Anandajit Goswami is an Associate Professor and HOD, Department of Social and Political Studies, Department of Economics, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies. He has a PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from TERI School of Advanced Studies and Masters in International Trade and Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was also a Ford Foundation Scholar. His book series – Lucy Series is a novel work in the field of children science fiction and sustainability literature genre. He has recently come out with the third book in the Lucy Series, a highly engaging science fiction magnum opus titled Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola. He has co-authored this book with Debashis Chakraborty.  

I chat with him about his book Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola, how he wrote the science fiction narrative of this book, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello, Anandajit! Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am like a string and a quark which is moving towards a singularity of matter and antimatter at every instance. Otherwise, I am generally just an expressionist looking for expressions which are seeking me.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

Have not yet found my love for writing. The day I find her/him/she/he through just a word, line, thought or expression, signifiers, signified ones, that day itself I guess I will stop writing.

If you could only describe your book Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola in five words, what would they be?

Matter, Antimatter, Dark, Magic, Realism.

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

Lots of mind benders, parallel existences, multiple openings to plots and scope of self-reinterpretation with a thrilling plot-line twisted with dark fantasy, magic realism, dystopia and little bit of Afro-centricism.

What was your creative process like behind writing the science fiction narrative in this book?

I don’t know about the creative part, but yes there was lot of process and hard work in conceptualisation of a magnum vision only to just 180 pages, where the lines do have content of 1000 pages full of science, quantum and astrophysics, fiction, sustainability, magic, realism, fantasy, darkness, dystopia and a thrilling plotline with reflective characters with multiple bandwidths of opening up further for readers.

What is the main message that you want readers to take away from this book?

I can’t really summarise one message from the books of Lucy Series, as any book of Lucy Series to me is like the character – “Samsa” in the story – “Samsa in Love” by Murakami, where a character in my writing process after writing the book really gets transformed, metamorphosed to a new identity having communicated all sorts of distorted messages in the transformation process with a take on reality, dream and sustainability.

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

The day humanity entered Anthropocene age from Holocene age on mother Earth, normalcy was given up. We can’t be normal in an Anthropocene and all of us are a bit abnormal on Earth now to cope up with this. So the question of new normal post pandemic is not the question. The question is to find a new normalcy probably in a new Epoch on Earth.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Currently I am reading seven short stories of Murakami in a book called – Men Without Women. Then I am reading a lot of work by Rene Wellek and his take on – Theory of Literature, along with literary critique on the definition of the word – “Genre” by different schools of comparative literary critic. I am also regularly reading Bengali poetries, Hindi short stories, poetries, and am writing too in Bengali as a part of my literary method because I think someday I will find that love for writing only in my vernacular and then I will leave writing for public and will only write for myself which I try to do every day.

I can’t recommend anything seriously – just read anything that crosses the path of your life – even a small half-torn page or letter which you stumble upon accidentally has a literary value and can change lives.

The book ‘Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.