Rendezvous with author Bharath Sarma Rejeti

They say authors are inborn narcissist and egoistic. They hardly take any criticism or praise constructively. However, when you meet author Bharath Sarma Rejeti, you will surely think twice about this myth. One of the most down to earth, patient and humble authors I have come across in recent times. It is my pleasure to introduce Bharath Sarma Rejeti to our readers.

Congratulations for the rave reviews you have been receiving for your new book “Choked”. Tell me how are you feeling?🙂

Just as how parents feel happy for a distinguished child, I feel elevated with good reviews for my book. I was reasonably confident during the process of writing that readers would like the story. But I cannot ask for more, as Choked has been consistently rated 4+ on a 5-point scale.

One of the Spectralhues reviewers has written that your book reminded him of Rudyard Kipling’s “If”. What’s your thought on this?

In hindsight, I feel I did not exploit the debut opportunity to pepper enough philosophy in my narrative. And I cannot say how delighted I am if Choked still reminded of Kipling’s “If”. Perhaps writers share a common thread of philosophy to weave fabrics called stories – some are colourful and beautiful; some are dark and painful. Sometimes philosophyis invisible, but the stories remain.

Tell our readers the story behind “Choked”?

I was inspired by a Telugu fable, which my grandmother narrated it to me in my childhood. It is the story of an unsuspecting louse, which loses a copious produce of green gram to the king of the land. Lost with time, I found the story again when my mother narrated it to my daughters. My kids persuade me to tell them this story many a time. One night in Jan 2012, I imagined what if louse was a small businessman. Over the next two days, several pieces of the stories have come together to form a stream of vivid images. My wife and kids instantly stamped their approval when I narrated the story of Aditya Kulkarni.

How much ‘Aditya Kulkarni’ is Bharath? Do you also believe in “Fight Until You win”?

Aditya Kulkarni is not me, but I can relate to him better. It is a pragmatic character in dog eat dog world – mediocre yet fascinating; gullible yet tenacious; sensitive yet confident; shy yet shrewd. In his fight against mighty Singhania, Aditya leads from behind. How much of this is me in real-life? Thank god I never had to face what Aditya experienced in Choked.

My problems are ordinary – what’s common to all of us. But did I ever organize a street protest against anything? Never. Did I confront any of my issues like Aditya? No. But my mind is constantly riddled with rioting ideas to problems around me. Although hypothetical, in picking up a battle, I would prefer to be a smart sniper, lurking behind a bush and assessing the strengths of my enemy first rather than be a foolish foot solider, launching boldly in front of my enemy. Yes, to me, winning the battle is important.

One complaint from female readers I would like to mention here. They accused you of being biased; you ignore female characters, especially character like Meena who hardly found space to evolve. Was it intentional?

I should have flirted with enough women to understand what they want 🙂 Jokes apart, yes, it was partly intentional. I had a few goals to accomplish. One, I wanted to differentiate myself in the market by writing business fiction. I feel the market is crowded and I cannot be another author attempting a love story. Two, I wanted to build a mood of revolt and immerse readers in it throughout a complex and engaging plot. With that merit, I compromised by focusing only on Aditya Kulkarni and Gaurav Singhania. All other characters, including Meena, are my clutches to build the plot. Evolving other characters would have produced a voluminous work, which I wanted to avoid. Moreover, I always felt female characters are brutally confined to romance in many thriller movies and books. I wanted a respectable role for Meena. I therefore restricted her to a supportive wife, a pragmatic role I felt.

Let me see if I can sketch a strong female lead character like Erin Brockovich in any of the upcoming titles. Hopefully, I will change the perceptions of female readers. 🙂

Being a debutant author did you face any kind of difficulties with publishing the book? How will you rate your publisher?

Like all other new authors, I too realized how lengthy the publishing process is with this book. From proposals evaluation to cover design, pricing, publishing and marketing, at every stage, I realized how opaque the industry has been. In fact, after months of waiting, I had to cancel a contract and publish it with Partridge. I would rate them well. They have a professional team of editorial, design and sales consultants.

When did you realize you want to be a published author?

While I had published a few articles in a children’s magazine during my college, I never dreamt to be an author. But I used to casually tell my friends, “I can write a book on it” on several occasions.

I like stories, and I grew up reading Enid Blyton’s stories, particularly the Famous Five and Secret Seven series, by borrowing books from my school library. Although I am not a movie buff, I like watching movies too. Somewhere between reading and consuming stories from book and movies, I also began to appreciate storytellers and their techniques.

With a good story in mind, Choked just happened. I could not resist the urge to write what I had in my mind. And I pursued it with some encouragement coming in from my family and friends.

How was your journey to become a writer?

Writing has been an integral part of my professional responsibility. I tried my hand at fiction with a good story, and the experience has been great. I had visualized the scenes of Choked during my evening strolls and I wrote them during the silent hours of late night. Editing and arriving at the final manuscript consumed a lot of time, though.

I have learnt a lot in this process, and I see a lot of room to improve from here. I don’t feel accomplished at this time. The journey of becoming a writer has just begun.

Please tell us something about yourself? What else you like apart from writing?

I am a marketing professional, working in the IT industry for over a decade now. I develop industry perspectives for a few solutions, which the sales personnel use while pitching. I am married to Aravinda and we have two lovely daughters.

Apart from writing, I have several interests that changed with times. I liked gardening when I was about ten, and I wanted to become a farmer. 🙂 I used to sketch and paint, and won a few prizes too. At the peak of my participation in drama, my family feared if I would run to Chennai and pursue a career in films. But all of these sort of stopped with my schooling and college days. When I played badminton with passion, I thought I would beat Prakash Padukone one day. And today I like equity investing as much as all of these things in my life.

Have you started planning for your next book? What would be the subject?

I have a few abstracts ready, but I am not sure when I will get to them. I wish Facebook wasn’t there – it is distracting. 🙂

I have a non-fiction manuscript on equity investing, which is my immediate publishing priority. I will focus on fiction thereafter. My next fiction theme would be centered on my childhood interest number one – farming 🙂 I plan to keep the plot simple and focus on building characters this time.

Any message for Spectralhues readers…

Let me first appreciate the Spectralhues team. You have a great team of literary enthusiasts and they are doing a great service. I personally would like to discover good books to read from Spectralhues.

My only message for Spectralhues’ readers is this: “I wrote to entertain and keep you informed. Find some time, read my book and let me know what you think. :)”

Thank you Bharath for your time. Wish you all the best for your future works.

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• About the Author

About Angella Divyesh

Fiercely Private and Passionately Loyal - Angella Divyesh is Kolkata based writer. To her reading book is not habit but ritual and writing is another form of soul searching. Angella believes that the world would be a better place if the good people voice their opinions without fear and skepticism.