Launch 2

2009-12-06T22:03:00.001-08:00

What an awesome launch! And what a place to have it at! This is the Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Mr. D. Sivanandhan. A very pleasant personality. But not for those on the wrong side of the law!

Second edition out!

2009-12-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

After the footpath launch and the pan-India distribution, Shree Publishers from Mumbai have decided to publish the book under their banner, woohoo! The second print is out in the market already and the Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Mr. D. Sivanandan is launching the book in his very office! The launch takes place on the 4th of December, '09.

MOTF is out on the stands!

2009-07-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

The book is out! Get it at any bookstore or roadside bookwallah in Mumbai. Get it at any store anywhere in India! Be it Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, anywhere!

Read the first entry on this blog to know more about the book. Read the second one to know what the media has spoken about the book! Click the Facebook Become Fan icon to join the facebook community. Click the follow icon below to follow this blog.

And then read the book ;)
Do let me know how you like the book once you read it!

Cheers!
Anish

The story so far...

2009-06-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

Let us start at the beginning with this one.

There is this book I have written called Mumbai On The Footboard. Hence the weird url to this blog.

What's this book about?
It is a fiction book about Mumbai, with her myriad people, their lives and the overarching feeling of belonging to this greater whole, this lovely city.

How's this book different from the many books out there which talk about the city and her people?
Well, for starters, it chronicles events of a very specific time period. It starts just before the 26/11 attacks on the city and goes on to a little after the big elections held in May. So, it is a chronologically specific book which talks about one of the most eventful periods in the city's history where there were terrorist attacks, changed governments, creation of martyrs and villains, pressure from the entire country to hang a twenty year old dude who strayed his path and was labeled a terrorist, the opportunism of the media and its insensitivity in handling the terror episode, the Oscar wins and the controversy thereafter, the dance of democracy called elections, the rise of a leader fighting against external invasion of the city and for restoring her Marathi identity with attacks on Bhaiyyas, a battle between the prudes and the liberals over a single day called Valentine's and what not! This book chronicles it through the eyes of the many people who actually live what people of other cities of the country can only watch on TV channels.

So, how is this a fiction book?
It is a fiction book because, while the things that are portrayed have been 'inspired by real life incidents,' the way that they have been tied up together and narrated has been the imagination of the young author.

Why are you referring to yourself in the third person?
Sorry.

What else can you tell us about the book?
It is a self-published book. There is a reason why I did not go to a big publisher; because they gave me a time period of 1-2 years to publish the book. With the time specificity of the stories, I thought it would be more prudent to publish the book by myself, in a lesser amount of time.

How long did you take to publish the book?
The writing part was the easiest and the shortest. It took about 2 months. After that, finding distributors to get the book to reach the point of sale, getting a barcode for the book, setting the content in a book format, etc took about 4 months. Then, there was the marketing of the book, talking to bloggers, creating this blog, contacting newspapers, taking blessings of people that took time. In all, it took a little over 5 months to get the book out.

How did you find time for all this?
I work full-time as a copywriter with Lowe-Lintas India. As a copywriter, one imagines and writes for a living. Having done this for an entire day, I did not hav energy to write a book after work, although I had a few ideas in mind. So, I took a 6-month break from work, starting Feb 1, 2009 and lasting till July 31, 2009.

How did you fund the publication of the book?
Well, I had started work about 6 months before I started writing the book. It was my savings over those six months that funded the book.

Why did you write the book in the first place?
I have been living in this city since I was born. I read about it, I see about it in news. I experience it on a day-to-day basis. And I love the city from the bottom of my heart. I truly believe that there is something about the city that draws one to it. It's dirty and full of poverty and traffic jams and corruption, but once you have been seduced by her, you seldom leave. And all of this is what I wanted to write about. What hastened the process was, on 26/11, I was to meet a few friends, opposite Oberoi hotel, at marine drive. Out of sheer laziness, I cancelled the plan and then all my friends, one-by-one, dropped out of it. While I was yet to reach home, I received news of what had happened. I had literally missed being killed. This realization that death had been so close to me and that it could reach me whenever it wanted, made me take a decision about my dream of writing on the city. I did not want to be part of a scenario where I did not write because I was procrastinating and one fine day, while I was going to work, a bomb exploded in my train and I died. I might sound a little weird out here, but the city was definitely shaken out of its reverie by the 26/11 attacks because of a similar realization.

Where can you find this book to read?
The book will be available in all major bookstores like Crosswords, Landmark, Odyssey, etc. Plus, it will be available at retail bookstores like Strand, Book Zone, etc. And guess what! It will be available at the pavement book shops throughout Mumbai! After all, a book about Mumbai should be available at the landmark institution of Mumbai, the pavement bookwallah, no?

When will the book be out to read?
Second week of July, 2009.

Once the book is out, what do you plan to do?
Get back to work. And till the book is out there for people to read, be really nervous whether people will like my work or not.

If I have something to say about the book or I see an opportunity of some sort for myself in this, where do I contact you?
Mail me on anish.vyavahare@gmail.com. Alternatively, you will find me on facebook. You can send me a message there. I would also appreciate a comment on this post.

Mumbai On The Footboard

Launch 2

Second edition out!

MOTF is out on the stands!

Mentions

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_answers-for-mumbai_1273923

The story so far...