The Homing Pigeons... was nothing but a piece of writing that languished on various hard drives for years before it was completed. It started in 2008, when I was an employee of Citibank. In those turbulent times of recession, when a share of Citibank wouldn't buy a cup of coffee, it wasn't abnormal to feel a little jittery about the future. There would be times when I would be left wondering if I would have a job the next day. I am still not sure why, I decided to pen down my thoughts about the worst case scenario.
In my musings, Aditya, the protagonist in The Homing Pigeons was born. He was just a figment of my imagination, who was living a life that I wasn't enduring, but many others were. I think I wrote about thirty pages of a nameless book in 2008 before the mundane chores of working in a multinational bank didn't let me write further.
Retrospect is a wonderful thing. In near perfect hindsight, I think it was perfect that I didn't write anymore than what I had written during those days of the recession. There was a reason, because I felt that I didn't have a story to tell except that my protagonist was struggling as a jobless, penniless man, who was caught up in a bad marriage.
I didn't know how to write. I never went to a creative writing school. My only credentials as a writer were a few essays that I wrote in Canada, which I might add, were well appreciated. I guess, the teacher in College was impressed that I, as a foreign student, could muster up enough words in English to pass her stringent tests. I just knew how to read.
But, As a three year old child, I didn't know how to read. Even then I would insist on reading books. Growing up in Chandigarh, my mother and sisters were avid readers and because the library would only lend two books a week, I wasn't able to borrow books. Even more so because the library wouldn't take members below five. When my mother took up my cause with the librarian, I became an exception. I was the youngest member of the library. Over the years, I read and read voraciously. I grew up reading Enid Blyton's, which matured into the Hardy Boys. When I was mature enough to understand fiction, I read Sheldon, Archer, Follett and Grisham. I read until I thought I could write.
I failed miserably. I failed, because I couldn't ever get past the thirty page mark, just like the earlier Avatar of The Homing Pigeons...which was just a file called This was it. doc. In the winter of 2011, I was inspired to take up writing once again, but instead of going back to the file that was in hibernation, I chose to write afresh.
The product was a book that will never see the light of day. I am glad that I never sent it to a publishing house, because it would have been rejected a few times over. However, in a matter of three months, in working a full time job and writing for about three hours by night, I had written a little over fifty thousand words. I think that some things just happen for a reason -"Born With Wings", the unpublished, ugly piece of writing gave me a belief that if I put my mind to it, I could complete a book.
In search of another book idea, I couldn't help going back to the file that had warmed my hard drive at Citibank, TCS, Intelenet and my personal computer at home. When I re-read the first thirty pages of my writing, I was convinced that I could craft a story from the same.
In early 2012, Radhika was born, the other Protagonist in the Homing Pigeons. I am not the sort of writer who builds an outline of what I intend to write and usually go with the flow of ideas as they come to my mind. So, even though Aditya's character was written as a first person account, Radhika's part was written as narration. In doing so, I tried to catch up with Aditya's part, written way back in 2008. In being able to catch up with a story, I over scrutinized Radhika's past but wrote it nevertheless.
It was difficult to be writing while working in a full time job, that demanded attention and returned stress. It was difficult to sleep for four hours every night and work a full day in a taxing full time job. It was difficult because besides the taxing job, I was planning a move to Ranikhet.
Even though the odds were against me, I continued to write. I endured, sometimes writing only one page and sometimes, managing five. But, it was only on days that I would need to travel for work that I would take a break from writing. It was on one of those days, at an airport book shop, that I picked up a copy of "The Help" written by Kathryn Stockett. The book came recommended and as I read through the many pages, I realized that it was one of the best books that I had ever read. Interestingly, it was written by a debutante authoress. The book's cover said "Over two million copies sold". If you haven't read the book, I would strongly recommend that you do, as soon as possible.
In enjoying the book, I learnt two things. One, that I wanted to change Radhika's part to a first person account. Second, that lack of experience doesn't stop anyone from writing a great book. It gave me the inspiration to go back to writing The Homing Pigeons... with a renewed sense of vigor. By this time, it was March and I had written about a hundred pages of my first draft.
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