Abhishek Roy Chowdhury was born and brought up in Kolkata. He had pursued Diploma in Business Management (New Delhi) and initially started his career in Kolkata. Later he moved to Hyderabad and has been staying there for last fifteen years. He has sixteen years of corporate experience and also holds an Executive General Management certification from IIM Calcutta.
Abhishek developed a passion for writing during his graduation days. He has been a business author and has published a series of articles and research papers in various magazines & journals. This is his first fiction as now he aspires to reach a broader audience with his creativity.
Akhila Saroha: I would like to begin by congratulating you on the publication of “The Last Encounter.” How has the response to the book been so far?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: Thank you so much Akhila. I have been getting great response to the book. Some of the readers have provided very positive reviews as well. I am expecting to hear more.
Akhila Saroha: What led to the idea of writing of “The Last Encounter”? Were there any events that inspired the work?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: You may find it difficult to believe but it started with a dream. In my dream I saw a burglar who broke into a house at night but was caught by a girl who was still awake. The entire story was then built around these two characters who were personified as Dilip and Prabha.
Akhila Saroha: Do you know any Dilip who has gone through the same circumstances as you have described in “The Last Encounter”?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: Not really. Dilip is my imagination. I have read and heard about burglars but have never encountered one in my real life.
Akhila Saroha: What are your views about present-day writing? Do you think it does complete justice to the different classes and social groups of society?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: I grew up reading novels written by both seasoned as well as debut writers. Some authors do focus on specific social groups or issues in our society while most others write only from entertainment perspective. It makes me happy that a few contemporary writers are now writing on different classes or various challenges in the society, resulting in creations that are real eye-openers.
Akhila Saroha: Are there any authors that you enjoy reading or any books which are your favorites?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: I read books in English and Bengali. Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, the creator of Byomkesh Bakshi, is my favorite. I also like Shobhaa De’s desi style of writing. John Grisham’s novels are also real page turners, if we consider foreign authors.
Akhila Saroha: How would you categorize “The Last Encounter” as its appeal seems to be to a broad audience?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: Well, I would not prefer to categorize it. You can consider this as a simple suspense thriller. However, if you think deep, this also reveals a dark secret. The confinement of the domestic help and ill-treatment by the family he served, have been in the news a couple of times in the past. Prabha represents many women with similar fate, which is definitely a scar to our apparently cultured society.
Akhila Saroha: “The Last Encounter” has given a powerful introduction to your potential as a writer. Can the readers expect more from you in the future? Please share about your future projects.
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: Definitely yes. I am already in the planning stage for my next novel. And I believe that my next would have a different flavor with a common theme of highlighting another dark challenge our society often faces.
Akhila Saroha: What is the story behind the title of your work, “The Last Encounter”?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: I believe that this title leaves some space for the readers to think. Ideally the first time Dilip met Prabha was supposed to be the first and last encounter; but then Dilip went back in to meet her again with a promise to come back the next evening. Eventually that turned out to be the last encounter when nobody would anticipate what happened next. However, the end brings up a gruesome truth that becomes truly the last encounter. It is the reader who would decide which is the real last encounter.
Akhila Saroha: How easy or difficult was it for you to create the Dilip and Prabha and show the story from their eyes and also the eyes of a third-person narrator without hampering the readers’ perception in “The Last Encounter”?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: Dilip and Prabha were so very live in my mind since the beginning that I never had to put a conscious effort to create them. I envisioned the events as if I was watching a movie. Thus, showing the story from their eyes came naturally to me.
Narrating the story as a third person was little tricky. I had to tell the story not only to create suspense but also to generate compassion in the readers’ mind. That was the challenging part to make them feel empathy for a thief and a domestic help.
Akhila Saroha: In the present time, stories featuring people like Dilip and Prabha in “The Last Encounter” do not find much mention. What, according to you, could be the possible reason for that?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: The simple reason is that we generally prefer to see glorified characters as heroes. The less fortunate people are hardly accepted as protagonists who do not have a majestic presence.
Akhila Saroha: If you were to describe your book “The Last Encounter” in a few words without giving any spoilers, what would those words be?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: A thriller with unanticipated turns and twists till the end, that leaves everybody perplexed.
Akhila Saroha: What advice would you give to budding writers who may be planning to write in the same genre as “The Last Encounter”?
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: If you are writing a thriller, create suspense by leaving scope for readers to think and imagine. If you are writing horror, use words carefully to make your readers visualize the events. A suspense thriller should be like an iceberg, with only a small part visible above the surface, while the maximum part remains hidden.
Akhila Saroha: Thank you very much for sparing your time. I look forward to reading more books from you in the future. All the best.
Abhishek Roy Chowdhury: That’s a promise to bring more in the near future for book lovers. Thank you Akhila. Thank you Evincepub. Thank you all my readers.
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