#BookReview :: The Paperback Badshah : The Comical Journey of a 100 Rupee Author by Abhay Nagarajan

Raghu Balakrishnan is a laidback 25 year old, who quits his regular job as a financial advisor to focus single-mindedly on his dream of becoming a published author in India. He stays with his parents. They reluctantly tolerate his new found creative ‘nonsense’ as he works on his book, a love story, which he titles The Paperback Badshah. 
As time passes by, he realizes that writing the book is just one part of the dream.
How did one go about getting it published? 
What about the marketing and promotion?
What about reactions from the readers?
Would it open up the faucets of love in their hearts or would it irritate them, given the sheer absurdity of the plot?
Along the way, will Raghu also get lucky in matters of the heart?
Find out by joining him in his entertaining journey, as he chases his writing dream to eventually become a published ‘100 Rupee’ paperback author.

The novel tells the story of Raghu Balakrishnan’s journey from being a financial advisor to becoming an author. At 25 he has a job that a lot of people would kill for and when he decides to give it up to give more time to hi true passion of writing, his parents think he is committing ‘the mistake’ of his life. While under the spotlight of his family and relatives, he shuffles between writing/motivational classes and actually working on his book. But soon he realises that writing the book isn’t just enough – getting a publisher to its promotion, there’s a long way ahead. Plus what if readers do not like his book? And then there’s the matter of the heart…

First the plot… I think it is a bit different in the sense that it handles the stage after the campus life that so many other authors have and are continuing to explore. It talks more about the struggles of a person and his choice of passion over profession. I did like that aspect of this book. In a country where all the parents want their children to grow up to be Doctors or Engineers or Management Gurus, we are often pushed to choose professionally fruitful line of study rather than vocational or artistic courses that our hearts truly want. So yes, it was good to read about a person who chooses to give up a financial career to follow his heart and become a writer. The novel also dealt with the aspect of our society where everyone is always ready with a judgement about other people’s lives. In some ways I did like Raghu.

What I thought was average was the humorous line that the author chose to narrate this story. Sense of humour is very individualistic and as such this novel may irritate some people with its pjs while making some people laugh throughout. For me it was a chuckle here and there and even though I could see the pov of the author - it wasn’t as hilarious at it was supposed to come out as.

Overall, it was a pretty light and fast read that is good for a lazy evening. 

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