GIVES UP IIM-A, SAMIT BASU ANOTHER JK ROWLING?
It is not often one comes across someone who gives up being at IIM-A
and decides to write a book filled with
fantasy and publishers are happy that there could be someone like JK Rowling in our midst weaving stories straight out of myths, magic tales from all over the
world and blending it with Indian fantasy characters resulting in a tremendous reading.
Samit Basu's, The Manticore's Secret, part of the Game World Trilogy-II was released at Odyssey and he said that the story is about a certain dark lord who may or may not be dark or may or may not be bright and shiny, and certain heroes who may or may not be heroes.
Because more than childish tales of magic and imagination, the books, Simoqin Prophecies and now, The Manticore's Secret are intelligent and truly inventive. That, going by the number of fans he had for his book launch at Odyssey.
Many of the young ones had read his books and as the evening alternated between incidents, comments and questions it emerged that the books do herald the arrival of original ideas.
When he was at IIM-A, it was quite unmemeorable for him. Stuff like operational management did not impress him anymore and it was then that he decided to quit.
Samit Basu says his landscape of fantasy comes from several sources of world myths and stories. Some Japanese, some Indian, from West Asia. All one needs to make sure is to structure one's work differently and ensure that it has its own individual nature.
An economics student from Presidency College, Kolkata, he dropped our IIMA to do broadcasting and filmmaking in London. His first book was published when he was just 23 and apart from this, he is also a columnist, sciptwriter, documentary filmmaker, and now as an author he travels paths untrammeled so far in India.