Techie’s book sells 240000 Copies
By Suneetha.B

In 2006, an Infosys techie met his soul-mate at Indian website Shaadi. A perfect courtship later, life crashed for Ravinder Singh when his fiancé died tragically in an accident. In 2008, his debut novel ‘I Too Had A Love Story’, a true love story, went on to touch a zillion hearts and won him many admirers. Techgoss tracks Ravinder to his new life and new book at Hyderabad. 

Ravinder is at the prestigious ISB campus now and six months into his MBA course. He quit Infosys after seven and a half years of service. “I would like to look at a different genre of work after graduating from ISB”. And it’s his book again that helped him sail past the admission counter with flying colours. ‘The experience of the book created a sort of branding.”

And what has been the book doing all these three years? It’s astounding news. “I cannot tell you exactly in terms of the number of editions but the sales figures have gone above 2,40,000 copies. And even after three years it’s still in the top ten of the HT-Nielson list of best-sellers.”

Techgoss finds him in great company; Amitav Ghosh, Jeffrey Archer and Chetan Bhagat are among the other top-selling writers. There has been an audio book launched plus it’s been translated into Kannada too. Film offers? “Well, yes! But nothing that has caught my interest yet. I want it to be a film which will do justice to the story I have tried to tell. The book has completed a full circle now and it’s the right time for a celluloid version. I hope a right match comes up soon”.

How did a simple love story achieve so much? And without any PR and publicity gimmicks at all? Ravinder is all humility in his response, “Well, it’s a different kind of love story”. The book has been published by Srishti Publishers in India and Ravinder is on the look out for a suitable publisher who can take on the book for an abroad market. “I am still on the look out and haven’t found any publisher yet.”

His Facebook page has over 5000 friends so he has opened a fan page for the book. There is another fan page attributed to Ravinder as also a fan page for Khushi, the late fiancé. I could also see a page for the book started by readers and a group too. Plus a twitter handle. And emotions run high everywhere. Most of the readers write with ‘tears in their eyes’. Techgoss had done a story about Ravinder in 2008, and it still has traffic coming in to our website. Obviously this is a success story penned by the readers.

So how has life changed after ITHALS? “The book has changed my entire life. I wrote my own story and the book is rewriting my life. My life as I see it is in two stages, the pre and post ITHALS.”

So what’s next? Another book? A sequel? “Yes, there’s a new book coming out in December this year, and it takes a couple of protagonists from ITHALS and adds a few new ones. Like ITHALS, it starts with a reunion, after five years, with the same set of friends.” So what is it called? Is it another love story? Ravinder is not ready to tell all yet, “a trailer will be unveiled in a week or so and you will get more details then.”

He wrote it in about a year, and most of it was written on the ISB campus, so you can expect some more reality on the pages. So who’s publishing it? “It’s Penguin, they approached me at the start of this year and the manuscript is now with them.” Is it anything like the first book? “Well, I have had the feedback that it carries the same flavour as the first book.”

ITHALS had a rare sincerity in its tone, which carried it to this stature; so the readers are expectant, if Ravinder’s Facebook wall is any indication.

And is he still a bachelor?

Ravinder’s voice is quiet now, “Yes, I am still a bachelor”.