Me as an author

My fellow co-author, Mrs Meena Bhatnagar, said it best.
The euphoria continues.

Coming back to Pune was a double blessing for me.
I got to meet my old staff and residents ( more details in an upcoming post ) and also, I got to be a part of an experience I never thought was possible in my life.

I got to be part of a book launch as an author.

Urban Shots : Bright Lights and Crossroads was released in Pune on January 20, 2012.
The function was held at Landmark in Phoenix Mall in Pune, an amazing mall that by sheer size dwarfs any other mall I've ever been to in my life.

To put things in perspective, I was there for 5 hours with my friends and we didn't even get to see 20% of the whole mall.

Anyway, the book launch was a fun affair .
Moderated by Ms Lipi Mehta of dfuse.in, the panel included :

1. Best selling authors like Paritosh Uttam and Ahmed Faiyaz ( both of whose previous short stories were premiered as short films at the event. ), 
2. Upcoming novelists like Mr Jhangir Kerawala 
3. A wide variety of first timers including Malcolm Carvalho, Anita Satyajit and myself.

There was an interactive session for the authors of both books after which came another first for most of us - the autograph session. Having signed endless case sheets over the years as a doctor, it still feels weird to see people coming up to you for a signature.Overall, it was an amazing experience for us all.
Now, coming to the most important part... how good are the books ?





I had the time to read these books as I returned from Pune and I can assure you - you will love these collections of short stories.
India really has a rich talent of writing - this is evident to all of us from the blogs we read everyday. Whether it is humour, heartfelt sentiments or silky prose, these books have it all thanks to the wide variety of authors and their unique styles. I really believe there is a great future for short story collections in India and the Urban Shots series has really tapped into a goldmine here.

The variety is all-encompassing :  Randomly selecting chapters from Bright Lights, these are the first 6 that came up.

1. A couple cheating on each other with other lovers leading up to a hilarious climax ( Namita Nair's Double Mixed ), 
2. A mom missing her child after he's gone abroad ( Ahmed Faiyaz's Across the Seas ), 
3. The problems of having an uninvited guest everyday ( Pradeep Raj's Maami Menace ), 
4. A love story with a twist between a security guard and an office hottie ( Meena Bhatnagar's Cats and Sponges ), 
5. An American basketball star coming to an Indian barbershop for a unique haircut ( R Chandrasekar's The Peacock Cut ), 
6. The best way to reply to the "you've won a million dollar" email scams ( Mydhili Varma's The Pig in the Poke ) 

These are just 6 of the 29 wonderful stories in this book.


Speaking in baseball terms, if the first Urban Shots was a hit to first base and a good beginning, these two collections are absolute home runs. The variety of stories, the themes, the unique styles - I personally felt they all gelled together better this time around.

And early opinion online and from fellow readers seems to concur with my own. Readers I've interacted with genuinely did like the books. Of course, I'm gonna be personally biased to Urban Shots : Bright Lights as opposed to Urban Shots : Crossroads ( Team Chottu vs Team Kainaz, as I call them, based on the covers ) as my own story is in it.

The icing on the cake for me ? Well, my story  is specially featured in the book's official site. What more can an author ask for ?

The book is presently available online at a discounted price with cash-on-delivery options at Flipkart, Landmark, Crosswords and Uread.com

Happy Reading... do tell me what you think of the books after reading it.

Addendum :

I'm adding links from online sites as I get them, reviewing either the book launch or the book itself.

1. Bookchums.com

2. Soniareviews

3. Pune Mirror

4. Mid Day


Reviews of my story in the book can be found here.