Wednesday, 1 November 2017

On my path of 'Introspection'


Cover design : Mainak Chatterjee


“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”

With a heart full of dreams and aspirations, I had started my book three years back. It wasn’t a conscious decision, and I had no clue, if I would ever finish the book, with all characters and their stories converging together. But strangely the name had struck immediately, I knew it would be ‘Introspection’.

One evening, I was low, had a small disagreement with my husband and was sitting procrastinating any possible household chores. The idea had struck from absolute nowhere and I started my journey of soul seeking. The idea of capturing the melancholy of a young girl, hurt and defeated by a monster crafted by the bourgeois society had originated from my sad heart that evening. But gradually the purpose metamorphosed to a bigger one, and my journey of portraying social prejudices, conjectures and beliefs through fiction, kick started vigorously. And it took me one and a half years to complete my book. But the journey wasn’t a cake walk. And it cannot be, if you have a fully engaged job, and some household responsibilities too, to cope up with. But the tough roller-coaster ride of chasing my passion and deadlines together, was made easy by my ‘never giving up’ spirited hubby Avishek.  

While he is definitely not a pro in helping me with managing the house, he did at times crossed the limits of his will to lend a helping hand. Then when I was burning the mid night oil, that occasional cups of tea and coffee, or that loving shoulder message gave me liberation to think big.

But the real struggle was yet to begin and that happened when I completed the book. Before this we had no idea of how it works. So it started from scratch. Thankfully this journey was ours, not mine alone, and hence the rough path smoothened considerably.

For a debutante author, getting a publisher is like breaking a concrete wall. Probably most of the renowned firms, do not even go through your application. Some are humble enough to revert and many don’t even care. The process was continuing for long and I was continuously wearing a mask of happiness and encountering the daily chores, with my heart tearing apart. But my husband never gave up hope, his conviction and belief, made be stand strong. The coaxing by my mother and her extreme belief and pride in her daughter, was another fuel to keep me going.

Me and Avishek, would spend hours, locating all publishers big and small and then sending them documents as per their norms. But nothing was coming up. Many suggested me to go for self-publishing, but I still had hope.

Things changed when Leadstart publishing house, told me about this new venture of Become Shakespeare, called Wordit Art fund, where they were doing conventional publishing for new authors.
Since then it was a wonderful journey, from editing to designing covers and eventually getting the book published. It is truly a surreal feeling to hold ‘INTROSPECTION’ in my hands, palpable, a realisation of dreams. It would be unfair, if I don’t mention my friends, Mainak Chatterjee who designed the cover of the book, Snehajit Roy who clicked the author’s picture and Sambit Roy who made the trailer for publicity.

The journey that I and Avishek went through would be memorable forever, while I may write many more books, this one would hold a special place in my heart.

My book is available on Amazon and Snapdeal; links as below:
Amazon link:


Snapdeal  link: 
Buy Introspection on snapdeal

Infibeam link:


Soon it will be available on Kindle . 

The back blurb of Introspection is as follows:

“After a blissful courtship period, Aniket and Arushi finally tied the knot and shifted from Kolkata to Mumbai. Life was beautiful. It was a fairy tale romance.  But how long?
Little did they know, what lay ahead in their journey!  Things changed and personalities altered, as hard reality hit their abode of dreams. When the extremely careerist Aniket, faced an unprecedented downfall in his career graph, his persona went through a radical change. Addiction and depression changed him into a draconian. Or was it unveiling of his true face?
Arushi watched him in dismay and exhausted herself, to regain the bliss of their companionship. However, her efforts proved futile.
But there is more to this story. When eminent psychiatrist Dr. Priyadarshini Ray, took up his case, revelations from his past shocked Arushi. What made Aniket the egoist insecure monster? Will the two, be able to regain the lost beauty of their relationship? Will introspection, change the course of their tale?”


Trailer of Introspection

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

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