Today I’m interviewing Mr. Moinak Dutta. Welcome to my blog.
Thanks for having me Thomas.
Moinak, let’s begin with you. Could you please tell the readers about yourself and how many books you have written?
Sure Thomas. I am a Teacher of English literature and language by profession. By passion, I’m an Author , scribbler, blogger, and photographer. I wrote two English fictions so far , namely “Pestilence” in 2009, and “Online @Offline” (2014). I’ve sent a third one to a literary agent. Blogging has been a passion of mine since 2009. My website is: www.theboatsong.blogspot.com and of course I use social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr.
What is the name of your new book?
As it is still a work in process, the title is provisional. Right now I’m calling it, “In search of La Radice”, but that could change by the time I’m finished.
What is the book about?
It’s a romance between a painter and a geoscientist. Also embedded into the basic plot, I explore concepts like the Origin of the Species, human struggles, societal prejudice, and of course, love.
It sounds like a very deep book, the kind that leaves you in a reflective mood after you finish reading. Moinak, many writers have some unusual writing habits. The Chilean author, Isabel Allende, would always begin work on a new novel on the 8th of January. Let me quote from the Paris Review:
(Quote) “On January 8, 1981, Isabel Allende wrote a letter to her dying grandfather that later turned into her first novel, The House of the Spirits. Ever since, this has been the date on which Allende starts a new work. Having started, she writes from Monday through Saturday, from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M.” (end of quote) (Credit: The Paris Review, January 8th, 2013, by Sadie Stein)
Do you have any unusual writing habits, customs, rituals, etc.?
None as such.
Hahaha. After that big buildup, your answer caught me off guard.
Well Thomas, let me offer you this. In my case, I tend to go into what I call, “poetic flow” , almost spontaneously. I have a photographic way of viewing the world. So, I tend to find photographic quality in apparently usual common things.
I see. We could say that you “see” ordinary things in extraordinary ways. That obviously influences the imagery you provide in your work. Let me change the topic here. I was wondering what authors, or books have influenced you?
There are so many I don’t know where to start. I’ve taken bits and pieces from a wide range of authors and their works. Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Satyajit Ray (his short stories and memoir and detective novellas written for children). Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Robert Frost, Khaled Hosseini, Amitav Ghosh (The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide).
Vikram Seth,(his poems and A suitable Boy), Arundhati Ray (God of small things), Arthur Rimbaud, William Cowper, John Donne, Robert Browning, W.B.Yeats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, T.S.Eliot (essays and all poems), George Herbert , Andrew Marvell, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Nirendranath Chakraborty, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dinesh Das, Purnendu Patri, Sunila Ganguly.
Jibanananda Das, C.G.Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Milton (Paradise Lost), Alexander Pope, (The Rape of the Lock), Mother Teresa (Her Nobel Lecture), Biography of John Lennon, Abraham Lincoln (His address to The People of United States), Aristotle’s Poetics, and a few others.
That’s quite a distinguished group of authors and legendary works. What other books are you working on now?
Right now, none, I’m only doing long and short poems, and photography and paintings.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My blog, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and the publisher’s Website.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
To go by passion of writing and by heart. Without thinking much about becoming famous or about getting huge publishing deals at the very beginning. Just write from your heart and everything else will take care of itself.
What is the best advice you have ever heard for authors?
“Do write, no matter what comes.”
What are you reading now?
Collection of songs and poems of Rabindranath Tagore.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Just writing and traveling to Italy and Spain, if possible.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you, what books would you bring?
Tagore’s Collected Works , ‘The Song Offerings.”
Moinak, before we finish the interview, could you give the readers a short sample of your work to enjoy please?
Sure Thomas, I just recently published a short poem on my blog. It’s called,
Once more, la amore,
At our garden,
As I find You,
Diva, angel of my eyes,
Once more, hereby
Plead I, come, la amore,
Once more, to my heart,
Where by thy awesome halo,
Have I dived deep, beyond what even
I once did seek, once more,
Love mine, stand Thou,
At that glass jar,
Where our Love has bloomed
In pinkish white rosy flowers,
Where I have left, eve,
For Thou, apple one,
Once more, come Mon dio,
Me You entwine,
By your limbs,
Your arms which leave,
Beauteous glossy aura,
Come, love mine,
Be with me, having to please
None, but only US,
Haven’t we in sufferings passed
All our days, and all our nights
Have not we, made illusive,
Come , maid mine,
Don’t be elusive,
For Thou, Canst you see,
La amore, set I,
That table,
Where my Self,
have I , left for eyes,
Thine,
Come, Rose,
Don’t be elusive,
Like a morn
Come to my
Dreams, to my sleep.
(*Note: upon a painting, loosely based, done by V.Volegov.The painting is received as A Gift from a friend of mine.)
Social Media Tools:
Authors Email: moinakdutta@yahoo.co.in, moinak.dutta@gmail.com
Blog/Website: www.theboatsong.blogspot.com
Amazon Author Page: all linked to my blog address
Facebook: —DO—
Twitter: (private) @moinakdutta https://twitter.com/moinakdutta
Instagram: moinakdutta (private)
Google+: linked to my blog www.theboatsong.blogspot.com
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