About Prabir Ghosh
Prabir Ghosh, 66 years, Chartered Accountant by profession, pursues his love for history and literature after his 35 years of busy professional carrier as a top level executive in a large corporate house in India. An avid reader, he travelled extensively in Europe, South East Asia, USA and Africa in connection with his additional role as the Head of Global Business. His first book on a collection of Bengali Poems titled ‘A Small Bouquet of my Feelings’ (আমার টুকরো ভাবনারা) was published in 2023 was showcased in International Book Fair 2024 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi and was acclaimed to the connoisseurs of serious literature. His second Book ‘India-Glimpses of Her Journey’, published in 2024 was well received by the readers and among the book fraternity. For this book, Ghosh was honoured with ‘Golden book Awards 2025’. Ghosh has been ranked #14 in ‘Top 50 Most Influential Authors 2024’ published by leading news portal Delhiwire.com.
The present book also is the result of his serious research in Indian History and an effort towards setting a different trend in history writing. The book is written from a completely different perspective and in an effort to engage GEN Z readers about India’s Glorious past.
Ghosh can be contacted at prabirg59@gmail.com or his Instagram Page @prabirg59
LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it, and its content.
Prabir Ghosh: Indian history is full of mysteries, myths and elements of surprises. The vast diversity of India, its multi-lingual, multi-regional, multi-cultural territories ….all these are reflected in its history and historical events. During the course of general study of history, it is not always possible to cover the entire gamut of the vast recorded events of Indian history and the focus is put on major dynasties, on the main stream historical events, known archaeological monuments that are well visited and well discussed. However, behind the frontline historical events, there are whole gamut of interesting, though not much discussed and lesser known historical events that escape our attention. Some of those events are serious game changers of Indian history but have not received the importance and focus by the history writers that they truly deserve.
While doing research for his earlier book ‘India-Glimpses of Her Journey’, number of such historical events, archaeological monuments, few interesting historical personalities, dynasties that were long overlooked, came to the author’s notice. His conscience was hounding him to unfurl few of them to GEN Z readers. The idea of the current book emanates from the urge to unfurl few selected of such important and interesting stories. Though not much known and lesser discussed and hardly covered, there are strong historical backups that precede these stories, so they can’t be diluted as myths or mysteries. More interestingly, there are lesser discussed stories behind number of historical events that have deep impact on Indian history and Indian society. This book covers carefully selected FIFTY such events from a large list that was shortlisted during the research. Each one is thematically different from the other one and happened during different historical time period. The selected events surely shall ignite the readers’ thought and generate more curiosity towards Indian history. The title of the book is inspired from the strangeness and lower visibility of these stories. Most of them have some shades of grey from the historical angle for sure, in terms of interpretation and historical back up. However, this does not mean they have strayed from the historical value and facts. Ii is always said, history is not written. It is the assimilation of historical events from various available sources, interpreting them in one’s own analytics and presenting for the readers. India is rightly known for its architectural wonders built across periods and during different ruling dynasties. Beyond some well-known and well visited few, not many of us are aware of lot of other lesser known wonders. The author presented thirty such lesser known historical wonders of India to the readers. At the end of the book, the author also introduced Ten Indian Cities from the perspective of their historical background.
These events have been sourced from different archives, sources available in internet, old published material on them and also from various writings of renowned authors on Indian History. For those readers, who want to know more about any of these events, a bibliography is also added at the end of each chapter. The scripts have been reshaped to make the reading more interesting by adding fine touch of thrill, without of course, deviating from historical facts.
LiFT: Why did you choose this title?
Prabir Ghosh: The events covered in this books, in spite of being true events, can be interpreted from different perceptives. There are mysteries and even effort to ghost some of these stories by a section of historians. Hence, I would prefer to classify these as ‘Grey Zone’.
LiFT: When did you realize that you wanted to be a writer, and what was your inspiration behind it?
Prabir Ghosh: I always had a passion for writing since my early ages. Due to day to day pressure of being at top Corporate Job, this passion unfortunately took a back sit. After retiring from my professional carrier, I switched over from my profession to my passion. History was always my prime interest. I felt the need to take the role of a story teller from wide area of Indian History to Gen Z.
LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?
Prabir Ghosh: Ten years is too long a period to plan. But going forward, I shall continue to bring various facets of history to the young readers. I would like to present the readers a new form of history laced with thrill. They should get the fun of reading a thriller, when they read my books.
LiFT: How important do you think marketing and the quality of a book are in promoting it and increasing its readership?
Prabir Ghosh: These are absolutely important. For me quality of the book is of prine importance. I personally get involved in the cover design, interior, paper, font abd print quality. All the pictures used in my book are personally collected and selected by me. Then comes marketing. Unless the readers are aware of the book, how you can make them read! I use the services of professionals and also personally interact with my prospective readers throgh my insta handle at regular interval.
LiFT: What message do you want to convey to people through your writing?
Prabir Ghosh: I don’t believe in giving sermons to my readers. They are intelligent enough. My job is to introduce them to the vast hetherto unexplored world of history. I want to ignite interst for history into their mind through my writing.
LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?
Prabir Ghosh: Apart from writing, I love to read and listen to music. I love travelling mainly to the hills.
LiFT: What activities do you resort to when you face writer’s block?
Prabir Ghosh: In such circumstances, I always switch off from writing for a few days and resort to something lighter like watching movies, go to some concerts or watch matches of my favorite soccer team. This break automatically clears my blockade and helps me to come back to track.
LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If so, could you tell us something about it?
Prabir Ghosh: Yes just started. Can’t disclose much. But this one is not restricted to Indian history. It will also substantially ito world history. I hope this be equally interesting and shall be loved by my readers.
LiFT: What are your suggestions for budding writers and poets to help them improve their writing skills?
Prabir Ghosh: If you have urge to express something don’t hesitate. Write. Write in tge lanyou are mord proficient. But don’t write just to be a writer. You must have the urge within to express yourself. Be precise, use simple language (you are not Shashi Tharoor), be a story teller (remember the simple way our grannies used to narrate stories to us).
Click here to order Prabir Ghosh’s Book – Fifty Grey Shades from Indian History
