Graphic Novelist: Orijit Sen

When River of Stories was first published in 1994, most bookshops refused to stock it as it didn’t fit into any of the categories that they displayed. “Perhaps they weren’t sure of what to make of the contents either,” says Orijit Sen, the book’s author who is now often referred to as the first graphic novelist of India. Sen, in his early thirties, spent about three years of his life on his “magnum opus”. The book was created and produced with the help of a small grant that Kalpavriksh — a Delhi based group of environmentalists that Sen was active with — secured from the Ministry of Environment. Initially, the book was only stocked in the design and crafts shop People Tree in Delhi, which Sen had started with his wife. Click here to read more.