Pune-based author Amitabh D Sarwate, announced the release of his book titled ‘Humorously Yours – Tales from the Gymkhana’. The book was released primarily on Amazon in 2020, but now is available through bookstores like Book Ganga.
About the book: ‘Humorously Yours – Tales from the Gymkhana’ is a book of 11 hilarious short stories inspired by real life incidents written in a style reminiscent of PL Deshpande’s and PG Wodehouse’s albeit in very Puneri settings. The stories flow as a narration from the lips of a storyteller called ‘Barkhurdar’ who operates from the Deccan Gymkhana club. Inspired by the PG Wodehouse character, Mr. Mulliner, these stories are a throwback to an old style of humor replete with quirky characters and laugh-out loud situations which are further accentuated by some wonderful illustrations. For example, the first story ‘The Elephant’ is inspired by a funny episode that brought an old elephant from Peshwe Park to a large factory on the outskirts of the city to welcome a foreign boss. The story ‘Federer’ is inspired by a young Pune tennis champion and a gift that her father received from Roger Federer. The story ‘Butka’ about jumps from the third floor of a swimming pool finds our very own Tilak Tank as the backdrop for this hilarious tale. Readers will enjoy the many characters who bring color to the stories from the indomitable story-teller Prem aka Barkhurdar to other characters like a retired defenseman, overweight swimmers, pretend royalty to spiritual aspirants – all find themselves grappling with some hilarious situations in this heartwarming book that sure to tickle the reader’s funny bone.
About the author: The author Amitabh D Sarwate, is a lifelong Puneite. Born and brought up in the city, he spent his formative years in the Deccan Gymkhana area. He currently works in a senior finance role at a technology company and has previously worked for companies like Hewlett Packard, Seagate, Cisco and Twitter. He is also a founder of a tech startup. As a writer, he has contributed numerous articles to the Pune edition of Indian Express. He has studied creative writing at Stanford University. The story ‘Arranged Marriage’ from this book was a finalist in a humor story writing contest sponsored by Penguin India. ‘Humorously Yours’ is his first work of fiction. It hit the Amazon bestseller list on several occasions upon its release. It’s now available in paperback in Pune at Book Ganga, Deccan corner, and on Amazon. Amitabh is working on a book of poetry, a business non-fiction book, and the successor to ‘Humorously Yours’. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune, and an MBA in Finance.
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