Get ready for a raunchy rumble

Only one book down and Apurv Nagpal is already reeling with racy reviews of Eighteen Plus: Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups. All excited about his suave, stark and seductive approach to storytelling, Apurv an IIM grad who spent years working as MD of Saregama and as national director (marketing) of SABMiller in the city, was back in the city to launch his book.

Talking about how he took to writing, Apurv shares, “I have been blogging for seven years. That helped me discover my love of writing. I had a huge resonance and I blog religiously. I had some stories that I really wanted to tell the world and when I started writing my book it just took me about a month to finish the 18 stories. One of the first stories I wrote for the book won a wow reaction from friends, whom I had sent it out to for feedback. That's when I knew I was on the right track. I combined sex with humour and kept the stories in very relatable Indian situations and the rest flowed easily, based on experiences, conversations with friends, what I had observed and incidents around me and also some fantasy. I decided to stop at 18 stories from the social responsibility point of view, an indication that these are stories for those above 18. I have also designed two video games to promote the book. It's one of the first books to have two video games based on the theme. One of the games is primarily for women."

Ecstatic with the fact that people around him are enjoying a taboo subject palatably, Apurv feels that it is his easy style of presentation that people have liked. Erotic fantasy is a subject usually only women tend to write, so when this book deals with both the male and female libido, he feels it's high time we stop our prudish behaviour and that's why he brings X back into sex in Indian fiction. “The best comment I got was from a woman who said that I have shown a kind of sensitivity that she did not know I had."

Apurv also gets candid and shares about his other interests. “I'm a holiday fanatic and have just returned from a 45 day holiday in Europe, where I drove till the point just 1,300 miles from the North Pole. I drove 6,000 km all around the Scandinavian countries. I'm a football freak and had gone to see the last four Football World Cups live. I've just got my tickets to Brazil 2014. I love to travel and have been to all the seven continents, including Antarctica. I'm heading out for another holiday on December 19 till January 10. After I return, I will decide what I want to do next," shares the backpacker.