ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
Sreemay Rath, a sixteen-yearold Oriya boy now residing in Mumbai is creating a sensation in the literary circles with his fourth book, Covetous. The book released by Blue Rose Publishers has been ranked among the top Amazon bestsellers. Its popularity has come as a pleasant surprise to the writer, who aims to scale new heights in the literary world with a great sense of drive and passion. A Class XII student of Navy Children School in Mumbai, Sreemay is pursuing Humanities. He’s the proud son of Dukhabandhu Rath, a bank official in the western metropolis, and Binodini Rath. Widely exposed to children’s books and classics, he started writing at age four.
His first book was published when he was 14. It was titled The Tryst with Devil.
Sreemay was born in Bhubaneswar. He had his initial schooling at the Buxi Jagabandhu English Medium (BJEM) School. Then he, along with the family, moved out to Bangladesh. In later years, his father’s professional shifts saw the family being transplanted for short durations in Bangalore and Lucknow before reaching Mumbai in what is perhaps the final lap.
Sreemay says his interest in reading and writing has largely to do with the interest that his father has in reading. As a result, he read a lot of stories and manuscripts of eminent authors at a young age. While he was reading literary works, he was often skeptical about the endings of several such works. “It could have been done in a better way,” he would think, and then discuss the matter with his father. His father would smile affirmatively. “I started writing my own stories with carefully conceived endings. I would show my works to my teachers.
Their constant encouragement was behind gave me the courage to start mailing my works to magazines, newspapers and publishing houses. That’s how I won the three-book deals from Amazon. Under these, the three books were self-published through a contract with Kindle Young, Amazon’s campaign that offers a three-book contract and free publishing of 350 copies to select budding writers.”
Sreemay says that in his first book, published when he was 14, he narrated the story of a girl Jennifer who has encounters with the paranormal. The plot develops as Jennifer comes across the spirit of the devil’s pet dog. This was followed by two books of poems -— Forty Poetic Silhouettes and Fifty Five Ballandries of Sorts. He also coauthored a book of poems, Human Equations with Kathia Huitron of the United Kingdom. The young writer feels that poetry is a largely neglected area in India. Many publishers are of the view it is not so globalised or glamorized, and they also feel it does not have a saleable platform. “India has a great past in poetry. During my stay in Lucknow, I read many poems that impacted me deeply. I was in Class VI when I first read a poem,and that was To Autumn by John Keats. Then on, he began exploring sonnets, haiku and 15line poems. Such interests were, in fact, in his genes. His grandfather had written several poems in Oriya. Despite having got good marks
(a perfect 10 CGPA) in the Cass X exams, he chose humanities, and not science stream for further studies. This amazed his parents and friends a bit. “Everyone around me presumed that I would opt for the Science stream. Choosing Humanities gave me a chance to study Psychology to understand the working of human mind and why people behave in one or the other fashion. Learning history took me to the
events of the past that moulded the world into what it’s today. It really helps me develop characters and ideas for my poetry pursuits, and the plotlines for prose.”
ON COVETOUS
His latest book, Covetous, is a collection of poems. They deal in romanticism and melancholies that “help portray unfathomable feelings in relatable contexts.” The aim is to connect with the readers on a level that invokes nostalgia and pain one has endured in life. “Most of my poems are melancholic and exemplify ordeals that teenagers undergo. I’m a keen observer of people and hastily pen down thoughts in between my classes or on the bus on my way back to home. Later, I compile them into poems when I get time,” says Sreemay. The young writer explains, ”In this book, I tried to touch upon many themes that had not been gone into by me in the past, like feminism, homosexuality, prejudice, racism. “People sometimes identify you through your colour and caste. This hurt me. You must be respected for what you have accomplished in life, rather than on the colour of your skin or caste you are born in, or the place you have come from.”
HOW HE SEES HIS NATIVE CITY
Sreemay has fond memories of Bhubaneswar. “I have very nostalgic feelings about the city where I spent the initial days of my life. I vividly remember the days with my school friends and teachers and the friends in the area where we stayed, Bapuji Nagar.”
HIS INSPIRATION
Sreemay says he was very inspired by Sashi Tharoor. “He is not only a UN administrator but also wrote over 16 books. I read many of them.” Adds he, “I will continue my journey as a writer and alongside, I will work towards achieving my dream of becoming an Indian Forest Service officer or a diplomat at the UN. My parents are a major support to me, and it is because of their encouragement that I have come this far.”
AWARDS HE WON
Sreemay has won several awards for his environmental projects. He recently visited United Nations along with six other students to participate in the Indian International Model United Nations (IIMUN) session held at the UN headquarters, New York. The session was held from 14 to 17, August 2017. The conference brought together students from schools and colleges from all over the world. He received a ‘honourable mention’ in the Lok Sabha segment of the IIMUN for listing the Aadhaar card’s strengths and weaknesses.
