Akshat Pradeep Solanki is a 20-something, busy learning the ropes of a family business. He is no different from a lot of his friends who dream of pursuing an MBA in a reputed university.
He is however studying to become an engineer at the moment. One thing though sets him apart from his peers. He is already a published author of a book called Bachelor’s Marriage.
He got his publishing break after he was rejected several times and he reworked the manuscript till Leadstart Publishing offered him a deal.
What worked in his favor was perhaps the fact that his book explores the familiar territory of the great Indian marriage with a youthful perspective. It also explores the role played by social-networking sites like Facebook in building and marring relationships. His novel uses everything from social media chats to new dating trends to flesh out a story.
Excerpts from an interview:
When did the story begin?
I started penning the story three years back in October. The idea struck me during a Facebook chat and the phases that a young person goes through as he or she deals with the confusion about marriage and all that is associated with it. It is the story of a family, love and friendship. It is a coming of age story.
Your inspiration..
While chatting to my friends, I noticed that they were perplexed about marriage and the issues related to it, so I thought of putting these ideas into a fictitious format. But it was hard to put my ideas down on paper and make them understandable to my readers.
The greatest challenge was to figure what my readers were like. I am now working on a sequel.
Lessons learnt
Just follow your passion and dreams. Once you have discovered your talent, be obsessed with the next step to realise your dreams.
Favorite writers
I love writing but even more than that I like reading writers like Jane Austen, Agatha Christie and Dan Brown.
