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Their books reflect a young and contemporary India's thoughts. Debutant authors Shubham Basu's Glian and Soma Das' Sumthing Of A Mocktail are their own experiences woven around fiction. Basu's Glian revolves around the central character Dev and his love for nature. In a bid to embrace nature and bond with it, Dev sets off on a tour with three of his friends to the fictitious Panida National Park. When asked why he chose nature as the subject of his book, Basu said it was close to his heart. "Be it any subject, the narration should make the mind think. The simplicity of nature in pure and virgin form lets a mind relate to it very easily; it's not even an effort," according to Basu, 29. "I feel that when such a pure and sublime identification is used as a medium, the restrictions in language as medium of communication reduce." Having run away from home while in the eighth grade for the lure of travelling and later giving up his white-collar job on Wall Street to come back to India to open a travel company, it was only natural that Basu's protagonist had the same blood running in his veins as the author. "Travelling is a humbling experience. And in the lap of nature, travelling makes you self-aware. This book is eventually about self-awareness, the prowess to communicate with one's self and understand that there is a relationship bigger with the surroundings than what is merely evident," the author said. The other book, Sumthing Of A Mocktail by Das, is set in the sprawling campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and has a sub-title At JNU where kurta fell in love with jeans. Das, 27, who has done her masters from JNU and is teaching in Miranda House college here, has taken a leaf out of her own life to write about the lives of three girls in the campus. "The book is about the experiences of three girls entering JNU which shape their mental faculties and orient their lifestyles to trigger a growth process in them. These experiences transform them into socially conscientious individuals," said Das. She said she always knew that the campus was a fertile ground for ideas but was nevertheless surprised when she couldn't find anything worthwhile to read about JNU. "Here existed such a rich institution which remained grossly unexplored, so I decided to venture into the unexplored area. The decision that I had to make was the choice of the form of expression — it could be poetry, short story, novel or non-fiction," she said. Talking about the 11-month effort to complete the book, Das said she used to have reading sessions with her circle of friends after writing portions of the book. "I was sceptical at the start since it is my first book. I derived reassurance from my friends with whom I used to have reading sessions. I watched their expressions closely, relieved when they laughed at intended jokes even when sometimes they themselves were the subject of a joke," she reminisced. So do the authors have a target audience? "My kind of audience can’t be classified by age or profession. He or she can be anybody, anybody who likes getting tickled," Basu said. Das similarly said her book has deliberately assumed a simplified way of narrating so as not to alienate anyone. Although it's their first step into the literary domain, both Basu and Das talk nonchalantly about the Herculean task that a new writer faces in getting his work read and evaluated by a publisher. "Selling glamour is easy all across the world. Nevertheless, selling mind engagers is slowly getting into the trend. If I talk about blind Westernisation in India, I will also like to see the generations in India take up that part of creative admiration. It will take time," Basu said. He, in fact, has already started working on his second novel. Das said it is important for one to recognise and differentiate between the writer and the person within oneself clearly. "The writer should not take criticism or praise personally," she said, much like a seasoned writer. — IANS
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