Q.1 “Sometimes, we do not get a chance to thank each one who has helped us in our Journey.” Let the readers get a chance to know about all the important people who have played a part in this ‘Author Journey of Yours’.

All the readers who have bought the book and taken the time to read it and review it. I’m truly humbled and grateful. 

The rest is a familiar crew. Srishti team, Arup Bose, Stuti Sharma Gupta for helping improve the book and bringing it to life. Lipika Bhushan for being a friend and guide in the whole process, and her team, Pallavi, Chhaya, Gaurav for all the PR work. Harini for the first edits.

My wife for all the constructive criticism, my mother for inspiring me to write. My dad for just being indestructible. The rest of the family for setting a high bar and inspiring me to work hard.

Q.2 How and when did you first realize your calling for writing books?

My mom, Neeraj, introduced me to books. She was a librarian before she retired and gave me all sorts of amazing books to read. I was writing short poems at the age of 10, mostly rubbish I’m sure, but people always said nice things to motivate me. I kept writing short stuff for a while, publishing them in magazines, blogs, social media. It was a bit of a build-up, I might have been around 20 when I decided that I wanted to write a full-length book.

Q.3 Please tell us a bit about your book titled “The Hundred Million Bet” and share a few lines from it.

The Hundred Million Bet is a crime thriller at heart with strong doses of Romance and Philosophy. We have a survival storyline combined with a heist where the hero stands to win or lose a 100 million euros. He wins the money to begin with but the Mafia boss that he’s beaten now wants his money back and would go to any lengths to get it, incl. abducting Octavia who is Caesar’s sister. Caesar refuses, a hundred million euros is a lot of money, and that triggers the chase that is the story. But life is never just action, life is never just a chase, there is a lot of thinking, questioning, and loving that we do in our lives, and our hero Caesar is no different. He needs to face and answer some questions related to what he values and why he exists before he’ll be ready to face the antagonists. We need to dive into his past, and his relationships with other key characters to give him the tools he needs for the fight. 

On the other side, Maurya wants to make a name for himself, but he is up against a hierarchical cartel in India that has cornered the road construction market. He has to work his way up and through the cartel, with the help of his trusted guide Vishnu, to fulfill his ultimate dream, build a city that is his own, the Paradise city. 

A couple of lines – 

Why is it that the true magnitude of love is only understood with its loss? Why is it that happiness when left to itself shrivels and turns into something morbid, obese, searching and yearning for newer thrills, till you lose what you have?

Q.4 According to you which are the 5 books that everyone should read and who are your top 3 Authors and what impact did they have in your journey as a writer?

Phew, that is hard to answer. If you’ll allow me, I’ll answer in terms of who I’ve liked the most that I’ve read in the last couple of years. As a writer, I loved reading Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, it definitely pushed the boundaries of writing (and how I could write) for me. As a reader, I really enjoyed all the books so far in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight archive. Julian Barnes is an all-time great and I loved ‘A sense of an ending’ and ‘Talking it over’ by him.

Q.5 What inspires you to write? Where do you get the information or ideas for your books? 

I love books. I love reading, and writing is my form of expressing and sorting through my thoughts. I’d reckon that I don’t need more inspiration to write, it is necessary for me to write to have a complete day or week. 

Most of the ideas stem from other reading that I do. I read a lot of Fantasy, some philosophy, some non-fiction history or social commentary, some business books, an occasional memoir or a biography. Through the amalgamation of all of this, passable ideas emerge sometimes. When I need specific information about a topic, the internet and search engines are my friend.

Q.6 Could you share a few tips for budding Authors and aspiring writers?

I consider myself to be a budding author, so I don’t think that I’m accomplished enough to give anyone advice. But I can recount/paraphrase a couple of tips I picked up from reading ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King and ‘Bird by Bird’ by Ann LaMotte – 

1. Write a lot and as often as you can. If you have a full-time job, it is important that you carve out some time every week if not every day where you go in and put down those 500, 1000, 2000 words; keep your eye on the prize and keep on moving forward
2. Perfection is the enemy of good, focus on finishing before fixing. I’d suggest that almost never go back to re-read or edit a chapter as long as there are new chapters to write for your first draft. It is super easy to get stuck in a perpetual cycle of editing the same 3 chapters over and over again and getting discouraged at the lack of progress
3. Write for the love of writing, for the peace and pleasure that it gives you. If you write a page, you are a writer. While it is helpful and motivating to get external validation in terms of published works and seeing your name in bestseller lists – that should not be the make or break outcome to judge your writing on

Q.7 What has been your most cherished experience as a writer? Which is your best-preferred genre?

Sending the email confirming the final manuscript to be sent to publishing. It was actually a bit of a relief after 12 re-reads and edits. The release was a close second. Fantasy is my guilty pleasure, but I read and write a lot of other things that I mentioned earlier.

Q.8 What were the struggles and learnings you experienced while writing your book?

For a debut author, I’d say that there were so many doubts about whether I was meant to do this. The end of the book seemed to be very far off while writing those first few chapters. The Day job kept coming in the way and prioritization was difficult. And to be honest it did turn out to be quite far, and far beyond than I had initially imagined. Writing was one thing, but editing it over many cycles, finding the right agent, the right publisher – they were (seemingly insurmountable) challenges in their own way. 

But what I learned in the end was that while having some skill and ideas to write is helpful, it was as much about showing up to the book over and over again and just pushing it forward one small step at a time that brought it to conclusion.

Q.9 Are you working on anything at present that you would like to share with your readers? What are your future plans?

I’m working on a couple of other projects right now, that would likely come to life in one form or another over the next couple of years. I’m working on a short non-fiction project with my wife right now, that we’ll hopefully be able to drive forward rapidly. In addition, I’m in the very early stages of writing my next book, which would not be a crime thriller but would hopefully be a thrilling book anyway.

Q.10 At Sharing Stories, we have an ongoing campaign ‘Let’s Empower Our Kids’. Please suggest some books here that you would want your child to read before the age of 15 which could help him in understanding certain dimensions of human life like empathy, sympathy, relationships, etc.

I have to be honest and say that I’m not an expert in the area. I can only remember from my childhood that I read a lot of Enid Blyton and found the young characters there to be very relatable, and they consistently demonstrated kindness, empathy and courage. The books also challenged your imagination which I consider to be a good thing e.g., the stories around the Magic Faraway tree or the Wishing chair with wings. I’ve almost managed to tempt myself to read them again right now.

Rapid Fire Round – Favorite

• Place – It keeps changing – Delhi to eat, Oslo to live, Rome for a weekend trip, Isle of Skye to sit back for a couple of weeks and stare out at the ocean
• Actor & Actress – None. I enjoy a good movie or a good show, but I’m not particularly attached to an actor anymore
• Person – Close fight between a few family members, I won’t start a war by naming one
• Food – Dad’s Chicken Curry and Nan
• Beverage – Single malt Scotch Whiskey over the weekend nights, Water on the morning after
• Your other Talents apart from writing – I’m pretty good at my day job (I think), leading Strategy, Mergers and acquisitions at Signicat, I’m quite talentless apart from that
• Your First Love – My mother, I suppose
• Quote – Varies, my favorite quote right now is – It takes both emotion and logic to reach your full potential
• Favorite Character from a book – August from ‘The Hundred Million Bet’ – I made him. 🙂

What if Round 

1. What if you had to live with only three things all your life, what would the three things be? 

I’d probably die in a pretty short amount of time.

Assuming that I have food and other basic necessities taken care off, and my family is around?

• A Library
• A Notebook / Pen to write
• Swimming shorts (assuming that I have access to a pool or am close to the ocean)

1. What if you were given the power to change one thing from this world, what would you change?

I’ll crank up Kindness, Fairness and Empathy in everyone so that it becomes everyone’s first instinctive response to every situation.

Could I also get the power to change a second thing? – I’d alter our collective recognition of climate change and the threat it represents. 

1. What if you had all the money in this world, what would you do first?

I’d start an impact investing fund and hire a bunch of superstars to run it. This is fun, then I’d buy a house by the beach, have a fantastic chef to cook every day, and invite / pay interesting experts in various fields to have dinner, drinks and conversations with me.