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#TheDailyToast: Juggernaut: India’s first mobile phone novel

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Gayatri Jayaraman
Gayatri JayaramanSep 23, 2015 | 10:20

#TheDailyToast: Juggernaut: India’s first mobile phone novel

Too much they make us write for web these days. Fed up I tell you. So the day Chiki Sarkar launched her new mobile phone publishing house, I also went to my father and my old neighbourhood friend Nandan, with a solid business proposal.

My father was delighted I had acquired a business sense as any sign of sense is a rarity these days he said to him proudly.

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I wanted to tell stories, I said.

Of course, of course, my daughter is a writer he said proudly to Nandan.

I will tell short stories, I said.

Of course, of course, very niche genre, he said. Raymond Carver, Truman Capote, Chekov, Vonnegut, every birthday I bought her, he said.

No, shorter, I said.

Oh of course of course new age attention spans he said, looking mildly confused.

Digital format, I said.

Of course, of course, no overheads, Kindle-enabled smart beta, he said. Like Twitter? he asked.

It will fit on your mobile phone, I said.

What like text message he asked, his tone faltering.

Some will be broadcast every night at 9, I said.

What like tele-serial prime time? He asked. I could hear him worry about being pulled between mom's mythological and mine. Difficult dinner table choices these to put a man his age in.

He began to acquire frown lines.

It will include video and illustration with stories.

Like YouTube films? He asked.

It will be real time swipeable, I said.

Like Tinder? He asked (he has been swiping left on most profiles for me in the hope I will say hanh to someone at least.)

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It will also have voiceovers for audio books, I said.

Like radio? He asked, apoplectic. What are you doing, inventing the internet, he asked, slapping his knee trying to make one of those old people jokes.

So lame.

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I want Rs 15 crore for it, I said. That is first instalment. I will come back for phase two I said, reasonably.

What can I say? He beat me up with a rolled up nearest newspaper with a dying circulation. I tripped over a tied bundle of unsold magazines. Then he flung unsold copies of my last would have been bestseller at me as I ran down the street. My own father.

I now live in a box on the road and have only my mobile phone.

I am a writer.

This is my struggle.

This is my first novel. It is autobiographical.

I am available for interviews and book or mobile phone signings (only iPhone 6S+ with stylus allowed) at India Today offices from 4pm onwards.

Last updated: September 23, 2015 | 12:52
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