Though the Gregorian New Year of 2018 started with a promising note for me as I have just winded up a solo trip to the Hindi heartland of UP and Bihar and attended a few of my friends’ weddings, one moment in the trip even inspired me with the idea of what went on to become the novel, A Thing Called Destiny, which I begin actively writing in early 2018, also had a solo trip to coastal Karnataka; things weren’t all smooth with me as the year progressed and by May June, I had let adverse things happen to me that had a distressingly depressive effect on me.

And despite the fact that I had secured a better job with a better package, and I was writing the first draft of A Thing Called Destiny, which was also progressing well, my emotions used to fluctuate drastically between extremes. And in case, you think it was a Love failure, it wasn’t.

However, retrospectively, when I look back on those times, they were a blessing in disguise that thought me some invaluable lessons, however, 2021 would go on to demonstrate that I haven’t learnt my lessons properly.

Writing “A Thing Called Destiny”, gave me some kind of balance and was a coping mechanism and helped me cope with those turbulent times. However, on August 24, I completed the first draft and was completely exposed to my vulnerabilities.

While in the office, Sadhguru’s video provided relief which I used to listen to while working. However, at night, I turned to the other thing I desperately clung to hoping that it will provide me solace was reading novels. And when you are making a comeback into this field after almost a decade, you would like to start by reading something familiar.

So, I started with Dan Brown’s Origin and then with JK Rowlings Cormoron Strike series. And this time, my reading rate was quite intense. I used to read for three to four hours every night. And here is when, I used to purchase books in bulk from a second-hand store in Moore Market, Chennai. And I was open to anything the storeowner suggested.

He suggested some Indian authors who were easy to read. I did genuinely enjoy reading “I Too Had A Love Story”, but others were, like, I said, a strict No. And here he suggested multiple authors. And within that time frame from August 2018 to August 2019, I read several authors and several books, rather with insane intensity.

And in that short span of a year, I think I have read much more than what I have actually read in my entire life until then. Some of these authors included James Patterson, Cecilia Ahern, Sidney Sheldon, Agatha Christie, and Paulo Coelho among many others.

And I wasn’t just limited to foreign authors, I read Indian authors too. And I found two impressive authors who wrote in a genre that I simply admire. These two authors in a way rekindled my affair with Indian cultures and traditions too.

They are none other than Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi.