The Dove's Lament - Book Review

The world is full of conflicts posed on the grounds of race, religion, customs, border disputes and many other reasons. Have you ever wondered who is at the receiving ends of these conflicts? Yes, of course those who fight for their so called cause are the ones who suffer. But the majority of those who suffer are common citizens. Amongst them too the women and children are the sections which suffer the most. They are vulnerable. As a result they are the first to bear the brunt of all these conflicts created by man.

Dove’s lament introduces us to the conflicts that exist across the globe. It has fictional stories weaved around these real issues that are threatening the humanity. So there is a story called Genocide which is set amidst genocide in Rwanda. Fire in a Ring revolves around the Srebrenica Massacre. For the love of a motherland is about the Israel-Palestine conflict. The story home deals with the illegal occupation of West bank. Sacrifice narrates how young boys are exploited in every possible way in Afghanistan. It breaks the myth that it is only women who are exploited sexually. The brutal attack at the army school of Peshwar becomes canvas for the story the smallest conflict. The desiccated land is about the Kashmir issue, while Princess is about child marriages in India. A night to Remember is about human trafficking in India. Explosion is set against the backdrop of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka. Imprisoned tells us about the drug trade in Colombia. Esther’s Story is about the refugees in the Congo after Rwandan Genocide.

A book of this kind required a lot of research. The writer has done her homework well and annexes a short essay to each of the stories. It tells us more about the conflicts. This is a good thing, for apart from the issues in our country and the neighbouring nations, we have just heard about others disputes, we really do not know them. This book will serve as a primer in understanding the man-made conflicts across the world. It will move you. There will be a tear in eye and lump in your throat as you will read these sad stories. They will make you realize how fortunate you are. The author has succeeded in crafting the stories around these heart wrenching conflicts. Her writing style is unique for in most of the stories are written in two voices. Sometimes it takes time to comprehend the story written in two voices. But once you become accustomed to her style, you will enjoy it.

That doesn’t mean that there are no flaws in the book. Now how come the girl in Princess who was never allowed to go to school could write letters to her mother? Again in the story a night to remember, how could a man living in a guest house, who doesn’t want the world to know his whereabouts, print visiting cards giving the name and address of the guest house?

That apart this book needs to be welcomed for it articulates the pain of millions of our unfortunate brethren across the world.

Runaway Children - Book Review

I am sure all of you must have spotted young boys working at garages, tea stalls, hotels, shops and numerous other places. Have you ever pondered where from they come. The next time you come across such children do pose this question. It is highly probable that they have run away from their homes.

S Hariharan’s Runaway Children is his true story. He hailed from a well to do orthodox family. He ran away from his house on three occasions. Firstly for few hours, then for few days and finally for few months. He has penned his experiences in the book Runaway Children. His writing opens the doors to the harsh realities of lives of these young boys. They slog for hours for a pittance. They have to work hard to ensure that they will get their meals on time. For them live is a constant struggle. As a result there is no room for religion or its allied activities.

In spite of all the arduous labour and the every kind of exploitation they are subjected to these young boys come up in their lives. They share a dream of moving high in their lives. Their dreams may not be as lofty as those of the educated middle-class boys and girls. For them saving a few thousands to start a paan stall is also an aim in life

This small book consisting of 197 pages is a page turner. You can easily finish it in one or two sittings. The writing is very simple. But the story, if I could call it one, is riveting. You will not move from your seat as you read the book, but something will move inside you. The book is an eye opener to those living in luxurious homes and moving in swanky cars. For within the same corporate India lives the adolescent population which has no access to school, health care, toilets, water and shelter. The book also underlines how even the educated parents fail to understand the psychology of their children. If they were a bit more understanding, caring and forgiving most of these children would have never left their homes. The book also tells us about the social workers who under the garb of helping these boys, sexually exploit them.

This book is certainly not a literary masterpiece. But it documents the lives of those unfortunate children who many believe that do not exist. They are not the voters. So no political party is interested in their cause. They are vulnerable to every form of abuse. I recommend every parent and child should read this book. It will teach the parents to be empathetic towards their wards. It will teach children to value what their parents provide them. Most importantly I am sure after reading the book, when you come across any of these working young boys, you will at least acknowledge their existence. This I believe is the first step towards their rehabilitation and upliftment. For this sole reason this book is highly recommended.

One Life to Ride - Book Review

An old patient inspires an old speech therapist to take a road trip on a motor cycle. So the trip begins from Pune. Matching all odds this man with an old body encasing a young mind rides all the way to the highest motorable road in the world which is Khardung La in Ladakh.

I love travelogues. No wonders l liked Ajit Harisinghani’s One Life to Ride. His ride is indeed inspiring. It compels you to come out of your mundane routine and think of what you truly like.

The travelogue is written in a simple, easy to comprehend language. The excitement of the writer on seeing the vales of Ladakh, his fears when he gets struck along the rough patch through which a stream runs have been articulated very well. His yearning to have a hot water bath after a tiring ride, his happiness on seeing something other than dal and rice on his platter (that is the only food which you get in the makeshift hotels of the hilly terrain) make the writer human. In other words he doesn’t make any claims that he is a super human.

On the journey he meets a Sufi saint who does not expect any money from him as well as those mendicants who try hard to extract some money from him. Though these meetings have been made a highlight in the blurb, they are  the least interesting. One Life to Ride is by no chance an Autobiography of a Yogi or Living with the Himalayan Masters. The part where the soldiers swarm around the writer on seeing his motorcycle with Maharashtra passing is poignant. The writer tells how they yearn for their annual leave and also is worried that they may lose their lives to the bullets shot from the enemy gun any time. On meeting them his heart is filled with patriotism, in the same way as millions of Indians feel on watching a patriotic movie.

There are few typographical errors in the book. Like the line on page 79 “A few ofthe beautiful birds are dancing with their plumage fanned open.” The space between of and the is missing. Also A few is incorrect usage. Again on page 103 the space between the words rotis and is missing. The book glorifies drinking and smoking. I did not like it. The writer being an elderly person should not have written about his smoking and drinking adventures at the high altitude, that too when he was advised not to drink or smoke at the great heights. His writing is bound to have an adverse impact on the young readers. The black and white pictures in the book are hazy and ugly. They could have been replaced by colour photographs or avoided all together.

The blurb claims the book to be a real life adventure. But the second page of the book says “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.” Now what kind of writing is this? Has the writer invented some new genre like fictitious travelogue? If so is the case why does the blurb say that it is a real life adventure?

Turn Thy Waste into Gold

Every house generates waste. We have a dustbin at our home and office. We make it a point that no rubbish should lie outside. Everything should go to the dustbin. Be it plastic, leftovers of lunch, twigs of vegetables, broken bottles, plastic everything goes to the same bin.

Segregation of waste is not done in Indian houses. Even if you are educated, holding high posts of power and authority, you don’t segregate wastes. This is posing a great problem. We are making our earth, which is our big house in common, dirty.

Even where waste is being segregated the local body collects it and dumps it into the same truck and the same dumping ground. So you may wonder what’s the use of my segregation.

Yes there are problems, but there are solutions too. First of all let us separate the wastes. The biodegradable should be separated from the other wastes. Plastic, papers should be recycled. Now you may ask where do I recycle it. Just sell them off to the kabadivallah and he will do the needful. How about donating the money you get by selling these wastes to charity?

As regards the wet garbage like flowers, vegetable twigs, fruit peels, left overs of food, tea bags is concerned, we can use them to make compost at our homes. If you have some open space, dig a pit. Put all the wet garbage which you have segregated into it and cover it with mud. Within two to three months you will get excellent manure. You can use this for your garden.

If you are living in the cities and have space crunch, just two earthen pots will solve your problems. Put the garbage into one of the pots and cover it with little mud. Keep it aside for two three months. Until then use the second pot to store the wet garbage. Don’t worry it doesn’t smell foul.

Your little acts of segregating domestic wastes will go a very long way in reducing the garbage on our planet. Already a large part of our planet is full of garbage and in coming years the problem garbage disposal is going to assume great proportions. 

 

It is our collective duty to contribute in making our planet clean and green. This small act of segregating waste will not cost you anything. It is just a matter of habit. Rather it will pay you, in the form of money which you get by selling your paper and plastic. Also you will get valuable manure absolutely free.

You can also start composting collectively. The biodegradable wastes of the entire building or society can be collected together in a big pit. There are many societies which do so and earn by selling the money generated by the compost.

So dear friends I appeal to you to kindly take a step forward and make your own contribution, not in terms of money, but by segregating your domestic waste.

Compost pit at my home

The Firebird - Book Review

Saikat Majumdar’s the Firebird is a poignant tale of growing up days of a young boy Ori. He hails from a respectable family. His mother is a small time theatre actress. Her acting in plays is not approved by her family members. The story is about how one tale made up by Ori leads to the devastation of his family.

Though the novel nowhere tells the time period when it is set, from the descriptions it appears to be set in the seventies or eighties. Yet the moral policing of political parties with their mutilated concepts of art and culture appears very contemporary. The novel shows the world around the protagonist through his own eyes. The writer has articulated the feelings and emotions of a child very well. You can feel his unhappiness, his longing for his mother’ company as well as his attachment with his grandmother and not to forget his bitter-sweet relationship with his cousin.

The novel is very unlike something which I have read in recent times. The backdrop of Bengali theatre is fresh and hence interesting. The writer has articulated the theatre scenes very well. You can feel the happenings on the stage. The book depicts how a child is shaped by his environment and how he is sucked into the cadres of a party that engages in vandalism. The novel is realistic but becomes melodramatic towards the end. The story, though unhappy one, is engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. After reading the book I felt gloomy. The story underlines how responsible we adults must be while talking to our children. It also shatters the myth that children never lie.

Saikat’s language is simple. He weaves the scenes very vividly. Yet some parts are confusing. Particularly Ori’s conversation with the college-mates of his cousin who had visited prostitutes. Ahin Mullick’s character has come out very well. He has a dark and intriguing persona. He adds the mystery element to the novel. Who is he? A paedophile, a pervert or just a man immersed in the love of theatre. The novel also brings to the fore the plight of theatre artists who neither got the respect nor the money which they deserved. What I liked about the novel is the storytelling expertise of the writer. He doesn’t waste time in unnecessary descriptions. He keeps transiting from one scene to another with the reader wanting for more. The book is a page turner, offers something new though towards the end it takes the same old path. Also I found the title The Firebird inappropriate. Yet, this is a novel you cannot miss.

The first firangis - book review

India has been attracting foreigners since times immemorial. Those were the times when arriving to India itself was a challenge. On their detour to India these foreigners must have picked up many things on the way. They brought this baggage to India and interspersed it in the Indian soils. They also picked up Indian habits. In the process their bodies underwent changes in order to adapt the climate, culture and landscape, all of which was alien to them. Jonathan Gil Haris’s the first firangis documents the stories of such adventures.

These firangis had diverse backgrounds. So we have healers, soldiers, artists, robbers, beggars, ascetics, pirates and courtesans. They had diverse background. Some were slaves who were bought and sold. Some were migrants who were inducted in the armies. Some like Father Stephen came to spread the word of God, learnt Indian languages for the same and ended up falling in love with them. Indeed Father Stephen’s story is the most interesting story in the collection. I am well versed in Marathi language. So the poetry of this Father, who obviously learnt Marathi after arriving in India, left me spellbound. How can a foreigner develop such a good command over Marathi, understand the regional metaphors and intricacies and incorporate them in a poetry form which was by then a prerogative of Saints, is a question which continues to haunt me.

Another story which I liked was that of Thomas Coryate, a travelwriter, whose travel writing in the words of the author was more like of facebook page updates, who found begging in Ajmer lucrative and used his education in dramatics at the Eruopean Universities to the hilt to earn maximum alms. The book underlines that unlike their western counterparts the Indian slaves got an opportunity to move towards the higher ranks by their dexterity.

None of the historical characters in the book have left any autobiographies. The author culls out information about them from a variety of obscure sources and makes use of his considerable story telling skills to bring them to life again. While narrating the stories of these men and women, he tells us many anecdotes about their contemporaries as well as the prevailing socio-economic and geographical conditions of the country. Some stories like that of Bibi Juliana appear too far fetched. The author admits that there is very little information available about her. He uses the best of his imagination to recreate her. The author himself is a foreigner migrated to India. He uses the changes in his own body on arrival in India to draw parallels with the colourful characters in the book.

This is not an easy read. You have to read the book with great concentration or you will lose sight amidst many characters from many nationalities with the ever changing dynamics between them. This book is unique for it offers something new, something different, which is poignant, riveting and inspiring. These characters may not be heroes or heroines, but they have definitely contributed to shape the plinth on which we stand today. This book is highly recommended.

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Name of the Book: THE CURE WAS LOVE
Author: Reet Singh

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3. Ruchi Singh

The Story :

For three months, Simi Gill gets to do what she loves – train to be a doctor and learn more about medicine. As a bonus, she gets to forget about the shallow boyfriend who dumped her, and worse, who hurt her. Living it up in New York, far from her home in India, she is saved by the delicious Rudy Bhatnagar, not once, but two times in one night!

A talented surgeon with a heart of gold, Rudy can’t stop himself from thinking about Simi Gill. He tries very hard - for having had his heart broken before, he’s not sure he can risk it again. But fate has other plans. Thrown together by bizarre circumstances, they survive booze and babysitting with aplomb. Will they realize they’re perfect for each other or will they let precious love slip through their fingers?

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About The Author 

Reet Singh 

Reet has a romantic soul, partly genetic but certainly attributable to the romantic fiction she devours by the kilo. When she's not watching romcoms, or doing creative things with wool and a crochet hook, or playing Scrabble, she can be found in the kitchen putting together her 'world-famous' one-pot meals.

Married for three decades, her prototypical tall, handsome, and sensitive hero-husband still makes her heart skip a beat. Writing about love and happy endings feeds her romantic soul; hearing from her readers thrills her.

Having a mother that read to her, she paid it forward, telling bedtime stories to her sons and nieces until they grew too old too fast. As a reaction to them growing up before she knew what was happening, she began writing for older children, and has published children's books on Amazon, for Kindle.

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Name of the Book : PRADYUMNA: SON OF KRISHNA
Author: Usha Narayanan

The Story :

‘I see a dark future that makes me quake,’ Devarishi Narada said. ‘One of these newborns will ravage the world and erase the name of Krishna from the face of the earth.’

As the world trembles on the threshold of Kali Yuga—4,32,000 years of unprecedented evil—it waits for a saviour to rise.

Meanwhile, in the dark netherland of the asuras, the meek Vama shudders as he learns that he is actually Pradyumna,
the son of Krishna. And that his journey has just begun.

From the asura kingdom to Dwaraka and then Kurukshetra, destiny forces him to battle monsters, angry
gods and blazing weapons, and overpower his own weaknesses. Will he be able to rise to the challenge in time to save
the world? Or is he the destroyer prophesied by Narada?

Pradyumna is the gripping saga of the rise of this mighty, swashbuckling hero whom all of humanity awaits.

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About The Author 

Usha Narayanan 

Usha Narayanan is a gold-medallist with a Master’s degree in English Literature. She has had an eventful career in advertising, media and the corporate world, as creative director, features writer, web editor and communications manager. Her debut novel, ‘The Madras Mangler’, a suspense thriller, has received several positive media and reader reviews. Her next book is an epic fantasy,'Pradyumna: Son of Krishna,' published by Penguin. 

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Name of the Book : WITHOUT YOU
Author: Preethi Venugopala

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The Story :

When Ananya, a bubbly twenty-year-old engineering student, reaches her Grandmother's house in Sreepuram on a month long vacation, romance is the last thing on her mind. However, she meets Dr. Arjun there and falls head over heels in love.

As it often happens, the path of true love never runs smooth. Circumstances force them apart even though they were madly in love. She becomes a victim of depression. When everything fails to return her to normalcy, help arrives from an unexpected source. Will she ever find happiness again? Will time allow her heart to heal and forget Arjun? What indeed is true love? What is that strange secret that locks all the circumstances together?

Travel with Ananya to the picturesque Sreepuram, face the chaos of Bengaluru, and relish the warmth of magical Dubai in this heartwarming tale of love, betrayal, friendship, and miracles.

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Preethi Venugopala 

Preethi Venugopala is a Civil Engineer by education and an avid blogger, artist by passion.

After working in many prestigious civil engineering projects for more than a decade, she quit her job to become a full time mother.

Meanwhile, she took a Masters Degree in English literature to complete her dream of studying English literature. She tried her hand successfully at crafts, crocheting, portraiture and painting before venturing into writing.

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Author interview - Mehrab Irani

1. Hearty congratulations for the success of Mad Money Journey. Financial fiction is a new genre.
   
   How does it feel to be a forerunner?
   

Thanks Mahesh for your kind encouraging words which mean a lot to me. Its only because of erudite readers like you that we authors are inspired to write and express ourselves for the common good of everybody.

We are all born into genius. Sadly, most of us die in mediocrity. I am going to die one day. We all are going to someday shed our earthly bodies and leave for another voyage – the journey of the soul. But then, does the journey of the soul begin when we actually die physically. Is the soul actually alive when we are here on this planet? A child knows what it wants to accomplish in life. At that point, everything is clear and everything seems possible. As children, we are not afraid to dream and yearn for everything. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince us that it is not possible. By repeating the same pattern again and again, are we moving towards the death of our very soul? Everybody has a ‘personal calling’. This is the promise between God and us. It is the promise each one of us makes to God before embarking on our earthly journey. Whoever you are, you have a personal calling, a desire that originated in your soul. This is clearly your mission on earth; the purpose of your very existence on this planet.

I took it as my ‘personal calling’ of making people realize what small life they are living because of financial slavery, helping them move from financial slavery to financial freedom, re-introducing them to their dreams and empowering them with the courage to live their dreams so that they can achieve their higher self-actualization goals and answer the calling of their souls. Being a forerunner in anything brings happiness, sense of purpose and at the same time enormous responsibility. I hope to honestly justify my duty.

2. Please tell us how did the thought of a financial fiction come to you.

The world is moving forward technologically but we humans are moving backwards financially. We may have all modern facilities like online banking and investing, credit and debit cards, access to financial information, easy loan facilities but our financial knowledge is diminishing. Today, we see young educated people earning very good income but then not able to protect their money from financial predators, they pay everybody like the government, banks, electricity bills, telephone bills, children school fees etc but forget to pay themselves via surplus budget, don’t know when to cut spending and when to spend to get rich, have no protection in the form of financial insurance, are not aware of the difference between saving and investing, buy liabilities mistaking it to be assets with negative leverage which puts them in the web of unnecessary avoidable recurring expenses which then sadly makes them “slaves of money” for life – wage slave of the employer, tax slave of the government and loan slave of the bank.

To this effect, I wrote my first book called “10 Commandments for Financial Freedom” in the year 2013. It is a simple straight forward book wherein I have brought out 10 principles dealing earning, protecting, budgeting, saving, spending, investing, leveraging, insuring, common financial mistakes and rules of money which I believe if anybody follows will lead him / her on the path towards financial freedom. It’s a very simple book and I believe anybody reading it will be able to understand it. However, still it is a non-fiction book and people have to actually sit and do the hard work of reading it. After this book, when I used to meet lot of people in seminars, conferences and used to talk with them, I used to realize that there is lot of apathy towards financial thinking. When we ask a housewife that what are you doing with your money the typical answer is that, “I don’t know my husband or father is looking at it”; when we ask a young educated professional who has just started working that what are you doing regarding your future marriage, children the general answer is that, “I don’t know just now I am busy concentrating in my career”, when we ask a middle aged experienced professional in a senior position earning very good income that what are you doing about your retirement, children marriage then the normal answer is that, “I don’t know, I have invested in that mutual fund or subscribed to such insurance policy”. I am not stating that we should not go to professional fund managers, if we don’t know how to invest in specific stocks we should surely take the help of professionals but what I am trying to stress over here is that we should atleast be aware what is happening with our money. But there is total ignorance about it. And people are generally afraid about the word “money”. And it is not their fault – during school or college we have been taught everything like math, science, history, geography, engineering, medical, law etc but nobody teaches us about the most important thing with which everyone in this physical world has to deal i.e. money. Yes, whether it is a King or a beggar, a CEO or a peon, a Minister or a normal party worker, a man or a woman, educated or uneducated – everybody in this world has to deal with money. Journey in this physical world is incomplete without money. And if we don’t know how to deal with money – many times our this journey becomes like mad. So, the idea of “Mad Money Journey” came up.

The two most important things in this world is – entertainment and money. I thought why not combine both of them. Most of the people are afraid of the term money. So, let me present money to them in a thrilling suspenseful entertaining form. We all like to learn from stories and fables because we have been taught that way since our childhood. So, why not learn the most important subject also in the form of a fable? And that is when I got the idea of writing a “finance fiction”. My book “Mad Money Journey” is a completely new refreshing book which combines finance and fiction in a manner never done before. “Mad Money Journey” combines the principles of money, finance and investments on one side and of life and its wisdom on the other side in an inspirational, motivational and intuitive manner bringing out the relationship between man and money, entertaining in a thrilling suspenseful manner, promising to be a page-turner, helping and guiding its readers on a new path towards self-discovery, a financially free life wherein everybody, rather than being slave to money is actually able to live a happy successful life achieving their highest self and fulfilling their very mission on coming to this planet. The readers taking the “Mad Money Journey” will permanently change their journey by putting themselves in the right path wherein they will be introduced to their own inner self and true path. I am confident that the attempt to write a finance fiction in the form of “Mad Money Journey” will be loved and cement its space in the mind, heart and soul of the readers.

3. How much real life goes into a fiction writing? Is high level of imagination important to have for an Author?

A large part of fiction is actually real life. If an author is able to conceive or imagine something then it has either occurred in the past, happening somewhere in the present or will in most probabilities occur in the future. A writer is just making the invisible, visible. Writing is a combination of fact and fiction. Whatever genre a writer might be writing, he / she has to first get the facts correct of what he / she is writing and then the author has to convert the fact into fiction or into a presentable format wherein the reader is able to understand, read and connect with it.

4. Have you really traveled across all the countries mentioned in Mad Money Journey?

Yes, I have travelled to all the countries mentioned in the book – some in the physical form while some others in the imaginative form. Writers are basically those breed of people who convert fact into fiction and many times fiction brings out important facts. So, its not necessary for the writer to always visit all the countries, places, locations etc described in the book. The thoughts of a writer are wild while their imagination is able to capture the entire world in a few words.

For me it was important to ensure that the reader travels to all the destinations mentioned in the book, in his mind, heart and soul. The reader had to connect with the various international and incredibly different characters from various backgrounds, professionals and personalities and live with them in their house, surrounded by their place, eat their food, exist in their culture and relate to their lives. Than only the journey of the reader would be complete and would feel like a real “Mad Money Journey”.

5. Mehrab could you give us some tips regarding finances.

Tips are for waiters and not for persons managing their finances or investments.

The only thing certain about finance or money is that it is uncertain. There is a need to unravel the mysterious behaviour of money and reveal its deepest secret rules. The poor work for a living, the middle class get into debt and keep working for money while the rich make their and other people’s money work for themselves. We need to learn to make our as well as other people’s money work for us. When we achieve financial independence, we can live a personal debt-free life, enjoy our retirement, spend without feeling guilty and leave our legacy. Someone needs to make people retire from their work as their money starts working for them.

The basic advice which I would like to give everyone would be know the best sources and methods of earning money, protect their money from the ‘legal financial predators’, budget and pay yourself first, know difference between mere saving and proper investing and how savers are losers in today’s fast changing world of currency, when to avoid spending and how to ‘spend to riches’, the importance of asset allocation in the investment process, the power of positive leverage and how it can either multiply or destroy wealth, not to confuse insurance with investments, recognize the rules of money and avoid the common financial mistakes which individuals are prone to.

6. Please tell us something about your childhood.

My childhood was a very simple one. It was like any other child. However, I had a lot of inquisitiveness about various things around me. I always wanted to question and learn lot of the conventional wisdom. I also had an urge of converting complex facts into simple interesting things and then sharing it with others.

As a child, I always dreamt of a career which will help make an impact to this world, help others realize their higher self, show them how small a life they are living when they are born for greatness, remove the hurdles between man and his dreams, make everyone realize their true self potential and encourage them to answer their soul calling. I was not knowing what it will be then. But I have realized it now. It will be my “Mad Money Journey” which will permanently elevate the journey of all mortal souls.

7. How much time do you devote for writing? Give us some tips as to how working professionals should take out time for writing?

When we like something, when we love what we do, it becomes a method of expression of the inner feelings and the thoughts of our soul and it then becomes the very essence of our existence. We don’t look at time then, we just exist in space.

I never plan or schedule my writing. How can someone plan or schedule the inner thoughts of the soul? Ideas flow in my mind, writing moves in my veins, I just need a pen and paper or should I say a computer or laptop to sit and write. My only advice to working professionals who want to write would be to just express your souls and be in love with what you write.

8. What would be your advice to budding writers?

The top four things which I take care while writing are - being honest to God, being honest to myself, being honest to humanity and being honest to the universe.

The biggest challenge which I have faced is my ownself and how to overcome my own shortcomings and the problems which I might have myself inadvertently created for my ownself. And I feel that is the challenge which most of us actually face – we can win the whole world if we are able to win over our ownself.

I started writing when something within me told me that having some knowledge, perspective or vision and not sharing that with others is selfish. So I thought of sharing my ideas with the world. The purpose of writing is to connect with everyone and make this world a more better place to live. The need to make a positive difference to this world should keep all writers motivated towards their work.

9. How was your experience of finding a publisher?

If we read the story of many all time bestselling authors than they have a interesting story to tell about how they struggled around finding their first publisher, how they got rejected again and again, how they might have self-published and such fascinating and intriguing stories on which itself a book can be written. However, I don’t have any such exciting story to tell. Contrary to the majority of writers, my experience with finding a publisher was pretty easy. Infact, I was spoilt for choice as I had more than one publisher eager and ready to publish my book. But, finding a publisher is always easy, the real challenge is to find a reader who loves and appreciates our work.

10. These are the days of aggressive book marketing. Books have to be promoted. Your take on this?

When one is writing then he / she has to just concentrate on writing. The author has to be pure and honest to one’s ownself and write what he / she actually believes in. Once the manuscript is ready then let the editor do their work with full independence. The editor is the first person who is reading the manuscript and brings a whole new perspective and thought process to it. Don’t unnecessarily interfere with the editor’s work. After that the copyediting, book title, cover design, production and many other items go into it. Once the book is ready then that is your final product. Now, we have to go all out in creating awareness, branding, publicity and marketing of the book. A writer writes because he / she wants the world to know of his / her idea. Wants to connect with the world, wants the world to read his / her work and that can happen only when the book actually sells. So, if writing a book is a project then I would say that it has two components – the first being the concept, writing, editing, title, designing, production etc. and the second being branding, publicity, marketing and sales. Without the first one being good there is no hope for the book to succeed but just because the first part is good does not automatically mean that the book will succeed unless the second part is put in place.

11. Tell us about your future projects.

I would always like to connect with other people. Books is the primary medium but there are others also like talks and speeches, TV and Radio shows, press and media as wells as movies. I myself learn while connecting with people. And connecting with people helps me to understand humans better and then produce want is the real need. And I want to connect with the masses. That is why I write articles in press, appear on various TV and radio shows and now books. However, after a certain point books have a limit of penetration since there are some people who would simply never want to read. Hence, to connect with those people I am exploring other mediums like movies and TV shows. I am in talk with certain people for converting my book “Mad Money Journey” into a movie and expect to talk with more people for exploring the same idea. I am also planning to do a TV show on money and finance which will be very different from the rest. It will be a thrilling yet emotional show which will explore and connect people with their dreams and show them how money and finance is preventing them from achieving their highest self in life. The show will not just teach to earn money, it will help to fulfill dreams.

As far as my next book is concerned, I have not yet decided on what would be my next book but it might be something which will further delve into the relationship between man, money, dreams, relationships and love and the interconnection between all of them. It will further explore and investigate into the life of various characters who are going through some kind of mental, physical, emotional or psychological struggle because of money. Take the example of a housewife. She might be educated, reasonably rich, having a loving family – husband, children, in laws but might feel attracted to a neighborhood man who is financially more successful than her husband. This physical attraction because of money might be draining her emotionally and psychologically. What is the solution for her? I would like to dig deeper and deeper into such struggles which we humans face in our daily life because of the interplay between man, money and our inner feelings and dreams.

You can read the review of Mad Money Journey here