Until about three years ago, Bhanu Srivastav was a banker in Canara Bank, Head Office, Bengaluru, India, who was distinguished from the suited phalanx of his colleagues in this city’s crowded IT district only by his secret hobby.

While others planned weekend excursions on the Multiplexes & Bars, Bhanu, employed by Canara Bank, indulged a passion for writing, labouring in his private time on an inspirational suspense thriller novel about life & success.

Every day after coming from his office, he would work hours and hours on draft after draft of the book, trying to get it right. He did 7 drafts in all. He almost gave up when publishers kept turning him down, but he kept on trying and moved forward with self-publishing after getting turned down from most of the Publishers.

Today, Bhanu is still a banker, but he has also become the biggest-selling English-language novelist in India.

His inspirational suspense thriller, “Hacker 404 Happiness not found,” published in 2020, sold a half-million copies in just a few months of its launch.

Bhanu, who wrote his novels while living in Bengaluru, has difficulty explaining why a 28-year-old banker writing in his spare time has had such phenomenal success in reaching an audience of millennials. One reviewer concluded a review of “Hacker 404 Happiness not found” with the suggestion: “It’s time to make an error in our robotic life to make our soul free.”

“I am very grateful to the readers for their love and support for my novel,” said Bhanu in an interview here. Bhanu has touched a nerve with young Indian readers and acquired almost cult status, and this undoubtedly says a great deal about their tastes, attitudes and hopes. Bhanu might not be another Chetan Bhagat, writing Love stories, but he has authentic claims to being one of the voices of a generation of middle-class Indian youth facing the choices and frustrations that come with the prospect of growing wealth.

Bhanu now wants to be a part of the historic changes taking place as India awakens to its potential. According to him, “Indian readers are now changing their taste. This happened because everybody wants to use the word ‘Author’ before his name no matter what they are writing is useful for readers or not. The Indian Literature industry is now full of these kinds of writers that’s the reason the readers are now very choosy while buying their next book. Gone are the days when you write a college love story and it will become a best-seller. Now they love the stories which they can relate with themselves which they can live while reading.”

Hacker 404 Happiness not found by Bhanu Srivastav is the story of rags to riches journey of a person who fights with his destiny to change it. The story gives us a message if we have a strong will, we can change our destiny.

From a banker to a bestselling author, Bhanu has covered a long distance in his life. In the coming future, he will have more records to be broken.

According to the publisher, “He is not a literary writer, but, more importantly, he is a successful and popular writer.”