Author Durjoy Datta grew up loving books, so discovering his flair for writing was not a “eureka” moment for him. The 26-year-old author wrote his first book, Of Course I Love You!, when he was in college and wrote the subsequent ones while he was either working or studying. “I always wanted to write, no matter what I was doing. But yes, finally taking the plunge into writing and publishing full time did take four years,” says Durjoy, who has completed his engineering and business management and authored nine books.
Although he confesses that he didn’t write diaries and letters when he was a teenager out of fear of his secrets being discovered, Durjoy couldn’t resist blogging, when it slowly became a Web rage. “I maintained a blog for three long years. And that’s when people started telling me that I should try writing a full-length novel,” reveals Durjoy.
Of all the nine books that he has written, Durjoy believes that Till the Last Breath and Hold my Hand took him slightly longer because of the sensitivity of the subjects. “Most of my research comes from observing people around me and reading more books, which I do all the time,” he says.
His books are a hit with youngsters and every bouquet and brickbat that Durjoy receives affects him. “Especially brickbats! After the first five books, people started telling me that my books sold because a) they had long, cocky names, b) the same characters, c) they were set in college, and d) that they were generously sprinkled with intimate moments between characters. I took it to heart and wrote Till the Last Breath which had none of these ingredients,” he says.
Two of his books, Someone Like You and Hold my Hand, released in 2013 to warm response. Hold my Hand was the first to be commissioned by the National Tourism Board of Hong Kong and was widely accepted. He then, also started writing for television.
“This was exciting as well. And luckily, there were no lows this year,” says Durjoy.
His next book will release in July 2014. “I shall write for more television shows and maybe a couple of movies, who knows. I will just try to be a better writer than I was in 2013,” he says. As a young achiever, what are some of the life lessons that Durjoy has imbibed? “I think I have tasted a modicum of success because I have always done what I have liked to do even while doing things that I was not particularly interested in. Even during those engineering/management days, I used to write, and not crib about doing something I didn’t like. And that’s what I have learned. One always finds time to do what one loves to. And if one is true to that, it will come back.”
