My writings—many people confuse them with me. Many ask me, doesn't your wife see these things? Why doesn't your wife say anything to you?
You fool! Have you ever read any writing? Have you ever read stories in your life? Have you ever read novels? Why do you say these things? Why should the writer be in the writer's work? This is a story—I've written about someone, or if there's no one, I've created a character and written about them. Where do you find me in there? Have you never read stories in your life?! You had textbooks too, didn't you?
Say you've read "Hoimonti." Let me talk about that story. Why should Rabindranath Tagore himself be in "Hoimonti," tell me? Is he a woman, that he's Hoimonti? Or Hoimonti's father Gourishankar—is Gourishankar Rabindranath Tagore himself? Why? Why should he have to be? Right?! Or in other stories and novels you read, there might be some beliefs from the writer's life, some atmosphere from their life, some chapters from their life, but why does the whole thing seem like their own story to you?
Brother, why do you think I write about my ex? I don't. I write about you. You're my reader, I write about you. I respect you, I salute you. I write about you, I don't write about myself—I'm not there. I know how you think; you don't know what's in another's mind because you can't write. I can write, so I write about you. I put myself in your place and write about your feelings.
I'm not there, brother! My wife isn't there, my family isn't there, my ex isn't there, my job isn't there, nothing of mine is there. You are there! Yes, if you weren't there, you wouldn't find similarities between my writing and your life. Would you? You wouldn't. You're finding similarities between my writing and your life—this means I write thinking of you, I write thinking of my respected readers. I'm not there myself.
Why do you give me this kind of pain? Don't read my writing. Who told you to read my writing with this meager intelligence? Did I invite you? Did I tag you to read my writing? Don't read! If you don't like me, don't look at me. You'll look at me, look every day, come and say various things, won't leave even when driven away. Why? Don't you have work? I don't like these things!
Who's telling you to look at Sushanta Paul? Don't look! Go away, go far. Do I seem arrogant to you? I'm not arrogant, brother; I'm a very peace-loving person. My words aren't words of arrogance, they're words of a prayer for peace. The greatest achievement in the world is peace—there's nothing above it. Peace is the final word in the world. There's nothing above peace. Love, romance, respect, fame and all the other nonsense—everything is trivial compared to it. You can live without all that, but you can't live without peace.
You love me very much and give me a lot of pain! I don't need your love. If you don't like me, go away, please. Don't come to give me pain. Even my friend who loves me very much and simultaneously gives me a lot of pain—I don't answer his calls either. Because I don't need love. I need peace. I've become restless receiving so much love. I don't enjoy getting so much love anymore. I just need peace.
Let me tell you, you won't find me in my writing, you won't find my family either. In my writing, you'll find yourself. If you find yourself, then enjoy that writing; if you don't, avoid it. Don't come to judge me. You don't know me, brother. You listen to my career talks, you read my writing. But you truly don't know me. You don't know Sushanta Paul. Accept this simple truth.
You've never spent a single evening sitting with me, you've never even had a cup of tea sitting with me. You don't know me; you don't know how I speak; you don't know what I believe, you don't know how I behave. You know nothing. You read my writing, you listen to my career talks—stay there. Please, don't come to judge me. You don't know me.
The easiest rule for surviving in the world is to assume that we don't know anyone. With however much interaction you have with someone, however much contact you have with them, stay only within that space. If you try to go inside that, try to think, try to speak, then you'll make mistakes. Extra pain will come to your head. You don't know what I'm like personally. You don't know how I sleep in bed. You don't know what I eat. You can say various things to me. Like, brother, you're like this, you're like that!
All of it will be wrong. I can say with certainty, it will be wrong. Those among you who have listened to me or read me, who have come into contact with me, they know a little—how I am, or within what I've shown, they know that much about how I am! But those who aren't in this at all, how do they judge me?! How do they judge a person without knowing them—this doesn't enter my understanding. If you want to read my writing, read as a reader. You're not someone who knows Sushanta Paul. You don't know Sushanta Paul. Sushanta Paul doesn't know you. So don't judge him there.
Not just with me, when reading any writer's work, never comment about them. They write keeping you in mind. Let me say it a bit better, a bit simpler. What the reader consumes—sometimes the writer writes keeping that in mind. Whatever a writer writes from their beliefs or disbeliefs or experience, it may not be the story of their own life. So don't put me there. This really annoys me.
I say this very humbly: since you can't write, it's simply not possible for you to understand this magic. You don't need to understand either. You exist as a reader, remain a reader. Just read it that way. Don't give me pain about this. These things really irritate me.