Not all debut novels hold your attention, but Calcutta boy Sayantan Ghosh's Lonely People Meet gets you from its preface till the very last page. Ghosh, editor of a renowned publishing house, weaves a story that talks about today's time — disconnected, fragmented, almost illusional. A fan of photographer and writer Teju Cole, Ghosh confesses to being overpowered by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's ingenuity. He blends genres in this extremely relatable novel that also has notes of music. A tete-a-tete with Ghosh.
It's quite natural for someone who is working in the publishing industry to harbour the aspiration of writing their own book. What ultimately led you to write this book now?
Ever since I was a young boy, I have sought a life of reading and writing. And I've wanted to write, and have been writing, for as long as I can remember. Long before I knew what the publishing industry does. When I moved to Delhi in 2013 to work in publishing, I experienced the feeling of urban isolation intensely for the first time. I guess that's when I first started thinking about this idea, which eventually became Lonely People Meet. If I remember correctly, that's also the time when dating apps started gaining popularity in India, and I realised that technology had started engineering the connections we were making now.
Being surrounded by stories of different genres and different authors, I am sure you know what you don't want to write. What convinced you to write a story that melds genres?
It wasn't that I consciously ventured into blending genres while writing. But even though fiction is supposed to exist in a largely imagined world, I find it more life-like and real than any other form of writing. And what is life but a bizarre, unexplainable fusion of genres? I recall feeling nothing but numb the day I held the first copy of this novel in my hands instead of nervous excitement; I look back and see myself most joyous when running on a cricket field in my teens, even though I never had any long-term cricketing ambitions, I was just happy. That's what I tried to do with this novel too, make it surprising for the readers because life will never cease to surprise us.
Karno appears to be a millennial seeking genuine connections. In contrast, Devaki's personality is very different. She connects and then disconnects. Tell us about etching the two characters. Which one challenged you the most?
Karno, for me, is someone in search of a real human connection, which is also one of the primary inquisitions of this novel. More than settling, I'd say he's in this space of exploration in which he wants to give it his all this one time and see what's in store for him at the other end. Devaki is more evasive in comparison, but there's a strong reason behind that. And I possibly can't give that away.
The title Lonely People Meet suggests both isolation and connection. Tell us about exploring these two themes with your characters in an urban setting.
It's one of the biggest challenges of our times, isn't it? We exist in a constant state of flux in which we decide whether to stay or leave almost every single day. Whether it's a person, a place, or a workplace. We're a generation ruined by an excess of choices, not knowing where to go with them. We meet Karno at a moment in this novel when he's desperately seeking something authentic. Everything that follows in the book is an outcome of that search.
Your characters often hold back more than they reveal. What drew you to that restrained emotional palette?
That was very important for me while writing this book. I wanted to let the readers decide what's going on in the heads of the characters, instead of disclosing every thought that's playing on their minds. When we're going through an upheaval, we don't always have the right words to express ourselves. Instead, what remains unsaid has the ability to speak volumes. Especially when we are in pain, words often fail to do the job that pauses and silences more easily can.
What next?
Hopefully, a speculative horror novel set in the Sundarbans and Calcutta.