Sidin on the Dork

Looking at him, you'd think that he is incapable of cracking a joke, leave alone write a comic novel. However, when Sidin Vadukut starts talking, there is no missing the wisecracks and the macabre jokes

Looking at him, you'd think that he is incapable of cracking a joke, leave alone write a comic novel. However,

WHO: Sidin Vadukutu00a0 WHAT: Talking about writing a comedy WHERE: At a Bandra cafe

when Sidin Vadukut starts talking, there is no missing the wisecracks and the macabre jokes. He might have an MBA degree from IIM, Ahmedabad but after making automotive parts, developing online trading platforms and almost setting up a retailing company, he decided to become a journalist, columnist and blogger.

"And when you make a decision like that, you know you're not going to die very rich, unlike your peers. But I've reconciled myself to this fact," says the debut novelist of Dork. Here are excerpts from our chat with him just before a book-reading session over the weekend:u00a0

Cutting a long story short
Dork has been written in the form of diary entries. It's about this guy, Robin 'Einstein' Varghese, who is stupendously na ve and suffers from every kind of insecurity in this world. He lands himself a new job in Mumbai and as time goes by, finds himself goofing up at work big time. This is the first book of the trilogy, and by the last one, I plan to make Robin a CEO.

For a good six years, I was writing a column on office culture, so I knew that the backdrop of my story had to be the workplace. After all, not many writers detail how miserable life at work really is. People say that Mallus make for great protagonists because they can be made the butt of all jokes. But that wasn't the intention when I wrote the book. I wanted to pen a character I could relate to.
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I knew how a 22-23- year-old Mallu guy would think. While creating a character, it's easy to know what he does, but you can't know what he thinks unless you've been there, done that. I guess most debut novels are autobiographical to a great extent, but I'm not exactly the protagonist's clone. I'm not as na ve or optimistic as him. I've not even had as many traumas in my love life. But like him, I've worked in a consulting firm. I can safely say that about 60 percent of the book is based on real life experiences that I've lived or observed. But a lot of it is far-fetched too.

What's so funny?
Writing comedy comes naturally to me. Even though many Indian writers steer clear of humour, this is one genre that I was always keen on experimenting with. Chetan Bhagat has broken the global stereotype of Indian writers being highly serious. I'm happy that contemporary authors are writing about 'normal' things and not multi-generational epic stories of discovery. Thankfully now readers from places like Bareilly and Bhubaneshwar are also turning to Indian literature. Our books aren't that boring anymore!