Once upon a time there was a young man called Nelton D’Souza. Nelton believed he had a very special gift of writing stories that moved one and all. This craving to write didn’t let him sleep at night. Every time and everywhere, be it on the bus or while doing mundane things or when he was by himself, his mind would wander to lands unknown where he would meet people unseen. Those people were like any other, but beyond their faces lay immense pain from the battles they fought on a daily basis. When Nelton didn’t write he would be enveloped by sadness but whenever he did, inspite of a tiring twelve hour workday and another four hours of travel, he would find a new sense of joy and vigour. Nothing made him happier than writing. After all it was writing which allowed him to escape into a world which was not judgemental and where he could be the hero slaying beasts, demons and fire-spitting dragons alike.
Unable to bear the craving anymore and to escape the resulting torture, he decided to pen down his stories. The addiction to write was so much that he decided to pen his first story on addiction itself, but with a twist. Need all addictions be bad; Nelton didn’t think so. One became two and two became four. Slowly people came to know of his hidden talent. They appreciated his stories and encouraged him to write and have his stories published. The encouragement he received was like oxygen to the dying and caffeine to the energy-sapped. Hence Nelton set forth on his quest of having a collection of stories worth publishing. He based every story in a different setting, be it in the over-crowded local trains in Mumbai or an imaginary world where love, intelligence and boldness got personified. The stories also touched upon sacrifice, strength in the face of death and best friends turned strangers. Mixing fact and fiction he made himself a character and put in elements of suspense, emotions and relatability. Staying up late into the night writing his stories and thinking of plots and characters for his stories while travelling to and fro office, he pushed himself to no ends to make this collection a reality. At times, to save on time while travelling, he would type stories on his Symbian OS based Nokia N8. Even though at times the entire sentence would appear on the screen after he had moved to the next one, the lag didn’t make any difference to him. He was too engrossed into the story to notice anything except his stop.
One by one, story by story, after about two years Nelton was done with his collection. But he couldn’t rest; because he knew that though the tough phase of penning the stories was over, the most difficult phase of finding a home (publisher) for his stories had begun. With no one in his entire family (extended family included) having any sort of experience of publishing, he understood the challenge would be tougher. But he didn’t let that deter him. After all no one in his family had even done engineering or survived hostel life which was about 2,000 kms away from home. With the internet by his side, Google as his tool and his best friend, the all-powerful Jesus Christ’s assistance he wrote and sent his stories to every well-known publisher he could come across. After having done the hard work, he waited anxiously for a reply. Days passed into weeks, weeks into months but there was none. Finally, after an arduous wait, the replies started coming in. Out of all the publishers he sent his manuscript to, most didn’t reply, while the few that did sent in the most polite rejections he had come across. Nelton had his fingers crossed as he waited for a reply from one of the top Indian publishing houses – the one that had made investment bankers and entrepreneurs’ household names; the one he had most of his hopes pinned to. The day came when he received a reply but it was not on expected lines. The timing too was bad. While in office, Nelton was migrating a major feature on the production environment. The news hit him so hard that he forgot to deploy a major piece of code. The slip-up caused the entire site to crash directly impacting 20,000 employees and the matter getting escalated to the highest powers. Needless to say, he had to sit into the night setting things right and hear a mouthful the next morning.
Nelton was filled with sadness and saw his dream of being a published author crumble into pieces. But his never-say-die spirit and his blood with an attitude - B+ve didn’t let him give up. He started contacting lesser known publishers, where he came across Calcutta based Power Publishers. It’s then where things took off. He sent them his manuscript and after a brief exchange of phone calls and emails, the deal was through. The book began to take shape. The book cover came out better than he had expected; and soon after the printed book with his name on it was in his hands. He felt the title of the book and his name on it by gently moving his hand on the cover. The joy was so much that he just kept gazing it as if time had stood still. Though fatherhood was years away he felt the joy as if he was a father. His book was nothing short of his baby.
People around him bought his book and shared their positive feedback. He became popular in his organization and in the local reading circuit. The book soon became the best seller on Amazon and got sold out many times on various portals. In the end, Nelton’s efforts paid off and he established himself as a published author. All’s well that ends well.
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