Theme for a Dream

Sometimes,writing a book is a lot like climbing a pyramid. Ask Chandigarh-born bureaucrat Vipul Mittra,who started writing a novel 10-years ago. As he awaits the first responses to the book,Pyramid of Virgin Dreams (Rupa,Rs 195),Mittra recalls,“I kept taking notes during trainings,election duties,and whenever I found time over a span of seven years. It took me two years to weave it all into the story.”

The title,adds Mittra,connotes the unfulfilled aspirations of a bureaucrat,which is like a pyramid,narrow at the top and broad at the bottom. A satire revolving around the protagonist Kartikeya Kukreja,a bureaucrat,the 270-page book describes Kukreja’s unfulfilled dreams and events within and outside the pyramid of bureaucracy. Mittra admits that he has drawn events and characters from reality and parts of the book are clearly autobiographical. “I am a storyteller who has woven a story around some real-life happenings,with introspection and observation,” he explains.