Last week, MissMalini sent me to Landmark to cover a book launch. Grey Oak Publishers launched a short story collection on college days compiled by 16 authors titled Down The Road. It was really fun to hear an eclectic mix of writers talk about school and college experiences and the inspirations for their stories. What was really striking was that they were all very young (early ’20s to mid ’30s). That immediately broke the prototype one has of a writer. When I was studying literature in college, I often complained that I wasn’t reading about the present times. Hopefully, we’ll be able to connect with the stories Down The Road has to offer. I asked one of them, an active ‘tweeter’, Sahil Khan how he managed to write a 1500 word story when he’s used to dishing out 140 character tweets. He admitted it was difficult! He’s also a MissMalini.com fan. 🙂
Spotted: Actors Akshay Oberoi (Isi Life Mein) and Ishita Sharma (Dil Dosti Etc. and Loins of Punjab Presents).
The stories hope to cover situations and instances familiar to anyone from their school and college days. The themes range from hesitant first crushes and relationships to the angst and heartache of wanting to fit in but trying to look like it doesn’t matter; from the excited anticipation of midnight “Maggi parties” to campus ragging; and the struggles and insecurities of a fresh graduate trying to find his calling in life. The book has been edited by Ahmed Faiyaz, bestselling author of Another Chance, also the contributing author of 9 stories in this collection, along with Rohini Kejriwal. The collection includes stories by Abhijit Bhaduri, bestselling author of Mediocre but Arrogant, Ira Trivedi, bestselling author of The Great Indian Love Story, along with accomplished writers – Paritosh Uttam, Malathi Jaikumar and Vibha Batra. It includes stories by Ranjani Iyer, debutant author of Smile Please, Aashish Mehrotra, Bollywood Actor/Producer, popular bloggers – Naman Saraiya, Sahil Khan, Kunal Dhabalia and Prateek Gupta and young voices – Sneh Thakur, Chinmayi Bali, Sonia Safri, Nikhil R and Aseem Rastogi.
Let us know if you read it.