Delhi on Love, Hate and Relationships

     Drafted my second novel. Pure bliss! Found a reputed publisher. Sheer happiness! The book is now ready to hit the stands. Unimaginable thrill! There, you’d think I got it sorted. But no, the veterans around me wouldn’t let me cloister myself under the sun-bed and grab that Pinacolada. Giddup and race.  Aaraam haraam hai.  It so happens (true story) that I also need to strive to find me readers, entice them to check my pièce de résistance, coax them to spend that little amount they’d otherwise splurge on popcorn at the PVR. Buy my book! Buy my powerful, captivating, spellbinding, enthralling, action-packed, romantic thriller of a god-damn page-turner novel. Ekdum phirst-klass! In my mind’s eye, I see myself as one of the urchins who lean on people’s windshields at the traffic signal, giving a complimentary hand-job… err, I mean wiping the glass with a flannel-cloth.  Shoooo…. Chal Hutttttt… Effort failed!

      Evolve! Grow some class! Add pizzazz! Use social media to wipe people’s virtual windshields. It’s no small task to speak to the whole 1.2 billion-strong country about my latest creation while warming up in a humble writer’s cabin in an insignificant corner of Goa. It’s difficult to get my voice heard at a time when people are stuck to their television sets or buried in their smartphones, either anticipating or betting over Yogi Adityanath’s next move.  At first, I was clueless about what has to be done to spread word of my novel.  All the tried-and-tested methods were doing roundabouts in my head, going berserk at my own naysay.

     Animation video?  – Nope! There’s better stuff on Cartoon Network.

     Short film? – Way too heavy on my pocket.

     Music video? – Nah, I can’t sing for nuts! The centipede in my bathroom just committed suicide. 

     Contest ? - Never, the last one fetched me two entries.

     Book launch? – What launch? It’s not a freaking rocket, dude.

     I was worried, trying to figure a promotion gimmick for my second book, at a time when I could be doing something more gratifying like, say, begin writing the third book.  But then some things must be done, and there’s no escaping them (the exact words used by those veterans). So brainstorming I did. And I received a fair share of suggestions, thanks to the lovely friends around me who are always overflowing with bright, vivid ideas (it’s not polite to say ‘high on weed’). One of them tried to help by trimming it down to the basics. “What’s your book about? Who are the principal characters? And what’s the central conflict?”

     It was difficult to sum the whole plot down in a couple of crisp sentences. But owing to the painful synopsis I had written earlier, I could still give my best shot. “ It’s actually two parallel stories which intersect at a certain point when the action at both sides is at its peak.”

     My friend had guessed that I am not the one who’d expound the plot as a matter of habit, or because I didn’t want to give away spoilers. (He had vowed to be the first to order the book on Amazon.)  Yet, he persisted, and I couldn’t keep it to myself since I was expecting assistance in planning the promo activity; you can’t kick away a crutch when your ankle is twisted. So I finally told him “See, it’s mainly about this guy who’s obsessed with a girl to such an extreme level that he’s willing to do the most unimaginable thing to grab her attention.”

     “And there’s another parallel story, as you said earlier?”

    Damn, he was paying attention. So I broke it out again, “The other story is about two video-pranksters who are desperate to make a career out of their hobbies.”

     “And the stories intersect?”

     Gawd, even I had forgotten I had mentioned that. I said, “Yes, But I still can’t think about promo material that is relevant to the content of my book.”

     The smart-ass suggested me to hook up with video pranksters in the country and get them to do an activity for me. And before I could ask him the second question   - “What sort of activity?” he had preempted the answer: “Actually, a small video. Why don’t you instruct them to walk into random strangers and ask them a question relevant to your second story – about that lovesick Romeo?”

     “And what question will they ask?” I challenged him yet again.

     “Like, for example – what’s the most extreme thing you have done for the one you love?”

     Bingo! I think that kind of sealed the deal. Next, after asking around, I got in touch with PhRank TV; they’re an amazingly vibrant team of go-getters who are enthusiastic about anything that’s related to shooting and YouTube. They were kind enough to accept my proposal of doing the survey, and I was too charmed to dictate to them how it was to be done. “You have the basics. Just use your own mind and cameras. I don’t want to narrow down the ambits of your creative freedom,” I told these guys.

     In a few days from then, the nice, young men and women had come up with something which put a smile on my face wide enough to eat a banana sideways. They had recorded a couple of short, informal surveys, and there were some interesting responses from pedestrians they came across around the Connaught place area in Delhi; some cute, some touching and some outright hilarious.

      You want to see if they’ve done justice to my directions? Do check out the video below.  If you like the video, please share it with your friends. And, if you don’t like the video, still share it with your friends; you never know, THEY might like it.

       On an ending note, do buy my powerful, captivating, spellbinding, enthralling, action-packed, romantic thriller of a god-damn page-turner novel. Ekdum phirst-klass!

Here's the link if you can't see the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8SkdARkIh8&t=4s

And the Goodreads link for you to mark my novel as 'Want to read' : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35067796-oh-my-goddess

And the Amazon link for you to place your order: http://www.amazon.in/Oh-My-Goddess-Rohan-Govenkar/dp/9385699148/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495977156&sr=8-1&keywords=oh+my+goddess+rohan+govenkar