Rajat Chaudhuri
Rajat Chaudhuri
OccupationWriter, Translator
Language
  • English
  • Bengali
GenreClimate fiction, Post-modern fiction, Biopunk, Weird fiction
Notable works
  • The Butterfly Effect, Hotel Calcutta
Website
www.rajatchaudhuri.net

Rajat Chaudhuri is an Indian novelist and short story writer. He is the author of the critically acclaimed works Hotel Calcutta (2013), a short story cycle; The Butterfly Effect (2018), the novel Amber Dusk (2007) and other books.[1][2][3] He is also an environment columnist,[4] book reviewer and literary critic. His fiction blends persuasive storytelling [5][6] with experiments in genre,[7] structure, form[8] while addressing themes like climate change,[9][10][11] biotechnology,[12] urbanism,[13][14] and genetic engineering.[15] His fiction has been featured in the climate change video game Survive the Century.[16][17][18][19]

Early life and education

Rajat Chaudhuri grew up and lives in Kolkata. He attended school at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya and studied Economics at University of Calcutta.

Career

He is a bilingual writer writing in English and Bengali. His books include the novel Amber Dusk (2007), the short story cycle Hotel Calcutta (2013), and Calculus (2014), a collection of Bengali short stories.

He is the Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow (2014) of the University of Chichester, United Kingdom, Hawthornden Castle Fellow, Scotland, United Kingdom, and a past of Fellow of Sangam House International Writers’ Residency (2010), India.[20][21][22] He is a Korean Arts Council-InKo sponsored resident writer (2013) of Toji Cultural Centre, which was set up by acclaimed Korean novelist Park Kyung-ni.

His fiction, criticism and essays have appeared in publications including Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Asian Review of Books (Hong Kong), American Book Review (University of Houston-Victoria),[23] Thresholds (University of Chichester),[24] Eclectica, and Outlook magazine.

Chaudhuri has been involved with environment and development related activism and has contributed to the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report.[25] He lobbies for and supports environment related causes.

He has worked for and nurtured development, environment and consumer rights groups, and has spoken about environment and sustainable consumption issues in venues within and outside the country. He has published books, monographs and papers on such topics as the right to water, sustainable food futures, sustainable consumption, and green advertisements.[26][27][28]

Chaudhuri has also served as the developing country (Southern) coordinator on the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) NGO caucus for climate change and energy. [29] He has appeared in environment, science fiction and international cultural meetings and communication fora like Escape Velocity organised by Museum of Science Fiction in Washington D.C., International Communication Association (ICA) events and other places speaking about biotechnology in fiction, sustainability narratives and allied issues while doing readings from his books.[30][31] Chaudhuri has lectured and spoken to different audiences on the role of literature and storytelling in understanding and engaging with the climate crisis in programmes of the University of Oxford, Open University (UK) and University of London (School of Advanced Study).[32][33][34][35]

Spellcasters

A desert town and two Indian metropolises is the setting for a high-stakes game of intrigue, deception and mind-control where a journalist named Chanchal Mitra is caught in the duel of powerful forces. As the novel progresses, a mysterious woman with eyes dark as murder, a billionaire industry captain, a crutch-clutching ex-sailor, and extreme climate change events come into play. Described as a climate adventure while acknowledging its debt to works on psychedelic drugs and occult traditions, the book according to public interviews by the author engages with consumer culture, mental disorders and the secret forces battling for control of minds. Spellcasters has been described as `part psychological-thriller and part climate fiction’.[36] The book has been described by Amitav Ghosh as `A phantasmagoric journey through an alternative reality of collapsed time, hallucinatory visions and spectral visitations …’[37] [38]

The Butterfly Effect

At the centre of a near-future, post-apocalyptic Darkland is the chaotic city of Calcutta. Here Captain Old, a retired policeman who is also a hired assassin receives news that could help unravel the roots of a scourge that has devastated the continent. But problems begin to pile up for him till his own life is at stake. In another narrative we find a group of Indian tourists disappearing in Korea and a detective arriving in Seoul to investigate. But soon the private eye is overwhelmed by incidents that is far beyond his ken as a crime investigator.

Meanwhile in England there is a hotshot geneticist working away on a secret project which he believes could change the world. Each of these distinct but interconnected narratives, arranged in a Russian doll[39] structure, mingle with each other as we near the resolution of this work of speculative fiction which balances science, spirituality and a gentle way of life. This novel has been compared to Philip K. Dick's Blade Runner (based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) for its dystopian settings.[40][41] This book has been listed by Book Riot community as one of "50 must-read novels about eco-disaster".[42]

The Butterfly Effect is a novel about the effect of intertwined disasters. In an interview to researcher and author Sami Ahmad Khan published in the book Star Warriors of the Modern Raj-Materiality, Mythology and Technology of Indian Science Fiction (University of Wales Press) Chaudhuri, speaking about genetic engineering has said, 'A GM mediated disaster could quickly go out of hand especially if it happens in the backdrop of major natural catastrophes (climate related) or say war...'[43]

Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures

A co-edited collection of short stories with multispecies and solarpunk themes. The editors who also contributed to the book’s introduction are Christoph Ruprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, Rajat Chaudhuri and Sarena Ulibarri. [44][45] This anthology of short stories addresses multispecies justice and Solarpunk futures in urban settings of Asia-Pacific and beyond. This book has stories by Priya Sarukkai Chabria, N. R. M. Roshak, Meyari McFarland, Kate V. Bui, Avital Balwit, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Timothy Yam, Joyce Chng, Caroline M. Yoachim, Vlad-Andrei Cucu, Joseph F. Nacino, Natsumi Tanaka, Phoebe Wagner, Eliza Victoria, Taiyo Fujii, Sarah E. Stevens, Joel R Hunt, Rimi B. Chatterjee, Andrew Dana Hudson, Amin Chehelnabi, Octavia Cade, E.H. Nießler, Shweta Taneja and D.K. Mok. The book is on Grist magazine’s `The Definitive Climate Fiction Reading List'. [46] The book is a finalist, shortlisted for the Utopia Awards. [47]

Calcutta Nights

Translated work of narrative nonfiction originally written in Bengali (titled Raater Kolkata) by author Hemendra Kumar Roy in the year 1923. Translated into English by Rajat Chaudhuri, Calcutta Nights is the real-life account of the night-time wanderings of author Hemendra Kumar Roy in the forbidden, dangerous and exciting places of the city of Calcutta.[48][49][50] The chapters in the book cover the brothels of Calcutta's red-light district, the dens of hoodlums, the crematoriums, night-time theatres, beggars hovels, festive streets, the `white town' area of Esplanade, hotels among others. The book according to reports `reveals Calcutta's best kept secrets' and acts like a `guidebook to the dark dens of eeriness' of the city of Calcutta.[51][52] The South China Morning Post in its review, described this book as `a 1920s tour through the seedy nightlife of Calcutta in this tale of beauty and decadence'.[53]

Hotel Calcutta

An old Calcutta hotel is under the threat of demolition from land sharks who want to replace it with a shopping mall. At this time a monk appears and prophesies that the hotel can be saved if people tell stories within its four walls every day. Thus begins a chain of storytelling by guests and hotel staff which brings together realistic and speculative storytelling traditions. The frame story of the hotel's possible demolition flows parallelly till in the final pages there is an unexpected resolution. This book has been mentioned by critics for its evocative descriptions and the magic of storytelling.[54] The book has been noted for its visceral urbanism by academics and critics.[55]

Amber Dusk

Amber Dusk is a cross-cultural novel set in Calcutta and Paris amidst the rapid economic changes of a newly liberalised India. The young Rishi, in love with the French photographer Valence, travels west for work. Meanwhile, his friend, the hardnosed Pedro Braganza, looking for the good life, is taking too many chances in Calcutta.

While in Paris, Rishi gets drawn into a vortex of racism and sporadic violence unleashed on the city by a little known neo-Nazi white supremacist outfit. Pedro has been putting in place his get-rich-quick plans and the initial success goes to his head. Then something happens which puts the two friends on a collision course against each other. It will be difficult for both of them to come out of it unscathed.

The novel was welcomed by critics for exploring surrealistic themes and for its handling of cross-cultural themes. [56]

The Best Asian Speculative Fiction

An edited anthology of speculative stories from all over Asia selected, edited and introduced by Rajat Chaudhuri, the book covers science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird and other sub-genres of speculative fiction from authors in more than a dozen Asian countries.

The book has been described as "one of the most comprehensive speculative fiction collection from the continent."[57] The critic for The Telegraph describes this book of stories as being at "the brink of a strange new world" and as a "necessary and successful conglomerate."[58] The literary commentator Agnes S. K. Yeow writing in Southeast Asian Review of English (SARE)[59] has described the book as `An important contribution to an ever-expanding and dynamic literary form'.

The Great Bengali Poetry Underground

An anthology of one hundred poems selected, introduced and translated from the original Bengali by Rajat Chaudhuri. The ten poets included in the volume are from India and Bangladesh. This collection brings together poetry which has not been well-represented in the mainstream literature of Bengali and the work of these poets is "rarely available in other languages".[60]

The focus of the anthology is on poets who often publish in the so-called `little magazines’ both in print and online. The poems of this anthology are from the underground poetry movements of the Bengali language covering a selection of poets who are currently active. Among the poets included are Pratyush Bandopadhyay, Arpan Chakrabarty, Mitul Dutta, Novera Hossain, Tanmay Mridha, Agni Roy and others. According to a critic "this galaxy of underground poets of Bengal emerge from this book as truth-tellers and myth-busters".[61]

Calculus

Calculus is a collection of short fiction written in Bengali. Set in the city of Calcutta and its outskirts these stories bring together characters like autorickshaw drivers who speak a dead language, tantric practitioners with secret agendas, occult detectives and more which finally portray hidden facets of the city and its people.

Critics have described the stories as postmodernist and magical, with one critic saying the book "transports us to a symbolic plane of existence, perched between the possible and the impossible."[62]

Fellowships and awards

  • Hawthornden Fellow, Scotland, UK, 2015[63]
  • Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow[64] at University of Chichester, United Kingdom, 2014
  • Arts Council Korea[65] and InKo Fellow[66] at Toji Cultural Centre, South Korea, 2013 (Writer-in-Residence)
  • Sangam House Fellow[67] 2010 at Nrityagram, Bangalore, India

Bibliography

  • Spellcasters (2023) ISBN 978-9391125882
  • Calcutta Nights (2020) ISBN 9789389136456
  • The Butterfly Effect (2018) ISBN 9789386906526
  • The Best Asian Speculative Fiction (Edited) (2018) ISBN 9789811185281
  • The Great Bengali Poetry Underground (Translated) (2021) ISBN 9789811494963
  • Amber Dusk (2007) ISBN 978-8184430080
  • Hotel Calcutta (2013) ISBN 9789381523735
  • Calculus (2013) ISBN 9789384002039
  • Water – What are our Rights to it? ISBN 8187222158
  • Green Advertisements – Are they Telling the Truth (co-author) ISBN 8187222425

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Review of Hotel Calcutta at Asian Review of Books, 27 July 2013." Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Review of The Butterfly Effect in Scroll." Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  3. ↑ "Review of Amber Dusk, Indian Literature journal, Vol 52, No.3, Sahitya Akademi", Sahitya Akademi. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Column articles in New Indian Express." Retrieved 3 December 2020
  5. ↑ "Paperback Pickings, Hotel Calcutta by Rajat Chaudhuri, The Telegraph.". Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  6. ↑ "Hotel Calcutta by Rajat Chaudhuri, Reviewed by Shalini Mukerji, Asian Review of Books.". Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "Opinion: ‘Ants of God’ — Novelists make climate change personal and capture wonders of warming planet, Amy Brady, Houston Chronicle.". Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  8. ↑ "An ecological dystopia comes to life in Rajat Chaudhuri’s intricately structured novel, ‘The Butterfly Effect’, Priyadarsi Basu, Scroll.". Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  9. ↑ "Goodbody, Axel. `Cli-Fi beyond the American thriller: Cultural and aesthetic alternatives in climate change fiction since 2010’, Nuevos horizontes de la literatura comparada (Vol. 2): Ecocrítica, 2021. (Spanish Society of General and Comparative Literature).". Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  10. ↑ "Shome, Anindita. `Dystopia, Climate Fiction and Globalisation: reading Rajat Chaudhuri’s The Butterfly Effect’, New Literaria 2nd International e-Conference.".Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  11. ↑ "Article and interview of climate fiction (Cli-Fi) writers, Sonam Joshi, Times of India, 12 June 2022." Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "Khan, Sami Ahmad, Star Warriors of the Modern Raj, University of Wales Press.".Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  13. ↑ "Paul, Subhadeep. `Palimpsestic Jungle/Jumble: Visceral Urbanism in Rajat Chaudhuri’s Hotel Calcutta’, The City Speaks-Urban Spaces in Indian Literature, Edited by Subashish Bhattacharjee, Goutam Karmakar, Routledge India.".Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  14. ↑ "The City Speaks-Urban Spaces in Indian Literature, Edited by Subashish Bhattacharjee, Goutam Karmakar, Taylor & Francis Ltd (Verlag).".Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  15. ↑ "How horribly wrong can experiments in science go, Priyadarsi Basu, Scroll.".Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  16. ↑ "Official website, Survive the Century." Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  17. ↑ "Video game review, Input magazine." Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  18. ↑ "News, University of Cape Town." Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  19. ↑ "Online game ‘Survive the Century’ shows ordinary people what they can do about climate change, South China Morning Post." Retrieved 3 June 2021.
  20. ↑ "Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship in Creative Writing at University of Chichester Archived 4 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  21. ↑ "Profile and report at Arts Council Korea (ARKO) webzine, Nov 2013". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  22. ↑ "Profile at Sangam House". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  23. ↑ " Chitpur Local and the Rip Van Winkles of Calcutta. Volume 36, Number 6, September/October 2015, pp. 7-23." doi:10.1353/abr.2015.0117. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  24. ↑ ""Three Stories of Love", Thresholds, University of Chichester, 2015". Retrieved December 2015
  25. ↑ "UNDP Human Development Report 1998", United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  26. ↑ "Water: What are our Rights to it?" Water: What are our Rights to it? Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  27. ↑ "Green Advertisements – Are they Telling the Truth?" Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  28. ↑ "Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world. Coauthored, Nature Sustainability, August 2022." Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  29. ↑ "Guidelines for Major Groups on CSD 9". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  30. ↑ Rajat Chaudhuri, Escape Velocity 2019", Retrieved 06 June 2019.
  31. ↑ Rajat Chaudhuri, The Butterfly Effect", Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  32. ↑ "Rajat Chaudhuri, Tutor, University of Oxford, Climate and Literature Lecture". Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  33. ↑ "Rajat Chaudhuri, Climate Change, University of Oxford (UK), Climate and Literature Lecture". Retrieved 18 September 2022
  34. ↑ "Contemporary Cultures of Writing Seminar Series Autumn 2021 - Climate change and creativity, Open University (UK)". Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  35. ↑ "Climate Change and Creativity: Round table discussion, School of Advanced Study, University of London (UK)". Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  36. ↑ " ", Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  37. ↑ "", Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  38. ↑ "", Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  39. ↑ "Book Excerpt,Scroll.in", Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  40. ↑ "Calcutta in Dark Sci in Outlook Magazine, February 2019", Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  41. ↑ "Chasing the Moment in the Butterfly Effect, Consuming Cyberpunk, January 2019", Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  42. ↑ "50 Must Read Novels about Eco-Disaster, Book Riot, April 2019", Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  43. ↑ "Star Warriors of the Modern Raj-Materiality, Mythology and Technology of Indian Science Fiction, Sami Ahmad Khan, University of Wales Press, April 2019", Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  44. ↑ "Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, WorldCat". Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  45. ↑ Introduction, Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB)". Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  46. ↑ "The Definitive Climate Fiction Reading List, Grist". Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  47. ↑ "Inaugural Utopia Awards nominees, Locus magazine". Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  48. ↑ "Babus, Bordellos, and Gaslit Nights, The Pioneer, 12 January 2020", Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  49. ↑ "Calcutta’s ladies of the night: A forgotten Bengali classic offers a glimpse of a racy lifestyle, Scroll.in, 07 January 2020", Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  50. ↑ "Book reveals Kolkata’s best kept secrets, Outlook, 29 January 2020", Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  51. ↑ "Book reveals Kolkata’s best kept secrets, Outlook, 29 January 2020", Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  52. ↑ "From the written world: Books to look out for in 2020, The New Indian Express, 19 January 2020", Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  53. ↑ "Sex and the city: a 1920s tour through the seedy nightlife of Calcutta in this tale of beauty and decadence, South China Morning Post, 09 March 2020", Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  54. ↑ "The Magic of Storytelling, Anu Kumar, The Thumb Print Magazine", Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  55. ↑ "The City Speaks: Urban Spaces in Indian Literature Edited by Subashish Bhattacharjee and Goutam Karmakar, Routledge, India, Taylor and Francis", Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  56. ↑ "Surreal Explored, Deccan Herald, 3rd Feb, 2008 Archived 2014-11-05 at the Wayback Machine", Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  57. ↑ Singapore Writers Festival Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  58. ↑ The Telegraph, India Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  59. ↑ Yeow, Agnes S.K. (30 October 2009). Book review in Southeast Asian Review of English (SARE), Universiti Malaya, Vol 56, Issue 2, 2019. Accessed 26 December 2019.
  60. ↑ ‘The Great Bengali Poetry Underground’: An anthology that dives beneath the calm surface. Book Excerpt from Scroll, 05 February 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  61. ↑ A galaxy of underground poets of Bengal emerge in this book as truth-tellers and myth-busters. Book Review from Scroll, 06 March 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  62. ↑ Politics peley oboshyoi porben. (in Bengali) Book review of Calculus in Ekak Matra, February 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  63. ↑ Hawthornden Fellow, Scotland, UK, 2015
  64. ↑ Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow
  65. ↑ Arts Council Korea
  66. ↑ InKo Fellow
  67. ↑ Sangam House Fellow


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