A Story Extraordinaire of My Little Book "A Little More Than Ordinary"

He had picked up my small diary and keeping it in his upper pocket said, "RS, I am carrying it with me. It deserves to reach many people. You don't seem to know what you have created." That was @Sadanand Apte, a Trainer who had called on me some time in June 2001. In the pic above he stands on the right. To his left is Vilas Kulkarni,eminent artist who had created beautiful sketches. We met only on the day this pic was taken.

My diary had turned into a book and it was released at the hands of the doyen of Pune HR Dr. Satish Kaushik (Sitting second from the left ) in a glittering function at MCCI, Pune on April 24, 2002 for restricted circulation. In his opening remarks this is what Dr. Kaushik said ( A pic of his original script he had gifted to me that day..)

I have always been so deeply in awe of him with my heart filled with gratitude.

The book was well received and appreciated by the fraternity with about 200 copies getting picked up right there and then.

I was audacious enough to go to the only Crossword shop opposite Jahangir Hospital to keep 25 copies. To my utter amazement after one week none was left. 

On a visit to Ludhiana, a friend after reading the book got so impressed that he made one of his friends from press to read it ( Book would take about 20 minutes to read) and this is how turned into a big pleasant surprise I was reading the paper on a Satruday. The news had just caught my eye as I saw my picture not looking at me:

And funniest part is that the cover page appeared to have taken its own selfie to get printed.

The story of this book continued to surprise me. It was 0030 hours someday in August 2002 when my landline rang. A very eloquent, deep female voice simply started reading a verse -

and then she continued to speak and I share it the way I can recall without any embellishments: 

"Ramesh, I am speaking from Chennai. My sister gifted me your book. I am so mesmerized as I sit reading it that I didn't even check the time and just dialed your number printed in the book. I am completely lost in deep contemplation. Every verse make you think as if you have read something too simple. And then it comes back to hit you hard. You keep staring. Could life ever be explained in such a simple way? You have done it. Therefore, answer is yes. And is it all really so easy to understand. Thank you for this magical book..."

I simply accepted the appreciation in all humility. More was to come.

Yes, this one incident is etched in my mind. Traveling from Pune to Baramati, sometime in 2003, a young girl found her seat next to me. After about half an hour, I initiated a small talk as I found her teary eyed. She shared with me about having lost her confidence and wasn't able to really study or focus. She appeared to be lost. I didn't say a thing and handed-over the copy of my book and said, "This is half an hour read. As you finish we will have about half an hour or so to discuss.." After she had read it, we discussed.

Fast forward 5 years. Let me narrate from the scene exactly as I remember it. Knock on the glass door of my office. A young girl stands there. I permit. She walks in. Appears to be a familiar face. Can't recall. She smiles and says - "Sir, Remember me? This is V." I am not able to. Then she narrates the story of our travel and says, "From that moment, yes, almost five years ago, I have lived with just this one principle. I have always pushed myself to act a little more than what will be ordinary at all times. I didn't get through my BE with distinction but also completed my MBA from a premier institute. Today I am working with a multinational. I am doing very well. All because of you." 

The incident only validated what I had always believed in. My book had the power to transform people. Just about 40 verse. I couldn't stop laughing when I learned she was earning more than me.

Well, my friend published two more editions with third and last published in 2008. After that I hardly ever thought about it because life had slowly started turning to show me its worst face. Let us leave it there. More lessons needed to be learned.

Fast forward 2012. President of an educational institute, Sanjay, with whom I had worked for about 06 months calls me up and says, "RS, I have a visitor. He has been very passionately talking to me about a book of verse. When he told me the title I asked him if he would like to talk to the author..Here he is.." Well, I had tears in my eyes. What could I have said except feeling so humbled!! 

I had often picked up the copy of the book. Shared some verse here and there in my sessions or my writing. And then one day I felt I needed to present this book to whole world. Ah so difficult it is to get a publisher who believes in Not Publishing what appears ordinary.. I simply put it on Kindle. Format got haywire. Messy. I left it there and then another year went. 

Somehow, I could never take it out of my memories even after having published three more books after that. Incidentally, now during lock-down I spent some hours learning and was able to create a beautiful kindle book "Listening to Leading". Seeing how it was being received, I went on to edit the format of "A Little More Than Ordinary" too and have made it live again. I only hope that thousands of you the readers , discerning minds and big hearts will download it to experience the magic of SIMPLICITY in writing. With humility and prayers for me and you I share the link here. Hope you will click on it:

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B088RL7KQT

Trusting you for support, I remain,

Truly yours, Ramesh Sood www.simplysood.com