#GuestPost :: To Be (Patient) or Not To Be by Rupali Rajopadhye Rotti

Rupali Rotti had a childhood dream of writing a detective fiction novel and it came true with her first book, 'The Valentine's Day Clue', which is the first in the series of 'Nayak Brothers'. Like many of you, she grew up on Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew book series and for many years, would think of herself as an amateur detective.
After working for eight years and then getting into business, Rupali has now become a full-time writer. She says that going from the routine day-long job/business to researching on varied topics including film-making, hotel operations, history, crime detection, terrorism, and police procedures has been a life-changing experience. Her new job is equally challenging, she says, but it is more soul-satisfying than anything she's ever experienced.
She is a member of the International Thriller Writers' Association which is based out of USA and her first book has been nominated for Crossword Books Award for 2013. When not writing, she likes spending time in her garden, or reading books, researching for her upcoming works, and meeting people. She also enjoys the rain, the music, and long walks. She lives in a suburb of Pune, which is the Oxford of the East and a bustling IT and manufacturing hub.

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Meet a Writer, Rupali Rotti

Hi, I'm Rupali Rotti and I’m a writer. Wait, what? Yeah, you read it right - roti, the Indian bread, with an extra ‘t’. Have you ever heard of a person with a surname as ‘bread’? I think not. So that makes me pretty unique, huh? And this isn’t even my birth name. You see, I’m married to a guy with that name. My surname before marriage was Rajopadhye. Uh... Ra-joe-paa-dh-ye, Rajopadhye. Ugh, alright, say whatever you wanna say. Not a single friend of mine could ever pronounce my surname right, so why should you?

Anyway, when I was to get married and this guy came along, my friends and family said, “You gonna marry a guy with that name? Dekho huh, you’ll be stuck with it the rest of your life. People would make fun of you, call you names, laugh at you. You'll be okay with that?”

And I would go, “Umm...” Then I thought, ‘What’s in the name? Forget about the name, look at the guy.’ I mean, he was perfect. He was the guy I’d been waiting for for so many years.

My cousins teased me day and night before marriage. You see, my name’s Rupali and with this new surname, I would be Rupali Rotti, which sounded pretty much like Roomali Roti... See what I mean? (For those who don’t know, it’s a variety of Indian bread you get all across India!)

Also, in India, there's a saying: A person requires three things to survive - roti (bread), kapda (clothing), aur makaan (and shelter). So my friends and cousins teased me saying that since I’m considering becoming ‘Roti’, if and when I’ve kids, I should name them Kapda and Makaan. That way, I’ll have all the basic necessities to survive all through my life (rolling my eyes). Apparently I don’t need a job to survive. Duh!

So I either could get bogged down and reject the guy for his surname, or I could tell the world to FO and marry the man of my dreams. You know what I did next. :-D But, come to think of it, every person strives to have bread on the table - job/business/begging - all of it for a loaf of bread. This means, the whole world is working for me. Now that’s not so bad, is it?

Tell me about your names and surnames that draw unnecessary attention to you. You like that attention, you don’t like it? People make fun of you? You make fun of people for their names or surnames? Share your story in a comment below. If you liked the post, don't forget to subscribe to my Facebook page, Nayak Brothers, and don’t forget to read my books, they’re niiiccceee.

When I say ‘Roti in jam’ or ‘Roti in a pickle’... Ah, I caught that! Now look here, it’s not yummy, you cannot enjoy it. It’s me in trouble, for God’s sake! Come, help me! Aw great, now your mouth can’t stop watering.

Just two days after Valentine’s, the assault on a friend gets the Nayak brothers started on a journey of their life… But who’s keeping a tab on their every move? And why are they being hunted?

Unscrambling the truth on their investigation trail leads them through catacombish underground tunnels, high-altitude caves, and scary carcass structures. It soon turns into a mystery far more than they could handle…

And just when the dots seem to get connected, the bad guys move in for the kill. Now, it’s a race against time to save a life, without a clue of where and how to begin.