An evening of literary conversation was in order as Sabarna Roy addressed his audience at JW Marriott Kolkata on April 16 at an event titled Theat Reads in association with The Telegraph. The novelist and poet took the stage to talk about his upcoming novel, Tara and Sandy: Slow Dance of the Infinite Stars, a work in the epistolary format with a dual point of view, which muses on themes of age and camaraderie.
“I wanted to revive the lost art of writing letters,” said Roy, about the unique format of his novel. “I also wanted to bring about the topic of companionship among growing friends. Principally conversations are very important in life, so I wanted these two characters to have a long, long conversation through their letters. And as an author, I wanted to practise the art of method writing. To step into the role of one character and look at the world through their eyes, through his or her perspective.”
Roy was accompanied by fellow novelist Sita Bhaskar during the session. Bhaskar, author of books like Flirting With Trouble and Shielding Her Modesty is the co-author of Tara and Sandy and wrote Tara’s sections of the novel, while Roy wrote Sandy’s. “For me, I was coming in cold; I had no idea who Tara is,” said Bhaskar about their collaboration. “So, it was lovely for me because I got to create this person the way I wanted, moulding her personality and determining how she would react in situations.”
“Sita is a good friend of mine, so we collaborated on the novel,” added Roy. “It’s better to collaborate, instead of competing with each other.”
Following a Q&A session moderated by emcee Madhumanti Maitra, there was a dramatised reading of Roy’s works. Biplab Dasgupta, Keshav Roy, and Biplab Ganguly brought life to Doctor X and Mr. Y, a series of emotive and powerful conversations between the titular characters created by Roy. Ranging from themes like age and loneliness to the grimmer territory of power dynamics, and consent, the readings were definitely the highlight of the event and had the audience enthralled.
The event ended with a vote of thanks by Roy, who dedicated the session to the memory of his mother. After an impromptu musical performance by artiste Sumit Roy, the audience were invited to join the organisers for a street food dinner created by the JW Marriott chefs, curated by Sabarna Roy himself. “My mother used to find an excuse to feed people and she told me to cook up reasons to feed people. So this time I planned for an unusual dinner!” he said, post-event.
Picture: B. Halder