KOCHI: With spare time on our hands, many of us revived our reading habits and expanded our viewing history. As a result, several books rose to popularity and YouTube videos began garnering millions of views.
For UST employee Nipun Varma, the lockdown was a happy one as his debut book ‘The Adventures of an Indian Techie’ soared to fame across countries like Canada, Japan, Spain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and Mexico, with the e-book turning into a bestseller. The techie’s latest work, an English translation of the Malayalam novel ‘Vasavadatha’ written by Sajil Sreedhar, was released this month.
‘Adventures of an Indian Techie’ is a light read for those curious about our lives in IT parks. According to Nipun, there are ‘916 techies’ and a ‘one-gram techie’ who survives in an IT firm due to his storytelling skills. The book is a humorous take on the same. “At his native place, he is considered a genius. The techie’s modes of survival when he is confronted by life form the crux of his story,” says Nipun.
He is elated that the book sales have surged during the lockdown. “There are many Indian techies around the world and they must have gone through similar situations like the protagonist. I believe people are more comfortable with e-books which have a wider reach,” he says.
Booksthakam
Booksthakam is publishing firm launched by Nipun and seven other writers (Ashvin Raj, Thasni Shahul, Junaith Aboobaker, Sree P arvathy, Ajeesh G Dethan, Aswathy Vadakel, Abhilash C S) in August. “It can be termed as our lockdown product,” says Nipun. Booksthakam aims to help aspiring writers publish their books transparently and at affordable rates. “We want to help other upcoming writers reach a wider audience using platforms like Amazon,” he says. The firm has already published six titles and plans to release eight more.
On ‘Vasavadatha’
“Set in medieval Indian period, the novel is based on Kumaranasan’s epic poem ‘Karuna’. The novel fascinated me with its impactful presentation of profound thoughts. Though Sajil has written the novel beautifully, we wanted it to be accessible to everyone,” says Nipun who plans to write another novel in 2021.