Journey from IIT to World of Authors- Rajeev Tamhankar
The world of Corporate is full of different shades of emotions. No one knows who is watching whom in this world. The talented IITian Rajeev Tamhankar decided to pen down a novel which depicts the corporate culture and the dilemma of an employee. Rajeev Tamhankar shared with Indicafe24.com his journey so far as an author
1) Welcome to Indiacafe24. Before we Go ahead will request you to share with our readers your background and also who you are as a person apart from being an author.
I was born in 1989 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh and stayed in Jabalpur throughout my schooling. In 2007, I cleared IIT-JEE and secured admission in Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee in the course of Polymer Science and Engineering. The college life was possibly the best phase of my life. Learnt a lot of new things, travelled a lot of places and enjoyed a lot of activities. I was in the editorial team of my campus magazine, “Renaissance”, won elections for the post of Bhawan Councillor, became campus fest coordinator for Cognizance, attempted and won the Limca World Record 2011 for hand-drawing world’s largest political map, travelled over eighteen countries during internships and dissertation and yet managed to graduate as 2012 Silver Medalist from IIT Roorkee for being the topper of my course. After college, came over to Bengaluru and have been staying here for last three years. I run a non-profit blog called Ignite India Foundation (www.ignite-india.com) and have authored the book “Get Corporated before you get fired!” (www.facebook.com/getcorporated) J
2) How writing came to your life?
I used to read and write a lot as a kid. During primary school days, I was in habit of reading hell lot of comics. I had a collection of over eight hundred comics – the highest amongst my peers then! 😛
I also used to write short stories. Whenever I watched an interesting cartoon, I tried to jot down the story in my own words and filled some diaries which I still have in my home. During college, I used to write animation scripts and worked with two animation studios. Considered writing seriously only after coming to Bengaluru.
3) Who encouraged you to enter this world of authors?
When I moved to Bengaluru, I started this small Facebook page titled Get Corproated (www.facebook.com/getcorporated) and used to put some jokes and articles in it. I kept this page as a secret from all my friends. To my surprise, lot of people used to share my articles and posts and used to encourage me to share more humorous posts on corporate life. I thus writing on corporate satires. The articles grew into chapters and chapters finally into the book. Showed it to lot of friends asking for their feedback and advice and they motivated me to give a try to publishing.
4) Who is the one who for the first time noticed the spark in you to become an author?
I would say my grandfather. He had been an author himself. He wrote books and articles on Homeopathy and mythology. He used to encourage me in my childhood days to write more and more stuff.
5) Can You recall that day when you first penned down to start your journey in this world and what was that?
It was the first short story I had written with the title “Jadui Nagri”. I would have been in fourth or fifth standard during that time. It was a small five-six pages hindi story about two friends who get lost in a mysterious world. The story never went to any newspaper or blog but I still have that treasured in my home. That was my first interaction with the “Jadui nagri of writing”.
6) How is your journey so far as an author?
It has been an amazing journey so far. Within a month, we have sold over hundreds of copies and have got lot of reviews on both Flipkart and Amazon. It was also listed in the bestsellers of Infibeam a couple of days back. The Facebook fanbase for Get Corporated has grown to over twenty two thousand (www.facebook.com/getcorporated). Really very excited with the way things have gone so far.
7) Your Novel “Get Corporated before you get fired” Is now in market. What sort of response you are getting from your readers? Both critics and general readers.
We have got positive response so far. Over ten buyers have rated it four and above on Flipkart and I have started getting some fan mails. So far, I have got three major reviews: Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Studio Head of Raj Comics commented on the book as “Beautiful account of corporate life.” The New Indian Express commented as “An entertaining book, the language is simple and easy to read.” Danik Bhaskar commented as “IITian reveals corporate reality!” The book has been submitted to more newspapers for reviews and am yet to get a critical feedback from them.
8) Who are your targeted readers?
The novel is a satire on corporate life. It uses elements of sarcasm and exaggeration and thus folks who appreciate these elements and are interested in corporate life would find it interesting.
9) Will request to give a brief on the story.
Here goes the summary:
“Despite the best preventive HR policies of randomly reorganizing the department and designing incomprehensible appraisal processes, Sid, an employee has got promoted within a short span of five years. And the HR Vice President is absolutely not happy about this! He needs an RCA done and he needs it fast!
Meet Sid—an average employee who gets thrashed by his boss, duped by his HR and confused by the management. Join Sid in his corporate journey of launching a new smartphone brand for his e-commerce company. Discover the corporate work culture as he makes his way through various graphs, pie-charts, bell-curves and what not—all to save his job!
10) Who is the Publisher?
Leadstart Publishing, based out of Mumbai.
11) How the plot came into your mind?
When I joined the corporate life in Bengaluru, there was often a talk amongst friends about bosses and corporate culture. I realized that no matter which company you work in, you are likely to face similar circumstances and challenges. Same appraisals. Same referral policies. Same bitching about bosses. I started off the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/getcorporated) and thereon, got an idea of taking this genre as a serious writing project.
12) What sort of problem you faced while searching for the publisher?
Publishers are very hard to find. I tried contacting lot of publishers before Leadstart showed interest in the project.
13) What next after this Novel?
There is another project I am working on currently. It is also a satire but won’t be able to reveal the sub-genre yet.
14) What are your other passions in Life?
I love travelling a lot. I have travelled over eighteen countries so far and almost all the states within India. I also love playing chess. I am a fond reader and always try to read different genres and writers. Finally, I am also active in Bengaluru startup ecosystem.
15) Say something about your Limca World Record 2011.
The idea came when I was the fest coordinator for Cognizance for my campus. I wanted to initiate something new and untried to get lot of students involved. And thus the idea of attempting a World Record came into my mind. We got a great response from faculties and students and sponsors. With a workforce of over 140 students and faculties, we hand-drew world’s largest political map.
The task was huge and we divided the goal into sub-tasks. We divided the world map into grids and divided twenty teams amongst the students. Each team was responsible for drawing and painting their share of the world map and thus the entire big structure came into place. We got huge paper rolls from one of our sponsors and glue and paints from another. The map on completion was almost the size of a swimming pool. Limca Book of Records recognized the record.
16) Where you see yourself 5 years down the line?
I see myself doing two things : Writing more books for and taking up entrepreneurship full-time in due-course.
17) Who is your favourite- IITian Rajeev or Author Rajeev?
The Author one
18) What as per you is the Key features or you can say the basic qualities of a true Indian author?
I see three important tools for any author: Imagination, Research, and Confidence. Imagination – I keep this as the first quality because unless you are able to imagine new things, you will not be able to create new things. And creating is essential to any writer. The second would definitely have to be research because it helps you understand the scope of your work and any principal flaws that you may have in your plot. And last but not the least is confidence. Writing, like any other work of art requires lot of confidence. If you are writing a book, you wouldn’t know whether it would be loved by the reader-base or not, unless it gets printed and is in their hands. If you are not confident about your work, it will die a premature death and it might not even reach its printed form. It is absolutely necessary to remain positive and confident about your creation.
19) Describe Rajeev the Author in some lines?
Humor happens to be my favorite genre in writing. I have written two humorous cartoon scripts for an animation studio and am also working on the next project in the same genre. Sarcasm, exaggerations and slapstick happen to be my favorite elements of humor genre. Since Get Corporated has come out, I am trying to keep a target of at least one page writing per day. I am also trying to start up a small travel blog and invest more time on my blog, Ignite India (www.ignite-india.com).
In case any of you would like to know more about me or have some feedback about the book, please write to me on getcorporated@gmail.com and visit www.getcorporated.com.
We can also be in touch on Facebook (www.facebook.com/getcorporated) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/rajeevtamhankar)
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