Rohit Sharma, a software engineer
by profession has come up with his debut novel ‘Te Amo..I Love You’. This book
happens to be a romantic thriller and is already makes waves in the market
obviously because of the amazing content and well expressed emotions. Love is
one topic on which writing can be too easy and sometimes too difficult as well
but Rohit seems to have a flair for writing out love.
An avid reader, sports
lover and poet at heart, the very humble Rohit Sharma conversed with Harshita
Srivastava on the platform of Purple Pen telling all about his book and life.
Ques: Congratulations for your
book Rohit, how has the journey of writing been so far?
Thank you so much :-). It has been a very
long, tiring, but satisfying journey of three-and-a-half years. It always feels
good to see your work being appreciated by the majority, and suddenly you
forget all the pain you had put in to achieve your goal. Moreover, I was under
a burden of huge expectations. The people, who know me, were awaiting this book
as if it is written by some seasoned author. Most of them have forgotten that
it is my debut book :-). The burden of expectations is always tough to
carry, especially for a fresher.
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Ques: As we are already into the
month of love, we would love to know your plans for Valentine’s Day?
I will relax all day !! The last
three-four months had been very hectic for me. The World Book Fair in Delhi is
also keeping me on my toes. Then, there is a release/launch in my university on
the 13th. So life will be a little easy after that (I hope). I will
relax, and will talk to all my loved ones on 14th. And how can I
forget, I will be working in my office.
Ques: Tell us something about
your book ‘Te Amo...I Love You’
Te Amo… I LOVE YOU is a
Romance-Thriller Fiction. It is the story of Isabella and Aryan, story of their
true love, story of their sacrifices, efforts and hope to always stay together.
It is the story of honest friendships, ruthless animosity, and beautiful
bonding between parents and children.
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Ques: What made you select this
title?
The first romantic dialogue I
wrote between the lead couple of my book made me select this title. Isabella is
from Spain… She expresses her feelings by saying ‘Te Amo…’ and Aryan expresses
his feelings by saying ‘I LOVE YOU’.
.
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Ques: How long did you take to
complete this piece of literature?
From start to end …
three-and-a-half years. It involves 6 months of research work, two months of
writing, more than 2 years of rework and editing, and the endless wait for the
replies from the publishers.
.
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Ques: How close is Rohit to ‘Aryan’?
First of all, Aryan is what I always
wanted to be – a choreographer. I love to write and sketch too, like Aryan. I
too believe in solving the things by making friends, instead of making enemies.
People consider it my weakness that most of the time I don’t react, but that’s
my strength. To a major extent, Aryan is what I am in real life. Hence, it
proved very easy for me to write about Aryan’s character. On the contrary,
writing about Isabella and Ethan was extremely tough.
.
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Ques: What obstacles did you face
in getting your book published?
Life is tough for a fresher in
every field. Hence, it was a tough road for me as well. I was very reluctant to
get my work published in India. I was in London for two years, and I had almost
signed a contract with one of the leading publishers there. I knew most of the Indian
publishers apply a lot of conditions on the script e.g. the script should not
be longer than 50-60K words. I faced
similar problems too, when some of the publishers rejected my work on the basis
of word count, without even reading a single page of the manuscript proposal.
That was disheartening at times to see that the majority of the Indian readers
and the publishers are just focussed on the light-hearted and light-weight
romances. Gladly, I met Mr. Binay Dutta from Mahaveer Publishers, who waited
endlessly for me, till I had received a response from all the publishers. He
was so kind enough to tell me that he is ready to wait, because my script
deserves a better publisher. Nobody says that, and since then I have a huge
respect for Binay sir.
.
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Ques: We’ve heard that your
second work is going to be based on ‘Tihar Jail’. The readers would love to
have a sneak peek into it.
You have done a lot of research
on me already!! J
Well, the book is not based on ‘Tihar Jail’.
The Jail might be a part of my book, just like Spain was a part of ‘Te
Amo’. I have not yet started the full-fledged research work on my next book, as
the marketing of ‘Te Amo’ is taking a lot of my time.
The few things which I can share
are – It will be a crime/suspense Thriller, and Romance will be a part of it.
.
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Ques: If there’s something you’d
like to change in your book, what would it be?
I would love to see the
continuously changing ‘Edition number’. J
Jokes apart, I have given my best. It is my debut book, and for me, it is
near-perfect. I know I am biased. :-)
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Ques: What advice would you like
to give to aspiring authors and your readers?
Book writing involves a lot of
patience and dedication. Don’t hurry to wrap up your book, for the sake of
getting published. Move out from your comfort zone. Write about something which
you have not yet experienced in life. An engineer writing about an engineer
will never be exciting. But an engineer, who is writing about a character who
is a surgeon or an army man etc. will involve a lot of research work, and will
be exciting. It will prove a good learning as well.
Secondly, aim and decide what you
want to write – a chiclit or a literature. Once decided, read the books by best
authors of either category, and learn from them. Like, I have grasped a lot by
reading books by Sheldon, Sparks and Archer, and I am still learning.
I am thankful to my readers for their
love and support. It is just because of them that my book has taken a decent
start, and I need their continuous support. I will try my best to keep serving
them with good books. Thank you. Love you All.
Thank you Rohit, we wish you all
the very best for your future endeavors.
