WRITING IS HIS PASSION

In this week's Books and Authors, SAHIL RASGOTRA brings you the story of Sahil Rajput, a young author from Jammu and Kashmir whose debut novel has become a huge success among the young readers of the country.

It is not every day that we come across someone who had decided to write a book getting inspired from another fellow writer. Sahil Rajput is one such young writer, who getting inspired from Indian authors like Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi, has managed to build a huge fan base, especially among youth, in his debut novel, "Roll Number - 77, A Half Love Story", which is a raging hit among the young readers of the country. The book, published under the banner of 'Educreation Publishing' is one among the bestselling books of the year 2016, on Flipkart and Amazon, India's two biggest online book stores.

A Computer Engineer from the reputed Kurukshetra University by education, Sahil's interest in writing developed only in his college life as he started reading books. "I am a computer engineer by education and it's only by passion that I am a writer. Passion of Writing was not in me from beginning, like some people who know where talents lie right from their early childhood. To be very honest, I hated books before college. To read any book you need patience and time, both of which I didn't had. I didn't even know about my writing talent before the 5th semester of my college. It was when I started reading novels, basically to kill the time on boring Sundays. However, within a period of three months, this hobby of mine graduated from merely a time pass to an inseparable passion," Sahil shares how he happen to become a writer.

He adds, "Then I realized that I need to share my story with the reading fraternity too, and I started penning down my thoughts. Initially I had three to four different plots in my mind, but an incident happened (the incident is elaborated in the book) that changed my entire life. This made me zero on the plot of this novel and hence, 'Roll Number - 77, A Half Love Story' happened."

Sahil tells about his book 'Roll Number - 77, A Half Love Story' in a little details to our readers, "While it is a certain fact that Love has no religion, caste, language or race but when it comes to Indian scenario, things change drastically. If you want to marry a girl then it's mandatory for both of you to have same religion, caste and race. These conditions are a perquisite for them to be allowed to love. The main characters of my book, Rudra and Avni love each other like anything. Avni being very orthodox regarding inter-caste marriages refuses Rudra's proposal because she thought Rudra belongs to some other caste and her parents will never accept him. The story is about how Rudra get his love."

Sahil comes from a family with Army background; from his great grandfather to his father, all having served the nation in Army uniform, in various capacities. However, his family always supported him when he expressed his desire to write a book. He shares, "It was always encouraging whenever I talked to my family about my intent to write a book. Not only they encouraged, but also came up with certain suggestions, they helped me a lot in the process of writing this book."

So has the path of becoming a well known author at such a young age been so easy for Sahil? No, it hasn't. He explains, "It is not at all an easy task to write a book. Not only does it require a lot of imagination, creativity, patience and time but also one has to sit in at one place for hours continuously to jot down what had striked your mind. I imagined the whole plot in my mind and then wrote it on paper but had to research a lot after completion of the book. While writing is a passion, publishing is a different matter altogether. I had to research a lot about the publishing industry, about the manner they work and everything else. While it seems a dream come true, it takes a lot of effort to get a book published. I have immense respect of every author, especially in India."

"It is not at all an easy task to write a book. Not only does it require a lot of imagination, creativity, patience and time but also one has to sit in at one place for hours continuously to jot down what had striked your mind. I imagined the whole plot in my mind and then wrote it on paper but had to research a lot after completion of the book. While writing is a passion, publishing is a different matter altogether. I had to research a lot about the publishing industry, about the manner they work and everything else. While it seems a dream come true, it takes a lot of effort to get a book published. I have immense respect of every author, especially in India," Sahil said.

Sahil's principle to follow in life is 3D's. He elaborates, "Nothing is impossible in this world if one is determined to achieve that thing. As for myself, I follow the principle of 3D's which are Dream, Dare and Do. If one can dream it, he can certainly dare it and if he dares it, he can certainly do it, too."

While he has been successful in his stint as a writer, Sahil's first love has remained the Indian defense forces as he wants to continue his family profession by joining the Indian Army. Besides writing, I am also preparing for combine defence services examination (CDSE) and hence I divide my day in two half's. In first half I prepare for CDSE and in second half I write. Sahil is currently working on his next novel, "Freak" which he expects to be in market early next year. As per him, it is the love story of a college student leader-turned-army officer with a woman of another religion, amidst the dreadful floods that rocked the Kashmir valley in 2014.