Amreekandesi - The Book

October 1, 2012
By

I realize i haven’t written anything on the blog for over a month, but it is with good reason. I have finally made progress on my dream project, which was an idea fostering in my mind ever since i started writing 5 years ago, with a blog tagline that went ‘Stories from America’. It finally kicked off towards the fag end of 2010, but with a full time job, a wife, a little boy, Temple Run and Twitter to keep me busy, it never went anywhere. Apparently, getting milk from the  Mother Dairy every evening is more important than creating a masterpiece that generations will remember, and later aliens will read carefully to understand the hairy brown colored species that inhabited their just-conquered planet.

It took a serious resolution at the start of the year, increasing my coffee intake to nearly create-a-temporary-shortage-in-the-market levels, asking my legions of followers to send me virtual slaps if they saw me wasting time on Twitter, and going Manmohan Singh on the family. (You know. Invisible.) It bore fruit. My book is nearly complete. I say ‘nearly’ because it will probably never be complete until someone locks the file up with a password and tells me to get lost (and get a life). I thought it was complete two months back, and since then i have gone from draft 1 to what must now be draft 3 (Or 4. Or 5. God knows.)

Anyway, i’ll cut to the chase. Here’s a quick introduction of Amreekandesi - The Book. Historic moment alert.

Drumroll.

More drumroll.

The book is tentatively titled Amreekandesi - Masters of America. It is the story of how  desi people live their lives in the US after traveling from India, specifically in a campus setting. Some call them FOB.  [Fresh off the Boat. Even though nobody travels by boat anymore.]  Some just call them names and imitate their accents accompanied with violent head shakes. People like Russell Peters made careers out of doing that.

Every story has their heroes and zeroes, this one does too. Every story has it’s twists and turns, this one has them too. Every engineering graduate is horny for love, these guys are too. Not all stories warm your heart, this one probably will.

This is the story of a young dorky engineer who wants to get out of home and make a man of himself, showing the world that he is capable of succeeding without his mom around to wash his underwear or dad to ask teachers to be nice to the fruit of his loins.

It is also the story of his opposite. Pun absolutely intentional.

The book is a look at how different people behave when they cross Indian shores to travel to foreign lands. Of how Indian people complain about racism abroad when a Punjabi and a Bengali can’t tolerate each other within Indian borders. Of the lives of Indian-Americans and how desi parents the world-over have the same fears and insecurities for their children. Of young kids who travel all the way to the US and try to adapt to the changed environment where people suddenly have different priorities, the girls are pretty and temptations are aplenty.

Any more detail, and i might have to kill you.

Here’s a random extract:

As Jassi was ambling up the aisle after returning from a bathroom break, he noticed a young couple a few seats behind him, and stopped short in his tracks. The guy was probably from Andhra. He was dark, geeky-looking and his face was littered with craters that reminded Jassi of the surface of the moon. The woman with him, on the other hand, was a stunner. Luscious light golden hair, blue eyes and killer looks of a model from a Pirelli calendar, minus the anorexia. The man had landed a beautiful white woman, while being quite ugly himself. He was deep in slumber, and she was sleeping with her head on his shoulder. Jassi was excited. He wanted to shake his hand, hug him, if possible get some tips from him. If HE could do this, surely Jassi would have to manage a long waiting list of desperate American women. This was inspirational stuff.

Just as Jassi was planning his next move, the guy woke up and looked at the weird young boy dressed like Govinda staring at him, drool coming of his mouth. Jassi pretended to search for something in his pocket, and moved on.

Some of my close friends have read the book and, i should restrain myself here but, THEY LOVED IT. It is funny. It is insightful. It will help you improve your GRE score. [The last one not really, but see how i am slyly telling you that  not buying this one will not be an option. If fact, i am considering contacting a few prominent engineering colleges in Andhra to prescribe my book as a text book in their last semester. Win-win situation all around.]

While you may admire my god-like qualities and incredibly funny writing style, it has not been easy getting here. The book is almost 75,000 words. Considering my average blog post is about 700-800 words, it’s like a hundred blog posts, each one connected to each other. If that weren’t bad enough, people start getting finicky about petty things like grammar and spellings [Don’t use passive voice. Don’t make spelling mistakes. Don’t name the main protagonist  Bablu or Chintoo. Don’t use swear words. Not at your reviewers, at least.] AND  then they want it to be funny. Bloody, jaan loge bachche ki? Expectations, i tell you. You give them one thing, and they start getting greedy. Now i know what the Indian government must feel about us aam-janta.

A book is that lofty goal most of us bloggers/writers aspire to, but it’s an arduous journey. I’ve ignored my boy, my wife, my rapidly depleting hair count, and horror of horrors, Twitter. [God only knows i am going to hell for that last one.] Every night, i have had a glass of milk with enough coffee to keep a small village awake, and bitter than Taslima Nasreen on a bad day. I have forgotten what sleeping for 8 hours feels like. I haven’t watched Balika Vadhu in ages. If i had worked this hard for IITJEE, i’d have been in the papers with a dorky grin on my face, the seven hair in my mustache bristling with pride and a few lakhs in the bank from assorted coaching centers i had never heard of. I have spent so much time holed up in a solitary corner of the house, trying to avoid any human contact, that i fear i might have caused irreversible damage to my already inexistent social skills. [Again, you’ll notice how i am using emotion to urge you to shed a tear, and buy my book whenever it is out]  All this torture better be worth it.

Phew.

So that was the easy part - writing the book. Now all i need is a publisher who likes me and/or the manuscript. Will soon start pitching to some of the major publishers. If i say that this fills me with trepidation and that nasty feeling in the stomach fearing jaundice after drinking four glasses of sugarcane juice from a road side vendor in the midst of filth, stray dogs and an open drain, i would not be exaggerating. I would like to crib here about the ones who want me to print out the entire manuscript in size 12 font, double-spaced, one side to a page, and then send it by snail mail, but i’ll let it slip. Sorry, dear forests of the Amazon.

Every result of the Google search for ‘Indian publisher first time author desperate‘ tells me that they dislike us. Hate even. It’s got so bad that every night i dream of the head of a publishing house calling me on my mobile begging and pleading with me to allow them to publish my book, while i act all cocky like i am a girl in an engineering college and  they are a boy from mechanical.  Of course, 5 minutes later i burst into happy tears and ask for their pen to sign their offer of a few crores in advance payment.

But dreams do come true, don’t they?

Stay tuned.

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25 Responses to “ Amreekandesi - The Book ”

  1. Rahul on October 1, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Loved the extract of the book….I hope it is the WORST part of the book and there are much more better subplot/twist in the book….

    From the bottom of my heart, I hope the next “3 idiots” is inspired by your book, and you become so rich that you forget your twitter followers :)

    PS: Just a heads up: Do you know about Kindle Direct Publishing? You can publish your book directly to kindle. I understand your target audience (atleast in India) won’t be having a kindle, but still worth a consideration

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 8:55 pm

      Thanks so much Rahul. Amen to your thoughts.

      I am definitely keeping the Kindle option as a last resort. If offline publishing doesn’t work out, i’ll go for it. Also, it isn’t just restricted to actual Kindle devices - you can download the book on Apple/Android devices as well, so should work out well :)

  2. Uberschizo (@Uberschizo) on October 1, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    Here’s to successful publication soon, :) looking forward to more extracts. longer the better

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 9:02 pm

      Thanks boss. Will surely post more extracts. Might post the full synopsis of the book as well.

  3. dimpy on October 1, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    Just one question: when it will be out?? Can’t wait to get my hands on it….all the best!! :)

  4. Sunil on October 1, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    Hey, this looks like an interesting read! Credit goes to Bhak Sala for sharing the link
    I hope it is really published soon so I can get my hands on it.
    Also, one or two more sneak peeks would be great :)

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 10:02 pm

      Thanks Sunil. More sneak peeks coming up…

  5. Mangat Rai Goyal (@mangatrai) on October 1, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    Interesting read. loved the extract from book. Hope that we will get to see book pretty soon.

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 10:55 pm

      Thanks Mangat!

  6. lifekirecipe on October 1, 2012 at 10:12 pm

    I loved the extract plus the entire journey of reaching to it! All the very best :) and personally I like to believe that there’s a God who, like a lurker is reading all of this maybe not commenting now but will work out a plan for you n for this book.. I’ll buy the book the day it’s released :) Pls keep writing :)

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 10:58 pm

      Thanks so much for making my day with that comment. These words of support truly mean a lot to me :)

  7. Kathi on October 1, 2012 at 10:20 pm

    cannot wait to read this! : )

  8. Prateek on October 1, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    Man, i have been following your blog for a while now. You are awesome. I am sure the book will be a massive success. Good luck dude.

    • amreekandesi on October 1, 2012 at 10:59 pm

      Thanks Prateek!

  9. Monica on October 1, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    Love it! Love it! Love it!

  10. Purandar Raj (@kudikaran) on October 2, 2012 at 12:56 am

    Sounds interesting.!
    Hope you get a publisher soon, and I can buy a used copy of this book in the sunday market after reading the reviews :P

  11. vadakkus on October 2, 2012 at 10:10 am

    Awesome! Cant wait!! Will pre-order and… may I review it? :-)

  12. Bharat on October 4, 2012 at 1:15 am

    bhaisaabh Flipkart pe to milegi na ?

  13. fullstopindia on October 4, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    Looking forward to it. Seems to me there is a need for this exact type of book on the market right now.

    Will there be a way to get signed copies? :-)

  14. rajinder on October 6, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    I liked the idea and presentation and now eagerly await for the news that the book is available so that i can buy it to read it in one go.wish you best of luck .

  15. Shuchi on October 6, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    I too can’t wait like many others :D
    Break a leg you! :-)

  16. […] progress only in 2012, when it went through about 23 million rounds of edits over the year. The last time i wrote about the book here, i was going through phase II of the journey - finding a publisher. Thanks to Random […]

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All content on this site is the personal opinion of the writer. It is in no way related to their employer or their official policies. Most of what is written here is in a satirical tone. If it hurts your sensibilities, I sincerely apologize.
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