Reporting the Progress of My Book

When I started writing the book I did not realize I would be still writing it fours years later. I had thought I would abandon it midway and had actually stopped writing it for a while after returning from the Andamans. That I am still working at it shows I am a very dogged Hyderabadi feller. It has come something as a surprise even to me that I am able to hang on to something for so long. Naturally one would come to the conclusion that a masterpiece is in the making but please be assured it isn’t the case. But then it isn’t as bad as I thought it was when I first went through the first draft.

After umpteen revisions it is finally taking shape. I have managed to reduce the number of pages from a staggering eight hundred pages to something more than three hundred and fifty pages. I am in the midst of one such revision aimed at cutting it down further. The story is just beginning to look like it is going to make some meaning to whoever is going to take the trouble to read it. I have already made a hit list of people I want to give the book to. I hope I don’t have to threaten them to read it and not just look at it every day and wonder if it is really a book that I have written.

Come September and it will the fourth anniversary of starting the book. I plan to finish the final revisions by end of July though since I am expecting a promotion at office. I want to have a final draft by then to give to friends for their feedback. Even as others read the draft I plan to go on with the revisions on another copy of the draft. I will revise until I am convinced it is something worth sending to a publisher. I haven’t really thought about all that at this stage since I want at least one reader to tell me that the writing hasn’t given him/her nightmares. As I said earlier I have already made a list of all the people I want to give the draft for their feedback. Of course, when it comes out as a book they still have to buy it.

A couple of weeks later I will post about what the book is all about. But for now I’ll just mention one of the titles I have in mind for the book- ‘There’s a Drought Here and You Want Us to Wear Ironed Shirts?’