Dr. Chandra Shekhar Hota has persued his M.A from Central University, Hyderabad, Mphil from JNU, Delhi and has Completed his PhD from GM University, Sambalpur. He is a litteratuer and an OPS officer. He has authored several books and is the recipient of many prestigious awards and recognition. He writes columns for many reputed Newspapers. He is also working as a member, executive board of Odisha Sahitya Academy, Bhubaneswar. The Interview Times had a great conversation with him through Questionnaire, below are the answers he responded to the questions asked –
Q1- You have authored several books, where did you get the inspiration for writing so many books?
Answer – Writing is a very tender and intrinsic subject. The most of the inspiration is inner than outer. However being a social being, we get inspired and influenced by our outer emotion. The sorrow, suffering, happenings, all influence us and the main source of my inspiration is reading. From reading I got a lot of inspiration. As a writer, as a essayist, as a columnist reading gives me utmost inspiration and I feel elated and I get so much of inspiration from reading books that it connot be fulfilled by other sort of subjects, so reading gives me a lot of inspiration. It gives me a lot of inputs, impetus to expand, to learn, to acquire new things, to explore new probabilities, new possibilities, to know more about the domain of knowledge.
Q2- Out of the books you have authored which one is your favorite book and why?
Answer – Like a father never discriminates between his sons and daughters. A writer never discriminates about his writings, which writing is better, which writing is worst, but certainly there is a personal satisfaction in some of the writings and for me, my second book collection i.e., “Chetana ra Anweshana” which got Sahitya Academy Yuva Puraskaar, which is more satisfaction because in that book there are ten essays, which is full of intellectual churning and full of objective interpretation of knowledge and the area I have chosen is completely different like sorrow, suffering and pain. I love all my books but my second book ” Chetna ra Anweshana” is one of my best.
Q3- If you get any leisure time, what are the things you prefer to do during that time?
Answer – I actually would like to read books in my leisure time and watch movie. Most of the time I watch off beat movie. Two things I do in my leisure time, movie and reading.
Q4- Apart from writing what other interest do you have?
Answer – Apart from reading I love cooking, reading, watching movies, reading is upmost priority. Apart from that I love gossiping with senior people, senior citizens because they gives you a lot of stuffs. They do have history, polity, geography with them. They generally flooded you with their informations.
Q5- Being an Author and an OPS officer, how do you manage your time?
Answer – It is a very very tough question and everybody ask me this. As I am a Police officer, it requires a 24 hours alertness, it is a kind of emergency job, you are required at any point of time but this police profession has given me a lot. First it has taught me to be sensible to the people who are coming to different police stations and to us especially taking their grievances. Regarding management of time, I generally read and write in the morning. During 5.00 am to 7.30 am I use to read and write, because in the whole day you get busy and so many complex cases and work pressure. So in the morning 5.00 am to 7.30 am is the best time for Sahitya Sadhna or the perseverance of literature. At that time is very very beautiful and blissful time for me and therefore I say I balance both my profession and passion. In the morning the 2-3 hours I give for the literature, it gives me fuel to be complete sensible man in the uniform.
Q6- What do you count on as your strengths and weaknesses as far as the writing a book is concern?
Answer – My strength is that I am objective, I am never biased, I am always dynamic. My thoughts are fluent, it is not fixed, it is not confined to any kind of ideology. It portrays the truth and it showcase the objective way of telling things, the newness of language, the style of presentation and the grey area, the undiscussed area are generally my focus. The language I use, the facts and the reality I portray in my writing is my strength. As far as my weakness is concerned, my weakness is that the language is very high, philosophic. Common people generally have to understand it after reading two-three times. So, the verbosity, the complexity of words, the philosophic intend I use in my writing is my weakness and I have no hesitation to acknowledge it.
Q7- What is Success means to you and if you want to give any advice to new writers?
Answer – There is no short-cut to success. Every siddhi needs sadhana. We should have the quest for knowledge, quest to know more things from everybody. That makes us a good writer. We should read more, listen more and write less, this is the kind of message I want to give. I am not superior, but I would like to tell my friends that we all have to read more and write less. We should have acquisitive mind and a vision to see object, things, persons objectively.
Photo Credits – Dr. Chandra Shekhar Hota
