The story becomes complicated as my final placements began to approach and the pressure meant that I could not focus on writing anymore. Luckily, with ten days to go to placements, Citi finally gave me a PPO and I could go back to writing again.
Since several months had been wasted due to the placements preparation stupidity, we were way off the timeline for finishing the novel. But I set about writing with a mad zeal, cutting college (already had much more than the required 75% attendance in second year) and socializing. I locked myself up in the stuffy writing room (not literally) and finished the book in three weeks flat.
By the time we were done, we realized that most authors begin with publisher contacts or begin sending synopsis, etc. to publishers when they are anywhere from 20 to 80% done. And here we were- with the novel 100% complete- read, reviewed, attested by members of both families- and with no publisher in sight.
So MG got in touch with a couple of his friends. MG’s this well connected guy and all. Very soon, we landed up with email ids of a few publishers. Also, found out that most publishers didn’t have listed phone numbers. There were just that many manuscripts coming in.
After we had gotten hold of the email ids, we sent our synopsis first to two publishers which were first preferences (in order): Srishti and Rupa. Though most of you would perhaps know Rupa better, because of a certain other Citibanker (ex Citibanker) I might add, our research pointed us towards Srishti. And imagine our surprise, when Mr. Bose, the proprietor of Srishti, got back to us within 2 days.
Within 5 days, I had my first (of many) chats with Mr. Bose. He asked us to come meet him. We did. And the rest, as they say, is history.
PS: Rupa got back to us a month later, saying they were “interested” in the book, basis the synopsis.
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