Few Indian authors have been able to mix science and fiction as effectively as Tirtha Pratim Das in his writing. A scientist by profession and a storyteller at heart, he has created a niche for himself among other literary figures. This is the story of how he gained recognition as an author from just posting his stories on social media platforms to now having nine novels published and three books about popular science.
Tirtha Pratim Das's fundamental identity remains that of a space scientist, but he has pursued creative writing with equal devotion. His work often contains veiled elements of his scientific training which have given it a flavor unlike any other.
Tirtha Pratim Das’s journey from being a space scientist to becoming a published writer is testimony to the strength of one’s passion and creativity. His unique combination of scientific knowledge with storytelling abilities has given rise to a group of books which are distinct among those belonging to the Indian literature.
Personal Journey
What inspired you to transition from your initial career to becoming an author?
My primary career as a space scientist continues to be my identity. I enjoy creative writing as a matter of passion and have never thought of taking creative writing as my profession. I started this journey with a few social media stories, which the netizens greatly appreciated. That was the beginning of my journey as an author. So far I have authored nine fiction books in English and Bengali, and three popular science books in English. Two fiction books that I published with White Falcon Publishing are ‘The Occult’, and ‘Unusual Midnight Tales'. The first one is a novel (paranormal genre, about a lesser-known cult and disclosing a strange connection with quantum science), while the second one is a collection of stories (stories with unusual turns). Many of the stories as well as the novel subtly indicate my scientific training.
Can you share a pivotal moment that defined your journey as a writer?
A few years ago I posted a short write-up on social media. It was about an incident of a young woman being stalked by a mysterious person. One day the stalker encountered the woman in a narrow lane when she was alone. As I wrote about that incident, the post received tremendous interest from the readers. They enquired what happened next. Then I had to disclose that her husband was displaying strange behaviour for the last few days, which overlapped with the period of her getting stalked. Then, there were more curious questions from the readers. Gradually, a complete novella took shape. Thereafter, the novella was published in Bengali and received tremendous appreciation from the readers. Thus, my journey started as an author. Later, that novella was expanded, and the English novel ‘The Occult' was born.
How have your experiences in the public eye influenced your writing?
My writings have always been influenced by real-life incidents, mannerisms of the people around me, the books that have inspired my thoughts, the wilderness of nature, and fantasy, to name a few. My love for classical music, philosophy, psychology, history, passion for travel, and exploration - all contributed to influencing my writing. In many of my books I have added photographs of the places that form the backdrop of the story, with minute details which are covered. I receive feedback from my readers that they too visit those places to witness the spots that are described in the story.
Writing Process
What is your typical day like when you’re immersed in writing a book?
I usually write on my mobile phone during my travel. The Bangalore traffic has helped me indirectly to utilise the time weaving the stories. I also write during long-distance travels, when I am in an airport, and onboard a flight. As writing is not my profession, I do not get to devote the entire day to writing.
Do you have any unique rituals or habits that help you get into the writing zone?
Not really. It all depends on my mood, and availability of time to pen down my words.
How do you balance your writing with your other professional commitments?
I have huge responsibilities in my professional, as well as personal life. Like the way I try to isolate my professional life from my personal life, I do not allow the stress of my other facets of responsibilities to interfere with my writing. Weaving fantasies, dreams and fiction is a separate kingdom to me, where I reign with the characters I create. Similarly, I religiously maintain the sanctity of my professional responsibilities by not allowing my hobby of writing to affect my work.
About the Books
What inspired the story behind your latest book?
My latest book is a collection of a few thriller stories, named ‘Unusual Midnight Tales’. All the stories in the book are inspired by real-life incidents. Some of the incidents are based on my own experiences, while some are based on the experiences of my near and dear ones. Every story has a common factor, that is, unusual experiences. On one occasion it so happened that my readers inspired me to write a complete novel based on the actual incidents behind a novella of paranormal genre. That novel will be available in the forthcoming International Calcutta Book Fair 2025.
How much of your personal life and experiences are reflected in your characters and plot?
My personal life and experiences have significantly influenced the characters and plots of my stories. In many cases, almost all the characters are either real or inspired by real people. Similarly, many places I mention in my stories are real; all are visited and explored by me. I have a habit of mingling with the locals, exploring untrodden paths, tasting local cuisines, going for solo walks, and learning about the local beliefs, cultures and customs. All these have greatly influenced my literary work.
What message or themes do you hope readers take away from your book?
The message is: “There are matters of thrill everywhere; do not deprive yourself of the opportunities of thrill, adventure and going beyond the defined boundaries.”
Creative Insights
Where do you draw inspiration from for your stories and characters?
From the subtle unusualness in the flow of events, mannerisms of people around, and unnoticeable incidents. Elements of great stories are floating everywhere, one needs to pick them up. Everything around us can bloom into a great story, once it is touched with the magic wand of an author. In my case, these range from my childhood experiences, days in my school, college, University, and professional life, even the unpalatable experiences I had, and my struggles, to the greatest philosophical realisation in my life.
How do you handle creative blocks or periods of low motivation?
During creative blocks or periods of low motivation, I concentrate on editing my ongoing literary work rather than writing. Also, I indulge in other creative works like composing posters for my novels and stories, and making trailers, to name a few. I also read books of different genres. Often, my creative activities help me to come out of writer’s block.
What part of the writing process do you find most challenging and why?
There are three ways I write. First, is the free-flowing method. In this method, I do not have a pre-thought plot of the story and unleash my imagination to take any course. It has its challenges because, at some point in time I need to unwind the story and ensure a meaningful, self-contained story without any unnecessary elements, naturally evolving into a plot. In the second method, I go with a pre-defined plot. The method is different from the first one, where you need to prepare the structure of the story first, and then build the details around every chapter. Maintaining consistency of events, word counts, and linguistic uniformity, all need to be accounted for in both of these methods. The third method is the hybrid method, where the challenges of both free-flowing and plot-based writings are present. Sometimes I need to revisit a previous chapter to make changes to suit the flow of the story. Editing is also a challenge because improvement is a never-ending process, and one cannot find his/her own mistakes. This is, by itself, an important topic of discussion.
Reader Engagement
How do you connect with your readers and fans on a personal level?
Mostly through the social media. I am active on Facebook, where I get responses from my readers. Many of them send me emails.
What has been the most memorable feedback or interaction you’ve had with a reader?
Here, I need to disclose an incident. It so happened that one of my avid readers turned out to be my ex-student whom I got an opportunity to teach a few years ago. She has always been appreciative of my literary work through the internet, and I chanced upon her unexpectedly in a training course in ASCI, Hyderabad, nearly after eight years. I was shocked to notice that she had lost her characteristic cheerfulness. Upon enquiry, she disclosed to me a horrific chapter of her life. A few people resorted to black magic to torment her, and finally kill her. Then she requested me to pen down those incidents, as she had tremendous faith in my writing skill. I did the same. The story is published in my recent book ‘Unusual Midnight Tales’. After the book was published, I was later given feedback that she got rid of her anxiety and reclaimed her characteristic cheerfulness. You may like to read the story. I am sure, her unnerving experiences will petrify you, too.
How important is reader feedback to your writing process?
Reader feedback is important to know the likings for whom a writer writes. Every literary creation has a target group of readers. However, I believe that a writer needs to write based on his/her passion and beliefs, and should not be influenced by external pressure. Whatever I write out of my passion will find its suitable audience, not necessarily have to satisfy all. Feedback from readers indeed helps to improve, but it should not kill the author’s originality.
Industry Perspective
What are your thoughts on the current state of the publishing industry?
The publishing industry is sailing through a different kind of ecosystem today. It is best expressed with an analysis of the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). As far as the strengths are concerned, today’s publishing industries are equipped with digital and AI technologies of formatting, printing, creating graphics, doing advertisement, maintaining a blockchain presence, to name a few. Coming to weakness, there are issues related to truly original contents, quality of the literary work, as well as dearth of digital technologies for supporting the digital versions of certain languages. There are opportunities like taking forward a title in the realm of movies and web-series. There are also opportunities like publishing the eBooks and audio-story versions of printed books, which simplify the publication process to a great extent. Finally, coming to the aspect of threats, there are issues like decline of book-readers, piracy, legal ordeal related to breach of intellectual property rights, to name a few. While these lists are not exhaustive, these are the major driving factors that define the current state of the publishing industry. The publishers need to convert the opportunities to their strengths, and take pro-active measures to shield against the threats that they cannot change. The weaknesses are the ones to be worked on. A strong understanding between the author and the publisher solves several problems. The digital ecosystem establishes a network between the author, the publishers and the readers, which was not the case even two decades ago.
How do you see the role of traditional publishing versus self-publishing for authors today?
Both traditional and self-publishing paths are important. In many cases, the self-publishing channels offer exposure to the new authors. It is not easy, except certain privileged cases, for a debut author to get a traditional publisher to publish his/her book. While the author does not have to pay for publishing his/her creative work through traditional publishing, in self-publishing a capital investment is necessary. However, in self-publishing the author earns more royalty than traditional publishing. In self-publishing, in most of the cases, the author is free to take forward his/her creativity through other channels like audio stories, web-series, movies, etc. without any formal no-objection from the publisher. In many cases, the self-publishing path allows the publisher a non-exclusive publishing right. In that sense, self-publishing gives lot of flexibilities and legal advantages to an author. However, a challenge in self-publishing is the book promotion and availability of the books in bookstores. Often, these are add-on services, and hence, chargeable. I think, based on the need, the authors have both the options open to choose from, which is, indeed, a positive sign.
What changes or trends in the literary world excite you the most?
With the advent of technology, today a literary work can be taken forward in the form of movies, web-series, eBooks, as well as merchandise. That is quite exciting to me.
Future Projects
Can you give us a sneak peek into any upcoming projects or books you’re working on?
So far, I have published nine books in Bengali and English. The details of those books, as well as some of my ongoing projects, are available in the website (https://sites.google.com/view/tirthapratimbooks). Currently, I am working on three projects. The first is a Bengali novel, titled NishiYoni (which means ‘The Womb of Darkness’). The other two are two ghost story books, in English and Bengali. All these books have components of my real-life experiences which I encountered at different places.
What goals or aspirations do you have for your future as an author?
So far I have no specific aspirations as an author. I enjoy writing and being read by the like-minded readers. That’s all I cherish. Yet, I shall be happy if a few of my literary works are converted to web-series and/or movies. If someone is interested, I am open for discussion to take forward the modalities of execution.
How do you envision your writing evolving over the next few years?
Older I grow, more matured I am expected to become. My writing is likely to be evolved accordingly. More maturity may come in the way I present the topics, compose the structure of the literary work, or do more experiments with mixed genres.
Advice and Wisdom
What advice would you give to the aspiring authors looking to break into the industry?
Not advice, I can rather share my experience. I would tell, “Write with passion. The rest will fall in line.”
How do you stay grounded and focused amidst the pressures of fame and public life?
Just by keeping an enjoyment as an enjoyment. Thrill, enjoyment, adventure do not have anything to do with public life.
What lessons have you learned through your journey that you wish you had known earlier?
I learnt not to expect unanimous applaud from every cross section of the readers. It is okay not to be liked by all, or liked by only a small section of the readers.
Personal Reflections
How do you unwind and relax when you’re not writing or working?
I love to read books, play tabla, and keep myself engaged in several other creative activities like making trailers for my books, composing book-covers, posters, developing websites for my literary work, making AI-based character models in visuals, experimenting with advanced technologies that can aid my literary work, to name a few. I also write popular science books, and three of them have already been released. I am also a science communicator and speak about space science exploration. I enjoy explaining difficult concepts of Physics in easy ways to students and non-experts. I also enjoy connecting apparently different domains like classical music, dance, physics, and literary work. I enjoy travelling a lot. I explore places, mingle with locals, embrace the indigenous. All are relaxing. I never find myself resorting to sleep as a relaxation.
Can you share a little-known fact about yourself that your fans might find surprising?
Certainly. Many of you may guess who was the young lady stalked by the mysterious person in my novel ‘The Occult’. Read the book, and make a guess. Also see the cover-page of the novel, which may give you some clue.
What book (by another author) has had the most significant impact on you, and why?
If I have to immediately pick up two names, I would mention the famous Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, who is well-known for the creation of the detective character Byomkesh Bakshi. In fact, he is regarded for his literary work in several other genres, like historical, romance, paranormal, and many more. Another author whose work keeps inspiring me is Sir Edgar Allan Poe. Both Sharadindu and Allan Poe have inspired my fantasy, escelially the latter has sown the seeds of my love for the dark thriller genre. There are other authors who have influenced me in my subconscious, like Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Saiyad Mustafa Ali, Gajendrakumar Mitra, Satyajit Roy, to name a few. It is difficult to name all of them, or any specific book. I have always been an avid reader of classical literature, and the work of several authors have crafted my choice of topics, linguistic style, character building, narration, ambience creation, and several other facets of literary creation. I bow to all of them.
Through his writings, Tirtha Pratim Das invites you into the extraordinary within mundane existence, if only you dare look for them. These short stories are realistic but there is also some touch of supernaturalism and science fiction in them that give them fresh outlooks challenging readers’ minds. As long as this continues he will maintain an even balance between making science advances while at the same time exploring the fine line existing between reality and imagination, factuality and fantasy in some mystery stories yet to be developed by him for readership purposes. It motivates not only writers who dream big but all people whose hobbies do not hinder their professional life. In Indian literature world, Tirtha Pratim Das is certainly outstanding – wearing coats during day while weaving tales every night; testing our expectations continually with new techniques; and urging us to venture into the extraordinary travels of our minds.
Available on Amazon
