Writing Nagaland – a conversation with Easterine Kire in Raiot: Challenging the Consensus.
/
An outsider review of Jaipur Literature Festival, in Sakal Times: Eavesdropping at JLF 2016
A random feature on the apparent rise of the short story genre, in Sakal Times: A happy beginning for short stories?
A feature on Oscar-winning films of 2016 which started their lives as books, in Sakal Times: The words in pictures
A feature on how Manto’s works have found a new outlet in Radio Mirchi, in PrintWeek India: Listening to Manto on Radio Mirchi
The Mad, Mad World of Print: Snippets from around India II
Dibya's colloquy: What we saw at Jaipur Literature Festival this year
The Mad, Mad World of Print: Snippets from Around India I
/
An interview with Zac O’Yeah, for his new Mr Majestic novel, Hari: A Hero for Hire, in Sakal Times: ‘Every city should have a shelf full of detective novels dedicated to it’
An interview with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, for his short story collection The Adivasi will not Dance, in Sakal Times: ‘My identity is very important to me’
A review of Rajiv Bhattacharyya's Rendezvous with Rebels: Journey to Meet India’s Most Wanted Man, in The Four Quarters Magazine: A Question of Conflict and a Tale of Adventure
An interview with Goa-based poet Manohar Shetty, in Sakal Times: 'A poet has to find his tenor and timbre'
A feature on the rise of crime fiction in India, in Sakal Times: Making crime Pay
A short story titled The First Date, in Open Road Review
Four poems, in Open Space Talking Poetry
A short story titled The Measure of Happiness, in the Earthen Lamp Journal
A feature on Hindi publishers Vani Prakashan, in PrintWeek India: A new book every working day
Feature on the attack on media, in PrintWeek India: Brutal silencing of journalists in India
Feature on the Oxford University Press, in PrintWeek India: OUP India going to school
A short story titled Let Me Sin Then, in Pink Pages
A plant visit report on the Times Group production plant at Sahibabad, UP, in PrintWeek India: Two million copies per day and counting
/
\
/
\
/
\
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Do visit my cyber footprints elsewhere/Apart from http://writeriot.blogspot.com/
Che Isn't Just A T-Shirt at Bloody Good Book
Dibyajyoti's Store at Lulu.com
Academia.edu
PrintWeek India
Flickr.com
Mubi.com
Goodreads.com
Facebook.com
Linkedin.com
Or just write to me @/
sarmadibyajyoti@gmail.com
Introduction
This Should Serve For Now/
Dibyajyoti Sarma thinks he’s somewhat lost concerning his place and purpose in the world, and thinks it’s a better possibility than to live a life of pre-defined existence.
He is fascinated by the possibility and complexity of the proliferation of languages in India. His thinks in Kamrupiya, a dialect in the Asomiya language and writes in English. This choice of languages stems from a desire to reach out to his immediate readers. On an average day, he deals with at least five languages — Asomiya, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and English, and is enamoured by several others — French, Spanish and Japanese.
He has at least 10 years of experience in working in various fields of communications. He has the qualifications and was trained to be a college teacher. Through he enjoys teaching and feels it’s his true calling, he had to make a choice between leading a stagnant life in the backwaters of a tiny Maharashtrian town and the city that offered him the possibilities of an adventure, but a less secure career. Following Socrates who said an inexperienced life is not worth living, he opted for surprise over security.
He is interested in the politics of minority identities, and how it informs life and art. He is proud of his own minority status on various counts — nationality, culture, language, economy, and sexuality. This despite the fact that he has moved in a rigidly mainstream environment in most of his adult life. This gives him a unique opportunity to see both sides of the coin, and accordingly evaluate a reality.
He would like to call himself a poet, but knows in his heart of hearts that he’s not, though he had published a book of poems. When it comes to writing, he has inherited the Asomiya gene, that is, laziness, extreme laziness. He has been working on a novel for the last 10 years, and it is nowhere near completion.
He is a self-confessed movie fanatic. He has at least 2,000 films from all over the world in his collection, most of which he has seen in the course of the last three years. He doesn’t have any formal education in cinema but would like to call himself an expert.
Finally, he knows: Nothing Remains & Nothing Matters.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Statement about Work History
Introduction
Dibyajyoti Sarma is teacher, writer and journalist. Professionally, he has tried his hands on at least 10 jobs in various disciplines — teaching, website design, copy writing and such. For the last seven years he has been working as a journalist, of which the last five years is with a prestigious English language daily. In between, he has taken up teaching assignments for undergraduate arts students and feature writing assignments for newspapers.
Though he has the qualifications (the NET, the M.Phil) to be an assistant professor in a college (he hold a job in that capacity for nine months), he chose the considerably less-paying newspaper copy editor’s job as he found it more exciting than teaching the same texts over and over again in a provincial college. The best part he likes about his job is that every day is a new day, and you have no idea till the last moment how things will turn up.
Sarma completed his graduation in Guwahati, Assam before moving to Pune, Maharashtra in 1997, where he continues to live. Though he can read and write in two language — Assamese and English, on an average day, he deals with at least five languages — Assamese, English, Hindi, Marathi and Bengali. This makes him a keen observer of how people think and speak and how language plays a role in social dynamics. For example, he is equally kicked about the Marathi poems of Arun Kolatkar as he is about Kolatkar’s English poems.
Sarma started writing poetry in Assamese while in Guwahati. After shifting to Pune, he has slowly abandoned Assamese for English. He has published poems and short stories in Assamese and English in various journals. His first collection of poems, ‘Glimpses of a Personal History’ was published by Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata in 2004. He has also edited a book of interviews, ‘Whistling in the Dark: Twenty One Queer Interviews,’ with Dr R Raj Rao, professor of English, University of Pune, published by Sage in 2009. His second volume of poetry, ‘Pages from an Unfinished Autobiography’ is ready for publication, while a book on queer theory is also in the pipeline.
Sarma is also working on his PhD thesis, entitled ‘In the Eye of the Beholder: Voice Appropriation in Indian Writing in English.’
Sarma maintains two weblogs: 1) i, write, riot (writeriot.blogspot.com) where he posts comments on assorted subjects. In the recent months, he has been posting comments on independent and obscure cinema from around the world. 2) salt, sweat, smell (saltsweatsmell.blogspot.com) where he posts English translations of modern Assamese poetry. So far he has translated at least 80 poems, which he hopes to convert into a collection in near future.
Not only because he is working on the subject, but also because of his personal political, Sarma is interested in minority identities and how these identities are negotiated in the mainstream.
Writing Credits
Have published two poems, ‘I’m An Idiot Poet,’ and ‘Moon’ in Labyrinth, The Literary Journal of Postmodernism, published from Gwalior, July 2011
Have published a research paper, ‘A Feminist Reading of Sudraka’s The Little Clay Cart’ in the e-journal, Muse India, May 2011
Have published a short story, ‘The Scent of Guava’ in Reading Hour, a bi-monthly literary magazine published from Bangalore, May-June, 2011
Have published an article on ‘The Poetry of Sujata Bhat’, in Labyrinth, The Literary Journal of Postmodernism, published from Gwalior, January 2011
Have published an article on ‘Assamese Language Newspapers: A Polemic Discussion’ in Exploring North East Indian Writings in English, edited by Indu Swami, and published by Sarup Book Publishers, New Delhi, 2011
Have published a short story ‘At Howrah’ in the e-journal, Muse India, January 2011
Read a paper entitled ‘Minority Writing for Mainstream Readers: Why Alan Hollinghurst’s ‘The Line of Beauty’ is Not a Queer Text,’ at the international seminar on contemporary British literature organised by the Osmania University, Hyderabad in December 1-3, 2010
Attended the Literary Translations Skills Training organised by the British Council, in association with the Sahitya Akademi, in Kolkata, on September 6-12, 2009
Have published a poem, ‘Moon’ with the e-journal The Cartier Street Review, June 2009
Have published a book titled ‘Whistling In The Dark: 21 Queer Interviews’ from Sage Publication, New Delhi, co-edited with R Raj Rao, Professor, Department of English, University of Pune, in 2009
Presented a paper entitled, ‘Globalisation, English and the Survival of Assamese-language Newspapers’ at the national seminar on ‘Globalisation and Challenges to Indian Languages at the New Arts, Commerce and Science College, Ahmednagar, December 18-20, 2008
Published a poem titled ‘Bio-Data’ in ‘The Little Magazine’ published from New Delhi in 2007
Published a story titled ‘Trigonometry of Living’ in ‘New Quest,’ a quarterly journal of participatory inquiry, published from Pune in December 2006
Published a story titled ‘Of Coffee, Love and Other Things,’ in the magazine, ‘Alive’ published from New Delhi in August 2006
Have published a book of poems, entitled “Glimpses of a Personal History” from Writers Workshop, Calcutta, in 2004
Have published a short story, entitled ‘Of Mother, Among Other Things, in ‘Crimson Feet’, an art and culture magazine published from Pune, in 2004
Work Experience
The Times of India, Pune
August 2007 onwards
Senior Copy Editor, City Desk
The Maharashtra Herald, Pune
December 2005 - August 2007
Sub Editor, Sports Desk, Special Feature, Edit Page
Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra
September 2004 – November 2005
Lecturer of English
H V Desai College, Pune
July 2004 – September 2004
Lecturer of English
Champion Voyager Designers Pvt. Ltd., Pune
April 2004 – June 2004
Proof Reader
Shrikant S S & Company, Pune
February 2002 – September 2003
Economic Writer / Content Developer / Project Manager
Personal Information
Dibyajyoti Sarma can communicate in three languages: Assamese, Hindi and English, and understand several other Indian languages, including Marathi and Bengali
Permanent Address: Lankeshwar; Guwahati University Head Post Office; Guwahati-14, Assam, India
Date of Birth: February 28, 1976
