Smitten By Bhagath

Have you ever wondered how the current best seller you are reading made its way into your shelf?

Have you ever given a thought on how much the author had to toil in order to provide you with the story that entertains you as you flip through the pages?

How many times have you picked up a book from your shelf for a second or third reading?

And have you ever thought of all the other books that lie orphaned in the warehouses, unable to find their way to the readers?

Yes, this is exactly what Beaten By Bhagath does. It makes you look beyond the story and promises to take you on a trip across the life cycle of a paperback, right from its birth, through its nurturing stage and finally the ever-unfortunate death.

The author S.V.Divvaakar is an alumnus of IIT Delhi. He is an international Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and serves on the boards of several multinational firms. He does a fine task of re-balancing his professional life and his creative interests of writing and music. Divvaakar also composes music, sings and plays the keyboard.

Beaten By Bhagath is Divvaakar’s second novel. His first novel was The Winner’s Price.

Beaten By Bhagath is narrated by the protagonist BB, who works as a successful analyst in an MNC. However, when his boss, an attractive woman, compliments his writing style and urges him to try his hands in fiction, he is smitten by her words and makes up his mind to produce a top quality story that would take the world by storm. He is determined to be a better writer than K-10 Bhagath, the current phenomena who has penned several best-sellers, works on movie scripts, is a youth icon and thus a complete celebrity. What makes his determination egoistic is that BB and K-10 were friends at college, and he is all set to prove that he can go one step further than his old friend.

BB pen downs his story which he believes would appeal to the masses and make him an instant celebrity. However, he soon faces the rough sides of the book publishing business. As he tries his luck from one publishing house to another, rejection follows him everywhere, like a loyal shadow. Finally, when his book gets published, he finds the sale isn't as per his expectations. He is desperate to get the sales higher, making his book an instant best-seller, and thus leaves no stone un-turned in his quest to usurp the crown held by his celebrity friend K-10. From gaining and losing ‘likes’ on his book’s Facebook page, to book launches, to fraudulent publishers and scams, he faces it all. However, at the end of the day, he soon realizes the essence of writing and realizes that everything isn't bad as it looks.

Life can be beautiful if you feel it that way.

Beaten By Bhagath is an honest take on the life of a debutante author and his book. The narration is racy and crisp. It tells the story of every wannabe writer who dreams of making it big in the writing industry. More than the author, it is the story of a book, and several other books, who strive hard to make its presence felt in this world of cut-throat competition. This novel deals well with the sentiments of the author, and portrays his journey as he goes from door to door and tries every trick in the book to make his story read by the people. The struggle touches our heart strings, and we pray for the author, and his book, to be successful.

Beaten By Bhagath is a must read story for every book lover. There is a BB in all of us, who urges us to move ahead in the race and topple all the other competitors. However, isn't this competition a farce and mockery of our existence? Instead of racing against others, we should compete with our own selves, trying to constantly improve and become a better person. 

Do pick up a copy of Beaten By Bhagath, it’s a real ‘page-turner’ (no, not as per the definition in the book). Somewhere among the plot, you will find yourself trying to find your way out of your individual struggles, and eventually you would come across the solution, as the last pages slowly roll through your heart.