I had been living with oodles of butterflies this past few days because of the impending launch of my graphic novel Krishna, Defender of Dharma. For anyone who has written or made anything for public consumption, the living fact of putting something you worked on, which has bits of your flesh and blood clinging to it, to be judged, slashed and made a two second opinion of, is a daunting task. Hence the butterflies.
Andrew Dodd who calls himself the Marketing Wala of the publisher Campfire was a soothing balm on my nerves. He’s fun, relaxed and such good company! The artist, Rajesh Nagulakonda, who frankly should be given way more credit than me for the blue-tinged beautiful visual and poetic journey that Krishna has become. He wasn’t there but we did see a video grab of him looking uncomfortable in front of the camera. He’s completely opposite when faced with a blank paper and pencil. Just like me!
I did something I had never done before except while dreaming in class. I signed my name on copies of Krishna. The oldest buyer I met was in his 40s and the youngest was 5 years old. For the little girl I wrote: Question everything you read in here. Hope it was good advice.
My first launch has made me learn one very important thing. At the end of it, if your friends are not there with you, you sit alone in the car and drive back home instead of heading off to celebrate and laugh. A special thanks to all my friends who were there to make it a memorable buzzy evening for me: Thej, Dilip, Prasad, Kanch, Giraffe, Kanishka, Arundhuti and others—thanks for the wishes, encouragement and time and effort it took you to reach the venue! I don’t know what I would have done without you all! Hope it was worth it for you all as well 🙂
Now time for some pictures and video grabs.
The video is a bit shaky. I will try to get a better version.