Passion drives Hyderabad techie to turn novelist

Sai Nikhil Etikyala quit job to pursue his love for story-telling

Hyderabad: Why do we fall in love? This has been the subject of countless books, movies, blogs, listicles and what not. But ever wondered what it would be like if this was the topic of conversation between a 22-year-old man and his grandmother?

That is exactly what forms the crux of the debut novel by city-based author Sai Nikhil Etikyala, published a month ago.

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Story-telling captivated the techie-turned-business developer-turned novelist right from the time he was a child, as he explains, “I started consciously watching movies when I was about 7 years old and I felt telling stories is magical. It was during my graduation that I first made a short film. Winning a competition by making that film made me want to pursue it more.”

But life had other plans for him as he ended up working as a techie after graduation and it pained him as he didn’t get to pursue his love for story-telling. After he quit his job and joined a B-school, Nikhil decided to pick up the pen again with a short story and with the encouragement of friends, he started a blog. “The journey also involved reading extensively to improve my writing skills and blogging was a great start,” says Nikhil.

“I first wrote an anthology of five stories of five different women, set in different timelines between 1800 and 2010, titled ‘Martyrs of Tradition’. It was successful and that paved the way for my first novel,” shares the writer who self-published the novel, titled ‘A Consequence – The dark side of love’ in May. Exploring the nature of love in its true nature, the novel deals with relatable issues through a conversation between a woman and her grandchild.

“Over a hundred copies have been sold in the last one month and I’m currently working on releasing a second edition, with slight linguistic refining,” says the author who prefers the pen-name ‘Exploracer’.

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