The Literature Times: Welcome to The Literature Times, Author. Congratulations on the release of your book. What responses are you getting from your readers? Please share your experience with this book.
Arpan Dey: Thank you! So far, I’ve been receiving a positive response from my readers. My experience with this book has been great. Initially, it was just a collection of notes on physics. Then I wanted to organize my notes and write a popular science book on physics. Then I thought there were a lot of such books available written by more qualified authors than myself. So how to make my book stand out? I decided to write not just on the journey of physics, but consciousness and metaphysics as well. Overall, this journey has been great and enjoyable. I learnt a lot in the process, and I hope the book helps in communicating science to a broader audience.
The Literature Times: What encourages you to become an Author?
Arpan Dey: I’ve grown up reading popular science books, and they inspired me to explore physics. Since I started writing science articles, I’ve always wanted to write a book on the journey of physics, for the general audience. I am always passionate about science communication. And I also love to write short stories and poetry. So I’ve a passion for writing as well. I think this, along with my urge to communicate science, is what prompted me to write this book.
The Literature Times: What are your favourite topics of writing? Please tell us something about your interest areas in the literature.
Arpan Dey: I like to write about science, especially physics and mathematics. Metaphysics is also an appealing topic to me. Other than science, I love writing allegorical stories, detective stories and sci-fi stories. I’ve not yet written a novel, for that would take a lot of time. So I mainly prefer short stories. And poetry as well. When it comes to poetry, my readers say I am a pessimist, so pessimism should also be listed among my favourite topics.
The Literature Times: We were hoping you could tell us about some of those writers who had inspired you and whom you follow!
Arpan Dey: The first name that comes to my mind is Michio Kaku. I love his popular science books. And many others. Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg etc. Apart from popular science, I am also a fan of many other writers. I like to read sci-fi and detective stories or novels. Harry Potter is one of my favourite series ever. I am also interested in Bengali literature (that’s my mothertoungue). The great Satyajit Ray is one of my favourite writers in Bengali.
The Literature Times: The title seems different and catchy; how you decided it? Please let us know the story behind it.
Arpan Dey: “Our physics so far” calls attention to the fact that this is just the story of physics so far, and there is much more to come in the future, and the readers can be among the ones to take this story forward by leaps and bounds. The subtitle is “A journey through space time, consciousness and the fundamental nature of reality.” Space-time indicates physics, while “consciousness and the fundamental nature of reality” is to let the readers know that this book is not just about physics, but includes discussions on consciousness and metaphysics as well.
The Literature Times: What are your achievements so far? Tell us something about your writing career.
Arpan Dey: So far, one of my most satisfying achievements has been publishing this book. Initially, I thought it was impossible to publish a book at my age. But I never gave up. Anyway, I have also published some research articles with Young Scientists Journal, where I work as an editor.
Coming to my writing career, I’ve previously self-published a book with Amazon. That was a collection of short stories. Other than that, and the articles, I’ve not written anything significant till now.
The Literature Times: What is your current goal in writing career? How do you see your future in writing?
Arpan Dey: I don’t have any goals right now, apart from trying to make sure my current book reaches as many people as possible. As for the second question, I’m not really sure. I don’t want to pursue writing as my main career. I would like to teach and research physics. But writing definitely is also my thing, and I will continue to write in the future.
The Literature Times: Are there any other books being worked on by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Arpan Dey: Yes, I’m working on an interesting hypothesis, and I plan to write a book about the fundamental nature of reality based on that. But I can’t spill the beans here, sorry!
The Literature Times: How you see Indian writing in the 21st century? What changes do you see in the modern way of writing? Do you feel it has been changed by the time?
Arpan Dey: The world is moving very fast these days, and writing has somewhat lost its value, in my opinion. Either because the writing is outdated or because people hardly have enough time and patience to read it. But I see many new and budding authors coming up. Writing has become digital now, and much of the information is one click away. So yeah, there have been some changes for the better and others not so much. Times have changed radically, and I’m interested to see to where it leads.
The Literature Times: How easy/difficult it was for you to publish your book? What message would you like to give to budding authors?
Arpan Dey: To be honest, publishing has become easier in today’s world. This means it has become difficult to find a good publisher and find really good material. Good books are important source of ideas and inspirations to budding authors. I would also like to remind budding authors that, regardless of what is happening in the publishing industry, good content is always valued by readers.
