SAIKAT MAJUMDAR

Saikat Majumdar

What strikes most when you meet Saikat Majumdar, a noted novelist who heads the Creative Writing Programme at the Ashoka University in Delhi, is his warmth and friendliness, rare among creative writers who wittingly or unwittingly, seem to build a wall of inaccessibility around them. He is not prolific by any means and has authored four unique novels over 15 years. Saikat is also a literary critic who writes non-fiction. The novels he has written are –Silverfish (2007), The Firebird (2015), The Scent of God (2019), and The Middle Finger (2022). His novels primarily deal with the themes and subjects like religion, memory, sexuality, history and education. Saikat`s early works of fiction were published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta, including two short story collections –Infinitum Archipelago (1994), and Happy Birthday to You (1996); and two novellas: Hello Goodbye (1996) and Diminuendo (1997). An articulate person, he speaks to Shoma A. Chatterji.

How did writing happen? When did it happen and why?

Books were trusted, constant companions since childhood. I started to relate to the world through language; language started to mediate that relationship before other forms. I rediscovered images through language. The sensory was a work of language too. How could I speak back to the world? What could I return? It could only happen through the written word. I was too shy to perform or speak back then. Writing was also something one could do in hiding, under the guise of studies. Music or painting or theatre could not be hidden that way.

You began with short stories, then gravitated to novels. How did this transition happen?

I hope I write short stories again. But I haven’t for nearly 20 years. I think there was a poet, perhaps a writer of haikus in me who couldn’t muster the precision or the technical discipline of poetry. The slight expansiveness of the short story allowed for the poetic spirit without asking for its precision, though short stories have their own precision too. Subsequently, I fell in love with the fullness of human lives that required development. I left the momentariness and pointedness of the short story. But I still remain a slim-theme writer; multigenerational family sagas or large historical themes are not for me. Small but moving themes, rooted in particular atmospheres – that’s what draws me. So my novels are quite short.

You have achieved a lot in terms of fame, intellectual enrichment, friends and so on. How do you look back on this journey while you are still very young

One’s growth as a writer and the quality of reading and engagement one gets are all that matters. The external trappings of fame or success are not really relevant, and neither is their lack. The readers I’ve gained – including many who have subsequently become friends – are among the greatest rewards. The best part of writing is being able to touch another human being, even fragmentarily.

‘The Middle Finger’ book cover

How would you define terms like ‘workshops’, ‘book readings’, ‘lectures’ through your personal experience so far as creative writing goes?

Writing and teaching are both fundamentally about interacting with other souls. These different events/activities are just different platforms of interactions. Not through the silence of writing but the immediacy of embodied interaction.

How disciplined are you in your writing as you do not write novels frequently?

I spend a lot of time writing. Not sure what qualifies as ‘frequent’. I can’t imagine publishing a book a year, they take more time to finish and more importantly, to be revised. I’m an obsessive reviser. Even so, the new novel came three years after the last, and that after publication was delayed for the pandemic. That’s quite frequent, no? A book takes years to shape up

How do you distinguish between writing fiction and non-fiction?

My nonfiction also has a personal element and often a personal voice. Sometimes they require some scholarly knowledge. But still, without the personal element, I can’t create a real stake in the text, either for me or the reader. Others do that too. I’ve been reading  your beautiful book ‘Satyajit Ray: from frame to frame’, and the most enjoyable portions are the personal and the anecdotal ones, such as your interactions with Ray.

While editing others’ works, what do you look for? Please explain – bylines of authors, theme if any, style, language, treatment, composition etc? 

‘Majumdar is Professor of English and Creative writer

I try to understand what the work ‘wants’ to become – not what I would like it to become based on my own thematic, stylistic, or generic preferences. Once I understand this, I try to help make it the best version of itself that it can possibly be. Of course, subjective preferences still come in, so it’s crucially important the receiver of the feedback know who I am as a writer, my defining interests and values. All the elements you named, none of them are isolated entities; they all depend on one another. So does my editorial feedback.

Your four novels are more character-driven than plot or incident driven. Do you agree? Give reasons for your response

I’m really glad you think so. Character, atmosphere, language, these are my defining interests as a novelist. If one can make the characters come alive, their lives look interesting too, and so interesting stories can take shape. The narrative is important to me too – just that character, atmosphere, language, are primary.

Who do you consider as mentors, ideals, heroes among Indian writers in English?

P. Lal, Amit Chaudhuri became early mentors and role models; during my MFA in the US, Wendell Mayo and Anthony Doerr, my professors there. I recently read RK Narayan’s ‘The Guide’ and saw how truly Indian the English language novel can be. Anita Desai is a great inspiration too. And there is something solid, real,
and enduring about Shashi Deshpande’s worlds and human lives, though perhaps without an obvious feel of ‘craft’.

Among all your novels, rank them in order of your own emotional fulfillment and give reasons for the ranking.

I wouldn’t be a good parent if I did that, would I? Even if I have such an order in my mind, I should keep it to myself!