Hiccups Book Launch 28th June 2013
For all the fans, well wishers, friends and relatives of Harsh Pande, who would like to revisit the book launch of Hiccups, please find below a short version of the book release
Friends, relatives and fans of Harsh Pande turned up in large numbers for the book launch of Hiccups. Aptly with the overwhelming number of guests at the event, it was a tremendous success. Crosswords Pune were a wonderful host, there were inspiring speeches by Smita Pande (Harsh’s mother), Dr. K.H. Sancheti the Chief Guest at the event who remembered Harsh fondly and spoke at great length about his relationship with Harsh and how Harsh was an inspiration to others. After that came speech by Mr Vijay Thakur the National Sales and Marketing Manager, Jaico Publishing House India, publishers of Hiccups where he shared the response of the former editor at Jaico saying that Hiccups was destined to be a best seller. Then came a short but wonderful speech by Lt. Col. L.M. Pande (Harsh’s Father) who shared a short poem with the enthusiastic crowd.
The surprise of the evening was however an audio clip of Harsh with his friends during their trip to Goa, where he conceptualized Hiccups. The crowd loved the audio clip which was introduced by Digvijay Pande (Harsh’s brother)
From Right to Left
Mr. Satish Gupta MD Agarwal Packaging Pvt Ltd and Owner of All Crossword Outlets in Pune
Col Pande (Retd.)
Prof. Smita Pande (parents of Harsh)
Dr. K.H. Sancheti recepient Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shree also the Founder of SIOR and Chief Guest of event
Mr. Vijay Thakur National Sales and Marketing Manager, Jaico Publishing House India
Harsh Pande”
‘One has to experience life before one can express it’ – Harsh Pande
Harsh Pande was born and brought up in the amazing city of Pune. He completed his education at St. Vincent’s High School and College Pune, where he was a topper in both the SSC and HSC Examinations and also featured in the popular TV Show Bournvita Quiz Contest representing the West Zone. After that he aced his Computer Science B Tech Degree at the prestigious College of Engineering Pune (COEP). He was then campus-selected by a leading consulting firm.
Harsh displayed exceptionally admirable spirit and intelligence which helped him achieve excellent results in academics and other endeavors, despite suffering from complicated orthopedic disorder by birth which entailed a separate battle for rehabilitation through several surgeries. However, his resilient spirit and lust for life were indefatigable. Those who came in contact with him were fascinated by his wit and indomitable cheerful attitude towards life.
Through all his years from St. Vincent’s to COEP and then the crazy world of Consulting, writing had remained a consistent passion : from writing actively for the school and college magazines to publishing a post on his blog to launching Project Breakup on Facebook. After completing HICCUPS, he was simultaneously working on a book of quotes penned by him and outlining the theme of his next novel.
His entrepreneurship and sagacity is evident from his literary effort so vividly put forth in his first novel HICCUPS inspired after experiencing an “epiphany” while holidaying in Goa.
Harsh Pande passed away after a cardiac arrest on 23rd April 2012. He was 24 years, 3 months and 16 days old. Hiccups is his first novel with approximately 1,20,000 words
(A poster designed for Harsh’s book launch event)
