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Wine Wisdom: Buying and Drinking Wine in India
Penguin India
INR250

A year into writing my wine column, many people asked me why I didn't write a book. Some suggested a book which compiled all my columns whereas others wanted an easy-to-follow guide to understand wine better (read: drink with pulling faces!)
And so, I started this book and the rough cut draft was finished in about 20 days. Yes, I had done enough trainings and tackled pretty much the same FAQs so often that writing the book was more like reciting from memory. It seemed too easy; and in retrospect, it was!
I approached a publisher (not Penguin. They published literature, why would they even consider me?) and the editor there gave me a grave picture. We didn't even get as far as discussing my draft.
Dejected I left. On the bright side though, atleast I had a year's worth of articles already written, I thought.
And it was sometime then that somehow, holistically enough, I chanced upon my current editor, and she seemed interested (nobody in the publishing business or any business is ever keenly, anxiously or eagerly interested, they only seem interested.) A week later I had left my d(r)aft CD with her and shortly I heard from another person, this charming lass (yes, even the people at Penguin were so “out of a book”!) who would be actually editing and compiling my book and who at that point in time didn't have a clue as to how I would torment and torture her day and night, for months on end.
The aim of this book was nothing more than what any other wine text promises: to simplify wines as a beverage and to assist and encourage people towards it. I, being an Indian, would bring a slightly new and different approach and would perhaps be able to link it better to Indian sensibilities, and palates. Before the conception of this book, I realised how we needed a book that was accessible, understandable and affordable.
Wine Wisdom

Before the conception of this book, I always drew a blank when people asked me for that one miracle drug to wine savoir-faire, that one thing which summed up the (massive) mass of my wisdom(?) and could perhaps be taken orally before and after meals for satisfactory results a week later! Before the conception of this book, I also thought myself a funny writer with a good stand-up level sense of humour and wit but those myths were mercilessly shot down by Poulomi innumerable times and on numerous occasions, and I am still carrying my bruised and shocked ego around!
To be honest, if my book has turned out anything like it looks today, these two people (Diya and Poulomi) were mostly responsible, as also the team at Penguin who assisted in all other related areas.
So I have had a book with Penguin which I never thought possible. It was launched at Olive Bar & Kitchen in New Delhi sometime March 2006 which was also fairly dreamy. And, more recently, it has received an accolade in the form of a medal at the World Gourmand Awards in the Best Wine Education Book Category. Now, that's a bit too far-fetched even for me: it just shows that no matter how foolish an endeavour by even sillier a person, someone somewhere will applaud it!
Ok, I will stop trying to be funny. Point is, it isn't a terribly bad book really and if you would be interested in getting a few copies, get in touch. We shall make you a special price and even have special logos or messages inserted. Plus I could even sign it for you. (So far, I haven't signed any two copies alike!)
If you just want a copy for yourself, don't bother me! It costs INR250 and is even available online. Otherwise, just try any good bookshop, and if they don't have it, shoot them in the kneecaps! The second edition may be a tad heavier on the pocket but it is definitley lighter on errors. However, humanity unanimously concurs that the publishing of such a random collection of poor wine jokes and my birth are to be regarded as serious mistakes in the history of time.

(excerpts from the book, reprinted with permission from Penguin)