Born
on the multicultural land of India in 1991, Rajeev Pandey, is an animator, a
short story writer and a blogger working as a System Engineer in Tata
Consultancy Services. Presently, he resides in the city of Nizams - Hyderabad. He
has been writing articles and short stories for the "Abhyukti" and
"Moksha" Magazine for over a year now. He is a highly dedicated
person, full of romance and passion in his work. Creating animations, reading,
and watching Hollywood TV series are his pastimes that keep him engaged while
he isn’t writing.
Hello
Rajeev, how would you define yourself?
I was born in
Dhanbad, coal city of India, and completed a degree in engineering before
embarking on a writing career. During my teen time, I started writing short
stories, that were appreciated by family and friends, who encouraged me to
write more. I still remember that day when my two lovely friend (Nitesh and
Soubhick)advised me to write a book , First I laughed but later I realized that I have a story , i just
need to frame it. I took on the task of writing my debut book, "Campus Diary-
of Bikes, Booze and Babes and completed on Oct. 2014.Apart from writing, I love
Designing and Coding. Currently, I am working as Business Intelligence
developer in Tata Consultancy services. Reach me at: www.fb.com/rajvivan
Engineer
or Writer? What do you enjoy most?
Definitely an
Engineer, I love what I am doing and whatever I am today, all because of my
Engineering skills. I never thought that I will write any novel but it
happened. But let me tell you one thing, what I learnt in past two years,
Writing software is much easy than writing fiction novels. If you will dig deep
there is also one similarity between Writing novels and Engineering. Like
Engineering, Writing novels is an act of creation in an unconstrained and
ethereal medium with few well-established construction rules.
How
different is life as an engineer and as an author?
Tough Question..As
an engineer, I am getting very less time for myself .If you are an Engineer,
you will hear few words often like “deadlines”, “make it fast” etc. Also, you
need to do extra hours work, production support but this is not the case If you
are an author. The best thing being an author happened to me, I was able to develop
a mind –soul connection. Writing gives me immense power and satisfaction. In a nutshell,
I can say author never get bored but sometimes engineers do.
If
given a choice, what would you choose? Writing or engineering?
I love engineering
but writing gives me satisfaction. I will choose both. As I am a technical
person by profession and the best technical ideas are worthless if they are not
communicated effectively to the peers and supervisors. I want to be a
successful man and success will depend in equal measure on the technical
competence and on the ability to communicate both orally and in writing. In
other way I can say, if I want to be a Good engineer then I have to be a Good
writer.
What
do you feel is the strongest part of your writing?
Description of the
characters and their feelings.
How
important is reading to a writer?
I’m one of those guy
who loves reading because reading exposes me to other styles, other voices,
other forms, and other genres of writing. Importantly, it exposes me to writing
that’s better than my own and helps me to improve.My impulse to write comes
from reading. To write well, there are only two things, we absolutely must do:
read and write. Everything else will flow from these two activities, which are
essentially yin and yang. Without each other, reading and writing cannot exist.
They rely on one another. If we are not reading, then we cannot writer either.
Tell
us something about your book, "Campus Diaries".
The novel is about
four parallel enthralling and astounding love stories of 4 friends and their
years growing up at hostel. Every Character catalyzes the depth of this novel
that kindle the train of their allegiance love that will lead us to an own
unique version of romance. Their uncanny understanding, care, expectations,
experiences and feelings form the core of the story.it is a funny, touching,
beautiful story of a bizarre friendship bound to keep you alive through the
end. It will leave you dancing or at least snapping your fingers, if you dig
deeper, there really is more to it………
Please
tell us something about the lead characters of your book.
Aarav- Who is the
epitome of gallant heroism, and a true friend.
Aarush- A flirtatious
character by birth, rich, handsome and popular jerk, tough, manly attitude that
turns the girls on. He is fun loving, mysterious, elusive and usually a player.
Ayaaz- A kind hearted, good looking cheeky fellow
and undisputed cupid capers winner for consecutive 3 years.
Apurv- A complete nerd,
even his jokes are related to technology. But don’t reach to the evitable
conclusion because he was more successful among the juniors.
Who
is your favorite character and why?
Navya: The most
alluring and ravishing girl who treats every boy as the nail of her foot. She
is moody, arrogant and snobbish and has an obsessive need to be the center of
attention
Why
do think the readers should choose your book?
Campus Diary is an
endearing love story which takes us into a world of love and passion, where the
characters play out our dreams and reflects a glimpse of delight and
satisfaction with sense of motivation and conflict, which in turn provides us
with a longing for more. The four inseparable souls rare to be found in this
nasty era spends the most innocent of lives together miles away from the
filthiness and dirty aspect of the selfish world. But LIFE plays a prank with
one of them that made their happy life go topsy-turvy. Life taught them such
things that they never wanted to learn.
Define
your book in a single word.
Page-turner.
How
is your experience with Gargi Publishers?
I would like to
convey my sincere thanks to the entire team of Gargi publishers for their
thoughtfulness and Indulgence. It was just what I needed but never
expected.They gave me hope when I thought hope was gone. Their generosity and
help have been a strong support and an inspiration to me .One thing I would
like to add, Gargi Team always seem to
know what’s best for literature and Pulkit and Ila are the two pillars of Gargi
Publishers.
What
message would you like to give to your readers?
Do what you love to
do and give it your very best. Whether it is coding, writing, the dancing or
any field. If you don't love what you're doing and you can't give it your best,
get out of it. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. When you want something bad
enough, let that drive push you to make it happen. DON’T STOP YOURSELF.
* Do order your copies of "Campus Diaries" today from : http://www.amazon.in/Campus-Diaries-Bikes-Booze-Babes/dp/9384382035/ref=sr_1_1/277-3013406-5164847?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427523671&sr=1-1 *