Nagpur: Many people go to self-help books if caught in a bind, but where do writers go? Coming to their rescue is the Writers’ Rescue Centre (WRC), set up by 25-year-old Nikhil Chandwani.“Like any other person in trouble, writers too need to be rescued at times,” he says. “WRC shelters students considered failures in life, maybe with suicidal tendencies, depressed and frustrated. We help them write the book inside them, and even help find publishers and flourish.”“Not all can become writers, but those who seriously want to are many times faced with dilemmas,” says Chandwani. “Like Siddharth Roy, a student of Hislop College, who was a compete loner and frustrated till we met. Now, at 18, he has a best-seller book ‘The Special Fish’ to his credit.”Siddharth met Nikhil randomly some three years ago. “After a small chat, we went on a drive and stopped at a tea stall on Koradi Road, where he helped me tide over my insecurities. In just five months, my cherished dream — to write a book — came true,” says Siddharth. He went on to learn public speaking, and has given four TEDx speeches besides lectures in 20 cities.Abhishek Mohurley of Gadchiroli too was a dejected soul; having failed in physics thrice, his father’s PhD in the subject just underlined his failures more. Then WRC happened, and he ended up writing a Marathi book on Naxalism.Vadodara-based Vishnu Chaudhari (author of ‘Dream Beyond Infinity’) describes himself as a ‘depressed dropout’ who got wings of hope with WRC. “Without Nikhil Chandwani, this quest would never even have started,” says the 23-year-old.WRC has even helped some people discover they are writers deep down. Wheelchair-bound Nikhila Chalamalasetty of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, churned out her first book ‘The Day I Started Flying’ within two months of meeting Chandwani. A public speaker and columnist, she was recently covered on VH-1 with a special message from actress Alia Bhat. “I had never even thought about writing a book till Nikhil recommended I attempt one,” she says.Author of ‘The Tale of a Failed Topper’ Nitesh Yadav from Alwar, Rajasthan, is a young techguru, Josh Talk fellow, and TEDx speaker. He says, “I was mentored by WRC about learning the beautiful art of writing. In fact, I found Chandwani on Facebook and was tutored to wright the book online, literally.”Forty-six-year-old academician Dr Shakila from Hyderabad, Telangana, met Chandwani on LinkedIn. She feels Chandwani played a major role in making the book ‘Odyssey of Spirit’ a reality. From baby steps to the perfect execution, he has been the backbone of support, she says.Vellore-based Rajyavardhan Singh, who hails from Jaipur in Rajasthan, had suicidal tendencies. Somehow, he met Chandwani, who inspired him to write a book, his dream. Thus came ‘Map of a Lost Soul: Echoes of Lost Rhymes’. “I owe my success to Nikhil sir, whom I call my guru,” he says. Rajyavardhan donated the first royalty from the sale of his book to National Defence Fund by meeting Union defence minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod.Shreya Nair, a Keralite settled in Hyderabad, attributes her book ‘When Depression and I Became friends’ to her hard work and WRC guidance.Today, WRC boasts 150-plus successful writers. Co-founded by Chandwani and Neelima Tirumalasetti of Hyderabad, WRC has three centres in India — Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam and Hyderabad, and two abroad — Georgia (Atlanta) and Singapore. Two more centres — in Surat and Lonavla — are in the pipeline.The best part of WRC is everything is free for the writers. “Right from spotting these ‘troubled’ souls, to guiding them on how to write, and finding a publishing house, we do everything for them to first survive and then thrive,” says Chandwani, himself an acclaimed young author.After passing out from Modern School, Koradi, in Nagpur, Chandwani pursued engineering from VIT University at Vellore, Tamil Nadu. In due course, he realized his heart was not in engineering by in writing. So he left to pursue his dream.At 18, he came up with his first novel ‘I Wrote Your Name In The Sky’ in 2012. There was no stopping after that. His next book of poetry ‘Inked With Love’ (2012) won the Arab Excel Award in English literature. Published in 2013, his third book ‘Unsung Words’ was shortlisted for the UK Writers Forum Award. Today, he has to his credit six novels and four poetry books published in India, US and China.Where does he get the money to run WRC? Chandwani says, “I pull in money from my other ventures. WRC is more like a mission, than a profession.”

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