Home » Books » Keeping The Faith: Interview on The Hindu

I take this opportunity to thank all my readers and supporters. Your love for my debut novel ‘Losing My Religion,’ which is now a best-seller, has only increased with time.

Today, when I woke up in the morning, I saw my friends tagging me on Facebook with the picture of today’s The Hindu newspaper. I would like to share the coverage with you because it truly captures my journey and ideology very well. I hope you enjoy it.

Here are the excerpts –

Author of Losing My Religion, Vishwas Mudagal, braved adversities to become a CEO at 27, discover his love for writing and start his own company

Vishwas Mudagal’s debut novel Losing my Religion inspired readers to such an extent, that it has left the Bengaluru-based Vishwas stunned. “Everyday, I get fan mail!” he says. “There was a girl who said, after reading the book, she started her own company. Another 50-year-old man said he was inspired by it.”

Losing my Religion tells the story of Rishi Rai, who hits rock bottom when his gaming company fails, and then embarks on a life-changing journey with an American hippie, Alex, and falls in love with the independent-minded Kyra. The book, a mix of adventure and romance, is quite close to Vishwas’ life. Like the proverbial Phoenix rising out of its ashes, Vishwas braved adversities in his life, only to emerge even more successful than before. His success story starts in 2007, when he started Jobeehive.com, an internet-based company. “We had more than one lakh users, which was a very good number at the time.” But in 2009, he went bankrupt, and was forced to shut shop. “I was practically broke. I was sitting at home. And didn’t know what to do.”

It was then that Vishwas got a call from an ex-colleague, and something stirred within. “He told me he would be travelling throughout India. He didn’t know where he was going. He would just take off on his bike, with no destination in mind.” At the same time, Vishwas received an offer from a Canadian company. “They wanted to hire me as a CEO,” Vishwas laughs. “I thought it was a prank call!” It wasn’t. In fact, the company decided to hire Vishwas as he had experience in building a technology company. “I took it up.” And with that Vishwas was a CEO at 27.

It was also a moment of epiphany for him. “One day I was bankrupt. The next day I was a CEO. I realised there’s no such thing as failure.” Today the RV College of Engineering graduate is currently the CEO and co-founder of GoodworkLabs.

Vishwas eventually decided to put pen to paper, five years ago. “I thought I should write about somebody in my situation, but who, instead of taking up the job of a CEO, goes on the journey my ex-colleague had gone on.” Vishwas chose to include a hippie in the book. “We entrepreneurs try to move everything towards a plan, including ourselves. But for a hippie, everything is uncertain.”

Losing My Religion has nothing to do with religion in the conventional sense. It has somewhat to do with REM’s hit song by the same name. But there’s a spin to it. “When you fail miserably, you get a fresh perspective. You are forced to make certain choices. ‘Religion’ here is letting go of old beliefs and ways of thinking. Rishi decides to quit everything. His inner demon is ambition. That’s what screws him up.”

The book cannot be slotted into any particular genre. It is part thriller and part romance. “Till the last page, you don’t know what’s going to happen. I have explored the Kumbh Mela in a different way. It is a religious gathering. But it is also a place where a lot of business goes on. Alex and Rishi go there, and the mystery is what they do to crack the market.”

Read the complete coverage on the MetroPlus article on The Hindu here – Keeping The Faith – Vishwas Mudagal.

hindu-vishwasmudagal-16Dec2014

 

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If you haven’t read Losing My Religion yet, here is the link to my website –VishwasMudagal.com.

And links to buy the book –

Flipkart | Amazon | Amazon ebook

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I reply to all my messages personally. Do ping me on LinkedIn, FaceBook or mail me directly.

Cheers.

Vishwas Mudagal

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