Aiming to Keep a Revolution Alive
HYDERABAD: ‘Your Dreams Are Mine Now’, Ravinder Singh’s latest novel, is based on a story inspired by a real life revolution. “We are all aware of what happened on December 16, 2012, a brutal gang rape in the national capital. The book is not about the gang rape, but what followed as an aftermath to the revolution that happened on the streets of Delhi – youth coming out on the streets for the first time. This inspired me to write this book,” says the author seated comfortably in Landmark bookstore in the city.
Out of comfort zone
Further elaborating on his subject, Ravinder explains, “The book starts with that revolution and goes back to a fictional flashback and comes back to the same revolution. It starts and ends with revolution. You can say 90 per cent of the story is a fictional love story, The motive behind writing the book was that somewhere I wanted to keep that revolution alive,” says Ravinder. The author was then working with Microsoft in Hyderabad when the news of the gang rape and its subsequet reaction from the masses made him think that India was taking a stance. “I was wondering what is happening on the streets of Delhi. For the first time I could see a ray of hope,” he recalls.
Ravinder, however, expresses regret that post the incident, law and order in the country hasn’t undergone much change. “It’s been two years now and today also if I open a newspaper, I can find quite a different thesis of molestation, rape and crime against women. So, I thought that somewhere we can not afford to let that revolution die down. The idea that hopefully I should be able to keep that alive,” says the two-books old author.
The USP is...
Claiming that his latest offering is very different from the previous books, Ravinder says,”In all three books of mine, the central character is Ravin, which is me. This book is different as it’s not written in first person but in third person. Moreover, it is about two different people and I’m not the protagonist. For the first time, I have had to imagine a lot of things because I was writing fiction. But then as I said before, the book begins and ends with a real life revolution.”
His Favourites
Though the author says he did not read any books when he made his writing debuts; he loves reading Khalid Hossaini, Nicholas Sparks and John Green.
E-books vs print books
“My personal favourite would be reading in print because there is a different charm in doing that, there is a different charm in flipping the pages, the smell of the book, and also it does not hurt your eyes. I don’t belong to that league readers who carry many books,” he says. Ravinder also adds that though news is freely available all over the internet, he certainly doesn’t paying for a printed version.
Conventional and Self-publishing
The author confesses that he would want his books to be publised by a conventional publishing house to reduce the cost involved in self-publishing. “With conventional publishers there is a different sort of reputation as well,” he adds.
Toughest criticism
Though Ravinder has caught a lot of attention and appreciation from people, he is no stranger to criticism.
“People have told me that I write cheap stories. Some have sarcastically told me that my works are pieces of literature. Despite all this, my books are the work of my heart,” he says. Though Ravinder tries to take criticism in his stride, he reveals that he was very hurt when a woman called him a businessman not an author, who sells his girl friends and makes royalties out of it