Author Amit Chaudhari explores urban spaces in new novel

An author fascinated by seemingly incongruent yet paradoxical confluence of the 'magical and the ordinary', Amit Chaudhuri's latest work of fiction, "Odysseus Abroad" is in his words, an attempt to 'explore urban spaces'.
For Chaudhuri, the urban is "enmeshed with the ordinary, interspersed with moments of the magical."
"I am interested in the ordinary. And I am interested in magic. For me the magic in this novel begins with the title itself," Chaudhuri said.
The author, a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award in 2002, launched his book here late last evening and participated in a discussion.
During the course of the event, Chaudhuri attempted to trace influences, transcending boundaries, physical and abstract, including literary, personal and geographical realms which led to the creation of the work.

"I am interested in exploring spaces in which nothing happens at all as well as exploring idiosyncratic characters," Chaudhuri said.

The title of the novel alludes to two venerated classics of literature - James Joyce's "Ulysses" and "Odyssey" by Homer.
In a classic case of life imitating art, the characters as well as the plot of the novel finding parallels with the two great literary works.
"The novel's main characters of the 22 year old English literature student Anand and his quirky uncle Radhesh mirror the characters of Telemachus and his father Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey. Joyce's Ulysses was also an influence" Chaudhuri said.

The author hastens to add that it in not necessary to have read either of the two epic works to appreciate his novel.
"The story is set in 1980s London, a period when I lived there and hated it," the author said.
Chaudhuri also talked about various 'complex convergences that took place' which planted the idea of the novel in his mind.
"The character of the uncle in the Odysseus Abroad is based on my uncle in real life. I remember that I had purchased a charcoal sketch by F N Souza which depicted the figure of Ulysses.
Looking at it, my uncle remarked that I would have been much better off paying him for farting. This small incident led me to create a link between the two (Ulysses and my uncle) and sparked off the idea of the novel in my head" he said.

At the book launch event here Chaudhuri also read out a portion of his book, a vignette of a meeting between the two lead characters of Ananda and his uncle.
The novel, Chaudhuri's sixth novel has been published by Penguin. His last novel was "Calcutta: Two years in the city".