About Shridhar Naik
Shridhar Naik has a Master’s Degree in history from the University of Mumbai, following which he had a two-decade long career in the media, first in leading publications in the print media and later in Public Relations consultancies. Later he spent almost two decades as a faculty for Journalism and Media at the undergraduate and post graduate level. In addition, he has broadcast programmes with All India Radio, and contributed in-depth articles for PTI Features. Mr. Naik is also a regular contributor of feature articles to newspapers like the Sunday Guardian, and opinion pieces to online portals like The Quint.
Mr, Naik lives in Mumbai and having taken to writing fiction, has so far published three books. ‘On Ills and Crime,” is a collection of stories dealing with diverse social problems and ills that plague our society. “Dark Secrets of Khushinagar”, a novel is set against the backdrop of life, both positive and negative, in a slum. The third “From Street to Corporate”, is a novel which explores the life of street children, their exposure to the world of petty crime, and their victimisation at the hands of child abusers and paedophiles who lure them into sex tourism,
Shridhar Naik’s writing has brought in many accolades. He is the recipient of the International Tagore Award for Literature, the Best Pensmith Award for Literature, The Global Book Honour the Sahitya Sparsh Award and the Indian Literature Award 2025. His book From Street to Corporate ahs been nominated for the Lift Magazine Award.
LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it and its content?
Shridhar Naik: From Street to Corporate in a nutshell deals with the life of Mohsin a runaway street child hailing from a remote village in Bangladesh, who flees from home to escape domestic cruelty. He adventurously crosses the border into India. In Kolkata he is introduced to a gang of petty criminals for mere survival. Later he runs away to Mumbai where again petty crime becomes his source of livelihood. In both cities he and his associates are victims of extreme exploitation and abuse. Mohsin then becomes witness to a major ex tourism racket which he eventually helps expose and manages to move to a better life for himself. Many of his companions are not so lucky and continue in the trade. The novel throws light on the exploitation of street children and how sex tourism actually works
I used to do a lot of community work among street and abandoned children at one time where I came across minors, victims of exploitation and abuse, who opened up narrating their bizarre and at times scary experiences. This kind of motivated me to write a novel on the theme. Of course, From Street to Corporate is entirely a work of fiction leaning on the testimonies of the children.
LiFT: Why you chose this title?
Shridhar Naik: The title, From Street to Corporate, traces the boy’s journey, namely from where he began to where he finlly ended up.
LiFT: When did you realize that you want to be a writer and what’s your inspiration behind it?
Shridhar Naik: I can’t really specify the time. I always had a passion for writing and finally found the time to get down to it whenI retired form teching. Meanwhile the ideasweregerminating.
LiFT: How much do you think marketing or quality of a book is necessary to promote a particular book and increase its readers?
Shridhar Naik: I am now 68 years old. Who knows what the scenario will be like ten yers hence. But hopefully I wish to see myself as an established author.
LiFT: What is the message you want to spread among folks with your writings?
Shridhar Naik: All my books deal with social issues or problems. Through the medium of fiction I hope to create greater awareness among the audience about the ills that plague our society, with a glimmer of hope that with more and more awareness being created, steps for some solution are initiated.
LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?
Shridhar Naik: I am basically a retired person now, but am invlolved with various heritage and literary activities and am an avid viewer of art films.
LiFT: What are the activities you resort to when you face a writer’s block?
Shridhar Naik: Strangely I have never really encountered a maor writer’s block. There are days together when I don’t feel like writing, and I just don’t write.Then the ideas start flowing in.
LiFT: What if your story will be adopted as a movie? Whom would you want to work as a director or actors in it?
Shridhar Naik: I would be happy to assist the director or screenwriter if they need any inputs. More than that I don’t see any actual involvement for myself.
LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If yes, please tell us something about it.
Shridhar Naik: Right now I am not actively workng on any book, but in due course I hope to.
LiFT: What are your suggestions to the budding writers/poets so that they could improve their writing skills?
Shridhar Naik: Accoriding to me writing is a self-developedprocess. My tips to budding writers would be keep on writing, share the manuscript with the editor and you will find yourself improving. Be observant about things around you and you will get ideas to do more writing.
Click here to order Shridhar Naik’s Book – From Street to Corporate
