Meeting writers, musicians and anyone related to arts and aesthetics is always a pleasure to me. They all think much wider than what the logically-reasoning people can comprehend. After meeting Preeti Shenoy on her latest book’s launch, meeting Shomprakash was an equally exciting experience.
Shomprakash Sinha Roy, a person whom I’ve known since his bestselling book The Pink Smoke, had invited me to the event of the book launch, along with a huge of other invitees. Though I wanted to be there, I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the event. Thankfully, my friend Anagha (whom I met on Twitter) agreed to join me. Taking all the pain to travel from her place to mine, which was nearly two hours of travelling, she came as promised. Though 55 people had posted on Facebook that they would be ‘going’ to the event, the total number of the ones who attended is not worth sharing here. I wonder where they were going!! Maybe they got lost somewhere on the way, who knows! I was just smiling and thinking “We all in a such a world that when a new writer calls you for a book launch, you just smile it off and when a known author doesn’t even invite you, you look forward to attend it and get a signed copy of the book. ”
The book launch was held in Crossword Bookstore, Bangalore. It started off with a small intro about Shom which followed by his unveiling of the book. After that he spoke of how he decided to leave his studies and focus on writing, which led to his writings. He spoke about his dad who misinterpreted his passion for writing and blogging, putting him into engineering, where he struggled and realised he was not made for a world of machines. Literature, stories, imagination, was all he got attracted to and fell for. Though he had to overcome a lot in the process of following his dreams, he did it and you can get a glimpse of it in The Pink Smoke, which has a flavour of the real Shom!
He also entertained us with his ‘Papa kehte hain’ along with his friend Amit who played the guitar. Shom also introduced three real life characters who were a part of his books! After that sweet song, he interacted with the audience and then gave personally signed copies of his book to his fans, including me. My friend Anagha wanted to buy The Pink Smoke, and to our dismay, the book wasn’t available at the store. Prakash Books (who distributed ‘Life Served Hot’) seem to have forgotten about his previous book ‘The Pink Smoke’! I don’t understand why such lenient attitude is shown towards new writers. On a personal note, I would say “We writers are the ones you should be taking good care of. We have no fear to write down anything!”
After a few clicks and some chit-chat with Shom and his friends who were a part of Pedestrians, a music band, the evening ended on a happy note. Anagha and I helped ourselves to some melting chocolaty pastries and cold drinks from CCD. It was a sweet, cute, memorable and a cherished day in my life. Having met the Smoky Pink who Served Life Hot!
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