This is Ratilal, a musician from a small village in Gujarat. He is playing a local single string musical instrument, a traditional instrument played locally. He represents a small but rapidly vanishing breed of artists who are keeping thousand year old art alive. When he came to our neighborhood, it was only natural that my wife and I talked to him, learn his story.

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I met Vikrant Pande, who was the first guest on MyKitaab Podcast. Vikrant is an author and a translator, who has translated six books from Marathi to English. We met at a coffee shop in Vadodara, where Vikrant lives. I am holding his book Rau, on which the Bollywood movie Bajirao Mastani is based. You can listen to Vikrant's interview at http://ift.tt/2eV72Uq

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Newspapers and online forums in India keep talking about discount ts driving millions of sales for Mobile phones. But a lot of people still buy phones from bricks and mortar stores, particularly during the festival of Diwali. I am in the city of Vadodara in western India, and all I can see is shops selling mobile phones and accessories. You can see some familiar and some unheard of brands in this picture.

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Say Hello to Bhageera, she looks so strikingly similar to Buddy, we almost thought they were twins born three years apart :-). We were visiting family last night and she was adopted bybthem: Bhageera is five year old Labrador /Indian mix, very lovable, yet extremely faithful and protective of her family.

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Sriram Subramanian is this week's guest on MyKitaab #Podcast. I had a great time listening to his book publishing journey. We also talk about the CEO of Quikr and Bob Dylan... You can listen to the #interview on #Audioboom at https://goo.gl/Mb1o9I or on #itunes at http://ift.tt/2f7iSOk

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Found this little fellow near my In Laws' house. He is a stray, looks malnourished, and is in need of love above all things. Naturally, I and my wife decided to give him what he needed cost- food and some love. This morning, my In Laws have a new visitor at their doorstep.

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Holy Scrap! We took the gypsum ceiling down in the living room of our home in Gandhinagar. All that was left was pieces of scrap metal. The whole process took us three days. Not the best way to spend a #vacation.

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Traditional Gujarati food with friends. Sunday morning breakfast in Ahmedabad. The simple yet tasty food made us skip the breakfast in our hotel and head over to Vastrapur Lake.

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The worst retail shopping experience I have ever had. Garvi Gujrati, the Government of Gujarat owned store. The entrance looks like a run down shack, the roof is leaking and the air conditioning does not work. There is garbage all around the store, and the merchandise simply sucks. This shop is located in prime shopping area of Ahmedabad. This experience prompted me to have the setting of my next novel in a clothing store. I have tentatively titled it 'Urban, Sophisticated'.

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We made a new friend during our stay in Gandhinagar. Say hello to Shadow.

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Where do you read? This morning, I read in this 'reading chair'. I love natural materials, and Bamboo is my favourite. Cane comes next. So when we decided to install a swing in our house, this is what we got. On a quiet, warm, sunny morning, it is a pleasure to read a book in the natural light. The view isn't bad either. Too bad this is our last day in Gandhinagar, next phase of our Workation begins tomorrow.

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While we are away in vacation, Buddy seems to have a ball at the pet boarding place he is at. They send pictures of Buddy every afternoon. They say, a picture is worth a thousand words, this photo is a perfect example of that.

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Found this coin operated telephone at a medical store in Bangalore. It's amazing how technology changes so rapidly. Ten years ago, these devices were quite common in India, today they are a rare sight. A telephone uses to be a device for voice communication back then. Today, it is a whole lot of things. Including podcasting and writing, two of my passions.

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A room with a view. My wife and I decided to take a short vacation at Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad. Great place to pick up a paper and pen and start writing.

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Chris Kennedy is the bestselling author of Science Fiction and Military Fiction Books. Chris is a former Navy pilot, a school principal, and he is a coach and a consultant. In this podcast interview, Chris and I talk about use of social media by authors, maintaining a writing schedule, daily word count goals, importance of mailing lists sand author websites, and finally, how to get featured in Chris’ books. You can listen to his awesome interview at http://ift.tt/2e1QQB9 on itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz You can also click on the link in the profile to listen to over 70 such amazing interviews.

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Rajeshwari Victor is a faculty at XLRI in Jamshedpur and author of the book “My Life, My Choice: Midlife Career Choices.” She is an alumnae of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and has over 15 years of experience in the corporate sector. She has worked with organizations such as Hindustan Unilever, CavinKare and Nippon Paints. She loves listening to music and she is a marathon runner. She is a columnist for the Business Line, where she covers the topics of sales and marketing. You can listen to her awesome interview http://ift.tt/2eq7nkZ on itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz

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Sunil Gandhi is a management consultant who specializes in customer experience and financial engineering. He has been a writer since 1994 and has written in various publications on the subject of finance, management, personal development, economy and customer experience. He has written for The Smart Manager, The ICAI Journal and Journal of Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. Since 2010 he has been writing for his own blog Amazement. He is also an active blogger on LinkedIn. You can listen to his awesome interview http://ift.tt/2eeOZHL on itunes http://ift.tt/2dOGAg9

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V Raghunathan is an author , academician, banker and his interests in locks and mathematics. He is a fellow from Indian Institute of Calcutta in Finance and was a Professor of Finance and accounting at Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad for close to 20 years.He has written 14 books in non fiction, fiction genre as well as children’s rhyme books while managing several roles. You can listen to his awesome interview at http://ift.tt/2dOvN5K on Itunes http://ift.tt/2eeCHPz You can also click on the link in the profile to listen to over 70 such amazing interviews.

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Apurva Purohit is the author of the national bestselling book “Lady, You’re not a Man” – the Adventures of a Woman at Work”. Apurva is the CEO of Radio City 91.1 FM (Jagran Group) . She calls herself an accidental author. Her blog for women in the corporate world who face difficulty in balancing between office and home and how to make success of both career and family became a success. You can listen to her interview by visiting https://goo.gl/rbRE11

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Dussera festival, where we pray to the instruments that we use in our profession. As an author and a podcaster, that would mean saying a "Thank You" to these devices. This picture shows all the devices that have been used for recording podcast interviews: from the ten year old Dell laptop to the RaspberryPi and the iPad and now my MacBook Pro. And the Android phone we use to distribute Baalgatha podcast via WhatsApp Technology and tradition makes an interesting mix.

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The name MyKitaab literally means My Book. The word Kitaab means a book in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and many other languages.

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Nearly 10 months after launching MyKitaab is now a podcast on "How To Publish and Market Your Book". In other words, we have decided to tweak the theme. When we originally launched the podacst, the idea was to help answer the question, "I have written a book, how do I get it published in India?" I think after nearly 70 interviews, we believe that the scope of the podcast should become wider. In today's world, when a person sitting in Australia or South Africa can sell a book in India (as some of our guests have done), there are many options to the question, "How Do I Publish?" The real trick lies in How To Market. And that's what the second focus of the podcast will be about. Starting November, the podcast interviews will focus on the marketing aspect as much as writing. Visit www.mykitaab.in to listen to over 70 awesome interviews.

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What else do you think are the advantage of podcasts for businesses, nonprofits and personal brands? Regional languages are very important for India, of course. Thanks for your answers!

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What do you do if you art stuck with your writing?

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How are you spending your weekend? Working? Spending time with family? Traveling? Shopping? Whatever you do, keep some time free for recharging your creativity. Do something that will keep hit a "refresh" button for your mind and body. What am I doing this weekend to recharge my creativity? I am going for a LONG walk with my dog.

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I've been using these pencils since my school days. I'm really impressed that they are still around. Speaks a lot about a brand that lasts. If only they used recycled wood... I was at a conference yesterday and couldn't help picking up the notepad and this pencil and start jotting down ideas for my next novel: The Underworld Startup.

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Ritesh Kala, Co-Founder of Read Out Loud, tells us how to market and sell your books in India. Ritesh is a former investment banker who has turned into an entrepreneur in book publishing. Ritesh and I talk about how to price your books in India, and how International authors can market and sell their books in India. We also discuss how to use WhatsApp for book marketing, and film options for books. Listen to his interview by clicking on the link in the profile

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This weeks guest on MyKitaab Podcast is Dmitry Selemir, the co-founder of Scriggler. Dmitry is the co-founder of Scriggler, an online site for posting and sharing stories, articles and poems. Dmitry also talks about the promotion service for authors, including managing their Twitter accounts and book promotions. He also talks about posting stories in Non-English languages (Spanigh, German, Italian, Portugese, Russian and Hindi). You can listen to this interview by visiting http://ift.tt/2e0Wyoc

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The best gift I have received in a long time. Last Tuesday I was at friend's place in Delhi, and their daughter gave me this drawing as a welcome gift. What I loved was the way she presented it: rolled and wrapped. Pari (her nickname) is a listener and fan of @baalgatha podcast too! Now she wants to do the cover design for my next book. I just might hire her.

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#amwriting #humor #monday #quote #jockey #satire #authorsofig #authorsofinstagram #amwriting#writersofig #writersofinstagram

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Ansari Road in New Delhi, the home to India's Publishing Industry. Millions of Rupees of transactions take place from these narrow, crowded lanes.It was a great feeling to visit this place this week.

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