Sudeshna Chakravarty’s debut book Oddly Perfect tugs at your heartstrings with its characters, setting, and language that bring about of freshness to this romantic comedy. Sudeshna who has had a sizable stint in journalism, is now following her passion and making a foray into the literary world. Talking about making her characters realistic, Sudeshna said: “I just had one thing in mind while writing and that was to make the characters as realistic as possible. The beauty of the characters is how they evolve. I first serialised the book on an online site. Initially, the readers hated the male lead but as the story progressed they liked the male lead so much, that one of them wrote, ‘I want a Zen in my life’.
All the characters in this book are imperfect and crazy. The female lead is socially inept, the male lead is a complete brat. The beauty of the book lies in the imperfection of each character. They all have their negative and positive points and they shine through their imperfections. I feel no one is perfect and yet they form an essential part of the jigsaw puzzle called life, making it ‘oddly perfect.’”
Sudeshna, who swears by classic romantic reads and is an ardent fan of Jane Austen, kept humour as an important element in the book. Sharing her technique, she said: “The first thing I kept in mind was how I weave in humour. I was careful that it did not seem like I was trying too hard to make people laugh. Whatever humour was put in needed to look natural. Secondly, sometimes when you are writing a mushy romance story, it tends to get too cheesy. So, the author needs to maintain a fine balance so that he or she keeps the mush and crushes the cheese. My endeavour was to do the same. Thirdly, I have played with words to add to the fun and humour element. Lastly and most importantly, in a romance the hero needs to maintain the aura and the arrogance and yet he had to contribute to the comedy element. This is the most difficult part. You have to make him desirable and hot and yet make him funny.”
Sudeshna informs of a sequel, Oddly Perfect — Stages of Courtship, that will soon follow. She also plans a literary fiction called Noise in the Island.
