Harbhajan Singh Rissam and (below) the cover of his book. (Sudeshna Banerjee)

Harbhajan Singh Rissam has a similarity with his namesake in Team India. Like the offspinner, he can also spin, not a cricket ball but a juicy yarn. He can also do something that the Turbanator cannot — wield a scalpel in the operating theatre.

The senior interventional cardiologist and director of cardiac clinical sciences at Max Heart Institute, Delhi, has published his first work of fiction. “It’s a medical thriller,” says the 59-year-old surgeon, who was in Calcutta to take part in the Cardiological Society of India’s annual conference. No prizes for guessing the title — The Scalpel.

Rissam, who spent 10 years at the Government Medical College of Srinagar and later shifted to Delhi because of the violence in Kashmir, says the book is part of a trilogy. “One part is a romance based in Kashmir.”

Rissam started writing 20 years ago. “But I did not dare to publish then. The medical fraternity would have written me off for not being serious about my profession and the literary world would have spurned me as an outsider.” Having proved his credentials to the extent of being decorated with a Padmashree, the doctor has now let the author come out in the open.

The plot of the action-packed trilogy came to him during a sabbatical in Paris six years ago — a perfect setting for a story that jets across four continents, and whose central characters sip champagne and sail in private yachts. So when Rissam says, “I write mostly about things I have experienced”, we believe him.

The Scalpel finds its denouement in a private hospital involved in organ trade. Rissam admits that he was worried about how his peers would take this exposure of the medicine-mafia nexus. “But they have welcomed my effort. That means much more to me than the Padma award.”

The thriller spiced with lust, lies and mafia muscle is Bollywood material, one points out. Rissam admits that he has spoken to people in the film industry. “Because of the foreign locales, only a big banner can afford to produce it. And they want me to change the protagonist from a woman to a man. But that would kill the soul of my book,” he sighs.

Pen and passion

She bit her full lower lip, her dark eyes pools of desire, her ebony hair a mass of defiance. But as he came nearer yet, she let out a soft moan and collapsed into his arms…

Do you scribble such lines in between work or on the back of your grocery list? For those with a passion for passion and a penchant for wielding the pen, Mills & Boon has floated “Passions — Aspiring Author Auditions” through which wannabe Indian writers can become a Mills & Boon romance fiction author.

You can send in your story running into 1,500-2,000 words by January 20, to be reviewed by an international jury of Mills & Boon editors. For guidelines on participation and writing tips, log on to www.millsandboonindia.com. Five shortlisted stories will be put up for public vote on the website on January 31. A special award awaits the winner.

That’s not all, the shortlisted writers might even be engaged by Mills & Boon’s international team for writing new books.

Launching the initiative, Manish Singh, country manager, Harlequin Mills & Boon India Pvt. Ltd, said: “We want Indian writers to unlock their passion and discover their talent. Passions — Aspiring Author Auditions is an excellent opportunity to be a writer of a Mills & Boon book, the world’s most famous and widely read brand of romantic fiction books. Indian writers definitely have the talent and potential to become Mills & Boon authors.”