What is your name? Abhijit Dasgupta

Where are you from? Calcutta, India

What is your profession and educational background?     I have been a journalist for 24 years in the English print media, six of them as independent editor of the city centric supplement of Calcutta Times, of the Times of India Group with a circulation of 250,000 daily.  

What is your mission?   I don't know what you mean by "mission", but very honestly, I do not like such words because first, they sound pompous and half the time doesn't mean anything, and second, the answers are always superficial. However, my personal mission, if I may use your word, is to make pots of money and fame through being an author. I am not mightily interested in general good though I wish I could make the world a better place to live in.

What are your long range and short range goals and objectives?    My long-range goal is to attain cult status as an editor and myth status as an author.  

How do you plan to accomplish your goals?    Sheer hard work and focused activity with fun thrown in for good measure just to remind me not to veer away from my goals.

What do you see yourself doing five years from now? Ten years from now?    Hmmmm.....difficult to say since soothsaying is not my job. But if I am alive and active, there is no stopping me. I wish I can replicate my earlier successes in life in my second innings which starts now. In five years ( I do not think in terms of a decade), I hope to see myself as a person whose quotes will be required by journos all over the country for every event. And yes, a lot of launches and festival openings; the ordinary life of a celebrity, to be precise.  

How do you determine or evaluate success?    By the way your girlfriend's elder brother looks at you.

What inspires you?   Love, women, and success. 

What is your opinion of the world today?    Cool. Wars happen, love blossoms too. So they cancel each other out, I guess. But as long as love reigns and there are some people left who make life worth a laugh, I am happy.

What is your contribution to society?    Nothing, unless you count the thousands of newspaper editions that I have brought out and edited and which have made people happy and satisfied in the mornings.  

What is your idea of happiness?   Again, a lovely woman, beauty and brains, a fun-filled, romance-edging dinner and lots of whiskey.

Are you doing what you really want to do in life?    Nobody does. I am sure even God wanted to work on Sunday but he wasn't allowed to because he did not want to meet Eve.  

What do you consider to be your greatest strengths and weaknesses?   My audacity is my strength, my irreverence, my ability to laugh at myself while my gullibility has let me down badly.

How would a good friend describe you?    I don't believe in good friend they are mighty hard to find. But my son or daughter, my real friends actually, would call me simply " Cool!" That's a great compliment.  

Are religious or spiritual beliefs a vital part of your life?   Nope. Period.

Is there anything else that you would like readers to know about you?   Wait for my debut novel, THREE. And buy it.