Sandip Roy at 4th Calm Festival 2015

Sandip Roy launched his book “Don’t let him know” at 4th Calm Festival Shillong 2015, his debut book is one of the few books reprinted in United States, United Kingdom and in France (in French). The Hindustan Times, one of the leading newspapers of our country, has declared it as the debut book of the year.

It has been promoted by too many publications and for many reviews. It is a collection of short stories and stories of chronological comments. The stories appear as a complete experience of layered meanings and a game of conversations of intimacy. “A little dagger and minefield plunge into words, it’s a book about secrets. We South Asian love our secrets,” mentions Sandip Roy during the book launch.

The book characters have names taken from his family experiences and reliving it up for fiction. It has idiosyncrasies, turn of phrases and anecdotes buried.

Sandip Roy has won several awards for journalism and contributed to various anthologies including Storywallahs! Contours of the heart, because I have a voice: Queer politics in India, Out! Stories from the new Queer India! New California Writing 2011 and the phobic and the Erotic: The politics of sexualities in contemporary India.

Sandip Roy is both a Senior Editor at the popular news portal Firstpost.com and writes for NY times, Telegraph and blogs for the Huffington post. He has been a longtime commentator on National Public Radio’s morning edition, the most popular radio programme in the USA and has a weekly radio postcard for public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an editor with New American Media.

Does your journalistic writing inform or hide your fictional creativity?

It goes both ways, writing is like a muscle. It’s like when I was a software engineer I used to write code. In the night, I re-live to write creative fiction. After a day of journalistic writing, I am constantly in touch with stories. It does trigger within you.

Does this book address a lot of issues of LGBT in India?

It is not a self- help manual for gay community. It is, however, a particular story of a man and a couple’s relationship. I hope it does provide a platform to address these issues we don’t normally talk about and hide under the bed sheets.

As a writer, your writing has a lot of experiences. How important is it for a writer?

The Inter-disciplinary experiences in my case is not conscious. It just happens. It’s all bit of pieces of my past life. It does influence quite a lot of my writing. My computer science background might look like a hinder or compliment my writing. It has made me a logical person. So, when I write at times I feel like I am writing A to B, and not just have a leap of faith. The inter-disciplinary has enriched me more.

What are your thoughts about digital publications in India?

When I came to India, I did radio and wander into Firstpost.com. One of the earliest all Indian digital news portal. An online publication similar to print version of Times of India. We were ahead of the market since there was no mark or understanding of the potential of reading on the mobile or in the computer.

Now, there is much competition. People have still not figured it out what its full potential is. There are issues of bandwidth, buffering speed.

In general, people are realizing, the pressure that print is feeling is the same as was felt in the US. They were heavily subsidized by advertising. Here in India, advertising hasn’t fled the print media. Digital is a growing area, thanks to more people getting their news not just on their computer but their Mobile phones as well. It opens up new challenges to how news is presented. It gives instant feedback.

You are working with two mediums both digital and printed. Which one do you enjoy more?

I love audio. It teaches you how to be succinct, to describe a scene. To transport a listener to a scene where they are not sitting while they are listening. In digital or print, your mind is actively focused.

With the radio, the person who is listening might be making coffee. You have to get hold of that person to come into my world which you can’t see and be able to be lost in it as I describe to you in three minutes. A drive-way moment.