Trina Kanungo recently won the Sri Aurobindo Indian Literary Award, 2022 for her excellent contribution to literature. Cherry book awards believes she is amongst the contemporary stars of Indian literature. We caught up with her for an exclusive interview. Here it is:
1.Who inspires you to keep inspiring people through your literary creations? Share about your published books.
Basically whatever I see around me, I try to frame my poems accordingly. So, I feel that my readers inspire me every time.
I have co-authored in Bengali and English anthologies, where I have always tried to write on topics which my readers can relate with.
2. What are the qualities of a good author?
I think I am too young and amateur to answer this question.
3. Share some of your major literary achievements
As an amateur writer I feel every single award is a huge source of inspiration to me. Till date, I feel Tagore Sahitya Samman has been the most remarkable award I have received. Besides, I have received Sylvia Plath Memorial Award, Dr Rajendra Prasad award for Literature, and numerous other awards which I have received for the field of Literature, is a matter of supreme inspiration for me.
4. What are your advice to young and budding writers who want to publish their debut books?
Though I am yet to explore this feeling of writing a solo book, but yet I feel that your first book should always reflect your innate style. So anyone who is opting for a solo book, must carefully do his/her homework and write on something in which he/she is expert in. That will build his /her confidence at the outset, and will help him/her in his future ventures .
5. What kind of books do you love to read? Name any 3 books apart from your books that you would love to recommend?
Just 3 names will never be enough for me to answer this question. Since I had started writing in Bengali Language, and I am an ardent follower of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, who is the Nobel Laureate and the timeless stalwart in Indian Literature, I would always suggest everyone to go through his literary works, his artworks, his songs, his plays, and his compilations. We are blessed that we are born in the motherland of Tagore! It is beyond my capacity, to define Tagore, as he is the God of Literature and poesy to me! Besides, I love the literary works of Shri Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, yet another maestro in Indian Literature, whose literary works have been used as scripts in so many Indian films, for example, Devdas, Parineeta , etc. The lucid language he used, and the plots he used to implement in his stories were so very relative, that you could actually visualize them around you in every strata of our society.
Also I am a big follower of Shri Chetan Bhagat, who needs no mention again, for his fabulous contribution in Indian Literature. His free flowing style of writing makes the stories so relatable, that I always feel they are actually ready scripts for any movies! I enjoy his creations a lot whenever I am in leisure.
6. As an author , is it important to write in simple or high end language and why?
To be honest, as an amateur poet, I always prefer easy lucid language. I personally feel that getting into the heart of the reader is a significant task for new comers like us. So if we take refuge to using high end language, we might land up in some messy confusions in my plots. While framing poems too, I use free flowing language to express my feelings, as I feel, that would help my readers to co-relate with them. But yes, I totally respect and admire those, who are able to use high end language and establish the correct amount of emotion at the same time. For a beginner like me, I feel it is a tough thing for me to use high end language .
7. In your opinion , how can the decreasing readership trend , especially in India, can be stopped from further decline?
This is truly a matter of serious concern! We have seen in our childhood days, that during birthdays or any occasion, we used to receive story books as major gifts. But today, digital gadgets are main gifting options. Children are addicted towards television, mobile phones and other electronic goods. Here I feel that the disappearing concepts of the joint family is somehow responsible for this concern. I personally feel that from a very tender age, parents should encourage children for reading physical books, rather than going for the digital version. This might sound old fashioned to the ears of the tech-savvy people. But truly, one should have the smell of the new book, that we purchase from the shop, I feel that is a heavenly thing to smell the pages of a new book. We must visit book fairs, purchase books from stalls, and get the essence of the pure enjoyment of reading a new book.
Even we used to get a nostalgaic feeling when we used to purchase second hand book, or used to study the old version books of our elder siblings or any senior family members. That feeling of going through the yellow pages , was actually divine. I miss those days awfully. Somewhere amidst digitization, we must actually try to at least bring back that ambiance a little, so that new generation can be encouraged to read books physically and get their imagination power built from their tender age itself. I am not against digitization, but I donot prefer digitizing the delicate minds of the child readers who are the future face of the Indian youth, they should have an imaginative minds too.
Congratulations