PROLOGUE

 

Prologue

 

It was 5:35 in the evening and the roads leading to Sahara Mall in Mulund, a suburb of Mumbai, were completely choked. It seemed like every rickshaw from nearby stations was dropping off people to Sahara Mall. A huge banner, 12 feet by 18 feet, read “Wordsworth and Inkpen Publications welcome all their dear readers for the launch of And That’s True Love by Sampoorna P. Pillai, India’s oldest debut author. Join us at 6.30 PM on 12th april 2014”. It was accompanied with an image of a smiling face of an old South Indian lady holding up the book.

 

The book launch was at 6:30, but people had started trickling in to get front row seats to see the oldest debut author of India from up close. Irfan Siddique was the chief guest and Sonali Sinha was the guest of honour. The curious audience consisted of fans of the two popular actors and also people from the media fraternity, who were eager to know and get a byte from the new author. The story of Sampoorna’s rise from the streets of Mumbai to spending the last phase of her life in an old age home to writing a book at such a ripe old age was indeed newsworthy.

 

“Look there, yeah, that oldie in the green sari. Yeah, she is the author I guess. This media, I tell you, dude, loves underdogs,” a guy standing at the entrance of the bookstore, where the event was being held, was heard talking to his comrade, who nodded his head in agreement. “People love rags to riches stories,” he added.

 

It was 6:00 PM and the store was 80% full. Everyone was eager to find out what story the old lady had come up with. There were some cynics, who applauded the cover page of the book, the blurb, and the marketing tactics of the publisher, but totally disregarded the fact that Sampoorna Pillai could actually have a good story to tell. Others wondered if the book was a work of fiction or an account of her life. Some even went to the extent of branding Sampoorna to be the face of an author, who was famous for using pseudonyms for her books. All doubts would be quashed at 6:30 PM.

 

The star-duo entered the bookstore, eliciting a big round of applause. The girls went gaga over the dashing Mr Cool and guys couldn’t take their eyes off of the most gorgeous actress of current times. The compere, a girl in her early twenties, gave a warm welcome to the guests and requested the attendees to take their seats. The seventy chairs arranged in the store were occupied and around eighty people chose to stand behind to witness the book launch.

 

Leaning on a pillar near the stage was an ordinary-looking man in his early thirties. Clean-shaven, bespectacled, he had a layer of fat around his waist, and wore a blue shirt and light blue jeans. He said a few words to Sampoorna, kissed her on her left cheek, touched her feet, and guided her towards the stage, coaxing her to talk to the audience without fear, as they had rehearsed umpteen numbers of times at home.

 

The crowd broke out into a loud round of applause when Sampoorna occupied the seat in the middle of the dais. She was flanked by Irfan Siddique on her right and Sonali Sinha on her left. Sampoorna smiled at both of them. Dimples adorned her sweet old face. Jaymin Shah, the head of Inkpen Publications, occupied the seat on the extreme right, next to Irfan Siddique. The compere thanked the honourable guests, Sampoorna, and Jaymin Shah for taking out time for the launch and also thanked the audience for making it to the launch of the book, And That’s True Love.

 

“So now ladies and gentlemen, let us find out what And That’s True Love is all about from the very endearing Sampoorna Pillaiji, the oldest debut author of India,” announced the compere and handed over the mike to Sampoorna.

 

Her hands shook when she took the mike from the compere. Sampoorna had rehearsed this scene at least ten times, where she would take the mike from the compere and then would wish everyone a good evening and thank the guests and the audience, before telling them what her book was all about. But seeing all this in reality made her nervous. She kept looking at the crowd for ten to fifteen seconds, wondering how to begin her speech. Her speech, written on a piece of paper, was placed on the table in front of her, but the heavy mike in her left hand and a kerchief in her right hand had impaired her thinking. A stream of saliva dribbled down the right corner of her mouth. Irfan Siddique took the kerchief from her hand and dabbed her mouth with it, smiling at her kindly. His pat on her back assured her that getting petrified in front of such a large crowd was perfectly fine. Irfan Siddique gently took the mike from her hand and began to share what he felt about the book. The great actor was at his best interacting with the crowd and telling them why he loved the sweet old lady’s book and why he had cancelled a shoot to attend this launch. In the meanwhile, Sonali Sinha comforted Sampoorna and patted her on her back, congratulating her on her amazing feat and telling her that it was okay to be a little baffled because of the large crowd in front of her.

 

Sampoorna gathered her senses and looked at Irfan Siddique, who was talking to the crowd. The actor realized that the old lady was now ready to share her story. He gave her the mike after complimenting her dimples.

 

Sampoorna smiled and held the mike with both hands. She looked at the guy standing next to the pillar, gulped and started off: “Dear all, I am Sampoorna V. Pillai from Sion. I am thank you to you all for coming for this event. I come from very poor family. My father was drummer, who used to play drums at weddings. I spent my childhood accompanying him to weddings and fairs and such events, where I used to dance, while my father played drums. I grew up and got married to a distant cousin of mine, who had saved me from a dog. The dog had bitten me on my right hand and then it was going to bite off the whole hand, but then Vijay fought the dog and saved my life. Slowly, I developed feelings for him and then both our parents agreed to our marriage. We then had kids, who left me to fend for myself at an old age home after the death of my husband.

 

“Since childhood, I have been a very tough and determined girl. If I wanted something, I made sure that I did any hard work needed to achieve it. Same with this book writing. I started writing short stories and poems some thirty years ago. I used to write mostly in Tamil. Right now I am 74 years old. Two years ago, I thought, why not try writing book instead of writing only short stories. When I thought of writing this book, I was not aware of how difficult it is to write book.

 

When I told my beta, standing over there by the pillar, about my dream of writing a book, he supported me a lot and also helped me in framing various scenes whenever I had any problem. I was not and I am still not good at English, as you must have realised till now, so I want to thank Stuti Sharma from Inkpen Publications for doing such a good job of editing the book. Thanks so much to Jaymin sir, who agreed to publish this book. I am so lucky to be sit in the middle of the actors, who are so famous and still took out time to be here. Thank you so much for making my day so special.”

 

Tears started surfacing on Sampoorna‘s face. The compere gave the old lady her kerchief and requested the honourable guests to unveil the book. Sampoorna wiped her tears and was in a happy mood again, as she posed before the people and cameras with her first book. She had proved that age is just a number. “So here we go, ladies and gentlemen, let us give Sampoornaji a big, big round of applause!” cheered the compere.

 

As Sampoorna, Irfan Siddique, and Sonali Sinha stood up to unveil the book from the bright wrapping paper, the cameras went on a rampage, clicking hundreds of pictures of the author and the actors unveiling the book. The whole event was also video recorded by the publisher.

 

The actors and the author settled on their chairs again. The floor was now open for questions. A lady in her late twenties asked the first question to Sampoorna, “Hello, ma’am. It is such an amazing feeling to see such an old lady write her first book at this age. I am so, so proud of you. You look very much like my grandmother. So, the entire time you were talking, I was thinking of her only. Okay, my question to you is: How many months did you take to write this book and how real or fictitious is it?”

 

“Thank you for the kind words, beta. I took around a year to write this book and then Stuti beta took around three months to edit it. It was easy to write this book, as it is very much inspired from real life. I had all the material I wanted to write this book. This book is about three friends – Saahil, Sneha, and Rahul. It’s an interesting love story,” explained Sampoorna.

 

Another hand went up and the mike was passed on to a man. “So, Sampoornaji, nowadays bookstores are flooded with love stories from Indian authors. Why should anyone read your book? What is different about it?” enquired the curious reader.

 

“Hmmm, thank you for the question. It is, yes, it is love story, but is complicated one. The way the whole story has been told is very different. I don’t think any other author tried this way of storytelling. Maybe I wrong, because I haven’t read many English books. But I gathered from my publisher that till now we seen books where either the male or the female protagonist tells the whole story, right? But in this book, there are three protagonists, who tell their stories simultaneously. Saahil, Sneha, and Rahul tell their stories in first person and that too simultaneously. This book happens when a common link amongst all three finds the personal diaries that these three used to write. So, yes, this is what this book is all about.”

 

The guy raised his hand again. “Sampoorna ma’am, can you please tell us more about it? I mean, the last sentence you said made the whole plot sound very interesting. I, and I think, many of us are keen to know what the whole book is about. Can you throw some more light on the plot?”

 

“Hmmm. Yes, I can. But for that, I will have to read whole book right now in front of you all. Do you think you all have the patience to hear me read the whole book? Please raise hand if you want that,” requested Sampoorna.

 

Around 80% of the audience showed interest in hearing what the entire book was about.

 

Jaymin Shah, the publisher, took the mike from the compere and asked the audience “I am very happy to see this enthusiasm. No publisher and author ever, in my opinion, have ever agreed to read out the whole book during the launch itself. But hey, you will have to promise me that if this story captivates you till the end then you will have to buy the copy too! Ok?”

 

The crowd agreed with Jaymin’s point.

 

Smiling, the old lady opened her book and continued, “Okay. Good. So here we go. It all began with a bookstore in Mumbai announcing an author talk session with one of the most famous authors of recent times – Abhishek Agarwal. The bookstore Books and More at Inorbit Mall had invited the love-guru, Abhishek Agarwal, to talk about his experience of becoming an author and how his journey had been from being an unknown face to becoming an author, who had won thousands of hearts, especially those of girls. The charming, good looking thirty something guy, who had a way with words, had agreed to share his tricks and tips on how he writes his books and what the readers should keep in mind while writing a book.

 

The bookstore had promoted the event via text messages and had made announcements on social networking sites and in a few newspapers. On 5th June 2011, around seventy people turned up to hear Abhishek Agarwal talk about his book writing journey. The crowd mostly comprised of young people who considered Abhishek Agarwal to be their icon and wanted to be like him.

 

“So, dear all, a very warm welcome to all of you. In this session, I am going to share with you how I became an author and how to write books and some other stuff. First, a question to you all: Who wants to be the next Chetan Awasthi?” Abhishek tried warming up the crowd. Forty hands went up. “Good, very good. Who wants to be the next Abhishek Agarwal?” the famous author continued. Ninety percent of the hands went up in the air.

 

“How many of you know what blogging is?” Abhishek asked. Eighty percent of the hands went up in the air.

 

“Good. How many of you have been maintaining a diary since childhood?”

 

Only two hands went up. A couple in their late fifties raised their hands and smiled at each other. “We used to exchange our feelings on paper. That’s how I met my gorgeous wife,” the old man added, explaining what made him and his wife fans of diary writing. There were a lot of “Awws” in the crowd.

 

“Good for you, sir and ma’am, but, bad in general. For a writer, it is very important to practice writing a lot! I started my journey as a diary writer. Around 2005, my elder brother had gifted me a diary when he had come down to India on his yearly trip. That diary was very precious to me. Firstly, because it was the first gift that I had gotten from USA, and secondly, this gift awakened the writer in me. The diary was light blue in colour and had positive thoughts written on each page. I had a senior in school, who was kind of my idol. He used to write articles in the school magazine and my mother always used to tell me to be like him. There is nothing wrong in trying to do what successful people do, right? So, I started writing my everyday experiences in that diary. I used to make sure that I would write only on one page of the diary per day. Even if I had done a hundred things during the day, I used to make it concise enough to fit in one page.

 

“I made it a point to write every day. Yes, every single day I wrote in my diary for one full year. At the end of the year, I thought of challenging myself and that’s when I decided to write a book. Writing a book was not an easy thing. But I treated every chapter of the book like an entry in a diary and that helped me to not be intimidated by the gargantuan task of writing a book…”

 

Abhishek continued talking for around one hour, explaining his journey, his failures, his achievements, and everything else that the audience was keen to hear from him.

 

“So, how many of you would prefer a diary to an online blog?” Abhishek wanted to see if his audience would prefer to stick to old school diary writing or catch up to the new fad of blogging.

 

Three people raised their hands. A guy in a yellow T-shirt, a girl in a white top and a guy in a maroon coloured hoodie. They seemed to be the odd men out. They looked around to see if anyone else seconded their view. Others were either too shy to share their opinion or wanted to explore the technology-based blogging instead of the age old way of penning down thoughts in a diary.

 

“So, dear all, after this hour and a half long session on writing a book, tell me, how many of you want to be the next Chetan Awasthi or Abhishek Agarwal?” Abhishek tried ending the session on an energetic note.

 

“OK. So, I wish you all the very best for your writing venture and who knows, you may even find your loved ones like the sir and ma’am here! Bye all. Love you all. And hey, if you haven’t read my books, do buy and read one! Stop piracy!”