I. R. Shankar Was Inspired By Classic Novels To Start Writing

By Author: Pritesh Bagwe
Total Articles: 22
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Writer of An Adolescent Mind and True Colors of Love feels that it was the exposure he got as a child to classic novels that pushed him to write a short story and then a novel altogether. “Exposure to good books and movies in the growing years is as important as sending your child to school”, he says.

Talking about the books he read as a child, “Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo come to my mind when I think of my childhood reads. And then there was Famous Five! I always enjoyed reading fiction and in the later years romanticism fascinated me.

Reading tastes change with time. The books that I enjoyed reading are Portraits of an artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, David Copperfield by Dickens, Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons and The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe”.
Shankar has written all about his childhood and his growing years in his first book, An Adolescent Mind and says that, “However unusual my childhood days were, I will always feel lucky for being exposed to great books and great art work. Books opened ...
... up a whole new world for me. I hated going to school but I loved reading. I had never tried my hand at writing then. Classic novels inspired me to start writing. I first wrote a short story. It was my first attempt at writing fiction. Then I wrote my first novel. To write my second book I developed my first short story into a novella. And that is how it happened.”

I R Shankar is settled in the States at present and works as a Software Consultant for an IT company. He pursues writing as his hobby and is hoping for it to be a full time job soon.

About the Author:
I.R.Shankar, born and raised in India, came to the United States. He is an Electronics and Communication Engineer by training and a Software Consultant by profession. He has a passion for writing novels. He is the author of the semi-autobiographical novel titled ‘An Adolescent Mind’. True Colors of Love is his second book, a psychological novella for the lover of fiction.

An Adolescent Mind:
The book deals with the transitional age of shock and drama. It’s the story of a young Indian boy stepping into adulthood with all the fears, faux pas, and embarrassing situations. His curiosity has to be satiated through means he had never imagined before. He is caught in between tradition and modernity the trap the Indian society binds itself today.

True Colors of Love:
This book is a unique work of fiction. It is written in a ‘second person narrative’ which is rarely found in fiction.  Also the subject matter and thematic content is controversial. TCL is about a young man romancing and fantasizing a thirteen year old girl and recounting of his obsessions and insecurities. At another level it is also a clash between romanticism and rationalism. The hero refuses to be practical and clings to his romantic ideals and eventually at the end of the story realizes that he is an enlightened romantic.

Visit : http://www.irshankar.com