Nothing is given to man on earth

-struggle is built into the nature of life,

and conflict is possible - the hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen.

-Andrew Bernstein

Kavishala presents A fruitful conversation between Pritish Nandy and Abhay K :

Pritish Nandy is known to be a popular poet, author, journalist and filmmaker of recent era. His and journals extol formidable courage, tenacity and triumph. We sit down with Nandy to talk about this literary endeavour. 

When and how did the vision of writing books came into your mind? 

Pritish: In the very beginning I had the zeal to introduce the Indians worldwide and the origin of people who have made an enormous contribution in their areas.

I merely looked for living legends or people who could very shortly emerge as legends. 

I am also inspired by women writers who emerged like great entities in this era. I chose (for my own reasons) to stay strictly reclusive. So, reclusive that people had forgotten that I actually existed.

We tried to get the best people for conducting each interview. Great Authors like Aatish Taseer, and journalists Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai and Vir Sanghvi promptly responded to our request.

Honestly speaking we also chose interesting new professions. That’s how the stand-up comedian Hasan Minhaj, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, music composer AR Rahman and came into the industry like a star. 

How poetry changed your thought process and let you wanted to feature but it just didn’t work out? 

I tried reaching out to some famous personalities including Nobel Prize winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan but couldn't make my way,still I had the eagerness to create the magic with my expressions in literature. At that time, I was merely outraged with what had transpired at the Indian Science Congress, where people were talking about Ganesha’s head as the world’s first known case of plastic surgery.

Hopefully,I am now a part of the next one. 

I also wanted human rights activist Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri, but they never responded. Since, it was a cumbersome decision of not including any full-time politicians, I lost the touch with a great activist and environmental campaigner Maneka Gandhi and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador of UN.

How you are so much particular about taking relevant interviews and compiling your ideas in the form of words? 

In my books, I have described the realms of bravery, honesty, and dedicated professionals who have achieved the pinnacle of glory in their respective callings. Unfortunately, I thought of such book a bit delayed.

Nonetheless I could have thought of including a filmmaker like Satyajit Ray, a playwright like Vijay Tendulkar or Badal Sarkar, a musician like Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar Khan, a singer like Amir Khan of the Indore Gharana or Mallikarjun Mansur, a painter like Francis Newton Souza or Maqbool Fida Husain or Gaitonde, or a novelist like UR Ananthamurthy.

Then, there’s the dilemma of choice. Then suddenly a question stuck in my mind that we have featured Marxist historian Irfan Habib or Romilla Thapar? I dwelled upon my guts and chose Habib. 

Was there any advice shared by someone that helped or inspired you to bring such a great revolution?

Although effective quotes, and anecdotes do not inspire me much nowadays. What genuinely inspires me are the lives of those people who rise to success, and their frequent failures, tenacity and courage to succeed.

Philanthropists like Azim Premji are really very hard to find anywhere in the world. Another exceptional professional is Ratan Tata who created one of the world’s most respected brands. Lata Mangeshkar is truly peerless, so is Amitabh Bachchan’s acting prowess that really boosts me up to do something big in my life.

Any particular questions you deliberately steered away from asking many times? 

Pritish: Frankly speaking my book is not at all about scandal and gossip. I am looking forward to write a book on such entities who have labelled as rogues and rediscover them as a new generation starter. 

The individuals in my book are leaders in their own right. Leadership to me is basically a job to draw people away from their mundane lives and give them a reason to achieve what they are born for. 

We tend to inspire others, mentor or simply tell them whether our skills and talent lie, and give us the confidence to achieve that. I cannot just read great literature or watch great art. But our life is transformed, when we acquire the very qualities of leadership that we admire in others.  

In the current scenario I am sure there will be more women and young people from the newer arts and sciences, stuff we are learning to take more seriously in uplifting the nation.

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,

so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

Sing your death song,

and die like a hero going home.

-Tecumseh