It is a story of young girl who is struggling to love herself and her journey of falling in love. Durjoy Datta’s new book World’s Best Boyfriend is targeted at the young generation. “The story is not just about being world’s best boyfriend or girlfriend. Obviously, there are no guidelines for being the best boy friend/girl friend. Every person has his/her own checklist,” states Durjoy. He says it is the pressures of a preferred image which is ruling the young minds. “I was obese – 120 kg when I was in school. Now I am thin ; and having been on both sides, I wanted to bring out this whole issue of youngsters struggling with the way they are. With social media, the pressures of looking good are very high for kids. There are a lot of insecurities and the opinions on Twitter and Instagram matter more than anything else,” he observes.
He goes on to add, “The basic idea was to highlight that one has to move beyond these things and the opinions of persons you are not friends with should not matter.”
One of the bestselling authors of Indian romances, 26-year-old Durjoy’s stories revolve around love, relationships and friends. Born in a Bengali family, Durjoy says he was pushed into reading. “I never thought of becoming a writer. I remember the first person I read about was Arundhati Roy. I was shocked at reading about the money but writing was never on the horizon as a career,” he says. With parents who encouraged him not to write the conventional answers in school, his zeal gained momentum. “I started blogging in 2006 and I think I was at the right space and at the right time as blogosphere was at its peak in the year,” he recalls.
He published his first book Of Course I Love You when he was 21. “Initially I would never go for promotions or launches and the book was publicised by word-of-mouth. I was shocked that my book was read and would feel awkward about it. I would enquire ‘which bookstore did you buy the book,” he shares with a laugh.
With a degree in engineering and business management, Durjoy embarked on a writing career that saw novels like She Broke Up, I Didn’t!, Ohh Yes, I am Single, If It’s not Forever, Till the Last Breath and Someone Like You and Hold My Hand get published. At the core of all his novels is a love story and his young fan base has been growing by the day. “When you are young, you are the centre of the universe and do not care about anything else. I understood that and felt strongly about it. There might be billion different things happening out there but when you are young, it is only about your friends, family and personal space which matters,” he says, pointing out the theme of his books.
Durjoy asks how many Indian writers are writing for the youngsters between 16-22 age groups?
“When I was a teenager in 2003, I would read western authors, whose books revolved around bullying, internet addiction or the pressures of what to wear for the prom! Those issues and characters were alien at that point of time.”
Durjoy says Indian writers are not aware of how intelligent today’s children are. “The writers do not write because they think the kids’ lives are not interesting enough. They do not know how smart these kids are. Their lives are changing and way ahead of us. When I was in school, there was only one relationship. Next year, everyone was dating.”
( Durjoy Datta’s book ‘World’s Best Boyfriend’ will be launched at Landmark in Hyderabad on May 31)
