The Empathy Engineer: A Colorless Love Story

by Sid Chattopadhyay

As featured in YAHOO "The Empathy Engineer combines the social undertones of works by Jhumpa Lahiri and Khaled Hosseini with the dramatic tension of classic romance novels." ( is a young software engineering star in San Francisco from India. When he meets the woman of his dreams at a party, he gets infatuated with her. She too falls for his charm and enigma, and soon, they want to get married and settle down in San Francisco. But their fairytale love story gets tragically cut short when his Indian family rejects and humiliates her due to her dark skin color. Their love story falls apart, and she separates from him for failing to protect her against his prejudiced family.Abir is devastated by the colorism and lack of empathy displayed by his family and how it affected his life. Shattered by his failure to protect the love of his life, he sets on a spiritual life journey to seek and spread the message of empathy. He takes an online identity as "the empathy engineer" and devotes his time on TED talks and writing blogs to spread his ideas on how empathy can abate most prejudices in society.Four years later, on a visit to India, when he is finally thinking of settling down again by marrying a woman arranged by his family, he bumps into his ex-flame serendipitously. But this time, she is with another man. What will happen to his unfinished love story now? Will he get a final closure from his past relationship, or will he end up breaking multiple hearts instead?A note from the authorMy book is a testimonial to colorism faced by millions of dark-skinned Indian women who are given lower status in the Indian society. Irrespective of how an Indian woman carries herself, her education, or class, or talent, or beauty, the first thing that makes a woman 'acceptable' in the Indian society is her skin color. It's an undercurrent, often not-talked-about but subtle profiling which makes women with darker skin tone find it very hard to get the respect they deserve.Some Reviews from Amazon "The author boldly ventures into uncharted waters of subtle and systematic human bias/prejudice with skin color, and how even well educated people have their own deep biases based on other’s skin color."“I love reading foreign authors because there is a different kind of poetry to the words. This author is a storyteller. The love story was beautiful and kept me turning the pages. Can this be a movie, please?”"A well-written page turner that is soon to become a modern day classic."“I loved this romance novel as it offers so much more than the genre usually does.”"If Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri was the most relate able transcontinental treatise for the first generation immigrants, the empathy engineer arouses similar nostalgia for my generation.""The US is a cultural melting pot and we need more positive stories like this about enduring love and acceptance.""The Empathy Engineer is a love story as well as a story about treating all of the people that we meet with dignity.""A beautiful love story which highlights the themes of overcoming prejudice, self-reflection, and attaining love and respect in the universe.""I also believe that this book can be easily adopted for a screenplay for a movie, which would be a hit with the Indian audience, considering love, acceptance and east/west interplay are such a big theme of many Bollywood movies.

Genres: Romance

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 4, 2019

About the author

Sid Chattopadhyay was born in Kolkata, India, and received his early education in the scenic valleys of Dehradun. This period, marked by its mountainous landscape, natural springs, and a stimulating academic environment, cultivated in him a deep appreciation for science and technology alongside a passion for self-expression and literature.

He completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at the Indian Institute of Technology, an institution recognized for its rigorous intellectual culture, competitive spirit, and focus on fostering innovative minds. Following this, he moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science.

Writing is a central passion for Sid. He has authored two books. His first novel, "The Empathy Engineer", published in December 2019, has received positive reviews from the Silicon Valley Indian community and other diverse communities across the United States and India. His second book, "Happiness 3.0: When Artificial Intelligence Merges with Human Happiness", explores the pursuit of happiness in the age of AI, offering new insights into the intricate relationship between Artificial Intelligence, happiness, and humanity.

In addition to his literary work and career in the Silicon Valley technology sector, Sid is also a prolific music composer, with credits for composing music for a Hollywood film.

Reviews

[Sakti Das]

The Empathy Engineer is a stirringly beautiful fiction by our own Siddhartha Chattopadhyay. We all know Siddhartha as the accomplished computer scientist and a humble giant of a musician. But I am pleasantly surprised by his genius debut in this literary creativity.
The Empathy Engineer is a sweet and poignant story of love, mutual respect and the protagonist’s stance against the discrimination based on skin color even in our present day society. Siddhartha has weaved his story of love and ideology in his immaculate language; a story that moved me to the core. and I could not put it down until finished. The Empathy Engineer is not only an enchanting read, it is also a necessary lesson for our society at large to rise against the abhorrent continuation of colorism.
Now if only Siddhartha would share his Empathy algorithm with me, I could become a better human being. Friends, acquire your copy from Amazon, I promise you will love it.

[Rajiv Dutta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked how Sid developed the characters of Abir, a young man discovering his future; and Shyamoli, a fiercely independent and righteous woman. Through a rapidly evolving story, he elegantly introduces the importance of empathy, and the biases that exist in the society. The story is engaging and I kept looking forward to the next page. Being from the bay area, I found it amusing to see quite a few references to specific places in this area which may not be as meaningful to reader who is not familiar with the area.

This novel demonstrates Sid's skill as a great story teller !

[Ritu Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read! A very unique story. I loved the author's fluid style. This is a highly readable book, relatable, with vivid descriptions and a fast-paced storyline. The book was absorbing and I was sorry when it ended! I look forward to more books by the author.

[Mitul Sen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very engaging story, subject of biases and prejudices in society dealt very well. Introduces some novel ideas regarding empathy and blending of emotions with science and engineering. Overall a very good read!!!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Held my interest and attention throughout

[Avishek Dey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its an exploration of the one of the oldest biases that has plagued the human social fabric. Colour. The author takes us through the journey of two individuals, who feel very strongly for the topic, and yet have their unique ways to handle it. This deep rooted classification transcends civil societies and economic strata and most importantly, time - which is why you need to read this book to comprehend the fight, some of us have to put up with every single day of our lives.
Trying not to give too much away at this point, of the main characters in this tale, one is an engineer - smart, ambitious and well-mannered who thinks deeply about the contributions his education and skills can bring upon the world, while the other protagonist - a charming, educated, socially aware and caring lady - wants the society to judge a person based on their qualities as a human being and not attach labels due to their physical appearance.
The book original title “The Empathy Engineer”, has a clever paradox, at least according to me. Engineers are typically identified by their analytical abilities, while empathy is an emotion that does not find much foot in the field of work they are in. However, this particular engineer in the book tries an interesting approach in applying empathy in his thoughts to situations he faces and that makes his decisions deeper in execution. I can continue writing, but that would just be unfair as i am sure, every reader of the book will emerge with a different understanding of the topic after having read it.

[Amish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very engaging, vivid and descriptive story about the trials of the protagonist Abir, around love, acceptance and Indian culture in San Francisco and Kolkata. The love story angle of the book goes through many twists and turns which makes it hard to put down at times, as you want to know what new surprise is about to happen next! I didn't expect a lot of the book's theme to be around prejudices with skin color in Indian society, but I did learn a lot about this and how it affects society even today.

I liked some of the philosophies and guidelines towards empathy that the author uses to show how his protagonist rationalizes people's decision making eg "take the me out of myself" to really empathize with a situation. This line had somewhat of a Shantaram "wrong things for the right reasons" parallel for me.

The descriptions in the book were very visual, and I could imagine every scene clearly. Characters were also developed really well and at the end you get to know everyone well, especially since there aren't too many of them.

In parts, Abir's infatuation with Shayamoli and descriptions of the effect her eyes had on him were repetitive, but excusable because he was clearly so madly in love with her that every time he met her, the reader is taken along on his romantic reveries.

I also believe that this book can be easily adopted for a screenplay for a movie, which would be a hit with the Indian audience, considering love, acceptance and east/west interplay are such a big theme of many Bollywood movies. This book is also a good read for anyone looking for a highly readable intercontinental love story with cultural tribulations along the way.

[Chitralekha Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seldom do you come across such a story that is sweet, intriguing and yet questions the nuances of the society we live in. The Empathy Engineer does exactly so. Bringing forward the myriad hues of the society, the diasporic love story, if I may call it, highlights the prejudices that are still prevalent with reference to skin colour in our society. The 'colourless' and monotonous life of an on-site engineer is narrated by a third person. The narration makes it more like listening to a friend and the characters come alive as persons we all know or have seen.
And yes, empathy is something we really need today, more than ever before! A good read!

[Lydia Pazienza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book through a goodreads giveaway. While an interesting premise, I believe the empathy algorithm truly is limited in this book to the extent that there is reciprocity. One cannot understand hate. Abir also seems to lack empathy in a number of situations for Shyamoli. Emotions are not just data, and there is more subtext in a number of these situations than Abir gives credit for. He reads at times as pretentious, but in an ignorant way. Regardless, the book did make me emotional and in particular I felt for Shyamoli.

[Bhoomika · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
The 2nd half of the book was pretty intense and hopelessly sad, so much so that i was bawling my eyes out. About characters I would say that Shyamoli is pretty interesting in way that makes you root for her but Abir sort of felt one dimensional and a bit pretentious. But both of their feeling of sadness is very nicely delivered which would definitely make reader sad. The rest of book especially them getting together is very underwhelming and does not give us much look into their relationship.