{"id":919,"date":"2015-04-30T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/?page_id=919"},"modified":"2023-05-12T06:10:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T06:10:05","slug":"amit-chaudhuri","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/amit-chaudhuri\/","title":{"rendered":"Amit Chaudhuri"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amit Chaudhuri<\/h2>

Writer & Musician<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t think it makes sense to do something that one doesn\u2019t love doing\u2026 god knows pursuing what you like is going to be hard enough! But if you\u2019re pursuing something that is boring to you fundamentally, then I think that\u2019s doubly difficult, no matter whatever the material rewards are at the end of that pursuit.<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Growing up between Bombay & Calcutta, Amit took his degree in English at University College London, and went on to write his dissertation on DH Lawrence\u2019s poetry at Oxford. A multiple award-winning writer (that includes the Sahitya Akademi award) and a well-known favourite on the critics\u2019 choice circuit (he often sits on Man Booker panels), Amit has been acclaimed by the likes of Guardian, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, and The Boston Globe, among several others. He is also Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia and a proficient musician in the Indian classical tradition who works on experimental music, such as a raag Todi interpretation of Eric Clapton\u2019s rock anthem Layla.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1430399456428{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430399748267{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]What would your advice be to a young person at the start of his or her career and confused about pursuing passion versus being pragmatic? Say, to someone aspiring to be a writer, or a musician \u2013 choices that are not considered \u201cpractical\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I don\u2019t think it makes sense to do something that one doesn\u2019t love doing \u2013 clich\u00e9d though that sounds \u2013 god knows pursuing what you like is going to be hard enough! But if you\u2019re pursuing something that is boring to you fundamentally, then I think that\u2019s doubly difficult, no matter whatever the material rewards are at the end of that pursuit.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s very important to know what talents you have and pursue those and I don\u2019t think you can give up practical strategies altogether: However radical you might be, you do need to make a space for yourself so you can continue to be radical. You have to earn it.<\/p>\n

I would say one should bring the two \u2013 one\u2019s academic studies and whatever ambitions one might have with regard to vocation \u2013 as close together as possible. And at the same time, one should at least try to attain certain conventional endorsements, social markers, in the realm of what one is doing. So if it\u2019s music, for example, one could study music, one could aspire to go to a really good music school. And studying music is not necessarily million miles away from thinking about music, writing music, playing music. If you\u2019re a musician, it means you have to be a thinker of music, it\u2019s not enough to just perform & produce it. So while a musician should probably not be studying economics or chartered accountancy, he or she should definitely be doing more than just playing free gigs. It\u2019s going to help you find practical footing and will be of great use to you in your evolution as an artist.<\/p>\n

And while building up yourself on various levels within your subject might not seem a pragmatic ploy at first, it will have its pragmatic uses.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430399758017{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]What sort of formal education is an absolute essential for your profession?<\/span> <\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The informal essential is reading \u2013 it is very important to read if you wish to be a writer. Knowing how to read, thinking about what you read is essential \u2013 in fact, knowing how to read is more important than the actual writing, I think.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that some of the greatest writers whether from Ireland or Bengal, studied or taught literature. In that sense, a university education in the department of literature at a good university with a good department would be useful \u2013 so I would recommend that as formal education.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430399887864{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Could you share with us the kind of internship or experience that would be helpful for a young person considering this line of work?<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I never went to a creative writing school, but I have seen people benefit from it. It can teach you how to hone your craft. Also, working at a journal of some repute \u2013 so good editors under whom you\u2019re working \u2013 would be a valuable apprenticeship. What\u2019s essential is for you to preserve your independent minded-ness, so one should always be wary about anything getting prescriptive.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s essential is for you to preserve your independent minded-ness, so one should always be wary about anything getting prescriptive.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row bg_type=”no_bg” css=”.vc_custom_1430402236051{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430400416094{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]How do you see this profession faring 20 years down the line?<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In the 90s & 2000s, mainstream literary publishing became more commercial than it ever has before. I know that that scenario has been a terrible one for writers and publishers. One of the things that shook the mainstream world was the market crash of 2008 \u2013 self-publishing, e-books, Amazon were anyway shaking things up \u2013 and that had a huge impact as well. I don\u2019t want the tyranny of Amazon but I think it\u2019s been good \u2013 and anyway on the net it isn\u2019t possible to have a singular tyrannical player, it\u2019ll always be de-centralized.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row bg_type=”no_bg”][vc_column][vc_column_text]A lot that mainstream publishing would have balked at, now have avenues in places such as online magazines, like Guernica which has been able to give us quite demanding intellectual fare because they can do so on the net. Things like this splinters and opens up the scene further and that can only be good. Both for publishing and writing.<\/p>\n

In terms of what\u2019s happening with social media, I think at the moment what it\u2019s doing to expression is that it seems to be showing us the worst side of free expression \u2013 tribalism. I think it\u2019ll take a while for social media to stop congratulating itself and for it to become more aware of itself and that\u2019s when the creativity of it will emerge some more. As of now, I feel it\u2019s undifferentiated. Something\u2019s either great or it\u2019s horrible \u2013 it needs to go beyond these dichotomies.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430403385837{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\"\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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What is the kind of supplementary informal learning that you find helpful? Any particular reading you do?<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]One needs to read what one likes. If it\u2019s a deep form of liking, then that itself will begin to shape things for you. If you read indiscriminately, then that\u2019s what you are \u2013 the person and the kind of writer you are. If you read more the kind of reading that\u2019s about the person you are, the writer you are, then it will inform your writing, strengthen it, enrich it further.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s essential is allowing yourself to open up to be interested in discovering more.<\/p>\n

I remember when I was 17, I went with a bunch of my friends to watch Pather Panchali<\/em> and all I saw was social realism \u2013 somebody trying to make a story out of the tragedy of the poor. I also saw it with a degree of solemnity and impatience because you can never really be interested in something so abstract and conscience-stricken at 17. I pretended to be interested, of course.<\/p>\n

But when I saw it again, years later, instead of the tragedy, I saw the delight and the joy of the filmmaking, of the filmmaker \u2013 what he could do with the quotidian, the mundane. And that was part of this revelation about Ray, of course, but also about me as a person and as a writer.<\/p>\n

Now this doesn\u2019t mean you should watch Ray, but that you should allow yourself to discover yourself better to reach a place where your voice and aesthetics as a writer are strong and in place. And you can aspire more then.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][vc_row bg_type=”no_bg” css=”.vc_custom_1430401958768{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430401093560{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]What do you do when you come across roadblocks?<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I know that writing is always going to be difficult, so it\u2019s essential to have a sense of distance from it. I allow myself to have an informal approach towards how a particular piece of writing is going to turn out and to not plan it too clearly in advance while at the same time having a fair idea of where it\u2019s going. To just take your cue from the previous paragraph or the previous sentence, with that larger goal in mind.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row bg_type=”no_bg” css=”.vc_custom_1430402358407{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]Initially, this was tough to do. To understand that writing is not something that can be done with an effort of the will, it\u2019s not something you can achieve like that. Embracing that hatha yoga process \u2013 do these exercises and thereby, achieve \u2013 doesn\u2019t work with writing. You can\u2019t bang away at it till it\u2019s done, you know? So, that sense of control can never be absolute, even though you can\u2019t be hands-off. That was a tough lesson to learn.<\/p>\n

Practicing music is also essential for my sense of distance from my writing; to me, it\u2019s enabling. And it also imposes a discipline in my life \u2013 it\u2019s like being a sportsman \u2013 you simply cannot be away from music for a month and then come back to it and hope to feel anything but miserable.<\/p>\n

And I also take time off in whatever way \u2013 going for a walk, watching trash on TV (these days, it\u2019s Downton Abbey<\/em>), going out for dinner.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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To understand that writing is not something that can be done with an effort of the will\u2026 You can\u2019t bang away at it till it\u2019s done\u2026 That was a tough lesson to learn.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1430401325257{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”]What is most rewarding about being a writer?<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I think being discovered by younger readers, or having made a difference to young writers who are doing good work themselves. Zia Haider Rahman came up to me recently and told me about how he had observed me when he was a student at Oxford in 1991\u2026 It makes you feel that your work has a life, that it\u2019s still speaking to someone.[\/vc_column_text]

<\/div>[vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
Photos by:\u00a0Geoff Pugh<\/h6>\n
Interview conducted by Pooja Pande.<\/h6>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row bg_type=”no_bg” css=”.vc_custom_1425396743070{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/3″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text] I don\u2019t think it makes sense to do something that one doesn\u2019t love doing\u2026 god knows pursuing what you like is going to be hard enough! But if you\u2019re pursuing something that is boring to you fundamentally, then I think that\u2019s doubly difficult, no …<\/p>\n

Amit Chaudhuri<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"plain-container","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timelesslifeskills.org\/cttc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}