At Crossword Book store with Preeti Shenoy.

I never thought of meeting my all time fav. Author "Preeti Shenoy" this soon. I always had that in my wishlist when I first read her book titled "Life Is What You Make It" And from all the reviews that I came across in Flipkart I realized that majority of the readers were experiencing their not-so-good days in their life and everyone found the book motivational enough.

And her latest release "The Secret Wishlist" is out and doing great as of now. I'm sure that's going to be a National Best Seller in days time. The best part of this writer is that she responds to her readers. Not too many have their time for their readers but she always makes time for her readers. I always respect her for that.

When someone asked her about "why would you waste your time by responding to readers queries and comments when the fellow writers never bother to reply anyone who writes to them?!" And for that she replied this way. "I never asked anyone to read my books. They themselves picked it up and read whatever I wrote. And when they feel like sharing their experiences while reading my book. The least I could do is to thank them for reading my book. And that's what I'm doing." 

By the way I'm always in touch with Satish Shenoy than with Preeti Shenoy. He is a funny man at times. We used to comment on cricket stats and he always tries to pull my leg by saying you can be an Actor not just a small role but a Hero whenever I change my profile pic on Facebook. The euphoria of getting to know some good people was growing better. 

"The Secret Wishlist" by Preeti Shenoy was officially launched in Chennai on 19th February 2013 at Crossword Bookstore, Alwarpet. And when she updated her status that she will be in Chennai this Feb 19th I was totally shell shocked. What can get bigger than this?! And believe me for the first time in the last 4 years I felt proud being in Chennai. 

It took me 3 long hours to reach the destination. Crossword Bookstore. I had never been to this place earlier and everything was taken by surprise. 5:45PM the clock at the crossword showed. I let out a huge sigh of relief and was checking at the New Arrivals slot. I have found "Someone Like you" and a few more. The Secret Wishlist can also be seen among them. 

Image Source:  Storyrefresh.com

And its time when I saw that man who is in my friend list for nearly more than 6months and never ever had a single chat. It's Saffin Mathew. He organized a TedX event where Preeti Shenoy, Durjoy Datta and Nikita Singh were part of it. I hesitated initially to reach him coz he seemed like a perfect professional and I'm never close to the way how he look. Hahahaha. And that's when Preeti Shenoy arrived in. I heard those exchange of words where Preeti thanked Saffin for making it to the event and Saffin reacted in a Pleasure-Is-All-Mine fashion. I reached Saffin and he recognized me in less time. And we kept talking all the stuff. I felt like he is one of the victim of being in my friends list as I keep updating my status every now and then.

 And to my surprise there is a girl sitting next to me was looking simple good. Not too often you find these kind of good looking girls in Chennai as I thought to myself. And all of a sudden I heard a female voice calling me Hey! Jayanth??! Once again I'm dumbstruck. I had a conversation with her on Facebook reg. The LIT FEST 2013 which happened just 2 days prior to this event and she had asked me some info about Varun Agarwal. And never in my dream I thought of meeting this girl here at Crossword. She is extremely talented I must say. She made a nice Quilled card for her.

The event kick started at something close to 6:40PM and there was some introduction about the Author and what makes this author special. After which the mike was handed over to Preeti and she started spilling out how "The Secret Wishlist" came out and also about the other 3 books which were already in National Best Sellers List. She is named as one of the Most Influential People in India.

After a good 15-20 minutes it's open up to audience where anyone can put up one question to Preeti and she would be answering it. Initially it's oldies all the way. They kept asking questions with no space. Once they slowed down a bit we had the opportunity to make our call and luckily I have managed to put on 3 questions which was rolling on my head by then. Somehow I'm impressed with what Preeti replied to all my questions. And some kept asking their questions and she kept on answering all with no hesitation. 

And they called it a day when the time went past 8:00PM. And its time for photo session and also getting copies signed. I have got my copies signed and also a photo which I was waiting for so long and so that I can upload it on my Facebook wall which always remains to be an achievement for me. She said some few words to me while signing my copies. This is what she said "I have opened your Facebook profile pictures to find you here"  Yeah. A day before her Chennai visit I commented on her post saying You have to recognize me and that's the way she did. 

Yay! Here I'm with Preeti Shenoy. 

Signed copies are as Follows. (Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake) 

The Secret Wishlist an already signed copy through Flipkart where Jayanth Hope you Enjoy this! Was added.

And after bidding a bye to Preeti Shenoy. I and Saffin made our way to the exit and planned to move for some restaurant for dinner. Had some good time. Exchanged the numbers and parted ways.