If I can be an author, anybody can, says Ravinder Singh

Ravinder Singh, who says he was an author-by-chance and now is an author-by-choice, spoke at length at India Habitat Centre on recently, talking about foraying into the world of writing.
“If my life could be divided into two parts, it would before and after I Too Had A Love Story,” he said, talking about the first novel that he penned to relive his courtship of his fiancee, who died in a car accident five days before their engagement.“I didn’t know how to accept the fact that that person was not there anymore. I blamed God and said he could not decide how my love story would end. Agar kehte hain dard baantne se kam hota hai then my was pain was so much that I had to put my share of pain in shelves of several bookstores,” he said. “I didn’t know what a bestseller was. Nine days after the release of the book, I got a call from a sobbing girl who had read the book. She told me how much she loved it and had written 20 mails to me. I then went and checked the email account created for responses to the book and saw plenty of mails. That was my eureka moment,” he added.
His second book, Can Love Happen Twice, took forward the story of the protagonist. Ravinder promised his readers that he would soon come up with another novel to complete the trilogy. While his third book, Like It Happened Yesterday, is an account of his childhood days, his recent novel, Your Dreams Are Mine Now, is inspired by a real-life incident, but completely fictional. As the discussions went on, some readers shared their take on his works, and others wanted to know how Ravinder manages to be so open about his life.
Also, on the occasion, the author invited entries for Tell Me A Story, an anthology of real-life stories that he is compiling. This is the second time when Ravinder is looking towards new writers and fresher voices to tell their stories. His first anthology, Love Stories That Touched My Heart, provided a platform to 25 first-time authors. “I had not read a single book when I wrote my first novel. If I can be an author, anybody can,” he said.