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FROM MENTAL BLOCK TO EBOOKS: AUTHOR RECOUNTS HIS DIGITAL JOURNEY

By P.T. Bopanna*

My digital journey began with a lot of anxiety, but ended on a happy note. Happy because finally I have completed converting all my nine books into ebooks.

I thought it was worth recounting my digital journey which was filled with lot of apprehensions that I am yet to overcome. Though I run seven Coorg-centric websites, and have considerable presence on social media, still I feel uneasy to do simple digital transactions.

Before I recount my digital journey, I wish to note for the benefit of my younger friends that if you wish to do anything worthwhile, you should step out of your comfort zone.

It was around 1995 while I was working for The Times of India in Bengaluru, the newspaper decided to go paperless and introduced computers. Till then, we used to use typewriters to key in our reports.

Though all my reporter colleagues switched over to computers, I was the only one to hold on to my typewriter. Since I had a mental block towards using the computer, I stayed on with my trusted typewriter. One fine day, when I came to the office, the typewriter on my desk was gone because the office decided to do away with the mechanical contraption.

With much trepidation, I started working on the computer. I never knew that computers had so many functionalities like editing the copy, saving my reports on memory, etc. I fell in love with my new machine, though my actions were confined to filing my reports.

There has been no looking back. Though earlier I used to work on a bulky desktop, my son presented me with a sleek laptop a few years ago which he got from the United States.

Since I am not in a position anymore to run around marketing my books, I decided to convert all my books into ebooks. H.L. Omshivaprakash, of Techfiz Inc, has helped me in converting my books into ebooks.

The idea of ebooks is to make my books available on a platform in the ‘print-on-demand’ format. Technology enables many things, but takes away the romance of selling your book directly to the readers.

*P.T. Bopanna’s photo by Ajay Ghatage, formerly of Times of India