BUCKET LISTS, BOOKS & BA DA BOOM, DHISH!

Ever been an only kiddo? Yep, that was me. The kid choosing books over balls. Solitude over socializing. It wasn't because I couldn't nail a sixer. It was because group hugs made me shudder. Then, voila, late autism diagnosis. It all makes sense now.

So I took to books. They don't judge, whine or try to sell you 2BHK flats in Vikhroli. They're kinda like the non-annoying friend everyone wishes they had. Jumping from the sprinkles of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkles to the easier to digest Archie's Digests. From the super Superman & Batman comics to the mad Mad magazines. Tintin, Asterix, Bahadur became my best friends. Superheroes my saviors. Al Jaffee, Don Martin, Wodehouse my personal stand up comics.

In no time, I dived into the words of Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Fredrick Forsyth. Then Satyajit Ray, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Pankaj Mishra. And hit the philosophical pool of Richard Bach, Ayn Rand, Paulo Coelho.

I was not just impressed, I was intimidated.

Heck, I mean, how do you juggle words and not drop any? Not just express what you see, hear, think, feel… but also make others do the same!

School was a riot. The assignments? Like, 'Life of a Sock'. Fun, right? My sock had bigger dreams than Cinderella's glass slipper. But my English teacher? Eh, not a fan of imaginative socks. She liked them white and templated from 'Navneet digests'.

College was the game-changer. Because there were people in college who I knew personally… who were writing/ contributing to [Rapport] the college magazine. BOOM! And man, the creativity? No boundaries. Pitched a cover sketch - Freshers scrambling for the magazine, trading JK's bun maska for a copy. They laughed. Nailed it. Soon, I was the main guy, the Editor.

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College gave me the chance to also write a few plays. Twain’s wise words in mind: ‘Write what you know’. Result? My first play: ‘Kamless Patel Falls in Love’.

Think geeky 'vern' vs. 'English elites'. The clash of Santosh Sagar, Shetty and his Samosas with Rock, Reebok and Rambo. The cool kids befriend Kamless – because he’s the first bencher who takes notes. Give him a makeover, to help him impress the college hottie, turning him from Patel to Pat.

Until he learns that she liked him for he was. Authentic. Flawed. Real. Classic theme: Be yourself! Side note: If you're thinking ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ that happened later at YRF, you're onto something!

When the Dramatic Society Awards were announced, the nominations for Best Play were listed as:

1. Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’
2. Ashiish V Patil’s ‘Kamless Patel Falls in Love’
3. Agatha Christie’s ‘Mousetrap’
4. Ashiish V Patil’s ‘Carry on Sydenham’.

I was floating higher than the helium balloons in 'Up'. And it gave me the confidence to pursue writing as a potential career. But I pivoted to writing advertising copy. Strategy and pitch decks. And then eventually promos, TV shows, movies. Which seemed for some reason, easier, ‘more accessible’ to write.

As much as I loved books, they still seemed like Everest. Until a few people I knew wrote, published a book. Or two. Wait, these were ordinary folks. Some of them Alok Kejriwal Vikram Sathaye Raghu Ram @ayushmannkhurrana had even thanked me in their books because I’d possibly played a small role in their journeys.

And I had the same epiphany from college. The writing gods had no superpowers; they were just passionate nerds with a pen. Who just wrote what they knew.

I started maintaining a list of people who I knew personally who had written/ published a book. Not two degrees of separation. But one. People who I could call, talk to. It added up to 85! I felt some of these folks couldn’t even write. Stupid [but honest] reaction. But they wrote and did this. While I was busy maintaining lists. BA DA BOOM!

Had tons of book ideas, but "no time". Classic excuse, right? A friend, and very talented author Omkar Sane told me there are two types of authors:

1. The Outside/ In: Those who observe the world, and their writing is a reflection/ commentary – serious/ satirical or otherwise
2. The Inside/ Out: Those who have thoughts, ideas, emotions, feelings inside them, fighting to get out until it gets to a stage where it has to be vomited out in the form of words, sentences, paragraphs, pages that become a book

I’d always been the first type. Until my first book, ‘Goldiboy and the Three Apes’ practically yelled at me from inside my brain. Took a global pandemic and Netflix running out of shows for it to spill out. The cherry on top? Published by HarperCollins India .

So, I got one massive tick on my bucket-list: Of being a published author.

And this Friday, I got a chance to do the rounds at some of Mumbai’s most iconic book stores… to do author signings!

Who’d have thunk!

At Kitab Khana , Sanjeev and the wonderful staff are from the Strand Book Store where they’ve personally been trained by Mr. Shanbag. 10x better than any AI recommendation engine for books. I met some ardent loyal customers and bonded over Smoker’s Corner [book shop, not ciggies] and Rhythm House stories.

Crossword Bookstores is a flagship store because when I see such a large space filled with books and book lovers, I feel there’s still hope for the world. It especially had my heart when I met Rohan from their sales staff, who has Down Syndrome and the most mischievous smile.

TITLE WAVES Branch of Better Yourself Books & Media Pvt Ltd , with a very passionate store manager, Trushant Tamgaonkar . They make sure that no one leaves the store without buying one book at least. It was heartening to see 3 college kids, nose dug deep in books vs. phones – Mario Puzo [Godfather], Hussain Zaidi [Dongri to Dubai] and Rick Rordian [Percy Jackson] were their mates. They had NOT seen the movie adapts and didn’t care to either.

@Granthbooks has the most amazing curation of books. They stock books [no stationery, pens and pastries] that you won’t typically find anywhere else. The watercolor Spiderman graphic novel, a fab coffee table book collection and, of course, great coffee.

I signed a few books; met an old bud, the very funny Sorabh Pant who was there with his two lovely kids, Nayantara and Vikramaditya; he’s written 4 books himself and his sister Meghna Pant is a multi award winning and prolific author. Her book ‘How to Get Published in India’ really helped me navigate my publishing journey.

Accompanied by Samsuddin Dhaboiwala who's been in the book industry for close to 2 decades – from retail to publishing, he’s seen it all – and was full of such fascinating stories.

I don’t have any ‘LinkedIn Lessons’ to share. Except that no matter what you have on your bucket list, unless you dip that little ‘mugga’ into the bucket and pour some cold water on your head, you’re never gonna get to it.

Make that ‘One Day’… Today.

Break it down. Start.

And experience your own…

BA DA BOOM, DHISH!

Ps: Buy Goldiboy and the Three Apes here .

Watch the book trailer here .

Grab the Goldiboy merchandise here .