What's so different about Wise Enough to be Foolish?

[Gauri]

Every life tells a story and there could be as many stories as people. Wise Enough to be Foolish is such a story about a life. It could seem a bit more dramatic than some, while it is certainly less than many. Still the plot follows cues from the incidents that have actually occurred in the protagonist’s life.

As an author I am asked what's so special about these incidents. After all there are far more compelling tales out there that inspire – It’s not about the bike, Iacocca, The story of my life - these are also true stories of heroism and hope. And, Wise Enough to be Foolish, even if true, is not remotely as life-changing as any of these.

It is the story of the girl next door, someone who will remain the girl next door and perhaps that is what is different about it. It is the story of a common person - like many of us - with challenges, twists and turns that make up a life.

This is one of the main reasons I don't like to give it a tag, a genre or categorise it even if I had to stick it under ‘fiction’ (as some of my friends were boiled into singular characters fictionalising them). But seriously, can you box in ‘life’? It is huge - wonder years, growing up, love, heartbreak, the balance between what you need and what you want, the desire to achieve and at times our inability to do so, our conscience to live right, people wading in and out who make and shape us – are just part of what makes up ‘life’. And, Wise Enough to be Foolish has bits and pieces of all these (sometimes melodramatic) experiences that we look back at and sometimes laugh at and at other times cry about!

This is precisely why Wise Enough to be Foolish is written in a simple and personal narrative that strives to strike a chord with every reader. Yes, this is not remotely a literary, poetic work that will ever qualify for a Booker Prize! It is the story of a commoner, by a commoner, for a commoner. It is the story of our little triumphs and tragedies, of our wickedness and goodness, of survival and our digs at life.

So there you have it – from the horse’s mouth – there is very little that I can claim is different about my first book – even if it makes you think that my sales skills are rather poor – trust me on this!
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There is one thing though. I was never the one to nurse dreams of writing and publishing. I wrote this story only because I had a story to tell. And because in the end I wrote it only for myself, each time I read what I had written I had to look at myself in the eye and ask - if I had been honest, completely honest.

That is perhaps the one thing that does makes the book a bit different – the candour it is written with. You will probably end up thinking that you are reading some old friend’s diary (and sometimes your own) – a diary that sometimes makes you cry, gives you hope to make tough or even audacious choices but most of the time, makes you smile - the secret diary of a life!


Wise Enough to be Foolish