About the Author:
Beetashok Chatterjee was a ship's captain by profession. He joined the Merchant Navy at a young age and loved it, retiring only after having completed more than 45 years at sea.
This old sea dog lives in New Delhi, India, with his memories and a wife, son and daughter. His hobbies include listening to Western music, reading fiction and watching cricket. He also loves good Hollywood and Bollywood movies.
His first collection of short stories ‘Driftwood—stories washed ashore’ surprised him with the favourable response it got and he decided that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life—write.
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The Circle of Life by Beetashok Chatterjee
So you want to be a writer?
Well, well…
If I received a rupee from
every person who answered ‘yes’ to my question, I’d be a wealthy man. I’d also
welcome him to the Club; that exclusive Club of a zillion members of wannabe
authors who dream of writing that bestseller
which changes the course of history (yeah, sure!), who imagine a queue of
publishers banging on their door, or see themselves pontificating on a TV chat
show, basking in the warmth of their new found fame.
I’d grown long in the tooth
nursing those dreams. I’d always dreamt of being a writer right from my
schooldays, while writing for the school magazine. But then I got busy with
Life and my dreams were put on hold. Decades later, fed up of writing reports,
emails and memos at work (for some of which I had to indulge in a little creativity
sometimes to save my a**, if you know what I mean!), I resumed creative writing
a few years ago—mainly short stories and poems. Rather late in life. If you
look at my photo, you’ll know what I mean.
My stories began to accumulate
in number. With that, my confidence grew, and I ventured forth into the big,
bad world of publishing to try and sell them to the world. As expected, I met
with little success. Several editors did not bother to even acknowledge my
introductory mail. Another editor informed me that there was no market for
short stories—unless I was a known author, of course. Huh? And how do I become
a known author if my short stories don’t get published, ma’am? Catch 22? I was
also told by another lady that my stories did not ‘excite’ her enough. Hmmm…no,
I’m not misinterpreting that.
I needed a USP—something to
stand out from the crowd; something different. And then followed my eureka moment—it had been staring at me
in the face all this while. I picked out twelve stories and clubbed them under one
genre—sea stories. These were stories where the protagonist was either a
seafarer or the story had been set on the high seas. There was no maritime fiction
out there in the market—I checked. Surely there must be thousands of people in
this world who’d be interested in reading about adventures at sea?
Didn’t I mention this earlier?
I am a retired seaman. I was one for more than forty years—a Merchant Navy
captain for more than thirty of them.
‘Driftwood—stories
washed ashore’ in its new avatar started doing the rounds all
over again as a collection of sea stories or maritime fiction.
Then it happened.
My collection was accepted by Readomania, a publisher known to
encourage debutant authors. My dream had come true.
Driftwood came
out last year.
When was the last time you
read some modern sea stories—stories of ships and the seafarers who man them?
Tales of adventure, love, romance, piracy, intrigue... and human nature? Well,
look no further. These are twelve stories of the sea, but not necessarily for
seafarers alone. Driftwood is for
anybody and everybody who likes to read fiction.
Encouraged by the response to
my debut novel, I have sent out another collection of short stories for
evaluation. I patiently wait for a response. The publishing business is in
recession, I know. I pray the lockdown is lifted soon and the wheels of
commerce start turning again.
As I wait, I write some more.
For write I must. And wait I have to. That is my Circle of Life...
© Beetashok
Chatterjee
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