Amdavad National Book Fair was
held from 01st till 07th May
2013 at Gujarat University Convention Hall Drive-in Road, University Area, Amdavad.
One of the main attractions of the
Book Fair was the “Author’s Interaction + Book Reading + Book Signing Session”
with Vikrant Shukla. It was awaited by a number of people and as expected it
was an action packed event. The Author came casually dressed, people meeting him for the first time were astonished to see a young writer.
Dressed up in blue jeans, blue t-shirt, the author came with a casual look and
that was complimented with his humorous approach. His Down to Earth
personality won many hearts in no time.
Welcome speech was given by Parul Bhadoria, the Strategy Head
of Mehta Publishing House. She looked gorgeous in a green sari, a typical
Indian attire. Later, Vikrant came on the stage & grabbed the attention of the audience and started sharing the
synopsis of his books, Call Centre An Inside Story & The Wrong Chase. As
expected, the audience was mesmerized.
One of them asked, “How is your book different from Chetan Bhagat’s One
night a @ call centre?” The response given was, “We should not
compare these two books even though they are based on the common theme i.e. Call Centre. I have read Mr. Bhagat’s novel
and I liked it, however I felt there were some realistic things missing. The call centres are
not so easy to work at, life at a call centre is not a happy ride all
the time, people can’t go out to have party and booze while they are on the
shift. I have worked in the call centre industry for the past eight years and therefore wanted
to present a realistic story. Mehta Publishing House showed their trust in me
and the main appreciation came when you liked the book. The core difference
between two books is that the latter is coming from the horse’s mouth”, this
response was followed with a big round of applause.
The second phase of his session was
about answering the questions asked by the audience. Gayatri Lodha, a
13 year old young writer (Author of Gayatri’s Math Tricks) asked,
“What inspired you to write?” and the response given was, “It was due to my loneliness. I was never a party animal, I had nothing special to do over the weekends and I wanted to
do something creative and I ended up penning up my thoughts on my laptop”, said
Vikrant with a smile on his face.
Post the interaction with the
audience, the team of Mehta Publishing House came back to their stall which was one
of the most attractive stalls at the book fair. Vikrant met with a number of
readers and signed copies of his books for them and his positive
gestures and interaction was highly appreciated by everyone. His fans were
happy and Vikrant met everyone who were waiting anxiously for his visit to their
city.
Something strange happened, when a
young man approached Vikrant and asked, “Are you Vikrant? Do you remember that your interview was
published on our website?” “Which Website, can you please help me recollect?”
responded Vikrant. “Spectralhues”, replied that young man. “Oh, I remember…..”
and the communication commenced. The young man whose name was Prashant Gandhi
proposed Vikrant to be published on the front page of their monthly magazine
“Moments”, Vikrant accepted the proposal.
One of the main attractions of the
event were the imprinted mugs where a famous dialogue from Vikrant’s novel was
mentioned with the logo of Mehta Publishing House, complemented with a smiling
picture of Vikrant Shukla. It was gifted to people who visited the stall and to the winners of the interactive games held at the stall. Mugs were also given to people who bought books in
bulk from the stall.
Mayor of Amdavad City, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel visited the stall and had a candid discussion with the author. She was thrilled to
see a young author doing so well in writing and was curious to know about his
published and forthcoming books.
Overall the event was a super success.
The Team who made it possible for the Author Vikrant Shukla to meet his Gujarati fans were -
Parul Bhadoria, Amol Joshi, Sagar and
the team (Mehta Publishing House)
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| Vikrant explaining the synopsis of his books |
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| Book Signing |
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| Arrival at the stall of Mehta Publishing House |
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| Interaction with the audience |
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| Interaction with the audience continued.... |
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| Vikrant talking about his forthcoming books |
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| Answering the question asked by Gayatri Lodha (Author) |
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| Interacting with the Mayor of Amdavad, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel |
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| Interacting with the Mayor of Amdavad, Mrs. Meenaxiben Patel |
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| A picture clicked with Prashant Gandhi |
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| Team behind the scene, Left to Right - Parul Bhadoria (2nd), Vikrant (3rd), Sagar (4th), Amol Joshi (5th) |
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| Goodies on display at the stall |
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Best Sellers of Vikrant Shukla at the stall of Mehta Publishing House
** Photo Courtesy - Mehta Publishing House
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