Stuff that dreams are made of

Mona

As Ravinder Singh, techie-turned-author took over the stage to release his yet another book, Your Dreams Are Mine Now, on Friday evening at Westside, Elante, Chandigarh, his admirers had already been waiting for hours.

Six years on, four books down, Ravinder sounds more mature and looks much younger from those days when he made his debut as a writer in this very city! Success is writ large over his persona, and he sure knows the pulse of the people. He dishes out in his latest what his readers demand from him – a love story, with an agenda in it.

Ravinder holds the crowd in rapt attention as he talks about his book – politics is and should be an integral part of our life. “But, yes, I have sugarcoated the bitter pill in a love story,” said Ravinder. Story of a boy and girl, set in Delhi University, has the girl for its hero. Partly the inspiration came from Nirbhaya episode, partly Aam Aadmi Party’s meteoric rise made Ravinder zero down on the theme.

The book took a year, and our author is a happy man going by the initial response. The question answer session post the book launch hint at the fact that the early readers already have found a connect with it. “I took up the MBA course at ISB, Hyderabad to know how can I market my books better,” he admits. After he quit his last job at Microsoft, Ravinder now is full time into writing and has established a publication house called Black Ink Books. “The idea is to give a platform to first time writers,” says Ravinder who is due to be out with his first set of books in the second quarter of the year. “Our first three books are on different themes. One of the writers is settled abroad, is in her 50s; there is another in her early twenties and the third one in late twenties and none of them is a love story,” is all he reveals.

As for Your Dreams Are Mine Now, he has a peeved wife at home who has had enough of ‘love’ in his books. “But this time the title has come from the editor, not me,” he says in his defence. And, that doesn’t stop his fans, young girls largely, openly professing their love for him!

As for his agenda in this book – politics, yes, it may be difficult game in our country, but he is positive. “If you are set out to do anything in life, there would be challenges. In my experience, in this journey five out of 10 people will ditch you and three wouldn’t bother. It’s the remaining two who will turn angels for you and help you march forward.”

Your Dreams Are Mine Now published by Penguin Metro Reads is priced at Rs 175.

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