Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long story, part answering often-asked questions part thinking out loud, and part, finding a way forward the only way I know how: Writing.
Sometime in August last year, for a variety of decisions, after a burst of clarity, and a humility of acceptance, I told myself that by December 2024, I would either make enough money to sustain the recurring monetary costs at Purple Pencil Project – domain names, hosting, Google suite, fees to our people, softwares when needed, monthly meet ups, and more – or shut shop and run it as a passion project.
Why after 3 years of active building did I want to do that?
One part of it was simply growing up.
I had tried to find a way to turn P3 into a business for over half a decade (on the side), without any instinctive DNA to sell, either an idea or a service or a product, or even to take an idea and visualise it as a ‘product’. I could write, tell a story, connect the dots, but by ignoring and outsourcing those parts of P3 to go find what to sell, how to project manage, how to budget things, how to make it more appealing to a wider audience beyond readers, I was working against the tide, scattering bricks where I should have been stacking them up, spreading myself too thin rather than finding focus.
Most of my life till 2021 was spent either spent abroad or as a journalist, I had little time to sit and think about business or building anything more permanent, and missed out on working closely with Saurabh Garg, the founding investment partner on P3.
Then in 2022, I found my way back to SG’s own mission, The C4E Collective, as a Content Lead, where we hoped that my proximity would help change things. In this period, I also had, for the first time, an insiders’ view into what it even means to run one; entrepreneur is a neat word until you have to do everything yourself or outsource everything and pay tonnes of fees.
Through two years, we tinkered with posturing ourselves as multiple things:
- A books to screen adaptation agency
- Offered ghostwriting services
- Offered book marketing services
- Editorial Services like proofreading, developmental editing, and more
- Published two books (among the only wins of this period), In the Folds of our Truths, and The Prodigal Sprinter
- Launched a WhatsApp community, started The Screenwriting Corner with Siddhant Makkar, and the online P3 Book Club with Amritesh
- Did a test run and launch of unBlock, a diary of writing prompts for creativity on the go
- Continued to work on our Instagram page
- Started to work as a translation agency
- Started to host events for authors
- Had innumerable conversations with people far smarter than us to understand how and what we could achieve something.
But no matter the successes and failure of these, it always felt like I was scattering bricks haphazardly on the ground – somehow trying to be something we were not, sometimes copying someone else, at other’s chasing what in theory would be an interesting project to pursue.
These decisions were all mine, and SG has been generous in giving me infinite freedom on how P3 should operate.
Only that I was not the right person to be making these decisions for this project, and SG and my work styles were always at loggerheads to make any real movement.
The more I observed, the more I realised, we were not going to succeed the way things were going. Yes, we would have the odd hits – like a feature in Mid Day or a viral reel about high concept films – but without a refresh, we would not do what the platforms like Rekhta or Pratilipi were achieving in terms of impact.
So I sat down to examine each brick we had put down so far, detached and dispassionate about how close P3 was to my heart.
It began by asking the most important question: What did P3 start out to do?
Did it have to do it as a super successful million-dollar business? Or was there another model, one that aligned more with my thinking and values? What was the value P3 wanted to create? Did we just want to be a cool brand associated with storytelling? Did we want to create a community space where people could explore their creativity? Did I simply want it for the cool factor for myself or build an organisation that worked towards something bigger than any individual?
I did not have answers – still do not for the most part – and in the light of pursuing it at a much more manageable scale, I did not think it right that SG should continue to invest into the business.
***
Between June and October, I spoke to more business people than I ever have, to get a perspective on some ideas we had on paper about how to go from here; to ask and learn how to create the things we wanted to, what it would cost.
In November 2024, I had to make the toughest decision of saying goodbye to Amritesh, who will forever remain one of its founding members. In the last three years, even as we chased failed experiment after failed experiment, he was there, assuming every role that was needed of him, patiently, bringing the wealth of his own literary experiences to this project.
I really did nothing in December, and Midiya managed our socials entirely by herself.
These six months have been the most transformational, in most part thanks to my friends who have heard me vent and rant, rage and disagree, but also talked me through, been there for support, thrown open the doors of their homes when I needed a space, stayed up till 5 am to console me, offered money, time, partnership, advice, all of it with a generosity that did not expect anything in return.
In these six months, I have become okay with the idea of shutting P3. With restarting it. With pivoting it. With being on camera. With going back to my roots as a reader and storyteller.
I have asked myself if I am ready for the commitment, the grind, the rigor, the long-days, the sacrificed vacations, the explanations to family and more that it would take if I said to myself – yes. This is what we are going after. This is what I want to do. And I am going to find a way to do it.
In January 2025, I agreed to myself, that yes. We were going to work toward the mission P3 started with – Digitizing Indian Literature, and build a model to become a storytelling studio in the process.
Aditya Mandhane (friend and SWC member) and I were discussing a few days ago how growing up at 30 is a full circle moment – you return to your teens and early 20s, revisit the same dreams and aspirations, the same interests and hobbies, only this time with more confidence, less self-doubt, and a greater commitment to your beliefs.
I think that’s true of P3 also.
There was a vision I had when I said yes to Saurabh, that very very surreal November afternoon in 2017, to come on board to start this as a blog. I will forever be grateful to him for showing me a world of potential that was until then hidden to me.
This year, I plan to bring that vision back.
Learn what I have to – Excel and Business and Finance and Budget Planning. Do what I have to. Read and speak more than anyone else. Write up the grants and proposals fast. Ship with speed and efficiency. Reach out to every single human on the planet if needed to create what I want. Rally behind governments or private players to support us in the process.
Push through. Make every second count.
- We will focus on Instagram, and you will hear me more talking about India’s stories and languages. The goal is to reach 250K followers. Help us?
- You will see more specially scripted mini-series about the stories and storytellers of our country
- You will see more collaborations with artists
- We will do a test run of two tech products we have
- Every piece of effort will be strategically planned to align with larger, longer term goals. I will not say yes recklessly to ideas, plans or collaborations.
This time, I am not fearful of failing or falling.
Only excited about building something solid, something real, and something that will provided infinite value to Indian storytelling and linguistic heritage.