Did you miss this ‘bachelor party’?
CHENNAI: There was an air of excitement and anticipation at the Starmark bookstore in Express Avenue as everyone awaited the interactive session and launch of best-selling author Ravinder Singh’s latest book, The Belated Bachelor Party, on Saturday.
Singh’s fans couldn’t contain their enthusiasm, “I’m going to cry when I see him”, “Let’s record this live on Instagram so that people have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)”.
As he sat down to chat with his readers, the crowd cheered and clapped loudly. Ravinder, however, picked an unusual way to start the session by talking about his concern over the water crisis plaguing the city. This sombre start was misleading as the rest of the launch was spent with him narrating instances of what made up the book and the behind-the-scenes of his writing process.
“I have been wanting to come to Chennai ever since the book tour began,” he said. “Since the time I started posting about the tour, I have had so many readers ask me when I was going to come to Chennai. The great thing about south India is that south India reads. If there was this sort of a gathering in Punjab, people would ask, “Kaunsa singer aaya hai?” (Which singer has come here?).”
Ravinder went on to explain that the book is about four friends who are well into their married lives, one day realise that none of them had a bachelor party before their wedding. They take it upon themselves to ‘set things right’ by planning their belated bachelor party — a Euro trip.
He spoke of one instance from the book that had everyone in the audience in splits. It was the time when the friends were to be strip-searched by the border police when they were stuck in no-man’s land between Croatia and Slovenia, without valid visas, but with banned party drugs and a rifle cartridge. Going by the author’s story-telling abilities and his ability to have the audience eat out of the palm of his hands, the book promises to be a hilarious, moving story of friendship and adventure.
“This book is very different from my other works,” Ravinder said. “I am known to write emotional romances and I don’t enjoy it even though I find it very satisfying as an author to evoke such a strong response in my readers. A common visual that keeps me going is that of tear marks on the last pages of my book... This is my first attempt at humour and the reviews have been very positive and encouraging.”