It was his dream to work for the ‘Discovery Channel’ that triggered a chain of events resulting in the publication of his first book. “An Old Monk” may not count among bestsellers, but it has changed the life of the young author Prab Keerat Mahendru.
Keerat Mahendru has been born and brought up in Vijayawada. At 20, he has written his first book.
He did his schooling in Siddhartha Public School, Junior College in Sri Gayatri and Business Administration in K.L. University.
It was while studying in the University that his exploration into writing had begun. Asked what he wanted to do with his life in a soft-skill training session, Keerat told his teacher “I want to work for Discovery Channel.”
At the end of the class, the thoughtful teacher gave Keerat the name of another lecturer in English who knew more about working for television channels. “Nikil Chandwani inspired me to write the book and even mentored me,” Keerat said.
The biographical book starts with Keerat visiting his grandfather Sardar Mohinder Singh in Cuttack. Keerat wakes up middle of the night to find his grandfather still up.
The grandfather who was sipping Old Monk rum (thus the title of the book) tells Keerat to never give up his dreams. The old man who wanted to be a soldier had to give up his dream as he was the sole bread-winner of the family.
In the first part of the book, the grandfather narrates his story in first-person. Born in Burma he migrated to Odisha, for a livelihood. Initially the automobile spare parts business did very well, but then problems developed. Keerat’s father married a girl from Vijayawada and moved to the city. Then Sardar Mohinder Singh also moved to the city.
It took four months for Keerat to write the book. “I was asked to write 2,000 words a day by my mentor. Initially, I found it very difficult to write 300 words a day, but then my speed picked up,” he said. The book is available on Amazon, Flipkart, eBay and other online markets.
After writing the book, Keerat worked for a while with his mentor in a startup which teaches students “script writing” online. The youngster still cherishes the dream of working for Discovery Channel, but has a new dream of becoming a commercial pilot.
“It is a very expensive proposal, but I do not want to burden my parents. I will find a way of doing it on my own.”
His second book is going to be fiction and the subject is “male prostitution.” Asked how he zeroed in on the subject, Keerat said in an assertive tone “I found the subject interesting.” Looks like Keerat is not going to give up on any of his dreams come what may.
