“The cost of not following your heart is spending the rest of your life wishing you had.” There are so many people who are living just for the sake of it. They are not enjoying life. Because they weren’t allowed or given a chance to do what gave meaning to their existence, feels author Keshav Aneel, who has recently come up with a book The One from the Stars on the same lines. “A person who wanted to be a dance teacher, is sitting somewhere in a government office crunching numbers. Someone who could have been a great painter is selling software for a multinational company. I don’t feel people are happy. They are complaining as they want to go back to their teenage years and do what they were really good at. The book is about inspiring people through this story and helping them stand for their goals. The book is based on real life characters,” says Keshav.
Many youngsters, like the book’s protagonist Vishesh, leave behind their dreams and settle for a safer option, under family or societal pressure. Sharing his thoughts on that, he says, “I believe, when a person chooses a safer option over their inner calling, they murder their uniqueness.” Initially, Keshav too faced resistance from his family when he expressed his desire to be a writer. “They were worried as they could not imagine their child running around finding people to tell his stories. But then, they figured out that times have changed and agreed to my requests. Later, when I was done and it worked well, they were happy,” he says, adding, “The market is monopolised by a handful of authors. It is extremely difficult for newbies. That said, all established authors have written extremely well to keep readers glued to them. Their works, I have learnt, are the best lessons on successful writing.”
The young writer, apart from dabbling with words, is an avid lover of sports, namely cricket, football and badminton. And when it comes to his favourite authors, the list is really long. “I love Paulo Coelho, J.K. Rowling, Leo Tolstoy, Sidney Sheldon, John Green, R.K. Narayan, Munshi Premchand and Bhisham Sahni,” he concludes.
