MY FIRST BLOG

Hi everyone! This is my very first blog ever, and I am thrilled to share my thoughts with you guys. It is great to have this space, which will be my very own, to own!

First things first. My very first book is due for release soon and I am thoroughly excited. Like all debutant authors, I am all jittery right now. Though I do hope my book gets a good response from readers in terms of sales, above all, I hope my readers enjoy the book.

For those who have logged on to the blog directly (without visiting the homepage of the website), my book is titled “300 Brave Men”, and it is a historical novel based on the life of the legendary Maratha King, Chhatrapati Shivaji. This book will be the first of a trilogy and will bring to life twenty years of the great man’s life, from 1641 to 1660.

As I have stated elsewhere on my website, this eight year journey, which began way back in 2009-10, has been a very emotional journey for me. These past years, especially the two years it took me to write the book, I have literally lived every moment of the story. I have dwelled in 17^th century India and have actually witnessed the scenes as they unfold in my book. I was there when an eleven year old Shivaji refused to bow to the Sultan and I was there when, as a sixteen year old, he swore to put an end to the Sultan’s rule. I have been in all his war councils and have fought in all those battles with him. I exulted in his many victories and I wept with him when his first love, Saee died. In the shamiana at the foot of Pratapgad, my heart stopped beating when he took on the gigantic Afzal Khan. In the pass of death at Gajapur, I bled with his faithful Captain  Baji Prabhu Deshpande and his brave three hundred. I have seen it all.

But my real test would be to make you, my readers see it as I did, and if I can do that, then and only then can I consider my book a success.

Although I have tried to be as neutral as possible in my narration, my frantic adulation for the great man has nevertheless come to the fore and no doubt reflects in my writing. But I simply could not help it. Like countless others, I worship him and have held him as an idol ever since I was a little boy. When you write a book on your idol, you tend to eulogize. In any case, my book was never meant to be a historical narrative, but a dramatized novel. It is meant for those who want to visualize what might have happened hundreds of years ago. It is meant for hopeless romantics like me, who want to cheer India’s greatest heroes and savour their victories. Hence, a dramatized novel and hence, the drama. Historians have, historically, looked down upon such portrayal of history in books and movies, but I maintain that these works too have a readership and an audience. Or so I want to believe.

So, it is with great expectations and a fluttering in my heart that I offer you my first book, and await with bated breath, reviews from you, my readers. Publishing of this book begins a new journey for me, a journey into unknown territory. I am distinctly out of my comfort zone here, but hope to make this field my own, as I did the world of medicine three decades ago.