The author Debleena  Majumdar beautifully etches out the innocence and exuberance of young Sabu in Mysore even as his world changed completely when he got chosen to play the key role in the movie, The Elephant Boy. Here is an excerpt from her recent interview:

How and when did you start writing?

I’ve always been an avid reader throughout my childhood and kept imagining stories in my head. I worshipped authors the way some worship sports people or movie stars.

I remember obsessing over the lives of authors such as Agatha Christie, Daphne Du Maurier, Satyajit Ray and more. Once, on a holiday, I dragged my family to an old, forgotten café, just because Somerset Maugham was supposed to have been a regular visitor there over a century earlier.

But, for a long time, I never dreamt that I could be part of the hallowed group of people who gifted me so many countless moments of wonder, inspiration, thrill and learning, lost in the pages of the books they had written.

It was probably a mix of an early onset of mid-life crisis, the fact that my young bookahlolic daughter did not flinch when I ran out of stories to share with her and started telling her some of my own and that my husband encouraged me to write even when all I wrote were limericks disguised as meeting notes.

The stories that I had been spinning in my head suddenly started taking shape then. Also, I always loved research and been working in Finance professionally. The ability to explore non-fiction writing in history and in finance, my areas of interest and work, respectively, made the writing journey a bit more structured, for me.

Tell us a little bit more about the genres you like to write in:

So, I have grown up reading a lot of books on history and on crime. My grandfather, a criminal lawyer had a well-stocked library of both kinds of books and I remember spending my summer holidays lost in their folds, even as everyone despaired of calling me to join other, more social activities.

My first novel was a whydunit crime fiction, called a Marketplace for Murder, represented by the Bookbakers Literary Agency and Vishwakarma Publications. It delved into 

After this, I wrote a non-fiction novel, called Sabu, which was again represented by Suhail Mathur and his team at BookBakers and the Locksley Hall Publishing.

I have worked for a long time in the areas of Finance and Strategy so, a lot of my non-fiction writing is on Finance and Business. I also contribute articles on business.

And I still love history and go into rabbit-holes of history research. So, how can I avoid writing on history?

And I do love humor and look for opportunities to bring in a bit of humor even through moments that could be dark.

But, my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Suhail Mathur for helping me discover my writing genre and style and for believing in me. I would not have been an author without his guidance. 

You said you loved writing limericks. Do you also write poetry?

Oh yes. I used to write a lot of limericks. Specially if forced to attend long meetings. And even today, when I have moments of quiet and peace, snatches of poetry still sing to me. There’s something about poetry that’s just gives me a sense of meaning which is incomparable. 

I also explore satire and humor through poetry. Here’s one example:

A Day in the Jungle (Published in Spark)

You saw the wolf,
Red slits in his eyes,
He pounced, your 

Soul an easy target,
Tail down, you walked,
To your hole, 4 ft cubicle,
With no forest view.

You sighted the snake,
Slithering in the corridor,
Of broken promises,
And remarks snide.

He hissed at you,

You needed a moment to recover
But you had to clock your time.

The eagles scooped down,
Pounced on the carcass,
At the coffee counter.
Their share of the loot,
Collaboration be damned.
Gossip the new fuzzy drink,

For the grapevine bloodhound.

You looked for the lion
To guide, to help,
But the corner room
Of this new fable,
Had no lion, just a
Sleeping crocodile with his tail
resting on the CEO”s table.

Day over, the animals
Started swiping their way
Out of the jungle.
You joined the queue.
They looked at you,
A misfit, a mere rat,
They laughed at you.

Tiny paws opened,
The door of your home.
Tiny face, big smile.
Your child didn’t
Care for your jungle days.

And you finally felt free, for the
Lion, it was always you.

 How did the book on Sabu get started?

The idea really stemmed from a discussion with Mr. Suhail Mathur or BookBakers and noted Bollywood producer, Mr. Sunil Bohra. We were discussing how little is known today about this boy who made the seemingly impossible journey from the stables of Mysore to the heights of Hollywood.

And once I started researching, I found so many other facets. His life was a dramatic tale, that called out for a story. More than that, all of this was happening the backdrop of historic events like India’s freedom struggle and the World War II. As a history lover, I loved that part of the research. And then I found so many other facets of his character beyond his life as an actor.

I have described each of those in the book and I feel the book could have an appeal, not just for those who love movies and want to know about his cinematic journey, but also for those who love history and for those who love stories that are inspirational with multiple twists and shifts.

I would like to take this opportunity to say acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Suhail Mathur and his team at BookBakers and to team Locksley Hall Publishing and specially to Mr. Sunil Bohra as well for believing in the book, Sabu.

What’s your writing process like?

I love listening to music when I am writing. Actually, I love music, at all times. So, there would be strains of Amjad Ali Khan’s sarod mixing with Kumar Gandharv’s mellifluous voice, songs sung by Kishori Amonkar jostling with Sufi mesmerizing Sufi music and a lot of Western songs too, from Sting to Queen, to Linkin Park and more.

Of course, sometimes, I start singing loudly as well. I love singing. And that becomes a distraction if someone is around me😊

As for the writing process, for fiction, I often think of one of the key characters first. That gives a voice for the story. For example, while writing Marketplace for Murder, the voice of the antagonist is what came to me first and that helped me shape the narrative.

For non-fiction, I first research every possible nugget I can find about the topic. Often, I enjoy that part so much, it’s tough to step back, stop and actually start writing. I went through this while writing Sabu, where every aspect of the discovery research was so fascinating for me to learn, before Is started writing it.

If you could go back in time and ask any author about any of their characters, what would you ask?

I would ask Agatha Christie how she came up with the unreliable narrator idea in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But wait, I would also ask Satyajit Ray how he created the brilliant song, “Bhuter raja dilo bor,” and not to stop there, I would ask Daphne Du Maurier whether Cousin Rachel, in her mind, had been really guilty of murder, or really guilty of anything else?

What are you writing next?

I am writing more books in the genres that I love to delve in. I am currently completing a childrens’ book, introducing Finance to them through storytelling.

And then I am working on some historical non-fiction books, that are rooted in Bengal history. A crime story too is on the cards.

But, yes, there are many ideas. And I want to keep writing and shaping them into books that people might like to read.