The day was indeed special, as I met a dream today, Preeti Shenoy, on her latest book’s launch. The One You Cannot Have is her fifth book, which I had pre-ordered online and managed to get her personally signed copy too.
Preeti Shenoy is one of my favourite authors and meeting all my favourites are dreams for me (of course I live in a world of dreams and try to make each of them true!). I came to know about the book launch from a Twitter friend Anagha and I’m really grateful to her for making it happen.
The programme was held at Hotel Royal Orchid at Bangalore . The occasion was graced by Vani Mahesh who is the Founder of Easylib, Dr. Shyam Bhat, who is a psychiatrist and an integrated medical specialist, Preeti’s family that consisted of her husband Satish Shenoy and her two adorable kids. Of course, we readers and her well wishers too made the occasion a grand success. A few members from the Westland Books also made it to the function, giving the readers a chance to buy books at the venue and get Preeti’s personal signature on the book too!
The ceremony started off with a briefing about the guests and the unveiling of the book for the public by Preeti, Vani and Dr. Shyam. There was a discussion of the book by the trio. Loaded with insights into the book, which the three of them beautifully did with their expertise was indeed a discussion I loved. Preeti claims that this is the first book she has written with a male perspective and it was obviously hard for her to write and sound like a male! She even admitted that the book was rewritten 7-8 times till she was completely satisfied with her work. The discussion was very helpful, informative and inspiring for a person like me who dreams to be a writer one day. J
The talk was followed by the questions from the readers who had a lot of doubts like “How do you manage to keep writing with your family, kids and other responsibilities?”, “Among all the three characters of your latest book, to whom do your character resemble the most?”, “Don’t you think the readers would judge your personality based on your books? How do you handle criticism?” just to name a few questions. Preeti managed to give the best possible answer to each of the readers’ concerns with such grace that we see in her books.
Preeti also guided the aspiring writers as to how to go about writing, how important it is to write in a layman’s language, basically how to connect to the readers with your work. She also hinted that one day she ‘might’ be a script writer too! Wow then I’m sure to be there for all her movies…!! J
After all the words that were poured in, it was time for some photography. Each of us was excited to get a capture with the star of the evening. And to my surprise, she remembered my name. As I introduced myself as Siji, she said “Siji..hey you’re the one who tweeted about me that day..Siji Menon, right?” What else do I need, I was on loud nine! :D After having a picture clicked with her on Anagha’s mobile (as my mobile has developed a new disorder these days), I had to rush to my husband who was waiting for me outside the venue. I also met a few other new people from and outside Twitter, making the evening ‘perfect’. Thanks Preeti for that personal invite, that gesture of love..
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