The high of having your first book published is inimitable. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime feeling,” says Bengaluru-based Smriti Dewan, whose debut title, Urmila: The Forgotten Princess (Bloomsbury India), released on April 18 this year, just a few days before Karnataka went into lockdown following a second wave of the Coronavirus infection. Dewan recalls how just before her book was published, she was indulging herself, thinking about the fancy book signings and readings she’d be doing. When her book released, India was neck-deep in the crisis and the devastation that followed, she says, robbed her of all the excitement. 

“I wanted to be happy, but I just couldn’t.” This conundrum was only exacerbated by the imminent worry about the fate of her book. “I quit my job, and spent a year-and-a-half to write the novel. It was an investment of my time, art, and money. I was not sure how I could recover any of that.”