Have you ever glanced at that man on the train selling lottery tickets and wondered; what kind of a life does he lead, where does he live, has he always been employed at this job, and, is he happy?
Have you ever stopped at that busy traffic junction to notice the cobbler smiling and chatting with his customers as he unflinchingly handles the dirty shoes he repairs?
Have you ever felt that stab of raw human emotion, empathy, for these simple everyday people we encounter every day?
Did you know that empathy is that emotion that connects us to each other, no matter who we are and what we are doing?
My book is based on empathy and it happened to me like this: I was walking down a crowded dusty street in Chennai, when I saw a man huddled near a trash can. I had observed this man the previous evening too, and I definitely did not want to stop and stare. Something about him, however, pulled me to take a quick second glance, and I observed him holding a torn piece of newspaper and reading it in the fading twilight. Now I was intrigued, and I made a snap decision to walk up to him and ask him to tell me his story.
That was how this collection of 'conversations' was born.
All the conversations in the book are real, and are between a random person and me. They happened on a bus, a train, a flight, on a walk, at a store, and anywhere and everywhere.

I don't think I can answer this question with accuracy. On the other hand, if you had asked me when I had started talking, or telling stories, I could answer saying, "When I was about two years old.'' I was a spinner of yarns, and my Mom was constantly at her wit's end trying to read between the lines and get at the truth behind my stories!

As they say, 'keep up or get left behind.' With the strides being made in e-commerce, I decided to take advantage of the number of websites like Smashwords where an indie-author like me can write a book and publish it. I mean, most of us write a book with stars in our eyes, and then leave it on a shelf to gather dust. If we had a platform on which we could publish, why not use it?

As I said, Smashwords is a great website for indie-authors like me who want to try out their wings. I was able to upload my book on the site and within minutes it was ready to be bought!

The idea of getting out of bed is to enjoy yet another day that has been given to you, and this is my credo. You never know...

I am an artist, and I create art for my friends and family. I also spend time with my pet cat Jaimee.

I am an indie-author, and I am constantly on the look-out for books published by indie-authors like me. I prefer non-commercial books by relatively unknown authors, and this is because they have a freshness of perspective that may be lacking in established authors (this is just my opinion).

Yes. That was a story that won a prize for me at the district level writing competition held in my home town. I was about five years old.

As this is my first book, I don't think I can talk about my 'writing process'. However, I can say that I did work diligently and consistently to get where I am today. Nothing happens without that hard work!

I think it was the book 'What Katy Did' by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey writing with the pen name Susan Coolidge. The book is about a tomboyish girl who gets herself into one scrap after the other. Growing up at home with two sisters was somewhat similar to Katy's life, and I identified myself with that little girl who became real to me at the time.

I use a Kindle. I find it one of man's most amazing inventions ever; need I say more!