My first day on this planet was chaotic; I was born on the fourth day of May in 1956, while my mother was still trying to finish a manuscript. She was a famous Bengali author, while my father was in the publishing business. Born into a ‘bookish’ family, I was surrounded by tomes. And I was a bookworm with a reputation of being a naughty child. The best way to keep me out of trouble was to give me a piece of paper and paint brushes or crayons. As a child, I dreamt of becoming a painter. That plan never materialised, but the love for art did leave an impact on me. In those days, a lot of great people would visit my family at our north Calcutta home. One of them was the legendary Mrinal Sen. That is how the two movies I acted in as a child artist — Punascha and Abasheshe — happened. I was young, and needless to add, very mischievous. Sometimes I would hide before a shot, forcing the crew to go on a hunt. That’s one of my clearest memories of those days. And, I remember the dank, dark studios with their looming cameras. My ‘career’ was abruptly brought to its end by my mother. Jokes aside, while shooting one day, I fell ill. My mother put her foot down to end all manner of shooting at home. With my rather short acting career behind me, I had to look for alternatives. Unfortunately, I was a good student. So, I chose all the wrong subjects — science and math — driven by grades, rather than interest. Later I took up engineering, though I felt no love for it. In my confused state, I thought of pursuing Masters in the subject. I applied to universities abroad, received some scholarships and took a flight to Florida, USA. My only thought at that time was, “I wish to travel the world on somebody else’s money.” Then the opportunity came up to study management. Again, I was not interested, nonetheless I grabbed it. I thought it was better to study the theories of social sciences than spend life with numbers. I have always moved in the direction that life has taken me — the only constant has been the love for literature and writing. Perhaps that is why I took up teaching, because it gave me time to write at leisure. My life has been serendipitous. My first book happened by chance. Being a Calcuttan, I have a fascination for the past and love looking back. Once, I was reading a book on the opium trade, a topic which had never caught my attention. The book mentioned my city as the world’s one time “drug capital”. I was taken aback. How could a ‘thoroughbred Calcuttan’ not know about this important period in my city’s history? Possessed, I read more and more. That is how The Opium Clerk took shape. Yet another encounter led to The Japanese Wife — the film. I was drinking tea with Aparna Sen, when I narrated a short story that had been lying on my desk for the 10 years. She liked it so much that immediately she offered to translate it into a film. So I was brought back to the magical world of cinema, and the experience was enthralling. Though I did not attend the whole shoot, I visited the sets once. And I have to admit that the time in between shots were a bit of a bore but once the camera started rolling everything came alive and the whole process became interesting, exciting and artistic. When I am writing I am not driven by themes. I derive inspiration from my surroundings. Years ago, while visiting China, I went to a museum of traditional Chinese medicines. That’s when the idea behind The Yellow Emperor’s Cure, my latest book, hit me. The Yellow Empreror’s Cure is about a Portuguese doctor in the 19th century whose father suffers from syphilis. Unable to cure his ailing father, he’s assuaged with guilt and decides to travel to China to learn the cure. There he falls in love with his teacher. The two find themselves trapped within the summer palace during the Boxer Rebellion. The novel has just been released in India. As much as I enjoy writing, I am not a man of numbers. I don’t believe in the external markers of success. If I write something good I wake up as a happy soul. If I feel something’s amiss, my mood is spoilt automatically. Statistics of sale are inconsequential for me.

I Wish I Could Be

I guess with the kind of influence my parents had on me I was destined to become a writer. But had writing not happened, I would have become a painter or an actor. These two are the most dominant aspects of my cultural personality. It is difficult to say what I might have done because by now I have learnt that most of the things that happen to you in life are by accident. And these accidents take you through various paths in life. But I always thought that I wanted to become an artist. This is how my mind works. It is very responsive to colours, shapes and patterns. That is the first thing I notice and I am most expressive while describing them.