Sudipto Das

Sudipto Das

Sudipto Das in 2013
Born 12 July 1973
Occupation Author, Musician, VP Engineering
Nationality Indian
Alma mater IIT Kharagpur
Notable works The Ekkos Clan
Website
www.sudiptodas.com

Sudipto Das (born 12 July 1973) is the author of the novel The Ekkos Clan, released in July 2013 by Niyogi Books[1] and the coffee table book Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan, released in April 2014. Within a fortnight of its release The Ekkos Clan came to 3rd position[2] in the best seller list in Flipkart in the Literature and Fiction section.[3] Sudipto, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and a musician too, is currently the VP Engineering[4] of Mirafra Technologies.[5] He is also a secretary at the Sarathi Socio Cultural Trust for many years,[6] looking after their cultural initiatives in Bangalore.[7][8]

Early Days

Sudipto was born in Calcutta to a family which fled Bangladesh during the partition riots of 1947.[4] He grew up listening horrid stories of the partition, something which he has used extensively in his debut novel The Ekkos Clan. He completed his engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1996. Having started his professional career in 1996 at Noida, he moved to Bangalore in 1997. He has been living in Bangalore ever since. A violinist, trained in Western classical music, Sudipto started writing short stories and poems in Bengali and English while he was in IIT Kharagpur, where he also served as the Governor of Technology Music Society, Eastern (ETMS) in 1995–96.

Music

Sudipto started the music band Kohal in Bangalore in 2007 with some of the members of ETMS. In May 2014 he tried his hand at creating background scores for a play,[9] directed by Sharmin Ali, where he used only Mozart's compositions for the entire score. In 2014 he recreated Eastern European melodies of the 1940s for the Forum Three[10] War Musical Schweyk in the Second World War by Bertolt Brecht,[11][12] which was staged many times in Bangalore and once in Auroville for an international audience.[13]

The Ekkos Clan

Main article The Ekkos Clan

The Ekkos Clan

The Ekkos Clan is the debut novel of Sudipto. He started working on the novel in 2008.[4] It was formally launched at a function in Bangalore on 3 August 2013,[14] followed by a series of events across the country. It's a contemporary mystery novel set against the backdrop of ancient Indian history. The book deals extensively with linguistic palaeontology, Astronomy, Archaeology, History, Music and Poetry. It has demystified Rig Veda to a great extent, delving deep into the behind the scene stories of Rig Veda, the oldest book of the mankind.

Book launch at Oxford Book Store, Bangalore

Plot

"The lives of all the members of Kratu's family are at stake Reason : the cryptic stories of Kubha, Kratu's grandmother, which hold keys to the origin of Indo- European civilization. As we embark upon this adventurous journey with Kratu, Afsar and Tits, we are greeted by riddles, threats and a whole new dimension of linguistic paleontology , which we could not even have thought of. Welcome to the world of The Ekkos Clan, where mystery unfolds at every paragraph."[15]

Reviews

“A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction", said Jug Suraiya, an senior columnist with Times of India, about the book.

"Sudipto Das' debut novel combines ancient history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics, music and a mystery story," said The Hindu.[16]

"An Indian thriller inspired by Dan Brown & Harrison Ford! ...Fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and miraculous escapes," said The Telegraph.[17]

"For a novel whose setting stretches from the Partition-affected villages of Noakhali, Bangladesh to Arkaim in the Southern Urals, The Ekkos Clan is a daring novel," said Sunday Guardian, in its review on 17 August 2013.[18]

Bangalore Mirror said it's "an interesting read for an afternoon."[19]

The New Indian Express extolled its "unflinching look at communal carnage."[20]

Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan

"The Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is a compilation of historical and linguistic facts and figures which loosely form the background of Sudipto Das' debut novel, The Ekkos Clan... In [this] book, Sudipto, has presented a series of discoveries and theories, espoused by a particular school of historians and linguists. He has used these discoveries as the historical background needed for his novel [The Ekkos Clan]."[21]

Future Works

In various interviews,[22][23] given between September and December 2013, Sudipto mentioned that he had already completed the first draft of his second book, Prembajar, which wouldn't be a sequel of The Ekkos Clan. "My yearning to make my alma mater IIT Kharagpur (KGP) as a part of my literary creation is so strong that I want to write a KGP trilogy too, a set of three unusual love stories, all originating in KGP," he said. Prembajar would be the first book of this KGP trilogy.

Sudipto does intend to make a trilogy with Afsar-Kratu-Tista and linguistic palaeontology. The sequel of The Ekkos Clan would be on the mathematician Aryabhatt.[24]

In Media

Print & Online

  1. The Hindu
    • 26 September 2013: Feature, "It took Sudipto intensive research to put the novel together..."[16]
    • 11 October 2013: Feature, "Sudipto is possessed with a manic energy as he states that his influences are many and varied..."[25]
    • 10 December 1014: Quoted in Metro Plus feature, "Author Sudipto Das is wary of Radio taxi services..."[26]
  2. Star of Mysore, 4 October 2013: Interview, "My second book named Prembajar..."[22]
  3. Sakal Times, 6 October 2013: Interview, "It won't be a sequel per se... will be about the mathematician Aryabhatt..."[24]
  4. Techgoss.com, 10 October 2013: Interview, "I would rather prefer working in smaller companies, where making a difference is much easier than in a company like Intel where you're just lost in the crowd..."[27]
  5. The New Indian Express, 15 October 2013: Feature, "Sudipto Das, the author of The Ekkos Clan, writes, perhaps for the first time, on the sufferings of people on the Bangladesh side during the 1947 Partition of India..."[20]
  6. Deccan Chronicle
    • 23 October 2013: Feature, "Sudipto was born into a Bangladeshi family which moved to Kolkata during the Partition..."[28]
    • 25 October 2013: Quoted in a Lifestyle feature, "I don't feel insecure at all because I am financially secure at this age and my creativity hasn't even faltered..."[29]
    • 28 October 2013: Quoted in a Lifestyle feature, "This is the basic measure a writer should take when approaching an agent."[30]
  7. NY.NEWSYAPS, 23 October 2013: Review & Feature, "Sudipto pointed out, companies, such as Kodak, Nokia, or Blackberry, took less than a few decades to go from being market-leading innovators to the capitalistic equivalents of failed states..."[31]
  8. Asian Age, 25 October 2013: Quoted in a Lifestyle feature, "I feel that I have matured as a writer at this age..."[32]
  9. Hindustan Times, 27 October 2013: Quoted in "PickingOrder – Get your list of what to READ"[33]
  10. Bangalore Mirror, 15 November 2013: Interview, "One feisty woman's partition story."[34]
  11. The Telegraph, 27 November 2013: Review & Interview, "I realized that almost nothing had been written about the Bengal side of Partition..."[17]
  12. Absolute India, 2 February 2014: Interview, "Anyone who reads can also write"[35]
  13. Bangalore Mirror, 10 December 2014: Article, by invitation, "It’s no smooth ride on app cabs"[8]

Blogosphere

  1. Interviews[23]

References

  1. ↑ Publisher's Page
  2. ↑ Sudipto's blog
  3. ↑ iitkgp.org ran a news story about The Ekkos Clan coming to 3rd position in the bestseller list in Flipkart
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sudipto's Home Page
  5. ↑ Mirafra Technologies
  6. ↑ Lasrado, Svetlana. "Many facets of a fest". Many facets of a fest. Deccan Herald. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  7. ↑ SUKUMARAN, AJAY (September 27, 2009). "Lakshmi smile on Durga Puja - Hint of revival from crisis in bangalore festivities". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Das, Sudipto (December 10, 2014). "It’s no smooth ride on app cabs". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  9. ↑ An eccentric 'Potli' on stage: 29 April 2014, Bangalore Mirror
  10. ↑ "Forum Three". Forum Three. Retrieved 10 Oct 2014.
  11. ↑ Gupta, Namita (13 September 2014). "Keeping a "Brecht"". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Rajagopal, Rashmi (12 September 2014). "War Time Tales". New Indian Express. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  13. ↑ -, Zoya (November 30, 2014). "Schweyk in the Second World War". Schweyk in the Second World War. Auroville Radio. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  14. ↑ Book launch on 3 Aug, 2013
  15. ↑ Dutta, Aparajita (27 July 2014). "REVIEW : THE EKKOS CLAN WRITTEN BY SUDIPTO DAS". crystallasia. Aparajita Dutta. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Hindu: History decoded
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 The Telegraph, 27 November 2013: An Indian thriller inspired by Dan Brown & Harrison Ford!
  18. ↑ Sunday Guardian review
  19. ↑ Bangalore Mirror: Three Reads
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 The New Indian Express, 15 October 2013: An unflinching look
  21. ↑ The New Indian Express, 24 June 2014: On Dravidian-Iranian connect
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Star of Mysore: Interview
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Blogger Interviews | Nishita's Rants and Raves | Reading Corner | paperblog | Aditi Chopra's Blog | Eloquent Articulation |
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Sakal Times: Interview
  25. ↑ The Hindu, 11 October 2013: New Look at History
  26. ↑ "All for the daily ride home". The Hindu. December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  27. ↑ Techgloss.com, 10 October 2013: Interview
  28. ↑ Deccan Chronicle, 23 October 2013: Bin'das' Writer
  29. ↑ Deccan Chronicle, 25 October 2013: 'Age' you like it
  30. ↑ Deccan Chronicle, 28 October 2013: Rising 'literally'
  31. ↑ NY.NEWSYAPS, 23 October 2013: Cultural Superiority and the modern Indian: A conversation around The Ekkos Clan
  32. ↑ Asian Age, 25 October 2013: 'Age' you like it
  33. ↑ Hindustan Times, 27 October 2013: PickingOrder – Get your list of what to READ...
  34. ↑ Bangalore Mirror, 15 November 2013: One feisty woman’s partition story
  35. ↑ Absolute India, 2 February 2014: Interview