Bengali-origin French author Shumona Sinha dreamt of being a writer since childhood but never knew that it would be in France, the 'Land of Romance' where her dream would turn into a reality.
Shumona, a recipient of the Prix du Rayonnement de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaises, from the French Academy for her novel "Calcutta" describes French as her language of liberty that has given her freedom as a woman and as a writer.
"French is my language of liberty, I have found freedom in this language, as a writer, as a woman. It's the language of Voltaire, Rousseau, of Stendhal and Flaubert, of Sartre, Duras and Derrida, of the surrealists and the post-modern writers. It has experienced revolutions," Shumona told PTI from Paris.
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"As a French writer who wasn't born in France nor in any other francophone countries, my writings preserves the traces of my voyages, of the frontiers, of all the bridges on fire and the new skies," she says.
Talking about her migration to France, the author says it was an exciting and "a leap in the void".
"It wasn't about plans, but the desires, to cross the limit and the limitations imposed by the Indian society and it's traditions and taboos, in real life and in writings. As a woman I felt the urge to expand myself, as I was feeling too stuffy," she says.
"I didn't know then that I would be living here for good."
Shumona says she began writing when she was eleven or twelve in Bengali.
"From the age of fourteen I always smoldered a dream to live in Paris, in the land of poets and painters, as wrote Sunil Gangopadhayay," Shumona says.
The 39-year-old author, who is one of four recipients of the silver medal in 2014, chosen for dissemination of the language and literature, moved to France in 2001.
"Calcutta," which is her third novel was released in January 2014 while her first two novels were "Fenetre sur l'abime" (2008) and "Assommons les pauvres" (2011).
