Author Amit Chaudhuri's new book, Sweet Shop rediscovers Kolkata's love for sweets

Sahitya Akademi Award winner Amit Chaudhuri rediscovers Kolkata's insatiable love for sweets, in verse form
Author Amit Chaudhuri
Author Amit Chaudhuri

 Mumbai-based author Amit Chaudhuri has many claims to fame. For an introduction, he was one of the writers in the country to actively promote literary activism, having launched a seriesof symposiums aimed against the literary marginalisation by the publishing houses and academia, back in 2014. A significant feature of this initiative is resistance to what the writer calls, ‘professionalisation', a topic he speaks about with immense passion. Chaudhuri also debuted as an art curator last year, with his solo exhibition The Sweet Shop Owners of Calcutta and Other Ideas.  In his new book, Sweet Shop,  Chaudhuri offers second take on the age old, iconic confectionery stores that dot the alleys of Kolkata. Chaudhuri, who is also a prolific composer, was in the city recently to launch Sweet Shop, his second book of poems, at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival. He spoke with Indulge soon after, about things sweets and sour. Excerpts:

<em>Writer Amit Chaudhuri</em>
Writer Amit Chaudhuri

 How did writing happen to you?

 I started writing quite early. I grew up in Bombay, a city which is notoriously known for identifying education with the English language for decades. However, to keep my Bengali roots intact, and to showcase their pride in the culture, my parents always spoke to me in Bengali. It wasn’t before joining school, I realised that I was miserable with English. The headmistress advised my parents to introduce me to the world of comics and Ladybird books, and I picked up the language quite soon. I started expressing my new knowledge through writing. I think the whole discovery of the language came along simultaneously with an urge to write, and to demonstrate my knowledge through it.

Who is that one author who has had an immense impact on you and your writing style?

Certainly, D.H.Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers made me aware of how to experience, look and write about the world. Apart from this, there are huge number of authors such as Jibanananda Das, Rabindranath Tagore, Elizabeth Bishop, Katherine Mansfield, V S Naipaul, R K Narayan and so on, whose works I’ve read with great pleasure. They have written about the world and its ways in such mannerisms that they compel you to think and rethink over and over again.

<em>Writer Amit Chaudhuri</em>
Writer Amit Chaudhuri

What according to you is the most appeasing part of being an author?

I think, satisfaction is something a writer rarely feels both in terms of work and life. A creator always demands a lack of self-consciousness about things. He is no longer aware of the need for satisfaction. The moment one becomes self-aware, he becomes dissatisfied. Any show of satisfaction is a pretence, it’s a performance. The only happiness that may occur to a writer is when he needs no external patronage to see his work survive out in the world with an independent life.

What is your favourite literary genre?

My favourite genre is poetry, as a reader. As a writer, I explore a lot in terms of forms, and I do all of them with a similar kind of involvement.

Coming to your newest brain-child, what made you explore the plethora of Bengali sweetmeats through your poetry?

For years, I’ve thought of a few art projects and the sweet shops of Kolkata was one of them, mainly because the portraits of owners hanging from the dusty walls of these stores have always fascinated me. I could never differentiate between these portraits and that of the great men of Bengal, the assortments on display are like a cosmogony to me. The very first line of the first poem in my book reads- “The whole universe is here”, and I guess that explains it all.

Do you have a sweet tooth?

I never had a sweet tooth as a kid. I was more inclined towards savouries and meat. My maternal family, however, saturated their palate with sweets and as a result many of them actually were diabetic. In the last twenty years, I’ve begun to discover myself in greater tolerance and greater love for sweets.

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