The Tales Pensieve

New Delhi: It is a cold, wintry morning in Delhi but Jain Book Depot, a well-known bookstore in Connaught place, New Delhi is all deck up and business as usual. The chairs are laid out and the stage set for the launching of Anurag Anand’s   latest novel – Love on 3 wheels published by Srishti Publishers & Distributors. Slowly people began to trickle in. Not the usual crowd – they are a mix of small children, book lovers, readers and some journalists. Everyone is waiting expectedly for the writer who was to arrive soon. Till then book enthusiasts keep themselves busy with the fabulous display of books all around.

The author arrived soon after. He was accompanied by actress Simple Kaul. A pleasant looking young man, Anurag Anand looked every inch the new generation writer. After the initial introduction, he spoke about his book stating “It is good to see so many people gathered to witness the launch of a book’’, he added “this is my tenth book hence a special one’’. This time, he said, the book is a “layered one’’. His new novel is based totally in Delhi and the central theme is love. He also explained why the book is called Love on 3 wheels…”3 on the cover had two connotations. Firstly an auto rickshaw in Delhi and secondly the action in 3 days“, Anurag explained.

Actress Simple Kaul elaborated further, “I have loved reading the book“, she said. For Simple the title was interesting enough to read through the book which she found intriguing as well. “The theme is love but life as depicted was not as rosy as it seems’’, she said. She added, the book set her thinking about issues she had never thought of before. She would love to read it again since it was “so heart touching’’. There is so much difference between reading a book and going through a script, she added.

Taking the event forward the interactive question-answer session commenced. Deepak, a reader, asked Anurag “How was writing a historical novel like The Legend of Amrapali different from writing a present day novel?

“For writing a historical novel a lot of research has to be done as we are not very familiar with the lifestyle and manners of the characters that lived say, 2500 years ago….It is much easier to analyse present day characters. There is also the issue of pictorology changing very fast“, Anurag explained. “The right combination for writing historical romances would thus be research and imagination“, he added

A young boy of 11^th standard asked “Why he had chosen to write on an auto rickshaw driver?” to which the author gave a humorous retort…”Why not an auto rickshaw driver? Love can strike just about anyone, anywhere! He added, “Those who have lived in Delhi would know the importance of auto rickshaws, for they play a role in some part of their memories.” With this note the question hour ended and after the formal book launching, there was the usual signing of copies of the books followed by a high tea treat.

Image Credit: Sinjita Gupta & Anurag Anand