P.C. Balasubramanian sees his first venture into fiction as a way of giving back to his profession. “You see so many stories about IITians and MBA students. There’s hardly anything based on the profession of chartered accountancy,” points out the author, known as PC or Bala among his friends.
His latest book, Ready...Steady...Exit was recently launched by Ravi Subramanian, author of the Banking trilogy. The 170-something page novel is about Gautam who becomes a CA after several attempts and goes on to start an accounting services firm with his friend. The story is about what happens after that, delving into their personal lives, the company’s growth, the brother-sister duo they rope in for the business and how relationships seem to decline as the company grows. Eventually, the company has to exit from business for certain reasons, which forms the crux of the story.
“Even though it is based on my profession, there are very few things I have in common with Gautam, the protagonist. One would be our hometown, Pondicherry and I completed my CA after quite a few attempts. The similarities end there,” says Bala. While handling his role as the Executive Director and President of Matrix Business Services India Pvt. Ltd., India’s largest integrated Business Assurance Company, he has already authored two books which went on to become bestsellers.
His previous books, Rajini’s Punchtantra (2010) and Grand Brand Rajini (2012) were based on Rajinikanth, an actor whom Bala holds in great admiration. “It would be an understatement to say that I’m a fan of Rajinikanth.”
Why did he choose to write a novel, this time around? “I believe I’m a good storyteller. So, I thought of trying my hand at fiction and I absolutely loved the experience!” Bala calls himself an accidental author who took to writing as a hobby during his leisure. Finding time to write over the weekends and holidays, he effectively juggles his profession and the passion for writing. “It doesn’t take up too much of my time. But then, you do have to make some sacrifices like giving up on a few weekends of outings or socialising with friends.”
His first attempt at writing fiction made him realise that the process was creative, exciting and addictive. He is sure that his next work will also be of the same category although he hasn’t decided what he’d write about. “It might be a romantic novel, an emotional drama, another corporate story or even a sequel to Ready...Steady...Exit !” An ardent fan of Shobhaa De and Khaled Hosseini, Bala loves reading books by Indian authors and believes the country has some of the finest writers.
The most difficult aspect of being a writer, he says, involves creating time for it and mustering the conviction to sit down to write. “Another tedious part would be the search for publishers. Once that’s done, your book has to be promoted in the right forums, sometimes even shamelessly! A book has its own destiny, in terms of the success it may achieve, but you have to do your part, after all and accepting compliments has been the easiest part of being an author!”
