Shovon Chowdhury: ‘People need stories’
1 min read
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose interviews Shovon Chowdhury, a Delhi-based humorist and author of a novel, The Competent Authority
Shovon Chowdhury’s grandfather ran away from Dhaka to escape Japanese bombing in 1945, not realising that the war was about to end, and arrived in Calcutta just in time for the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946. These shared family experiences have left him deeply averse to sudden movement, which is why he has lived in Delhi for the last 20 years. In his spare time, he does advertising work for clients who cannot, he says, find anyone cheaper.
His first novel The Competent Authority took him 11 years to complete, because he can type with only one finger.
I know people keep saying the novel is dying, and I’m sorry if I drove another nail in, but can you imagine a world without stories?
