Friday, January 03, 2014

Author Interview + Giveaway (IN only)- Error Code Love by Suman Bhattacharya

Hi, guys! Today on the blog, we have with us author of one of Srishti Publishers & Distributors' latest release, Error Code Love, author Suman Bhattacharya. I really enjoyed emailing the author and reading his responses to the fabulous Author Interview we did with him. And you're lucky because you get to read it too. Plus, the author has generously offered to give away two copies of his book to two lucky Indian readers. So without much ado, let's get on to everything we have in store for you! 

GOODREADS SUMMARY: 

“I would give anything right now to reverse the clock by 24 hours but my Karma won't let me, I have to compensate for what I've done.” 

Kolkata 2008: driven by a crazed love, Dev, our next door shy software engineer commits the biggest mistake of his life. Over 72 marathon hours, he loses his education, career, love and life by a single act of madness. 

Bengaluru 2012: years later Dev reaches Bengaluru in search of a better life. Destiny brings him face to face with his first love once again. He chases the same impossible dream only to find himself burning and failing in love. On the verge of losing everything that mattered, Dev fights his sense of practicality and his crazy but limitless 'Love'. Let's find out who wins! 
Error Code Love takes you on an epic journey through the roads of friendship, jealousy, obsession, mistakes, redemption and love. It raises questions allied to grey areas of teen emotions and lets you find the answers within.

BOOK LINKS: 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Suman Bhattacharya, An Electronics Engineer by education, and a Software Engineer by profession, bugged by his old love for Literature, decided to share a story with the world that he started penning years back as a student. Error Code love has its roots from his student life.
Suman, an avid reader and prolific viewer of Movies in different languages, has a passion for freelance journalism. He has been writing as a movie critic for a long time. Having his origins from Kolkata, India, Suman is now settled at Noida, U.P. – working with Adobe Systems as a Cloud operations engineer. He wants to write about,for and around Indian youth. In his own words – “If ‘Error Colde Love’ can influence even one Indian teenager’s life, I'll feel privileged."
Visit his website to know more about him.
AUTHOR LINKS: 
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: 
Hi, Suman! Welcome to The Readdicts. It’s great to have you stop by our blog today and we hope you have a nice time answering our questions.

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Suman: I’m an avid reader, a prolific viewer of movies, a computer engineer and now an author, by chance. Studying in a school adjacent to College Street, Kolkata, one of the largest book markets in Asia, books have been in an integral part of my life. While making the career decision, the bread and butter mattered and I chose a white collar job. But one thing I promised to myself, I won’t join the queue and follow someone but create something on my own. Be it a piece of computer code or my book. Well, that’s why it gives me immense satisfaction today, talking to you about my creation, my book.

2) Tell us about your book, Error Code Love. What inspired you to write the book and how did the idea to write it come up?

Suman: To be honest, I believe every creation comes from an urge that develops within. A creator will get inspiration even from the smallest stuff around, whereas others will simply ignore it. I never intended to be a writer. I was interested in directing a movie once and as a part of it, I used to write short stories and dramas. Things changed when I was 21. Getting out of the college and living a fresh professional life, my perspective of life changed. I was emotional yet excited. Then I started writing regularly as a way to express myself. Slowly it took form of a story with few imaginary and real characters. But then again something happened that made me lose all the motivation. With time I even forgot about that incomplete MS Word 98 file hidden in my old desktop. In 2012, while clearing off my old stuff, I came across it once again. Initially I was hesitant, but then I decided to complete it and finally got it published on Dec 2013. I believe that break of six years helped. Today I can say, Error Code Love is not just my story, it’s about youth , every single Indian teenager.

3) Tell us about the main character in the book, Dev. Is he influenced by anyone you know or is he a complete work of your imagination?

Suman: Dev is a strange guy. The most interesting part about him is he is a commoner. He easily hides in the crowd. He is neither very good nor bad at anything. He is a realistic guy. He knows he is not a ‘Hero’ material and is okay with it. Then he discovers some different shades of his character – a heart desparately seeking love, a mind that can break rules and an emotion that makes him chase, lie, hurt, break the boundaries of right and wrong. That’s why he says – “I’m not a Hero and this is my story.”
About the inspiration, Dev is everywhere. Of course he has shades of me but more than that he has shades of 40 crore of youngsters based in a country where every 30 seconds one teenager is trying to commit suicide or identified as a patient of depression. It’s very common than most of us realize. Teenage is an extraordinary age-group when we’re old enough to realize what’s wrong but young enough to try it anyway. Another problem is our judgemental society that refuses to understand teenagers and their thoughtprocesses. Dev represents each one of them and ECL is their story.

4) The book is dedicated to Indian youth. What message do you have for the youth of the country?

Suman: True. ECL is dedicated to Indian youth. I’ll just say to them, be patient, be modest, be open and don’t compare yourself with anybody else. Problems will be there and there will be times when people won’t get you. That’s not their fault. It’s your dream, others don’t have your vision. Be humble enough to realize you’re not better than everybody but smart enough to believe you’re different than others. Good luck.
As I always said, If  ECL can influence even one teenagers life, I’ll feel privileged.

5) Are you an avid reader? Who are some of your favourite authors and what are some of your favourite books?

Suman: I’m one. It’s difficult to pick just a few because over the years the list has grown. Still I’ll try.
I love Satyajit Ray’s work. He is more known as a filmmaker but his short stories are one of the best written ever. I love O. Henry’s short stories. I like Dan Brown mainly because of the limits he goes to research for one subject- it’s inspiring. I love Khaled hosseini - none can express emotion like he does. Then Sunil Ganguly –one of my personal favorites. Othen than that, I love to read Amitava Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gillian Flynn for their narraion and Chetan Bhagat – just for his sense of humor.
As for favorite books, I would say – “Devdas”,“A thousand splendid suns”, “The deception point,” “Dark places,” “The alchemist,” “The first light – Prothom alo (Bengali)” and I enjoyed “Two States” very much.

We also have a fun This or That lined up for you. You get to pick only one of the two choices given to you. Have fun!

1) Tea or coffee? Tea (Darjeeling!)

2) Black or white? Black (Not every story has a Hero.)

3) Day or night? Night. (Anyday)

4) Beach or mountain? Beach.

5) Kolkata or Bangalore? Kolkata – my home.

We also have a fun Favourites for you to answer. Again, you must answer with only word.

1) Favourite song? “Tujhse Naaraz nahi Zindagi” (from Masoom)

2) Favourite movie? Can’t be one. “The forrest gump,” “The inception,” “The Memento,” “Pather Panchali,” “Schiendler’s list,” “Sholay”….hundred more. :)

3) Favourite book? “Devdas”

4) Favourite food? “Bhetki Paturi” – or other fish delicacies.

5) Favourite drink? Umm…water. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog today, Suman. We enjoyed chatting with you and we wish you all the very best for everything! 

GIVEAWAY: 

Now here's the part I know you've been waiting for- the giveaway! Two copies of Error Code Love are up for grabs. 

Giveaway rules are easy- 

*Giveaway is open to INDIA residents only. 
*Enter by filling out the Rafflecopter form below. 
*Once winners are picked, they will be emailed and announced here on the blog as well and will have 48 hours to respond or else, we'll be compelled to pick new winners. 
*The book will be shipped by the author/ publisher. 


Good luck to you! 

I'd like to thank Suman for the awesome interview and  giveaway and thank you readers for stopping by! 




21 comments:

  1. I Love the 'This or That' section :)

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    1. Ah, because Kolkata is your home too? Thank you for stopping by, DDS!

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  2. This interview got me know more about Suman and ECL :)

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    1. That's great! Thank you for stopping by and good luck, Prajakta!

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  3. thought I already knew about this book from Facebook this interview gave more clear idea about the book and about the author as well.. to be honest, one of my friend has also suggested me to read this book ..

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    1. Well, my fingers are crossed for you then. Good luck, Santosh!

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  4. So an electric engineer by profession. It's really interesting to see someone from that field writing a book. Anyhow this interview is amazing girl. You asked some great questions and I agree not every book needs to have a hero. Great post, Sarika :)

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    1. Thank you so much, Tanja! Yeah, it's not really uncommon here in India. It's joked that all those who get into engineering end up writing a book. Janhvi might write one soon too if that's true.

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  5. sounds like an interesting book ... would love to read ...

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  6. Masoom is one of my fav movies too :) and the song as well... Its sadly uplifting,huh? And ofcourse engineers have nothing better to do than do document their life it seems ;P Maybe by book will come thru someday too ;D Interesting interview :)

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    1. Hahaha! I look forward to reading your book, Manmita. Good to know you and the author have quite a lot in common. Good luck!

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  7. I always enjoy the 'This or That' part the most ^_^

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  8. I loved the "This or that"part. A friend of mine already recommend me this book! Hope to win it!

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  9. Favorites section at the end of the post was the best. Hoping that book reaches top of the charts.

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    1. I love getting to know those answers. Good luck, Sumit!

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  10. Wow!!! Awesome Interview.

    I loved his message to the youth, I actually believe in that and have been trying hard to make my brother understand that and fix it in his mind.

    I too love The Inception and wow Tujhse Naraj Nahi I love it infact I enjoy listening old songs (the only reason my friends never ask me prepare some playlist ;) ) and sholay awesome watched it years ago and now wish to to see it in 3D :)

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    1. Hahaha! That was all really good to know, Anubha. Good luck and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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  11. just like an another chetan bhagat's novel!

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Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time out to share your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it!