Hyderabad, April 11: At the launch of Down The Road, one of the authors, Kunal Dhabalia Bali had a tetea- tete with Ahmed Faiyaz, editor of Down The Road.
This was followed by a book reading session by Sandeep and Dipti, actors from the Sutradhar Theatre group.
“This (book) is not a collection of clinched college love stories. On the contrary, this book takes the reader down the road of nostalgia through some campus-based tales of politics in college, pranks played by friends, having a crush on one’s teacher and so on,” said Ahmed Faiyaz, adding the narrative is infused with novelty.
“About 50 percent authors of this book are aged below 24 and five of them are still in college,” added Ahmed.
The authors belong to diverse backgrounds, he added.
“We picked authors from across the country. For instance, we have a dentist giving us the inside story of life in a dental college. Likewise, we have different voices to make it more vibrant. There is invariably a sense of nostalgia that runs through all the stories,” he said.
The stories are inspired by real-life scenarios in hostels and colleges that people would identify with, according to Kunal Dhabalia Bali, a Hyderabad-based author who contributed a short story in Down The Road.
“My story revolves around the fact that regular education is important but not necessary. It is easy to follow the herd mentality but takes a lot of grit to break through the stereotypical notions about education,” said the 28-year-old author who is an avid blogger as well.
Bali narrates the coming- of-age story of a student who treads a different path compared to his peers.
“In the my story, the protagonist is encouraged by his professor to do something different,” he said adding that the character of the professor is based on a real person. “There is a view that if one scores the highest marks in school or college, he is a winner, which is not true. This kind of mindset prevails throughout our country,” he added.
Kunal debuted last year with the book, Urban Shots, an anthology of 29 tales by 13 young writers. “I was also part of the herd mentality. I am working with Oracle now. Nevertheless, since engineering college , I wanted to do something different with my life. People noticed and appreciated my writing and I just took it from there,” said Bali with a smile.
“People would get inspired by the intimate, sliceof- life stories in Down The Road,” Bali added.
–Agencies