Author interview: Paramesh Ghosh talks about his recently published Bengali book

Thank you. Some readers found their own stories in this book and called me for face-to-face meetings. One of them wanted to write stories of his own life and requested me to help him out.

Some readers thought I have witnessed their own secret mischief and they don’t like anyone to read about those incidents. However, any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A few readers stopped reading after reading a few pages as they thought it is impossible to achieve my dreams; they are scared to disobey traditional rules, even though they realised how different boundaries altered the course of their lives.

However, a few of my schoolmates continued with me in this journey; they provided me ideas in the formative stages and still they stand by me. One of them is Susanta Mukhopadhyay, who remarked, “A time when the whole world is fragmented and fighting on race, religion, dominance and narrow gain by creating divisions and immense suffering to mankind, the author shared his philosophy and described beautifully, how wonderful this world would have been had there been no boundary physical or mental where love would have prevailed and defined every relation for the happiness of inner soul."

What kind of books inspires you as a writer? Who are your favourite authors?

Not books but hard facts of life inspire me to write books to help removing boundaries that restrict the citizens of the world. We recognise boundaries between the rich and the poor, between men and women, between parents and children, between the local and the foreigner, between the upper caste and the lower, between one country and another, between the illiterate and the educated, between the single and the married, between the young and the old and between the coward and the bold. 

I read most of Rabindranath Tagore’s works; I admire his vision for the future world even in those days.  I read books written by many English and Bengali authors.  Some of the books that made lasting impression on my mind are

• “Chowringhee” by Sankar
• “The Heart of India” by Nirad C Chaudhuri
• “Autobiography of an unknown Indian” by Nirad C Chaudhuri
• “Nineteen Eighty Four” by George Orwell

Why did you want to become a writer? Who inspired you to become a writer? What triggered you to come into writing?

At school, I used to read biographies of great people of India and had aspirations to be like most of them, especially Rabindranath Tagore. I started writing short poems emulating him.

My elder brother Late Hrishikes Ghosh started a hand-written magazine in our family; we, brothers and sisters, contributed articles, stories and poems in each monthly issue.  This fostered my extracurricular writing habits.

Later, I contributed to school magazines of Mitra Institutions, Bhowanipore; I have edited the magazines of College of Engineering & Technology of Jadavpur University. My literary activities were cut down after I started my career as a graduate engineer, though I have published a number of articles on Engineering and Computing.  My PhD thesis has been published as a book – “Semantic Integration of Applications: Application Integration By Linking Semantically Related Objects Shared Across Applications”. My literary activities have been re initiated after my retirement from engineering and computer consultancy career.

In 2013, Partridge Publishers of Singapore published my visionary novel “Know No Boundaries”. In 2016, Horizon Publishing Group of Australia published my visionary novel “No Boundaries” . The current [2019] publication “Muchhe Gelo Seemarekha” is also a visionary novel, published by Power Publishers.

What are you doing to let readers know about your book?

Power Publishers started distributing the book “Muchhe Gelo Seemarekha” through several channels, including their own as well as Flipkart and Shopclues. It will soon be able on Amazon and Snapdeal. Links for the e-book will be up soon. On my Facebook page, I regularly let my friends know how they can buy this book

Tell me something about your book. Some highlights.

It is neither a thesis, nor it is a novel,
Not it is a fantasy, not even a fairy tale.
With an event of mass disobedience we start,
No shot is fired, no one is physically hurt.
On a sunny day, at every airport of the world,
People queue up for check-in with no visa in hand.
One and all, in all the classes – economy, first or business,
No one has a visa; world citizenship each like to harness.
No international flight takes off
From Wellington, where the day starts;
From other airports of New Zealand too,
No other plane departs.
Nowhere in the world, from any airport,
Took off any International flight.
Following day was no different,
And the following night.
All airlines gave up,
No end of the tunnel, no ushering light.

The main suspect behind this chaos was Kireeti. His brain, memoir went through rigorous scrutiny. This book is the outcome of forensic analysis of Kireeti’s memoirs.

In words of NDTV’s Bodhisattwa Bhattacharya,  “This book depicts the journey of a fictional character named 'Kireeti', who wants to make the whole world stand under one roof...who wants to give his entire life to the belief of solidating the very concept- 'the world, where there is no barrier, no passport, no border line'...A world, that comprises love and try to bid goodbye to hatred...With that note, let me introduce you the author of this book... This novel is penned by an engineer, an orator, a philosopher and a person who knows clearly how to perceive romance in all true senses...He is Dr Parames Ghosh...A Bengali by name, a non-sectarian by nature...Now the citizen of Australia...  He has been there for more than three decades...His sheer love for Bengali language is precisely impeccable...”

Tell me something about yourself and your background.

I write books - not to earn my livelihood, but to share with everyone - my vision of the “World with No Boundaries”. 

I came of a lower middle class family. My entire world consisted of my parents and my siblings. Anyone in this small world was prepared to sacrifice his/her share for the benefit of other family members. The ethos that my parents and my family taught me in this small world, I followed assiduously in the big world, searching for the truth; I found answers in the concept of Oneness, thanks to Swami Vivekananda.

A steel tube rolling specialist, I accepted the challenge of starting EDP in Indian Tube, Jamshedpur.  I strove to develop computer-awareness in the society across industries. I migrated to Australia and continued my endeavour by coupling my business vision with careful observation. I introduced architecture for integrating bank applications – perhaps with a mission of integrating the world later.

I’ve travelled around the world, mainly for introducing multichannel core-banking in major banks in different countries; listened to people, collaborated with them in projects.

Still I’ve never forgotten the pains I’ve been through because of traditional boundaries, rules and regulations.  I envisage a world where citizen would know no country boundaries, no family boundaries. Let’s belong to our World and Let World belong to us - to work for and to live in. Let boundaries disappear between countries and families.

Do you plan to take it up as a full time profession if response is good?

I’m a visionary; I dream to make this world a better place for every citizen, to live in and work for. Currently I am retired, still often I work as a full time professional, both for writing and researching on computing, business intelligence and robotics. While I am researching on Robotic Company Directors, I am looking for ideas to make the world citizens better off. Whenever I find stories and ideas to achieve my vision about the world, I would keep everything else and write for the people for the sake of humanity. When situations demand, I am prepared to work 80 hours a week, without having any full time profession.