Two close friends with a mammoth drive to explore, educate and entertain by weaving insightful tales through an innovative concept that merges fact, fiction and photographs. Well, that’s Ram Prakash and Deepa Rachel Pinto’s story behind their latest project — their debut photo fiction novel, And The Desert Will Bloom. While the concept struck Bengaluru-based marketing maverick Ram Prakash in the year 2011, it took him a good five years for his idea to materialise and rope in childhood friend Deepa Rachel Pinto as part of his dream project. While the book is awaiting a conventional release next year, an ‘authors special release’ has been organised, which enables readers to order books by getting in touch with the authors through their official social media page starting this weekend. In a candid chat, they tell us more.
From quitting a lucrative corporate job to going back to school — and attending a one-year professional photography course, Ram steered out of his comfort zone and is only grateful. “After spending a decade spearheading many a marketing campaign and bringing some of the best international brands to India, I realised that we have but one life to explore the many fascinating worlds around us. The storyteller and the photographer in me wanted to say these stories in a unique interesting manner. It wasn’t a eureka moment, but a conscious and gradual shift to muster up the courage to pursue what I’ve always wanted to,” shares Ram Prakash, a marketing whizz turned author. One thing led to the other and he enrolled himself into a photography course. And, that fueled the idea. “It was while doing the various photography assignments as part of my travel and documentary specialisation, which required me to interact with people from different cultures and all walks of life, I realised that there are various interesting stories waiting to be told,” he adds.
A picture from the novel, And the Desert will bloom
For Deepa Pinto,it was the ideal scenario to live out her passion. “I’ve always been passionate about travel and exploration.So when Ram came up with the terrific concept of photo-fiction, blending stunning photographs and facts about people and places into fictional stories, it was the ideal scenario to live out my dreams,” shares the language consultant. In keeping with the mantra of looking beyond what the eye sees, And The Desert Will Bloom takes the reader through unknown facets of India and more. The eight-day budding love story set at Pushkar, at the world’s largest camel fair amidst colour and chaotic charm, delves into what lies beyond. The challenges the fair faces, which may soon bring it to extinction. The tale takes one through the life of the protagonist from Israel, part Indian Jew, a little known community and India’s smallest minority. It moves through Israel’s historic rise as a nation to the present day and explores the Israel-India connection, particularly the Hummus Trail in India, a seri
es of ‘Israelised’ villages across India. “It has always been our endeavour to present unseen India in a form that would appeal to readers across age groups. Rather than going by age group, we could say our work would appeal to the discerning traveller, the photo-enthusiast as well as the fiction reader,” explains Ram.
As their friendship goes back a long way, so does their love for common travel and creating interesting reads.
Prod them about what propelled the two into story-telling through pictures, and pat comes the response.” We believe that the genre of photo-fiction has tremendous potential. “Our stories urge the reader to set out, seek and discover. At a time when reading books is on the decline or taken over by tablets, a concept like this would rekindle the appeal of reading and the charm of the conventional book form,” concludes Deepa.
