India’s ‘glamorous witch’, women’s activist and spiritual healer Ipsita Roy Chaudhury is ready for Mumbai with her new book, Sacred Evil: Encounters With the Unknown.
Sacred Evil is a collection of stories that she compiled over the past decade ‘n’ half about her first-hand experiences with the supernatural and the inexplicable, ranging from voodoo to necromancy.
“My book is a presentation of the two sides of the supernatural,” she says. “I have written episodes that I encountered and have given the reader footnotes with logical reasons that may explain them. It’s the X Factor and the beyond. It’s finally up to the readers to decide for themselves,” she says when asked about plausible explanations of the supernatural.
“I am a skeptic at heart and I wrote this book for me to seek some answers. I got mine, I hope the readers get theirs too,” she says when asked about how she deals with skepticism towards her writing.
With Sacred Evil the painter in Roy comes alive as she illustrated her stories. She has an interesting story to tell about her art.
“In Canada I was introduced to pagan paintings of the ancient Indian tribes like Navajos and Cherokees. They painted upon sand and their art symbolized unity with nature. I’ve tried to bring in the same element in my paintings.”
Such was the success of Roy’s recent book reading in Kolkata that her audience thence expressed an interest to form India’s first Wiccan Brigade.
She hopes that this will result in spreading awareness about Wiccans in India on a grassroot level. Roy confesses that she’s often faced with hostility amounting to physical abuse in villages while investigating cases of women tortured for practicing witchcraft.
“It’s only among the intelligentsia and the educated that a witch or a wizard are understood, but in the ‘interiors’ (hinterlands) there’s still ignorance.”
Internationally Roy has been acknowledged as a spiritual healer. Her first book, Beloved Witch is listed under the Comparative Religion shelf at the National Library of Australia.
Also, the National Geographic Channel has titled her the “true esoteric of India”. Her next book is titled Every Strong Woman is a Witch. She hopes this book will help take away the “bitch” from the “witch”.
Of Mumbai she says, “It is a very open and cosmopolitan city but it is tired at heart. I think my book will bring in some positive and fresh energy into it.”