Dharmendra Tolani’s first book, Yet another Dream is about a Sindhi boy, Kataaksh, and a Tibetan girl, Lhakpa. Romance, though, forms only one part of the story. “The book is part thriller, part history,” says Dharmendra.
The connection between the histories of Tibet and Sindh is interwoven within the plot. “Both the characters share similar historical hurt, so to speak. The Indus River connects both communities. It starts from Tibet, then flows into Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and ends in Sindh.
All these places have suffered enormously in the sense that people from those regions have had to abandon their birthplaces and flee. At the time of Partition there were 25 per cent Hindus in Sindh and now that number is in single digits. The matter of Sindh was sorted during Partition itself but Tibetan struggle is still alive,” says Dharmendra, a 2004 graduate of IIT, Mumbai.
He adds that there have been non-fiction accounts about Sindh and Sindhis, which are few and far between. “Hardly anyone has dealt with fiction on this subject,” says Dharmendra.
Another issue that is addressed through the story is women’s health, sexual and non-sexual, which are often not spoken about. “The issue of sexual and other taboo health problems are close to me as I had sold condoms online for a year. I researched these issues. There was also a film Hysteria which specifically addressed the importance of vibrators as a medical need.”
Dharmendra points out that the book is also about entrepreneurship. Kataaksh dreams of making it big as an entrepreneur, and in his eagerness to be successful is willing to sell everything from voting machines to condoms.
“The book is about a young boy up in India, who starts one venture after another and fails spectacularly in each of them.”
The author says the book has a fast-paced plot, and makes for a light read. “It is roughly 120 pages. It doesn’t bore or preach. It’s a kind of a book, I would like to read,” he concludes.
The book website is www.yetanotherdream.com. The e-book version is available on Kindle and Google play and the paperback version is available on pothi.com.
