Married But Available – Launched by ??

Eventually it all fell into place. The evolution of the Word document into typeset pages was beautiful feeling. It was like getting a sneak preview of the future. Until the very end, my editor Karthika and I, argued over the rationale of phrases and the “authenticity of voice” of characters. Look, I wanted to show off about the last bit myself having learnt about it recently. The book was typed and printed and bound and ready to be launched. The call from the Harper Collins office really set my pulse racing.

The critical question, ‘who would launch the book’ eventually got edited to read, ‘who SHOULD release the book?’ That is after all one of the time honored traditions. Author writes book. Publisher publishes book. Celebrity launches book.

My book is really about you and me. Ordinary people that you meet every day. It talks about the first ten years of work life of the protagonist. The lessons he learns from his charismatic but controversial boss Capt Sobti one of which was, to value people. Why not have a reader launch the book, I suggested to Karthika. The long silence at the other end was deafening. I offered a detailed explanation, “Hand out numbers written from 1-100 to the first hundred readers who come for the launch. We pick a number at random. Whoever has that number joins me on stage to release the book.” Senthil Kumar, my classmate from XLRI picked the lucky number and released the book.

A big thank you to Lushin Dubey, the theatre person who read out excerpts with me. I had recently gone to see Lushin act in Salaam India, a play inspired by Pavan Varma’s book Being Indian which I have raved about before. 

The next stop is Kolkata. The launch will be on Monday 29th Sep 2008 at 6:30pm at the CROSSWORD bookstore on 8, Elgin Road Between Forum and Bhowanipore College. So be there and you could be the one to release the book.

Fozia Yasin of Asian Age (Friday 26 September 2008) covered the launch and here is the text. Thanks Fozia. Just a correction – Abbey worked for Balwanpur Industries and not in a B-School as you mentioned in the paper. Abbey’s grades would have automatically dissuaded Father Hathaway from making him a job offer

Author traces evolution of marriage

By Fozia Yasin

New Delhi

It seems that the author of Mediocre But Arrogant (HarperCollins), Abhijit Bhaduri has a fascination for the title MBA, no, not the professional degree. His book interestingly titled Married But Available (MBA) was launched at the Crossword bookstore in the capital recently. And theatreperson Lushin Dubey read the excerpts with Abhijit at the launch.

While most feel that the book is about the changing definition of the institution of marriage and how it has evolved over time, the author says the book deals with “universal dilemmas which are relevant to everybody”.

“For example, the first salary one gets or the first car we own. It also has to do with the small disappointments. I have tried to dig deep into these small day to day happenings we all deal with,” he says. The book traces the sequence of events in the protagonist Abbey’s life that catch him unaware. Freshly out from B-school, Abbey walks into a new job and discovers it is fun. “My book is written in class notes style. I write like I speak. Many readers have told me they completely relate to the book and that they loved it,” he says.

Interestingly, what makes the situation tough are the complications of being newly married (to a woman who is more successful then he is).

It is a funny story of how an unambitious undergrad from Delhi University gets a job in the highly competitive management institute. How the two years in B-School change him, his dreams and his relationships. The author did his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce and post-grad from Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur.

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2. Married But Available Launch Photos To decide who would release the first copy of the book, we asked the audience to write their names on a piece of paper and drop it in a box. Karthika picked a name from the lot. that turned out to be Senthil Kumar who I share my alma mater with (just that he got way better grades than me always at XLRI – School of Business and Human Resources). In the photo above : (Senthil Kumar releases the novel. [...]...
3. Married But Available – The Synopsis Married But Available follows the life of the protagonist Abbey through the first ten years of his life as a Human Resources professional. The first ten years are arguably the most action packed years of one's life when most people get raises, get their promotions or change jobs, some get married, have kids, get divorced, fall in love and out of it and confront existential dilemmas. This novel looks at the first ten years of Abbey's professional life after his MBA. ...