Gulmohar Love - The Story behind the Novel

Initial works

I had been writing a little something or the other for years. But I began ‘writing’ seriously when Dr. Dubey inspired me and insisted I should take it up more meaningfully. In fact, it was Dr. Achal Deep Dubey who suggested I could have a central character around whom the story should revolve. So, Ms. Patricia Sycamore came to life. It was in the year 2018 that I penned my first book ‘Magic at Ferns and Blooms’. Then, in 2019 ‘More Magic at Ferns and Blooms’ saw the light of day and the trilogy came to a close with ‘Goodbye Ferns and Blooms’ in 2020. All through this magical journey featuring three books in three years, Dr. Dubey played a key role as the editor. Endless discussions with him and essential edits when he read the virgin scripts meant a lot.

Poornima Kapoor, has been instrumental in this meaningful journey with her brilliant illustrations. I’m sure once you see them you can’t help but keep looking at them in fascination. The sketches, the colours ... are amazing! What’s more amazing is that this young lady doesn’t have a vain bone in her body. Open to discussions and suggestions and corrections, she can never fail to nail the concept and make a success of it! So, she brought the Trilogy alive with her brush (or shall I say pen, technically).

The Realization

Before I actually took up writing ‘seriously’, a dear friend, Mr. Prakash Manghnani, who also happens to be a colleague watched me write endless prayers, essays, debates, plays and what not to help students out. It was he who first suggested, that I should save all my writings and have them published. As usual, I just laughed his ideas away, not sure if my work was that worthwhile. But with three books written and published, a number of my stories and poems published in magazines and anthologies, and a couple of awards later... I realized he had been right all along. So, when this observant friend suggested I take up the Romance genre next, how could I not pay attention ‘seriously’ to his suggestion?

The First Prize winning entry in English Essay Writing Competition, AINACS 2019

‘Gulmohar Love’ is born

I decided to start writing a romance novel. I began with some initial work on it in June 2020. First of all, I penned down the major characters and chalked out a rough storyline. Next, I thought of the personality I was going to give to each of them. With the storyline in place I started elaborating on the scenes I had in mind through descriptions and interactions of the characters. I further added finer details to give it a feel of reality. As I worked through the monsoon months of July and August the story and characters got more lifelike. I remember writing ceaselessly as the raindrops made a racket, falling on the skylight. The fragrance of the rain kissed soil acted as a drug and I was addicted to working on the story. I felt I could only stop when I reached the end. I, myself was eager to know how the main characters would come together. The rains stopped in September and I knew I had almost reached the end. But I couldn’t help going back and forth, reading, re-reading and re-writing certain parts. September gave way to October and soon autumn had taken over the entire city.

As autumn drew to a close and the first hint of a winter chill hugged the air I was ready with the first draft of my novel. I once more turned to Dr. Dubey for his meticulous editing. He responded eagerly and promptly. With the editing done, I was still doubtful if I would be able to pull ‘this stuff’ off. Here, at this point, Poornima came in as a life saver. I enlisted her help, but this time to be my first ‘actual’ reader of the romance genre. I remember her excitement! She sounded more excited than me when I spoke to her. She read the novel the very same night I sent it to her. I was surprised when she messaged me at around 1 a.m. to tell me she had completed the novel. She thoroughly enjoyed it and had a few suggestions. So, we had a talk at that part of the night for a good half an hour about various scenes in the novel she liked and a place or two she expected a ‘little’ more as a reader. Keeping her expectations in mind, Gulmohar Love grew by two more chapters during the next month. I also added one more instance of ‘a whiff of fragrance’ to induce nostalgia.

Dressing up the Novel

By the end of the year I was ready with my very first romance novel. Then began the tedious task of reaching out to publishers with carefully worded proposals! On the side, Poornima and I were discussing the book’s cover. I sent her a couple of images I had in mind. We talked about different patterns and settings and looks. As for me, I had this one particular image of a single gulmohar flower in mind. I wanted it to somehow feature on the book’s cover. It took us a couple of weeks and months to realize we were getting boring and clichéd stuff down on her screen. It was just not clicking! By this time Dr. Dubey had already completed a second round of editing. One afternoon in March, Poornima and I were discussing the latest version of the cover she designed and sent to me. Neither she nor I was very happy... the work was no doubt good but that ‘magical’ wow feeling was missing. As we were brainstorming I asked her if we could forget all the covers we had considered and just take a single red gulmohar flower on a black background with wedding rings included somewhere on the cover. Poornima warmed to the idea instantly and began working on it at once. In a couple of days she had a fairly good (she called it rough) sketch ready. She replaced ‘O’ in ‘LOVE’ with intertwined rings and managed to make them look like hearts (God knows how!). The moment I saw it, I knew this was it! Poornima went on to reveal to me that she could think of nothing except gulmohars and rings in those days. Her single minded dedication and devotion brought a striking cover to life. I had another suggestion when we spoke next – a self-pattern on the black background. That was incorporated with alacrity but as the publisher and their printers couldn’t manage this intricate detail, it had to be skipped. Hence, the plain black cover with a single red gulmohar blossom and a play with the title came about.

You will be amazed to know how many ‘second opinions’ were sought for this novel’s cover- my mother, Poornima’s mother, Mrs. Kavita Mathur, Dr. Rajni Saxena, Mr. Prakash Manghnani, Dr. Dubey...! For the Ferns and Blooms Trilogy I had been very sure of the look I wanted but with the romance novel... it wasn’t very easy. The Cover had to speak without words to the readers of love and hint at the story within its pages without looking too cheesy. It had to make the reader want to read about the characters and know them. Once the Cover was finalized, there was another development. Let me tell you more about it... or shall I continue this story next week? I guess that would be a better idea. What do you say? I’m sure you all will agree with me. So, I’ll see you in the coming week!