Floating Exception

It all began with bedtime stories. Like many of you, I have had many experiences over my lifetime – some trivial, some exciting or frustrating then, but funny in retrospect. I remember narrating stories to my children when they were younger to make them fall asleep. I had to make up stories on the spot and as they weren’t that young as to believe in talking elephants and flying animals. I had to construct stories that were plausible. So I drew from past journeys or trips abroad and this led to the creation of a character called Mr. Wanderlust, parts of whom morphed into Venky. The children loved Mr. Wanderlust. In the process I realized that many of Mr. Wanderlust’s adventures made quite good stories. I think my daughter even tried to make a short story collection of Mr. Wanderlust stories but abandoned it half way through. And these are not just my stories. Many of them were narrated to me by my friends and colleagues. Some of these stories have appeared in the Chronicles of Venky section of the book.

- Jayan Nair