He's an author “by chance”, says Chanchaldeep Singh Sandhu, but now that his debut novel, “I Never Thought I Could Fall in Love — My Journey from Lust to Love”, has been brought out by Penguin Books India, he finds himself in a nice place. The young banker from Ludhiana says he began writing the racy story after a performance appraisal that left him less than satisfied. Perhaps it was the unruly adolescent in him that was revived — the engineering student who wants to make his parents proud but who somehow manages only to research girls and the mechanics of their figures, the lad whose head regularly warns him against doing what his heart regularly pushes him to do. At any rate, the slim tale of Ronnie coming of age is now on store shelves. And the author is basking in unexpected attention. One has to agree with Chanchal that getting an established publisher for an unsolicited manuscript amounts to a “jackpot”.
Meeting up with the author for lunch at Sattvik restaurant in Select Citywalk mall in Saket, one is struck by his demure demeanour. The creator of Ronnie seems not a patch on his boisterous protagonist. But then Chanchal is a fresher in the world of authors! We, however, are not about to rag him like Ronnie and friends in the college hostel.
Their drink of choice may be the Patiala peg, but at Sattvik we order a round of Nirvana, a fresh fruit punch. It arrives in a whole pineapple whose insides have been scooped out to make a tasty receptacle that evokes the flavours of its apt name — far removed from the heady rajasik-tamasik cocktail of a world inhabited by Ronnie and the gang.
Chanchal too did engineering before going on to an MBA, so he has been able to evoke an accurate description of that world. His fan page on Facebook, says the author, receives appreciation from young readers who identify with the story and from older ones who say it revived memories of student days.
In the readers' shoes
And what about his own folks — parents and other elders who can always see through to the truth behind our fictions? They haven't read it, admits Chanchal. “I don't think they will, since they are not much into reading.” So he's feeling safe? “Yeah, I'm safe,” laughs Chanchal, but adds with alacrity, “It's nothing like that!” This is not an autobiographical tale, he clarifies. “I keep myself in the readers' shoes. I want to write what they want to read.”
As for his own reading preferences, he says, “I used to read all the light-hearted fiction.” Chetan Bhagat is an idol. In younger days he read Enid Blyton and the entire Harry Potter series. Chanchal says his parents and school in Patiala both encouraged reading outside the syllabus, and book cafes figure in his favoured haunts.
So is the “author by chance” ready to transform into the author by plan? “Definitely,” says Chanchal. He has started working on his next book. But no hints are available as to its setting. “Actually I don't know myself. When the flow comes I write.”
As the starters arrive the conversation shifts to food. Chanchal likes to cook chicken recipes like butter chicken and invite friends for a meal. No possibility of non-vegetarian here though. Enjoying the vegetarian platter with five types of kabab, and another dish of bhutte ke kabab with its own tangy chutney, Chanchal recounts, “My wife never used to cook before marriage, because she was busy with studies. But now she cooks very well and tries all kinds of recipes, from Youtube, etc.”
Chanchal admits to being a foodie, willing to try everything from street food to gourmet. “I'm not the typical paranthas for breakfast kind of guy,” he notes. Cereals and muesli are his morning mainstay, while lunch is light and at night he prefers non-vegetarian fare. “But when I go home my mom gives me paranthas with lots of ghee.”
At this Delhi lunch though, he is content with naan, black dal and paneer dishes, mildly spiced with a home cooked feel.
Mention of home in Punjab also evokes memories of buying a bucket of fried chicken from an MNC outlet, “going to the tubewell fields and enjoying it out there.”
Maybe this is what they mean by glocalisation!
