Two days ago, I received the first copy of my book. I must confess holding the first copy was a bit like lifting a new born child, utterly joyful. A book is a labour of love, it can emotionally entangle you so completely that it leaves you completely exhausted. I started taking notes on the elections last February around the time Narendra Modi made his first big speech at the national level at the Shriram College of Commerce. I got down to the serious writing once the elections were done and dusted. To be honest, I hadn’t planned to write on the elections; the original idea was to write a big ‘media’ book. The election results and the persuasion of my publishers convinced me that the 2014 elections needed to be written about. This was a historic mandate: one that had ushered in India’s first right of centre majority government.
I started, as I am sure most authors do, with a blank screen in front of me: I wrote every day, often for several hours at a stretch. That I didn’t have to worry about who my nightly 9 pm guests were was a blessing: I don’t think this book would ever have been written if I was still ‘trapped’ in a 24 x 7 news cycle. Television is a jealous mistress: it doesn’t allow any breathing space to step back and see the big picture, or even press the pause button. I wrote from 7 am to 1 pm, had lunch, an afternoon nap, and then wrote even more. My evening break was to watch cricket on tv! Slowly, the pen (or in this case finger on computer) flowed; I ended up writing more than 130,000 words. The book in my hand is now more than 350 pages. In early November, it will be hopefully in the hands of several others. In the days ahead, I shall talk more about the book and the ideas which shaped it. It has been an exciting journey. I hope many of you will be part of it and will celebrate the joy of reading. Books have their own unique way of finding their path in the world: I hope this one does too.
