T. Sathish talks about his latest book, Long Run
T. Sathish is a former student at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC), and the National Institute of Technology, Silchar. He currently works as an AVP at Cigniti Tech, an Information Technology company, and his job is primarily to build software for the investment banking sector.
When he doesn’t work hard in the office, he likes to dedicate his time and effort to his other passions: cricket and writing. An avid fan and cricket fan, he writes columns for the Australian sports platform Cricket on the Roar.www.theroar.com.au) As a TSat.
He published his first novel, Life in the Sun. In 2019, and quickly became the best-selling Amazon. The book is set in the Indian cricket world of the 1980s and 1990s and tells the story of an unnamed cricketer. It ranked first in the Amazon cricket book category.
His second book, Long Run: A Paradise AugmentedPublished in 2021, it was also an instant hit on Amazon charts and was well received by readers and critics across India. The book, which mixes reality fiction and drama, is the story of an ambitious but visually impaired investment banker.
T. Sathish has also published short stories on various writing platforms. Among them are Bond seeks (Amazon), Hang There (Juggernaut), and Am I free? (Juggernaut). A sympathetic reader enjoys reading about a variety of topics and can be seen publishing reviews of the books he or she reads. on his Instagram page. You can contact him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on its handle @sathishpgw.
The author lives in Chennain with his wife, Roopason, Prahladand his extended family.
We at BookGeeks had the opportunity to have an honest conversation with the author. Here’s what he has to say about writing, cricket, and reading.
| Tell us about yourself. Who is Sathish as a person, and how is he different as an author? |
| I have multiple identities today. I’m here as a writer who has published two novels, Long Journey and Life in the Sun, and some short stories. I’m a cricketer in The Roar and so on. As a professional, I am an AVP from an Information Technology company called Cigniti Tech. As a person, I am married to Roopa and the father of a beautiful child named Prahlad.
As an author, I specialize in the genre of reality fiction, a path that is not often done in this profession. I learned this storytelling technique from Mani Ratnam’s films in the 90’s and early 2000’s. |
| Tell us about your latest book Long Run: A Paradise Augmented? When did you first come up with the idea to write? |
| Long Run is the story of the trials and tribulations of an ambitious investment manager named Raghu Santhanam. Raghu reaches the top of the stock market before facing a major setback in his life, losing his sight in an accident, breaking up with his lover and losing company. The story is about his redemption as a person and as an investment management professional.
I recently saw an interview on CNBC with a visually challenged shopkeeper. That person has been with me ever since. So when I started thinking about ideas for my second book, I decided to write a story with a central character based in the investment industry who is blinded by an accident. |
| What do you do in your professional field? Has it ever been in conflict with your writing, or has it affected you? |
| I work in the information technology industry as a program manager, consultant and currently perform multiple roles. A big part of my job has been to build software for the investment banking industry. The time I spent working with clients in the field of investment banking gave me a window into how the industry works and the background of Long Run.
In addition to this, I make a disciplined and responsible effort to find time to write in a full-time profession. So I would say that my work has helped me in my parallel writing career. |
| What motivated you to try such a unique mix of genres, weaving finances into contemporary fiction? |
| As I said before, I specialize in reality fiction as a genre. So in this novel, I have built my story as a backdrop to the financial markets of the late 1990s and late 2000s. In my first novel, Life in the Sunshine, I used Indian cricket from the 1980s and 1990s as a backdrop to my story. Real events help me with a framework to flesh out my fictional story.
I learned this way of telling by watching films like Moja Ratnam directed by Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, etc. |
A lot of research has been done for the Long Run. What was your method of research, and how much time did you spend? |
| I read a lot about the dot com boom, the financial markets of those times, and then the subprime crisis of the 2000s. I read books and websites; I interviewed financial market professionals.
In addition, since I have experienced some of these events in the 2000s, I have also used memory. I would spend about 3 to 4 months in foreign research to get the facts out of the novel. |
| Who is your most important critic, and why? |
| To critically review my work, I consider my friends Suresh Lakshmanan, Garima Gupta, and my sister Suba Lakshmi Narasimhan. They are not my critics, but my sounding boards. Otherwise, I rely on book reviewers and bloggers to give my work a much-needed critique. |
| Do you have a writing system? Or are you a spontaneous writer? |
| I’m more of a spontaneous writer. I do a lot of head writing before I put the pen on paper. Before writing a novel or chapter, I would mentally tell the story and display the details. So when I’m convinced with the content, I quickly switch to the written form. |
| Tell us about your writing. Which authors inspired you the most? |
| My writing style is heavily influenced by works by RK Narayan, PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Bill Bryson, Arthur Conan Doyle and many others.
Film director Mani Ratnam has a big influence on my storytelling. |
| Some tips for those who want writers. |
| Read a lot and read a lot of topics. Watch movies from great filmmakers. Learn display techniques. Build a great network of people online and offline. |
| A quote that ever inspired you? |
| Sing as if no one is listening, love as if you’ve never been hurt, dance as if no one can see, and live as if you were on earth — a quote often attributed to Mark Twain. |
| Any future projects you are working on? |
| I am working on a book about Rajnikanthi and his films. |
Buy a Long Run: A copy of A Paradise Augmented using the link below.
