1. Introduce yourself for your readers.

My self image is a mess so I will give you a functional response to his one. I am Arun George, 24 Years old, born and brought up in Thrissur, Kerala. I pursued my B.A. in Communication, English and Psychology from Christ University, Bangalore, following which I pursued my M.B.A. in Finance Management from CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. I have finished 3 novels, published 2 and I have written, shot, edited and directed 11 short films to date. Now that you know what my matrimony profile will look like, I can be a little more open to the discerning viewer. First and foremost, I am a cineaste. I always identify as a filmmaker before I identify as an author. I view my writing as functional to serve the purpose of telling a cinematic story. That being said, I love writing! It is the foundational process to storytelling. Of all the processes that goes into making a film, I enjoy the writing work the most! Christopher Moore is the author who has come close to capturing my voice. J K Rowling, Dan Brown and Rick Riordan where my idols in school! A book I always love to revisit is, unsurprisingly, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. All of its great literary achievements aside, I love it for the fact that it is the only case where the book and the film are as great as each other. A great book becoming a great screenplay becoming great cinema! For someone like me, what more can you ask for!

2. When did you find your calling in writing and filmmaking?

I have always been attracted to the art of storytelling and the impact it has on an audience. The first film I can recall watching was Predator (1987), in 1998, when I was 3 years old. The film had such an effect on me that it took me nearly a decade to process my fear of being surveilled and being alone in a forest. I started writing when I was 12, in 2007 and it mostly comprised of stories that would be crude imitations of better works, mainly cinema. I like to think of my trajectory as natural progression. In School, I had no access to cameras and therefore, I relied on writing to tell stories. In college, when I was able to get my hands on a DSLR that could shoot video in 1080p, I tried my hand at filmmaking. I have always wanted to be a storyteller. Its just that I keep changing my media back and forth!

3. If not writing books and creating movies, how would you express your creativity ?

Creativity, at least for the people who grew up with me, was defined narrowly to drawing or music or dance. I believed that I was not a terrible dancer but thanks to Dance reality shows, that misconception has been dealt with! My fine motor skills are terrible to the point that I cannot draw to save my life and my handwriting is a crime against calligraphy. The reason why I choose these two forms for expressing my creativity is because technology has enabled people like me to explore them. However, If not for these two media, I would have to say I would express my creativity via quizzes. I am reasonably knowledgeable and I do have an interest in public speaking.

4. From our earlier conversations, I remember you saying that you wrote this book for a competition and within 14 days only. Who/What inspired you to do that ? How was the experience of plotting the whole story, characters, scenes and their sequence and write a book of 261 pages ?

I am a VERY lazy individual. However I am blessed with the foolish ability to throw myself completely into something and forget about everything around me for short spans of time. This kind of drive is what has helped me pursue my interests. I began writing for NaNoWriMo, a US based writing competition where you are to write a 50,000 word novel within the span of November, at age 14. There are prizes to incentivize participants but no monetary reward at the end of it. It seemed like the ideal fools pursuit for me at the time and I failed miserably, managing to write only 15,000 words in a month. I tried the following year with a smaller concept but failed again, managing only 10,000 odd words. I gave up on it till after my schooling was done and revisited it in 2013, when I was 18 years old. I succeeded for the first time and finished my first novel in 30 days. It was absolute garbage but it was my first novel and that sense of achievement gave me a confidence boost.
My latest attempt at writing for NaNoWriMo was bogged down by my time at home and various commitments. I could only get back to college by November 15 and I constantly kept getting updates about how people were doing SO well in the competition. There was no inspiration. It was just this annoying itch of sorts to do something stupidly impossible to cap off my final year in college. So I set out to write 50,000 words in 14 days. Of course, I could only pursue such an unrealistic goal with constant support from someone and that was my partner, Brigitta Marietta Philip. It was her singular support that got me through the writing process and that’s why the book is rightfully dedicated to her.
The experience of plotting the book was rather easy. I consume a lot of cinema and I almost always have an interesting plotline bumbling about in my head. So when it came time to write this book, I wanted it to be something that was laugh out loud funny without being too serious, was an effective pageturner and would let me write some interesting action sequences. I decided on a protagonist and began writing and the scenes just seemed to have a natural progression to them, at least to me. Each chapter would be titled a pun based on what happens in it and the storyline would be set within a short period of time, around Christmas, which was my hat tip to Shane Black films. I love buddy comedies and I decided to have a darkly comedic buddy comedy. And that’s how the book was born!

5. What did you learn while writing this book ?

Even if you are broke and don’t have rent money, always try and hire a proofreader. By the time I finished designing the cover of the book and sent it to print, I had already been through the book countless times. The letters were practically swimming before my eyes and that meant that there was no chance in hell I would spot any of the grammatical errors. I wrote a majority of this book using Google Drive on my Android phone, during class hours, in college. This meant that a lot of the times, I could not look at the screen and see what I was typing, to spot the errors and I had no time at all to reread for errors after each chapter. Really gives you a newfound respect for stenographers and people who use typewriters!

6. How do you select your characters and build them ? Are they entirely fictional or do you draw inspiration from real life characters ?

My protagonists and antagonists are always varying degrees of my own self. In fact, it’s a running joke among my friends that I am incapable of writing a character that is not me. All my protagonists in all three of my novels are named Aaron George. So I decided to do something a little different in this book and that shows in the character arcs. Julia is the true protagonist of this story. Her arc is what completes everything. However, when writing that character, I wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t color her perspective with my notions. That’s why I wanted the audience to view Julia’s story through Aaron’s eyes. As for the antagonist, I wanted someone with a weakness or disability that would force people to underestimate them. I didn’t model these characters on anyone per se, but yes they are composites of a variety of traits that I keep picking up from friends and people I meet or observe.

7. Do you think a writer should have a signature writing style or should he keep experimenting with it ? And why do you think so ?

I would say to each his own. Whatever works for you, works for you and whatever doesn’t, doesn’t. Martin Scorsese is a filmmaker I admire. His body of work is so diverse that had it been made under pseudonyms, no one would be able to say that these the works of a single man. Sure there are tropes and favourite directorial techniques he goes back to but he is so accomplished in literally everything he has made that its impossible to say that the experimentation has hurt him. Using Christopher Nolan as an example borders on cliché due to the millions of “disciples” his films have garnered, but his directorial vision and style, his writing interests are more or less universal throughout his body of work. Personally, I believe that you should be consistent enough to be identifiable and unique enough to be entertaining. However, my signature style is my reliance of verbal humour, especially sarcasm and puns to cap serious situation.

8. The title of your book “A Blind Man’s Bluff” is extremely intriguing. How did you choose this title ?

The title is a mashup of a few concepts and ideas that are explored in the book. I have already declared my love for puns and the title is wordplay based on the plot, something you will understand once you read the book. The blind man, is also a key character in the book and the word ‘bluff’ has a lot of connotations, all of which work for the book’s intrigue. The other reasoning for the title is more cultural. I was born and raised in Kerala and I went to college in Bangalore. I always did feel like an outsider looking in, something that was aggravated by my reliance and preference on English to communicate with over my mother tongue, Malayalam. On the flipside, it gave me a more nuanced take on everything that happens in Kerala. During Onam, the regional festival of Kerala, there is an old tradition of blindfolding someone, then surrounding them and shoving and hitting them. I thought of how our protagonists too are blind to the forces that chase them and are forced or rather shoved to go one from spot to another. So overall, the tile checked a lot of boxes for me and I had a very clear design in mind for the cover. So the more I got into that work, the more apt this title became!

9. What is your go to genre ?

When it comes to cinema, I can very rarely pick out a singular genre that I follow. I have a strong preference for thrillers, dramas, action films and dark comedies. However, I am not a purist. I love genre-bending and most of my favourite films are either innovative with genre tropes or completely shred them to provide a new experience. I have an aversion to romance work and I try to view horror as academically as possible. With books, the genres remain the same, more or less, but again, its all about the presentation to me. If the writing is cinematic, I will read anything. I hold cinema to a much higher standard but I consume everything I can. The guilty pleasure however, is watching trashing movies. I love watching terribly made movies and having a laugh about how they would have shot it because most of my friends are the crew on my films!

10. What is that thing about yourself that surprises you the most ?

There was a point in time where I was surprised by the nature of my Self. The more I studied psychology and the more experiences I had in life, I have come to terms with the fact that I am anything I want to be or I don’t want to be. I know that’s a very vague answer, but at a deeper level, that’s what hold true for me. There is literally nothing I do, no matter how bad, that I surprises me anymore.

11. Are you planning or already working on anything new ?

I am considering a few projects at the moment, none of which are books however, Since I write shoot, edit and direct my films, it is an all encompassing, time consuming process. I try to do at least one creative stunt like this each year and hopefully, this year will not be different. Depending on how well the scenarios play out, my next project will either be a dark comedy short film or an action “entertainer” to be done with my childhood friends!

12. How has been your journey so far as an Author and Filmmaker ? Is there anything about it that you’d like to change or relive ?

I love my journey so far and I wish to change nothing. I would love to relive the first time I saw my film screened in a theatre. It was in Hyderabad in Annapurna studios for a short film competition. Another moment I would love to relive was the first time I held the first published copy of my own book in my hands. Its seared into my mind and I love to revisit those memories when I am feeling down. I have made shit films and I still cringe every time I read my first book. He reason I don’t take them down is because it’s a constant reminder of how far I have come and how much I have learned. Cringing is growth, apparently!

13. Any message for your readers ?

Feedback is the greatest thing any creator can expect from the audience. Even if you think that my book is a hate crime committed on humanity, tell me so that I know! And if you have the time, reach out to me after going through my work. I love discussions about what I create and I am always game for lengthy debates or discussions or arguments about it. So if you do happen to follow my work, reach out to me on social media or offline and I would love to hear what you think about it!

#bookreviewBook – A Blind Man’s Bluff
Author – Arun George
Pages – 261A Blind Man’s Bluff by Arun George is one amazing thriller !I’d rather not discuss the plot because any revelation would tone down the excitement this book is gonna give you ! So, to say, pick this up and you’ll be on a rollercoaster ride and kind of exhausted guessing who’s the bad man !This book will make you believe how scary can a person’s mind be. You might think you know someone really well, but what’s in their mind, what they think, is so uncertain that it’s unnerving. Because one might be confessing that they are very much in love with you, but would be plotting your end in their mind. Wicked, isn’t it ?The flow and the mystery stays throughout the story, the characters are multilayered and their minds, sick ! I really appreciate how the author never gave away the mystery and just revealed what was necessary at the moment. Although a lot of guessing is left to the readers and quite a lot of events is a bit exhausting, it’s one enjoyable read. And trust me, you’re gonna breath a sigh of relief when the book ends, but is it really the end ?Rating – 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

1. Introduce yourself for your readers.

I am a mother and a writer, never quite figured out which comes first. Everything else is secondary.

2. When did you find your calling in writing? Did you always aspire to be a Writer ?

As far as I remember, being a writer wasn’t on my list of goals. I used to scribble in my teenage (poems and stories, without ever considering them as ‘writing’), but took care not to show those ‘creations’ to anyone. A year or so later, I would tear most of them apart because I thought they were silly. I wrote my diary daily for a few years, which also met with the same fate. I came back to writing when I was around thirty; this time I was more serious about it, and ready to call myself a writer.

3. How did you compile such unusual and unique stories ? Experience, imagination or both ?

Thank you. I am sure a bit of everything goes into what we create: who we are, where we come from, what we have been taught, what or who inspires us, what we observe around us and so on.

4. Which according to you is better in terms of writing, short stories, novella or novel ?

That’s a tough question. Each of these involves hard work and dedication. A novel may take years to finish, so it demands more effort and discipline from our side. Sometimes it gets so tiring we just want to stop and toss the whole thing away – and it is difficult to rediscover our original motivation. In that sense, a short story may be ‘easier’, because it can be finished (if we really put our heart to it) in a shorter duration. But short stories also demand hard work and discipline from the author; creating a story from nothing is not ‘easy’. There are short stories that took me years to finish.

5. Do you believe in “Among Us” ? Because I for sure am looking for one “Among us” after reading your story and of course for a “Ghost under the bed”.

I am glad to hear that!

6. Which is your favorite story from the book ?

Another tough question. Every story I write is like my baby – and a mother can’t choose one baby over another, can she??

7. Are you planning or already working on anything new ? Is it going to be a short story or a novel ?

I am working on a novel, my fourth (though only one has been published so far). However, because it is a time-consuming activity, there are days when I am inspired to write a short story. A change from routine keeps me sane.

8. Are you an avid reader yourself? What is your go to genre?

I read around 40-50 books a year. Except for romance and horror, I read anything I can get my hands on, including non-fiction. I have a long to-read list on my Goodreads that keeps growing.

9. Do you have any quirky writing habit ?

I make notes all over the place: sometimes on my phone, sometimes on my laptop, and sometimes on a random piece of paper lying around. A few days later, I go nuts trying to figure out where I had jotted down that “very important plot point”. I might find it eventually but so much time would be wasted over it. These days I try to be more careful, but am not always successful.

10. Any message for your readers ?

If you like my books, do let the world know. There is nothing like word-of-mouth publicity.

#bookreview

Book- Shadows of the Past
Author – Jeena R. Papaadi
Pages – 174

A wise person once said, “Coincidences do happen, that’s why they have a name.”

Shadows of the Past by Jenna R. Papaadi is a brilliant collection of short stories.

Unusual, unique, eerie, chilling and amusing.

Each short story has one thing in common, and that’s, it’s gonna leave you bewildered. Too dazed to react.

I enjoyed the uncertainty, the surprise and the shock each story offered. And I had never read anything like those stories.

It’s so hard to pick a favorite because I can still recollect how each story made me feel.

Even though the stories are really short to judge any character, but I have got to say that the characters were ‘whoa-amazing’ !

Each story had a plot that would keep you hooked, wanting more yet satisfied with the ending !

Although I loved most of the stories, there were few, which I wished had less descriptions and contained the obvious mystery, like other stories in the book. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading the book.

Rating – 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Book – A Hiccup in Love.

Author – Nivedita Vedurla.

Pages – 211

A Hiccup in Love by Nivedita Vedurla might not be something out of the box or a unique story, but it sure talks about some common yet terrible crisis people go through.
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Marriage, motherhood, starting up a new venture, giving up on career to take care of family, identity crisis, ups and downs of life, infidelity, divorce and what not !
These might not seem huge, written here in my post, but boy, they bring gigantic twists and turns to the person’s life who goes through any of these.
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Our protagonist Eshita had a picture perfect life. Got married to her college lover Arjun, both struggled and succeeded in their new venture of a financial start-up, had a wonderful baby boy Harshit, earned money, got a beautiful house and happy family.
But was everything as great as it looked ?
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It was great when Eshita took charge of her life, went ahead and dared to achieve her dream, take care of her family and still work from her was something I appreciated a lot. The impact of infidelity on your partner is harder than you can ever imagine. It’s even terrible when you’re a family, have a kid together. The betrayal, the emotional trauma, a child’s dilemma watching his parents and his life falling apart, was very well portrayed in the book, I really liked the writing style and narration. The characters were just great. But a lot of scenes felt quite dragged. Even though the message in the book was nice, it was quite predictable and ordinary. It was a one time read for me.

Rating – 🌟🌟🌟.5/5

#bookreview

Book – Draupadi – The Tale of an Empress
Author – Saiswaroopa Iyer
Publisher – @rupa_publications
Pages – 285

“Our minds care for our limbs. But our limbs don’t care for the mind. Do they, Rukmini ?”

“Draupadi – The Tale of an Empress” by Saiswaroopa Iyer is the retelling of Mahabharata inspired from various texts and scriptures where the Author puts her best effort to counter the myth that Draupadi was thirsty for vengeance and was the driving factor behind the Great War, the Dharmayudh.

The story begins with the great warrior Abhimanyu’s wife, Uttara explaining or rather recounting the generation long events, to her grandson, the Pandavas’ great-grandson, Janamejaya, that led to the Great War. Further, the story proceeds with the events from generations that ultimately led to the eighteen day long War.

What I liked about this book is the countering of the cliched opinion of Draupadi being the driving force behind the War and pointing out the circumstances and each character’s role in the same. But in this process of rebutting the myth, the Author missed out the details of other major events, which didn’t make this retelling as powerful as it should have been. The absence of a lot of such events diluted the essence that the tale of Mahabharata carries, which ultimately led to the weakening of the charisma that each epic character possesses. Mahabharata is a great tale, retelling it, in itself is a challenge much bigger than it seems. Albeit all the above-mentioned points, I’m glad that the bond between Draupadi and Sri Krishna was beautifully portrayed.

I applaud the Author for retelling this great tale from such a unique point of view and her dedication in rebutting the myth about Draupadi. It was good, but it lacked the essence that it should carry.

Rating – 🌟🌟🌟/5

#mahabharata #draupadi #srikrishna #yudhistira #bhima #arjuna #nakula #shadeva #kunti #panduputra #kurukshetra #dharmayudha #krishna #kauravas #thegreatwar #bhagvadgita #indraprastha #samragini #bharatavarsha #bharata #bookreview #booksofinstagram #bookstagramindia #bookstagramodisha

#bookreview

Book- Diary of a Twenty-Something

Author- Siya

Publisher- Notion Press

Pages-170

Diary of a Twenty-Something by Siya is a collection of teenage musings in the form of poems.

Each of the poems depicts the situation that a teenager goes through. Caught in between childhood and adulthood, discovering new emotions and dark human nature, unable to make your own decisions, having a life where you have no say, going through a phase where most of the time you don’t know what’s happening with you, expectations, stress to prove yourself, depression and what not !

Siya has done a good job at portraying these varied phases and sentiments. While some were quite good, others lacked the intensity. Writing was simple and if worked upon, could improve a lot.

Congratulations to the Author for trying to pen down such complex realities.

Rating – 🌟🌟🌟/5

#AuthorTalks

The Little Light by Dipa Sanatani is a must read ! Read her interview where she talks about Astrology and how she thought of making it a fun read.

🔥Author Introduction.

Dipa Sanatani is the Merchant of Stories. She comes from a family of Gujarati merchants and educators with roots in Singapore and the UK. In 2007, she left behind her roots to discover her wings. Since then, she’s lived, studied and worked in Australia, Israel, Japan and China, adding uncharted territories to a long list of previously ventured destinations. With a background in both business and education, Dipa has extensive experience in the public-school system as well as in the private, government and corporate sectors.

🔥Did you always aspire to be a writer?

Oh yes. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t write. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. I don’t know where this desire comes from. It’s hard to explain.

🔥How did you think of making such a vast and complex subject a fun read? How did you get the idea to make the planets’ characters human-like, funny and easy to understand?

The idea came to me when I was lying in bed alone in my apartment in Japan. I was contemplating the vast nature of the universe when I suddenly thought, “How nice it would be if I could invite the planets over for a discussion on life, love and the larger purpose for our existence.”
I promptly opened up my notebook and drew a sketch of what the mythological Nine Celestial Beings would look like if they were ‘updated’ for the modern era. The idea ruminated in my head for four years before I finally sat down to write the story.
In Vedic Mythology, the Celestial Beings are personified as a family that have a relationship with each other – some complementary, others highly dysfunctional. What I’ve done with The Little Light is reinterpreted and reimagined those myths for the modern era.
I never thought that I would write in the Young Adult genre, but I wound up working in the education sector for over 4 years… Those experiences groomed me to communicate with a younger demographic.
I wrote this book as a teacher. I wanted to write a book that my students would enjoy reading. Learning should be both educational and fun.

🔥Why do you think a lot of people don’t believe in Astrology?

Ahh… to be honest, I was a cynic for a long time myself. Growing up, I had a hard time with the way that astrologers would make these ‘predictions’ about the future. It negated all sense of free will and I didn’t find their advice helpful.
But then as I got older and studied more on the topic, it started to make more sense to me. The stars are a map – and they guide us. They have lots of wisdom to offer. We just have to listen… and then be prepared to take responsibility for our own decisions.

🔥There’s this question that I always wanted to ask. The daily horoscope that comes in newspapers, is it always accurate ?

Nah… the stuff in the newspapers. That’s just entertainment.

🔥And how is such a generalized horoscope curated?

I have no idea… I read it as a tidbit of fun. But I can’t say I take it seriously myself.

🔥Having a horoscope made, predicting the future, do you think it makes a person’s life easy or rather constricts it?

I think a lot of it depends on the knowledge and skill of the astrologer. These days, our generation is lucky. We can pluck our birth data into a software and poof – we can have our birth chart at our fingertips. The older generations had no choice but to call an astrologer in to do those calculations.
There are many different schools of thought and calculation systems – Vedic, Western, Chinese, Mayan… so on and so forth. And even within Vedic astrology, there are a few different ways to calculate the birth chart.
That whole explanation to say… the interpretations of the birth chart can vary greatly depending on which system the astrologer follows… and their personal expertise.

🔥Why do you think people are so afraid of having ‘Rahu/Ketu/Shani dasha’?

In The Little Light, I’ve explored the concept that Rahu, Ketu and Saturn are karma planets. They force the soul to face their karma. Rahu pushes the soul to fulfill its current life destiny. Ketu asks the soul to release its past life karma. And Saturn… well, it pretty much orders us to deal with the hard truths and realities of life.
I believe these transits are not to be feared as they will ultimately lead to a higher understanding of our own human experience.

🔥To what extent is Astronomy related to Astrology? Is it pure science?

Astrology is a precursor to astronomy. I believe that the calculations of the natal chart are scientific, but the interpretations however… now that’s an art.

🔥Are you planning to write more books related to Astrology or will you switch to some other genre ?

Ahh… my interest in astrology stems from my interest in mythology. So, you can be rest assured that my future books will feature mythological characters from all over the world.

🔥Which book would you recommend to a person who wants to learn about Astrology?

For a beginner, I’d recommend The Essentials of Vedic Astrology by Komilla Sutton. It’s easy to understand and provides a very grounded view of astrology.

🔥Any message for your readers?

The Little Light is the first book in The Guardians of the Lore series. I’m currently working on the sequel. If you’d like to know what happens to The Little Light once it’s born on planet earth… stay tuned.

Book- The Little Light: A Story of Reincarnation and the Crazy Cosmic Family (The Guardians of the Lore Book 1)

Author – Dipa Sanatani

Pages – 174

Amusing. Enthralling. Enlightening. Brilliant.

“In the Universe,” Dag says, “every crossroads is predetermined. The choice is not. I know the tale that will come to pass with each choice, but I do not know which choice will be made.”

Dipa Sanatani’s “The Little Light” is one of a kind, it’s a masterpiece. Never has Astrology been such an easy, logical and beguiling subject for me to read. Time and again I have tried to read and understand the cosmic family that rules different aspects of my life , zodiac signs, horoscope, and in general Astrology, but have always failed, miserably, in doing so, because I found it complex.
True talent is when the expert simplifies his/her field of study in such a way that a layman feels at ease learning the subject. And Dipa Sanatani is truly talented.

I love the book because it gives logical yet light and human-like representation of the cosmic world, planets and stars and their effect on each person’s life. Each and every line in the book is so worth reading. The idea that even though our life is already planned out, is predestined; the roads that’ll lead us to our fate is still in our hands, was very comforting and uplifting. Reading about our lives being inevitably planned even before our existence in the material world, yet getting positive vibes from realising it, needs some serious plotting and writing skills on the Author’s part. After reading about how each and every characteristic I possess is governed by a superior power, how my strengths and weaknesses were already installed like some softwares in me, I didn’t feel constricted even for a moment, because at the same time, I knew, no matter what my fate is, I still have the choice to choose the path that leads up to it. And it’s pretty satisfying and empowering I tell you, to have it all planned yet have the option to lead yourself as you please towards that goal.

Trust me, you should read this book.

Rating – 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

#AuthorTalks

Anuradha Kunte Singh has done a brilliant job with her book #TheMysteriousWidowsOfMehboobpura. This is one of the best interviews I have done till date, where I enjoyed asking and knowing the Author’s views on drug trafficking, the reasons and the measures that can be undertaken to curb this evil.
Thank you so much Ma’am for your time and this insightful interview.

1. Introduce yourself for your readers.

I am born and brought up in Pune, married to an army officer, teacher by profession, poetess and novelist by passion. That’s me.

2. Did you always aspire to be an Author or was it a series of experiences that turned you into one?

I becoming an author was completely providence. Since young age I always wrote poems, but never thought of publishing them. I was always fond of languages. But publishing this novel was completely a decision taken on impulse. I started out to write this novel as a short story and kept on writing and in 6-8 months it was ready. I gave it to read to few people and they loved it. Then as it is said, the rest is history. I decided to publish it, which was certainly an impulsive step from my side. But then I realized that I love to write, when I am writing I am at peace, I am my best when I write. So, that’s what I should do.

3. How has life been as an Army Officer’s wife?

It’s beautiful, a whirlwind affair of 18 years, full of uncertainties, lots of pampering, moving, living alone, waiting, celebration when he came from long absences………. that’s life as an Indian army officer wife.

4. In your book you’ve mentioned that you came across accounts of drug infiltration while in Punjab. Do you think what you could have done or desired to do regarding the situation there helped you form Ira’s character? Do you think Ira carries a part of you?

In my book I have mentioned, I read and heard of accounts of drug infiltration, personally I have never come across such cases. My husband had three postings in Punjab, so obviously I was there with him on all three occasions. I loved Punjab, it is a beautiful place and the people there are magnanimous. But by the virtue of it being close to the border, it has always suffered, as we know at the time of partition, at the time of India-Pak war and now this. As I said earlier I read a lot, so there has been so much written about it in books, newspapers. There was one particular article, which had come in Hindustan Times which shook me. It was about a pind called Makboolpura, which was known as the Vidhwa Pind. I drew inspiration from that article. But what I have written is fiction, one should remember that. I just took a thread from what I heard or read.
I don’t know, if I am as brave as Ira, but yes I am fiercely independent and you can see a glimpse of me in Ira.

5. Have you watched the Bollywood movie “Udta Punjab”? What are your views or would you like to say something about the movie Udta Punjab and the Chitta economy?

Yes, I have watched the movie Udta Punjab, the makers of the movie have tried to show it quite realistically. I feel sad to see the state of Punjab gripped in such foul play. The people there are full of life, fun loving, brave, helpful and when we see young boys and girls fallen into an abyss of addiction, theft, human trade and few people devoid of any conscious are becoming rich on such money. My heart grieves.

6. What do you think is the main reason behind drug trafficking and abuse? How do you think it can be curbed?

Of course, money is the reason behind all this. I think it should be a two way process, we require internal as well as external policing to curb this down. When I say external policing, I mean, it requires strict actions from the government. The players (pedlars, traffickers, etc) need to be put behind bars at a war footing, strict action should be taken against the kingpins of this business. In short, today’s scene of easy availability of the drugs should change. Now, when I say internal check, I mean, today’s generation has mercurial mentality, they want quick success and if they do not receive it, they are heartbroken very easily. To celebrate as well as to lift themselves from there sorrows, they rely upon new methods. If parents, teachers, social workers, media, all of us start a drive to create mental toughness amongst the youngsters, help them to accept defeats as easily as winnings then we would see a lot of difference in our community. Punjab has always been the state who has given us sportsmen and I firmly believe that a youngster who spends maximum time on track and field would never fall to such adverse addictions. So not only Punjab, all Indian states require more number of sports clubs than the paan ki dukaan of the nukkad, one of the hubs of sale of drugs. There are many other things, remedies, think tanks of our country would come up with many plans and ideas and total eradication can and should happen.

7. How has life been as an Author?

Not much has changed for me. I am the same, still have the same routine. But yes, when people come up to me and tell me that they have read my book and loved it, it gives me great satisfaction and motivation to write more.

8. What hobbies do you pursue?

I love to travel, that I do whenever possible and thanks to my husband’s profession, I get to do it a lot. I read a lot and enjoy collecting books, even though I read on kindle as well, I like to collect physical copies.

9. Do you have any quirky writing habit?

No, not yet, no quirks so far. But one thing is there, if once engrossed I can write even if there is a drum beating by my side.

10. Being a Mum, Wife and Teacher, how was your schedule while writing the book?

It is tough to write when one has a packed day, so the night used to be mine. I wrote extensively after finishing the day’s work, after tucking the boys in bed, then I would start writing.

11. Do you yourself read a lot of books?

Yes, as mentioned earlier, I am a voracious reader. Since childhood I have been reading a lot. I read ‘Swami’ the legendary marathi novel written by Ranjit Desai during my tenth board year. My mother used to be aghast, seeing me reading swami instead of some course book.

12. What is your go to genre?

My go to genre would be a thriller. I like to write suspense thrillers, something like Nora Roberts.

13. Are you planning to or already writing any new book? How long before your readers get to read more of your work?

Yes, after ‘The Mysterious Widows of Mehboobpura I wrote a poetry book, a short 37 pages book, which has Mahabharata in a poetry as well as condensed form. I published it on kindle as part of pen to publish contest. It is titled, ‘Song of Life’ a poetic retelling of Mahabharata, it was a completely new experiment. No one has done it before. People have written Mahabharata in English poetry form but not in a condensed manner. In simple English, which can be read by young students as well. Even ‘Song of Life has received rave reviews.
At present I am working on an ambitious project, for me it is certainly ambitious, as I am writing mythological fiction. I intend to publish it by next year.

14. Any message for your readers?

What message would I give to my readers? Keep reading, discern between quality, originality and plagiarized work. Say no to piracy.