Story of Tublu, excerpt 1

Raja returned to the hostel at night and he looked disturbed to see a gang of guys in his room, drinking. Unlike his usual self, he was silent that night and Tublu felt there was something wrong with him. Raja was only physically present in the room and behaved in a rather absent-minded fashion. He was lost in his thoughts and was finishing his pegs fast. 'What's up dude? You didn’t write today’s paper well or what? Why are you so fucking serious?’ someone asked Raja. Raja had a fake smile on his face and tried to avoid the situation. The party continued and the guys mainly discussed their upcoming training. Everyone had a wonderful time, talking, boozing, and cracking jokes. At midnight, not finding Raja in the room, Tublu looked for him in the other rooms but he couldn’t find Raja anywhere. 

Tublu was worried and started looking for Raja around the hostel. He found Raja sitting alone in the staircase in the backyard of the hostel. It was dark there and Tublu sat next to him without saying anything. Raja took his last puff, exhaled a cloud of smoke and threw away the cigarette bud. ‘What happened, dude? What is disturbing you?’ Tublu asked.

'Nothing Tublu, just wanted to spend some time alone,’ replied Raja.

'It’s okay, if you don’t want to share; I’ll not bother you,’ Tublu said. Raja remained silent for a while and then he lit up another cigarette.

'I’m a little disturbed, dude. Don’t know what to say? Not sure how you would react.’

'Cut the crap, will you?’ Tublu was getting hyper.

'I met my mother today in my uncle's house,' said Raja.

'So, is she upset with you or something?’ 

'Actually, today I met her for the first time in my life,' Raja replied. 

There was an absolute silence. Raja was busy smoking and a few seconds later, Tublu asked Raja to pass on the cigarette to him. The effect of alcohol which Tublu was experiencing vanished instantly. He didn’t know what to say and had his drags silently. Even though they both had been sharing the same room for the last three years, yet they never spoke about their mothers.

An excerpt from my debut novel, Story of Tublu. It's a contemporary fiction book, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The story has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

You can order your copy from

     

Book Launch of Story of Tublu

As we were entering the venue I was thrilled to see so many people around. We had to walk a long way before we reached the arena. The immediate thing that came to my mind was that of Palace Ground, Bangalore. During the last decade we had experienced it many times, walking long distance through the narrow road to reach palace ground to savor live metal concert. But this time it was different, it was a book fair, that too New Delhi World Book Fair. I was feeling proud as I was going to attend the book launch of my debut novel, but my age old stage phobia was making me nervous. 

It was a nice feeling to be among some of the prominent and veteran authors. I almost felt like a toddler there. Totally nine books were launched that day by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd, on 20th Feb 2015. Well, . When it was my turn I was more than happy. Like others I also had to say something about my book. I thought to say many things, but my stage fright overwhelmed me at once. I don’t remember when last time I held the mic, before this. I stated to fumble and thought I better not speak much. To ease the situation I read the beautiful passage from my book, the Foreword  by Dr Harish Narang. Later, professor Narang gave a wonderful review of "Story of Tublu" to the crowd. 

The question hour session was fine, I was pretty comfortable that time. It seemed gradually I was able to overcome my stage fright. As the chief guest, Dr Narang gave such a wonderful review of my book, some people had a few questions. Dr Narang replied in a very elegant way. I still remember one of his sentence while he was replying to the questions, "when I read Story of Tublu, I felt like, it was coming from the heart and reaching the heart"

All in all, it was a wonderful experience to be part of the book launch. I hope someday I will overcome my stage phobia. 

Story of Tublu will be available in Amazon and Flipkart soon.

The First Paragraph of "Story of Tublu"

August 1989

The monsoon had already started and it was raining cats and dogs for the last couple of days. Sundays were always relaxing and the mesmeric rain was tranquilizing the environment around. It was a small picturesque town in Assam, one of the states in the north eastern part of India. The ladies in the house were enjoying ‘Mahabharata’ serial on Doordarshan and Mr Sharma was reading his newspaper in the balcony. Even he used to regularly watch the greatest ever Indian TV soap, but this morning he was in a different mood. He was enjoying his cup of tea, sip by sip. Mr Sharma had a magnificent house located at the town’s suburbs, in a big compound with coconut trees all around. The lush green grass in the lawn looked beautiful. The monsoon had left a magical fragrance everywhere. The falling raindrops on the big coconut leaves created a melody, and the splashes of water on the ground looked enchanting. Mr Sharma felt blessed and enjoyed every moment of it.

Well, those were the words from the first paragraph of my debut novel, Story of Tublu

Releasing on 20th Feb 2015!!

Story of Tublu, Book Launch Date Confirmed

My debut novel Story of Tublu is getting launched on 20th February 2015 at the New Delhi World Book Fair. I find it difficult to digest, but yes, now officially I have become an author. Well, it was an wonderful journey, right from the moment I made up my mind to write a novel, that too a fiction. I would like to share the acknowledgment page of my  book.

                                                              Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to my friends, my blog readers and many others who are the main source of my inspiration and encouragement. It’s only through blogging that I developed a habit of writing. Thanks to all my blogger friends to be with me all the time. I would like to thank my wife, Anjali who always supported and encouraged me irrespective of many ups and downs of life. Special thanks to my school friend, Arundhati Hazarika; you are the first reader of my book. Your reviews always encouraged me and made me feel more confident about my first novel. Thanks a lot for your effort in editing the book before I sent it across to the publishers.