Cover of the book

Blurb (Short description) of the book

The book talks about the existence of the Bachelors in our society. It focuses on how
Bachelors have somehow been wronged by society by not fully acknowledging their
contributions. The theme of the book is supported by six stories based on six
different fictional characters and focuses on the important role that a Bachelor plays.
The characters in the stories belong to professions like a life insurance policy agent,
a hand rickshaw puller, a call centre employee, a movie ticket scalper, etc.

About the Author

Satyajit Deshmukh, 28, is a Computer Engineer from Amravati University,
Maharashtra, India. He was born and bought up in Amravati. He did his schooling
from Manibai Gujarathi High School, Amravati and completed his Engineering from
Vidarbha Youth Welfare Society’s college of Engineering, Badnera. Presently, he
works for a Pune based top IT Company as a Software Engineer. Apart from writing,
some other fields in which he takes interest are blogging, drawing, painting,
photography, singing, anchoring, group discussions, script writing and film critiquing.
This is Satyajit’s second book after his debut fiction novel ‘Multi-threaded Love’. You
can email him at info@satyajitdeshmukh.com. To know more about him, you can also
visit his website www.satyajitdeshmukh.com.
 To whom 'We, the Bachelors' is dedicated?
The book 'We, the Bachelors' is dedicated to the following people,

-Those maai ka laal’s who need to leave their Matrubhumi, in search of their bread
and butter.

-Those boys, who stay away from their parents for earning money, but support them
financially by sending money on a monthly basis.

-Those brothers who need to support their younger brother’s education right from
their first salary they get in their hand.

-Those brothers who need to leave their sisters at their hometown, so as to manage
the money needed for the dowry for their sister’s marriage in their society.

Contents of the book

Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
#1# Munna - A (black market) movie ticket seller
#2# Chaman - A rag picker
#3# Akhilesh - A life insurance policy agent
#4# Nandu - A call center employee
#5# Shiva - A hand rickshaw driver
#6# Raghu - A nerd pursuing an MBA
Epilogue

Sample chapter from the book

Chaman - A Rag Picker

People wake up early in the morning, to take care of their daily duties. It may
include filling water from the Municipal Corporation’s tap, by forming a long queue.
In a city like Mumbai, people compete even for standing in the queue. Whoever
manages the first position in the queue gets the water first. This competition leads to
struggle for some people, while for some it becomes the source of income. Yes,
people like Chaman make money out of it.

Chaman used to wake up early in the morning and his first job was to grab
the first position in front of the BMC’s (Brihan Mumbai Corporation) tap. Of course,
people used to pay him a ten rupee note for his duty to stand in queue for them.
Once the water started running from the tap, Chaman would wash his face and then
transfer his position to the actual person, who was going to pay him the money for it.
After taking the money, his commission, he would visit the ‘Chai Centre’ (Tea shop)
at the next intersection to have a cup of tea. Next to this ‘Chai Centre’, there was a
tree stump standing two feet from the ground level. After ordering the tea, he would
savor it sitting on the tree trunk. This place was exposed to direct sunlight. Once
finished with his tea, Chaman would enjoy the warmth of sun rays coming from the
east, sitting calmly on the wood. For him, it was like enjoying a sunbath which
provided him the positive energy to live his life.

People in his neighbourhood disliked Chaman as his overall appearance was

unpleasant. His clothes were often dirty and not washed for several weeks. He had a
long beard, dark skin and nonsensical behaviour which he would often put up on
display in public. The most unique quality, for which he was well known, was the
dirty smell he used to carry along with him. Though strange for other people, it was
normal for him. It was very natural to have such kind of appearance for a person like
Chaman who was, in fact a rag picker by profession.

Chaman was considered as the most idiotic person in the locality where he
resided. He was an orphan, who had now grown into a man. He was not educated
enough to get a job so that he could earn a monthly income. In his childhood,
Chaman was admitted to the nearby municipality primary school. Later, after
entering middle school, he was unable to pass the fifth standard examination for
three years in a row. His education stopped there. Children from his class started to
call him as ‘paanchvi fail’. After that he became famous as ‘paanchvi fail’ in
Kanjurmarg, a suburb of Mumbai.

Chaman’s main job was to collect the rags from his neighbourhood. He used
to carry a huge white plastic bag, while on duty. After collecting the rags till two in
the afternoon, he used to take his lunch. The lunch was followed by a short ten
minute nap. This break gave him a feeling of satisfaction. Once he was fresh, he
used to empty out the rags from the plastic bag for sorting. This sorting was mainly
based on the quality and the type of material. It included plastic pieces, glass
bottles, plastic bags and sometimes pieces of thermocol.

One day Chaman was collecting rags when it started to rain. So to protect
himself from the rain, he immediately took shelter under a tree. Even a group of
passers-by joined him, as the tree was huge enough to cover all of them. The rain
showed no sign of stopping. The service lines were flooded with the rain water.
Looking at this, except him, all other people standing under the tree, started
grumbling about the poor drainage maintenance by BMC. Chaman on the other had
enjoyed rainy weather. To get a feel of it, he sat down on the side of the service line
and put his right leg in it. He enjoyed the flow of rain water a lot, like a small child.
Suddenly someone from the group of people under the tree showed him a big piece
of thermocol which had come flowing in his direction. Within a fraction of second,
Chaman picked it.

The man who showed him that piece turned to the others and said,
“A country like India has no future at all. As it is the BMC workers keep their
hands off their duty of cleaning the service lines. Now, in addition to that, even the
rag pickers in our area are not being honest with their duties.”
“What happened Sir? Do you have any problem?” Chaman asked the man.
“Can’t you see there are pieces of plastics and thermocol floating all over the
service line? Why couldn’t you spot them until now, before they started flowing along
with the rain water?”
“No Sir, I have a very sharp eyesight. I never miss any good opportunity i.e.
useful rag material. But if you are talking about the one which I just picked up, it
was coming straight from the big residential tower right behind you. Its security
guard never allows me to enter inside the compound wall of the towers”, Chaman
replied.

His sentence was followed by a loud sound of a gong, which came from the
television set in the nearby hair cutting saloon. It was an ad for a famous quiz show
‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (Hindi version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’). Pointing
to the television set, Chaman again stressed his point,

“I never miss any good opportunity. May it be a big piece of thermocol or a

quiz show like this, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. Could anyone from you tell me how to
enter his quiz show? I would like to earn millions too.”

That saloon’s owner heard Chaman’s words and he shouted at him,

“You fool, it is not so easy. You need to have a good general knowledge to
answer the questions asked in that quiz show. I doubt if a ‘paanchvi fail’ like you
could answer even a single question.”

After hearing this conversation, the people standing under the tree suddenly
burst into laughter. Chaman’s face turned bitter. But he was hopeful that one day he
would surely earn a lot of money. He replied over the sarcastic comment of that
person inside the saloon,

“Every dog has its day. Let my day come. That day, I will be laughing at you.”

“See, he has even accepted that he is a dog” replied the Saloon owner.

The people under the tree again burst into laughter. The rain stopped a few
minutes later and crowd under the tree dispersed, leaving behind Chaman. He was
fuming with ambitions to earn a lot of money.

Within a week, he gathered all the information needed to enter the quiz
contest, well known as KBC. After that he managed to call the KBC team on their toll
free number. He satisfied their entrance criterion. He got and invitation from the KBC
team to participate in the contest. That day Chaman felt like in seventh heaven. He
announced this good news in each intersection of Kanjurmarg. Most people were
shocked to find out that a rag picker had managed to enter the KBC contest; about
which they could only dream. At some places he got appreciation while at most he
faced sarcasm. But he was not going to look back as he could only see one thing in
his eyes. This thing was, he himself sitting on the hot seat along with the biggest
superstar of the film industry and the show being aired all over India.

One of his good friends told him that just getting a call from KBC was not
enough. He needed to have a reality check of his overall general knowledge. The
questions in that quiz show were mainly based on general knowledge. Listening to
his friend’s suggestion, Chaman decided to improve his general knowledge. But how
to improve was again a question. Some of his school going friends donated their old
text books to Chaman, so that he could find the answers to the basic level questions.
One of his friends who used to run a book library gave him some mythological books,
so that Chaman could answer the questions based on mythology. Chaman collected
all this material and visited the nearby temple of lord Ganesha. There he prayed for
his good luck and offered a coconut to the god. With all the goodwill, Chaman started
to read all the material he had with him, in his free time.

Exactly two months later, it was the day to shoot the episode of KBC in which
he was going to participate. That morning Chaman broke his piggy bank. It had a
few hundred rupees in it. Out of those, he took two hundred rupee notes and went
straight to the nearby laundry shop. There he rented a set of fresh clothes for a day,
by paying all the money in advance. He realized if he went to the KBC studio with his
usual clothing, even the security guard wouldn’t allow him inside. While returning
from the laundry he had his morning tea. That day the ‘Chai Center’ owner noticed a
charm on Chaman’s face as he handed him his cup of tea. Chaman was full of
confidence that he was going to change his destiny forever. While leaving for the
shoot, all his close friends wished him good luck. Someone asked him to not to
forget to bring sweets while coming back from the show, after winning. Kanjurmarg’s
people’s blessing was with him, which drove Chaman crazy with joy. He decided that
he would purchase the sweets in advance before boarding the local train. On the
platform, he searched for a sweets shop and bought one kilogram of sweets. He gave
a hundred rupee note to the shop owner. But the shop owner didn’t have a five rupee
note for change, so he requested Chaman to buy a five rupee coupon for a lucky
draw. Chaman told him, he no longer needed to participate in any lucky draw as he
going to be a millionaire that day. But as the sweet shop owner really didn’t have a
five rupee note for change, he accepted the coupon and left the shop.

He reached the KBC studio and soon the show started. He, along with nine
other contestants, was asked to occupy their seats. Chaman occupied his seat which
had a computer attached in front of it. He was getting eager for the first round of the
quiz show to start. The host of the show announced the start of the episode. The
entire group of ten participants was given a brief introduction. Chaman flashed a
broad smile on his face during his introduction. Then the host announced that there
would be a preliminary round, based on which that day’s contestant would be
selected. It was called ‘Fastest fingers first’, in which a question was flashed on the
computer screens of the participants. The person who answered the question in the
shortest time would be invited to the hot seat. Being naive at computers, Chaman
was unable to make it even in the fastest five, even though he knew he answer to
the question. Based on the results, a businessman was invited to the hot seat. The
host started to ask him the questions, one by one. This businessman was taking
much time to answer the question, as if he was investing his money in a risky
business. He used up all his lifelines by the time he had barely reached the question
worth rupees fifty thousand. For this question, he took almost ten minutes time to
answer. The other participants were praying for him to answer the question wrong.
The businessman gave his answer. All of a sudden the businessman lost the game.
The host showed some fake feelings of disappointment, as he knew how dumb this
participant was. The host wished him good luck and hoped that the businessman
have better luck at his business.

Chaman now felt energized, as again he got the golden chance to occupy the
hot seat. Meanwhile when the businessman’s turn was going on, Chaman practiced a
lot on the computer. So he was not going to miss it at any cost. The host asked the
remaining nine participants to be in a ready position for another question of the
‘Fastest fingers first’ round. The question was displayed on the computer screens of
the participants. This was an easier one. Chaman answered it correctly. The host was
about to announce the name of the fastest participant, when a loud sound of gong
broke the pin drop silence on the stage. Yes the time for that day’s episode shooting
was over.

This gong swept away all of Chaman’s dreams in one stroke. All his studying
and the money he had invested was in vain. He was shocked to see the opportunity
of becoming rich, escaping from him, by a tiny margin of a few minutes. He found it
difficult to recover from this shock. He was not willing to return home to Kanjurmarg.
He was afraid of more and more sarcastic comments, when people would find out
about this tragedy. With heavy feet, he started his journey back towards his home.

It was nearly midnight, when Chaman reached the Kanjurmarg railway

platform. He was so lost in himself that he forgot to take his dinner. After coming out
of the station, he walked into the nearest wine bar and bought a bottle of desi wine.
Later he marched towards the Kanjur village, while drinking the wine sip by sip. The
liquor showed its effect and Chaman soon lost his balance while walking. He
collapsed near the service line passing by a residential building. It was the same
building whose watchman didn’t allow him to enter inside its compound wall. When
he collapsed, his wallet came out of his pocket along with the coupon he had bought
at the sweet shop. He picked the coupon and had a look at it. It had the name of the
lucky draw contest along with a number printed on it, ‘666’. He murmured,

“It shows three sixes in a row when in fact, I got clean bowled today. All these
lucky draws and quiz shows are bullshit. Only those can win it, who are born lucky.”

He made crumbled the coupon and threw it up in the air. The coupon landed
on the other side of the compound wall of the residential tower.

For a couple of days, Chaman met nobody in his locality, so as to avoid any
kind of pessimistic comments from them. But after that, Chaman resumed his
normal work. He realized that only lot of hard work would help him earn his dream
wealth.

That weekend there was a huge crowd at nearly every newspaper stall.
Chaman was curious and wondered if anyone was brutally murdered in their Kanjur
village, which might have made all the people be curious enough to read its news.
But it turned out to be an ad given by MHADA (Maharasthra Housing and Area
Development Authority). It had the information about the application procedure for
the newly developed flat scheme in various areas of Mumbai, including Kannamwar
Nagar, a locality near Kanjur village. This scheme provided homes to people at
discounted rates than what the private builders charge. Most of the people, who were
living in rented properties, looked at it as a golden opportunity for buying their own
house.

When Chaman started to read the ad, the newspaper stall owner told him that
if he wanted to read it in detail he should buy a copy of the newspaper. Chaman
refused as he had heard that there was deposit money involved in the application
process, ranging in thousands of rupees. This amount was far out of his reach. He
was about to put the newspaper back, when something drew his attention. It was the
result of that luck draw contest, which the sweet shop owner had told him about.
Just out of curiosity, he glanced over the winning number. He almost jumped off his
feet, after reading the winning coupon’s number. It was three sixes in a row. Chaman
couldn’t believe his good fortune. His coupon had won a whopping five kilograms of
pure gold. This was sufficient enough to buy a flat as well as a car. He threw the
news paper in the air out of the excitement. He realized that he had just gotten more
than what he had dreamed of.

But where was the coupon? Suddenly he remembered that, he himself had
thrown it in up in the air and it had landed inside that residential tower’s compound.
His coupon had won the first prize, but he no longer had it in his possession. He was
in a big trouble now.
Already the security guard of that building kept a cane with him. More to that
Chaman was considered as notorious by him. Searching a small piece of paper inside
the compound of a big residential tower would need sufficient time. Chaman knew
the value of five kilograms of pure gold and he decided that he would enter the
building. Now he had a tricky plan. He tied a handkerchief on his nose, lifted his
white rag container bag and ran straight to the entrance of that building. The guard,
Ramlal, was alert and eventually recognized this rag picker in fraction of a second.
He was about to strike a cane on Chaman’s ass, when Chaman told him to hold on
and said,

“See, I have noticed something suspicious inside this building’s premises.”

“What else can be more suspicious than you?” Ramlal questioned him.

“There is a rotten smell coming from the back of the building.”

“How did you notice it?” asked Ramlal

“I was collecting the waste from the service line behind this building, when I
smelled something like a dead body. I am not sure it is human or animal.”

Ramlal now got serious and decided that he would look into the matter. He
found this to be a more serious issue than this rag picker.

“I will go over right now and check for myself. You just stay out of the gate”,
Ramlal replied.

“Fine”, Chaman replied in a calmly.

The moment Ramlal went to the back of the building, Chaman went to the
other side of the building, where he was lying when he had thrown the coupon over.
Exactly from there he climbed up the wall and jumped straight inside the compound.
He searched for any piece of paper, like a police dog. This society’s premises were
cleaned once a week. Fortunately he reached before the clean up activity. He
managed to find the crumpled coupon lying over the grass. He picked it up and
kissed it.
 This was Chaman’s last day in poverty. He was officially announced as the
winner, after submitting this coupon to the lucky draw committee. Every local
newspaper covered this news and Chaman became famous all over Kanjurmarg. In
just a couple of days, he booked a decent flat with a ready possession. While shifting
to his new house; he hired a taxi. This was first time in his life. Some people who
had a marriageable daughter, and who used to dislike Chaman in the past, ironically
found a suitable groom in him. He became the ‘Most eligible Bachelor’ of the Kanjur
village.

The following Saturday, early in the morning, Chaman went to buy a brand
new car. He selected a car with nice looks and wished to have test drive it. He along
with a driver from the showroom went on a test drive. While coming back, he noticed
that a long queue of people was waiting for hours in front of a bank. He asked the
driver to stop there and enquired about the queue. He found out that this queue was
for purchasing and submitting the application forms for the MHADA flats. Chaman
removed his sunglasses and had a look at the people standing in the long queue. He
noticed those people in the queue, who always passed sarcastic comments at him
during his days of poverty. He spotted even those who doubted his potential to earn
wealth in the entire life. Those cunning foxes were standing in a long queue with an
application form in their hand in hope of buying their own house, facing the burning
heat of the Sun.

(Inquiry) details of the book

Title : We, the Bachelors (Fiction)
Author : Satyajit Deshmukh
Price : Rs 100 (M.R.P.)
Publisher : APK Publishers
ISBN No : 978-81-907372-5-8 (13 digit)

Where and how to buy it?

To reduce your efforts of physically visiting a bookstore, readers can order my latest
book (e-shopping) for just 100 Rs at the below link.
http://www.apkpublishers.com/zencart/index.php?
main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=3

The e-shopping procedure at this link is same like that of buying rail ticket from
IRCTC.com, where the money will be debited from your debit card/credit card/net
banking. But here, a hardcopy of the book will be delivered to your shipping
(office/home) address without any shipping/courier charges (applicable in India) i.e.
you will get the book for just 100 Rs along with the author’s autograph on the book.
So hurry up and order your copy today itself!

Note: If you are new to the world of e-shopping, use the below step by step guide,
which describes you how to order my book via internet,
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfv6zhww_1dt2r4zcr