First anniversary of my book “In Their Shoes…”

Dear all,

It gives me immense pleasure to say that my first book “In Their Shoes…” has completed one year in the bookdom! The last one year has made me feel many emotions such as anger and frustration, pride, happiness, sadness,etc. and I have learnt a lot in life. This blog is to share those thoughts. A business analyst that I am, I would like to categorise my thoughts as per the emotions….

Pride: Till date since 11^th april 2010, not even a single day has passed when I haven’t felt that I have done something in life that I would never have thought as a child. It gives me immense sense of pride when I say “yes, I am an author”. Please don’t misconstrue my statement as arrogance. I can’t tell you how proud I feel of myself when I imagine what pride would have gleamed on my dad’s face, were he alive! Today is one more day when I miss my dad because if he were alive he would have told all his friends and colleagues “did you read “In Their Shoes..” or not?... arey, go read it…my son has written it…”

Happiness: Happiness is related to pride and so the above sentences are also applicable to this point. A year or 2 back, I would have never thought that I would ever receive a letter from the governor of Maharashtra stating that he liked my book. Getting testimonials from Mickey Mehta (the fitness guru), CEO of Naukri.com, Dainik jagran, Navbharat times, Loksatta, Maharashtra Times, Amar Ujuala, Afternoon Despatch and Courier, etc. would be something that I would have never thought of! But, it was the Shoes that made it possible for me. Needless to say, that happiness that I feel everyday is because of Shoes!!!..

Anger and frustration: Promoting a book is as tough as promoting a film! It doesn’t matter how well you write unless you let the readers know that “boss, this is a good book. Read it!” Getting testimonials from the biggies was a very difficult task! I must have called the governor’s office some 30-40 times before I got that letter of appreciation. Sending my book to the top most newspapers was also very difficult. Its so damn difficult to reach the right person! I had tried to get a testimonial from one very famous politician from Mumbai. I must have called atleast and literally 25-30 times to his office! To no avail! Everytime I used to call his office, his assistant’s assistant used to say “call at 1.00…call after 4.00…call after 9.00…” I was so damn frustrated that I gave up! I said to myself that my book would be good even without his testimonial!...

All in all, last one year has taught me many things! I just hope that with the new publisher, I will see the kind of success that I feel my book deserve! Keeping fingers crossed!