WRITING ON THE RISE OF OPEN, HUMANIST THINKING

Author Interview: Anandajit Goswami

Anandajit Goswami is a writer and an economist by training. He works as an Associate Professor (Liberal Arts), Department of Social and Political Studies, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies. He previously worked as a Management Development Programme Coordinator at TERI School of Advanced Studies, and also as a faculty and course instructor of a unique elective programme called "Art and Sustainability" at TERI School of Advanced Studies. Apart from books on Economics and sustainable development, he has also written fiction- including children’s fiction which forays into sci-fi. He has recently come out with the book “The Rise of The Club of Central Tendency”. In a candid chat with Chirdeep Malhotra, he talks about his latest book, his writing journey, and the research process involved for this book.



Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a human being who is struggling every day to be like that– by being stuck in between the binaries of truth and false. In terms of professional introduction, I have done a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from TERI School of Advanced Studies, after completing my Masters in International Economics from JNU. I have been trying to be a policy analyst, a music composer in the art and sustainability space, and an expressionist- through my writings, sports journey, visual sketches, painting, and in everything that I am trying. So, I am a kind of naïve, stupid, experimentalist, stuck with multiple shades and identities within the binaries of truth and false.



Can you tell us more about your writing journey?

Well, it is difficult as I don’t know the starting point. But, I know that I started scribbling, making notes, jotting down my ideas right from the day I learnt to write in Bengali. Yes, that’s how it started. I started doing the same when I learnt to write in English (which I still don’t know). But trust me, I really don’t take myself seriously at all as a writer as I know there are brilliant writers who are much better and are there all around.
Whenever an idea springs up, it sprouts up like a glacier emanated river in my mind and I have to just express it. I continue doing it till I reach the source point of the glacier. Many times, when I reach the source point, I see a supernova, sometimes nothing but just vacuum and sometimes a dark black hole. So that’s my journey and it keeps on happening. The rest all follows and I really don’t know how to describe it as a process and journey.



Can you tell us more about your book “The Rise of The Club of Central Tendency”?

Central Tendency, as all of you are aware, is a concept of Statistics. The polarisation of every social process has been haunting me for quite some time. I, myself, am being termed differently by various corners of the society if I don’t endorse any polarisation of a social process or thinking.
It is from that genesis, few years back, I got a story in my mind which I thought will propagate about an ideation process through a plot where the society strives to be balanced, centrist and does not get polarised on any ideational process. I watched closely various issues of different land masses of this country and vernacular thinking. And then I also wanted to project, predict and create a futuristic potential of a social process in my beloved country – “India”.
Hence, the book was born. It is an appeal to humanism by being a centrist with no blindness to any ideation process in my own humble way. Even though it is called rise – it is actually a downfall of polarisation, prejudices, racism and a rise of open, humanist thinking through a simple plot.



The title of the book is very unique and esoteric. Can you tell us what it means? How did you go about naming the title of this book? What were the other title contenders that you were thinking about and what made you choose this title?

With no spoilers being disclosed, I can tell you that there is a thrill, masquerading and cover-up element in the title intentionally to confuse the reader by which the reader will be drawn to read the plot, idea and the characters of the book. They all will be alive through the reader’s interpretation about the rise of a centrist, humanist tendency in all of us. I will only say this much. Rest, the book will say. When I was writing the 8th chapter of the book, I finally concluded on this name. I knew that I am doing something with the number 30 and a sample, population convergence of statistics in my own “novel to fictional” transformation way, so I always knew that central tendency will be there in the title. However, I ended the thriller element with a rise in the adrenaline and some hope, worries and questions for future.
So, therefore, the word rise came in. The other names that I had thought were “The Club of Central Tendency”, “Hema”, “Being Centrist and Human”, “The Art of Central Tendency Club”, “Centrist Line: A Simple Narrative”, and many more.



How did the idea of this book originate?

I have been doing secondary and primary research on the social issues faced by different local communities of India for a long time. This is my research just out of the curiosity and love for my country and for every vernacular of my country. While doing the research, I saw many such anonymous characters like Hema, Malini, Dharam, Madhu, Suman. Hence, I thought, let me tell their story and so the book title also says this with a subtitle – “A Novel to Fiction”. In the meantime, I also read about the journey of Helena Morrissey and her struggle or nutrition in life and all of these had to be told in my own way and so the book was born.



The character development of which character of this book was the most difficult for you, and why?

Well, I think, Steve, David, Madhu, the two PG Girls, Rashid, Haimanti. In terms of the plot space, they had very little scope but I had to sketch out their character within the limited space. I have a firm belief that the future is all about writing simple, vernacular oriented literature which is in between a short story and a novel with multiple plot and character integration. This is due to the way today’s society is functioning and the way it is going to pan out in future. So as an ideator and communicator (and not a writer), I always try to create that space for the reader so that later they can explore things on their own and can even criticise me a lot for not going vertically deep down or facilitating a magnum opus.



What type of research went into writing this book?

A lot of research, starting from reading literature from different parts of the world (developed, developing, emerging and least developed countries) on gender studies, issues of discrimination, urban governance and sustainability, social equality, inequality, economic progress, human development and welfare, well being, gender rights and legal convergences, finance capitalism, education policies and finally law and corporate governance, went into writing this book. All of this research you will find in the book in a simple story of 91 pages.



Tell us about a few interesting things your readers have said to you about this book.

I am generally getting good feedback and praise. But I will highlight the strong critique of the book which came from the readers as for me, critiques are very important and I love them a lot. So one comment was – “The story is very filmy, bollywoodish and simple but very interesting”.



Which books are you reading currently?

Many books. However, amongst them, for the last few months, I am being obsessed with reading Hindi Poetries after a long time. I have restarted my Bengali reading regularly in whatever form I can. My mother is helping me on that. I reread “Man Tiger” a few months back. I am reading “The Man Who Would Be Queen” by Hoshang Merchant, rereading “Social Reality as Class Struggle” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, rereading B.R Ambedkar’s work “What The Buddha Taught”, reading Manto’s “My Name is Radha” and also a lot of Bruno Latur’s work. So, as you can see, I am constantly lost in different ideas and identities and I don’t like to limit myself to any idea or identity.



Are there any other literary projects in the pipeline?

Lucy 3, the third one in the Lucy series is in the pipeline. I am also currently researching for writing a novel on convergences of human history, human accidents and various aspects of mythology from different parts of the world including India. The project is quite complicated and will take almost one and half years.
Updated On 4/28/2020 9:52:57 PM