Abhijit Gupta’s first book is a semi-autobiographical account presenting the political and social scenario of london in the 1950s
Amar Das arrives in london to pursue his higher studies at the london School of Economics. He leaves behind all the pleasures and comforts of home to discover a new territory, not knowing that the journey would not be a cake walk.
Through the story of Amar Das, author Abhijit Gupta presents the political and social scenario of london in the 1950s. His book, The Copper Sky, is one of those few books from the subcontinent that explores post-war England through the eyes of an Indian who grew up under the British rule.The book is semi-autobiographical and is heavily influenced by the author’s tenure in london School of Economics and the struggle he faced between two cultures both in the value-systems and ways of life.
“At one level, it is about the intellectual and emotional journey of a credulous youngster who is confronted by a startlingly different environment in london. The issues he faces are universal in their relevance. At a second level it is an exploration of the generation trapped between the East and the West,” shares the author.
The protagonist, Amar Das arrives to study at the lSE. The release from the war-torn skies and the daily threat of death had unleashed a tide of unprecedented pleasure. Gone was the Victorian prudery the British rulers had exported to middle class India, Amar realises, as he stumbles over coupled bodies in his walk through Hyde Park. He has to struggle with the pervading permissiveness.
At the same time he thrills to the intellectual freedom which he senses all around, the challenge of ideas, the encouragement to question orthodoxy. Says Abhijit, “With bitter memories of British rule and the anguish at having been treated as second class citizen in his own country, Amar’s restless anger at the colonisers spills over from time to time.
Along the way, a lonely wife offers him her ambiguous friendship, an attractive single mother her love, a manipulative student her bed and an enigmatic girl his romantic focus. How does the unworldly youngster deal with the challenges that adulthood and autonomy confront him with — the book sums all of this.” The book also deals with the strange dichotomy Indians of that generation had to face — on the one hand a grudging respect for British institutions and on the other, face discrimination.
So what took him so long to write his first bookIJ “Time”, says Abhijit, “I always wanted to write but I got so engrossed in my professional virtues that writing took a back seat. Then, some years ago I had an accident. I came back weak but restored, except for my sense of smell, which had completely gone. Recovering from this irretrievable loss was a very difficult process.
Added to this was the slow realisation that I would have to cut down on my Human Resource consultancy work to reduce the pressure on myself. So, I retired and submitted to my lifelong desire to write, creating a novel influenced by the three eventful years I spent getting my degree at the lSE. In those years, I found a new intellectual and emotional liberation and grew to love london for it. That phase of life helped me write this book.”