VMPL
New Delhi [India], February 20: After a long career spent in boardrooms across continents, Ranjan Sen has turned to the form he has loved since childhood. His debut book, To Cut A Long Story Short, published by Om Books International in October 2025, marks his formal entry into Indian English fiction. The anthology brings together eleven short stories that move across time and place, linked less by plot than by an interest in how people behave when certainty gives way.
The stories travel widely. Some look back to moments in history, others unfold in contemporary settings. A few lean into suspense, others linger on quieter human conflicts. Rather than dwelling on genre, the collection stays focused on people navigating moral grey zones, chance encounters, and choices that cannot be reversed. Death, sometimes near and sometimes only implied, sits close to the surface, shaping decisions and revealing character.
"These stories were written over a fairly short period of about ten months, during Covid, when I was working from home," Sen says. "That phase helped crystallise my decision to step back from corporate life." He explains that what drew him to these narratives was not drama for its own sake, but the small, often private decisions people make when pressure closes in. "Those moments tell you far more about someone than grand gestures ever can."
The title, he adds, reflects something personal. "It probably mirrors my approach to life," he says with a laugh. "I tend to be a bit impatient, though age has mellowed that. I've always been drawn to short stories because you step into a new world every few pages. You don't linger too long, but you feel something real."
Sen's path to fiction has been anything but linear. Born and educated in what was then Calcutta, he later moved to Delhi to study Economics and complete an MBA at Delhi University. As a student, he gravitated naturally toward words and performance. He won multiple public speaking awards, worked as a radio jockey, and wrote for national newspapers. Those interests, he says, never disappeared, even when professional life demanded otherwise.
What followed was a three-decade career in international banking, with leadership roles across multiple countries. Sen served as Head of International Countries for HSBC in the Middle East and North Africa and later as DCEO of Ahli United Bank, overseeing operations in several regions. It was a demanding chapter, defined by scale, responsibility, and constant movement.
In 2021, Sen chose to step away from full-time corporate roles. Today, he divides his time between early-stage investing in the tech startup ecosystem and writing. The shift feels measured rather than dramatic. "Nothing about that earlier life feels wasted," he says. "It gave me people, situations, and questions that I now explore on the page."
Before the release of To Cut A Long Story Short, Sen's fiction had already found space in respected literary journals in India and abroad. His work has appeared in The Contemporary Literary Review of India, the English Journal of the Sahitya Akademi, and publications based in the United States and Singapore. Those early publications quietly established him as a writer who values control, clarity, and emotional precision.
Sen lives in Delhi with his wife, Manisha, and their college-going son. While his professional career took him across borders, his writing often circles back to Indian settings, histories, and inner lives, seen through the lens of long exposure to the world beyond them.
With To Cut A Long Story Short, Ranjan Sen arrives as a writer shaped by time rather than haste. The book does not announce itself loudly, but it stays with the reader, suggesting that some stories are best told by those who have first learned how to listen.
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