’s Studio, a writing mentorship entity was established. Having retired from a full-time job, I had the time to consider requests from various people for creative writing advice. As an educationist, I was already counselling teachers and faculty but designing a writing program that would cater to a wide range of age groups was a different ball game. However, I had a go at the enterprise and over the last couple of years, several batches of writers have emerged from Sutapa’s Studio. Last year, an anthology of their stories called Love Can Kill and Other Stories has been published.
2023: Parvatibai, is another historical narrative about an amazing Maratha heroine. She is the historical figure who lives and acts against the backdrop of the Third Battle of Panipat and the Maratha defeat. This book is an attempt to bring to the forefront Parvatibai’s experience as a witness to this historical battle and offer suggestions for its debacle. This is another book that schools have prescribed as
supplemental reading for students.
2024: The Anatomy Of Affection, an anthology of tales focusing on human relationships was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival, this year. With this book, I stepped into still another genre. By now I was writing for other publishers, too. My books ranged over historical narrative, thrillers, nonfiction, translation, kidlit and anthology. I love exploring different writing genres for they help to refine my own writing and exploit my creativity. However, research has always remained a strong foundation for all my endeavours.
Throughout my writing journey, Dipankar Mukherjee and Readomania Publishers have helped me to build not only a repertoire of work but also sculpt my writing avatar through every available means. I have been invited to speak at several Literature Festivals conducted in India and abroad and my books and I have received several awards. Each occasion has reminded me that the creativity by itself is not enough, success is a prize won only through hard work, tenacity and self-reflection at every stage.
2025: Back to the present….
Unable to comprehend my silence, Smita, from the AutHer Awards team, anxiously repeated her question. It pierced my trance.
‘Yes, yes,’ I croaked.
‘Are you okay?’ She asked.
‘Is this called turning the full circle?’ I mused.
She laughed. ‘You are part of the jury panel for the category of debut books. A set of curated twenty books will reach you soon,’ she announced.
‘And all the jury members have around two months to decide the winner lists. Best of luck! Happy reading!’
And Smita disconnected.
Two months, I thought, that’s enough time.
Watch Sutapa's AutHer Awards interview:
Soon, I was riffling through a box of books on a variety of genres. There were epistles on motivation, literary analysis, period pieces, fiction, non-fiction along with thrillers, social testimonies, memoirs, biographies and first-person journalistic writing.
At first, I was delighted with such a fiesta of books but as I began chewing on my first volume, the pink clouds floated away.
Two months to read twenty books? Not enough time.
Same merit points for all? No way. Every genre has its own focus.
Easy work? Nooooo.
Though I did draw up an excel sheet to score each book on the usual writing elements, my real thumb rule was how much a book engaged me on a scale of 1 to 10.
There were books that I gobbled up overnight.
There were books I could not read beyond the first chapter.
There were books that I could not get out of my head for days (not even now).
There were books that made me wonder where they were going.
Curiously, there were books I suspect had been written by AI!
However, memories of emotion, fear, and pain that had accompanied the birth of my own first book haunted me. On hindsight, I think writers spend an inordinate time writing, rewriting, editing and judging, (yes, judging, too) their debut books. I doubt if they ever bestow the same love, labour and loyalty to books that come after it.
It is like the debut book is a slice of themselves. And that induced me to analyze each book with kid gloves.
Judgement is a difficult process but it proved a learning experience for me. What stayed with me is the enduring capacity of many debut writers to encompass multiple worlds within their narratives. And it also compelled me to conclude that this singular expertise is specific to woman writers, for it is a female attribute to sieve through and preserve layers of emotional largesse from all experiences. As I continue to mark my own writing path, I have decided to explore this distinct feature in my creative ventures as well.
Years to come: I hope to meander down the ‘the road not taken’ and reap its riches to eventually build a legacy. And yes, I constantly look for friends and companions who will agree to walk along with me.
Click here to buy Sutapa's books on Amazon.
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Sutapa Basu is a best-selling, award-winning author as well as an educationist, poet, storyteller, and a translator. Her historical novel, The Curse of Nader Shah won the Best Fiction Award by AutHer Awards, 2019 instituted by JK Papers and The Times of India. She is the 2016 First Prize winner of The Times of India’s Write India Campaign for Amish Tripathi while her debut, a psychological thriller, Dangle was nominated for the Anupam Kher Award for Best Debut English Novel in 2017. In 2021, she received an award for Excellence in Publishing by the Public Diplomacy Forum.
She is known for her historical fiction, Padmavati, The Queen Tells Her Own Story (2017). Her second historical fiction initiated the Invader Series with The Legend of Genghis Khan (2018) and continued with The Curse of Nader Shah (2019) and Parvati Bai, The Forgotten Witness of the Battle of Panipat (2023). Stepping into another genre, she released an e-anthology, Out Of The Blue, Stories with a Twist (2020). Her books for young readers include, The Cursed Inheritance (2021) as well as an English translation of the iconic Thakurmar Jhuli titled Princesses, Monsters and Magical Creatures (2021). A non-fiction for young readers, The Birth of My Nation was released in 2022. It has been prescribed as a supplementary reader in several schools. In 2024 a YA mystery, Murder In The Jungle and an anthology, The Anatomy of Affection were released.
Sutapa’s short stories have appeared in anthologies and many of her educational series for K-12 levels are being prescribed in schools in India and abroad. During her 25-year publishing career with Oxford University Press, Encyclopedia Britannica and Eupheus Learning, she has produced over 600 books.
Sutapa speaks on her own podcast called The Sutapa Basu Show and manages Sutapa’s Studio that trains school faculty and creative writing aspirants.
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