1. Tell us about yourself so those who are reading my blog can know you better.
I work as an Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Pune. I am an Engineering graduate from VNIT and have done my Post Graduation Diploma in IM&HRD and also in Finance. I have completed a summer course in Finance from London School of Economics. I have authored 4 novels, 1 novella and 6 short story collections, 31 poetry collections and 13 children’s books to my credit. I am a bilingual writer; writing in English and Hindi. I hold a record with the Limca Book of Records -2015 for being the Author having the highest number of publications in a year in English and Hindi, besides two other records. I have won II prize in a poetry contest organized by American Embassy and in a National poetry contest organized by Poetry Council of India, 2016. I have received, Sohanlal Dwivedi Puraskar for children’s literature by Maharashtra state Hindi Sahitya Akademi for the year 2018, Humanity International Women Achiever Awards 2018, Bharat Nirman Literary award in 2017, Premchand award by Ministry of Railways, Rabindranath Tagore International Poetry award, Soninder Samman, Freedom award by Radio city for Lyrics along with other awards and honors. I was listed in Forbes as one among 78 most popular authors in the country in 2014.
My short story collection “Lines of Fate” remained in the top 10 on bestsellers list on Amazon (India) since its release and was under no 3 on new hot releases for almost a month. Similarly, “Kai Basant Dekhe Hain Maine”, my latest poetry collection received a best-seller tag (No 1 on Amazon) for quite a few days.
2.Please, tell readers about your book.
Circumstances are not same all the while. There will always be difficulties in life, but those who know how to conquer these upheavals are able to achieve a level of happiness that has no parallel.
My poetry collection “Kai Basant Dekhe Hain Maine” is written on the above theme. It’s the urge to conquer the ups and downs and stay happy that I have tried to tell the readers in the form of poetry.
3.What inspired you to write this book?
I had written a few poems about finding happiness and implanting spring in your soul so that difficulties do not become a source of discontent and grief. However, soon Corona stuck and like everyone else, I was fearful as well as horrified seeing what’s happening in the world. I realised that saying it had been easy, but it was difficult in those tough times. However, through writing, I was able to find some solace and my views written in the first few poems were sort of verified. It’s this journey which inspired me to write this book.
4. How long on average does it take you to write a book?
It all depends upon my inspiration level and the time I get after work. My working hours are erratic and I am not sure if I will be able to write the next day. While I completed my novel “Can I have this Chance” in two months, I took more than a year to complete some.
Poetry is what that I write continuously, so for a poetry book, the average period is 3-4 months.
5. What’s the best way to market your books?
I really am not the right person to reply to this question, since I did virtually nothing for marketing for long. It’s only recently that I did put in some efforts. The best part was that even without marketing, most of my books did quite well.
However, I had slogged a lot to learn the finesse of writing and had also established myself as an author/poet by the time I brought out my books. So, I suppose, that helped a lot. I had participated in and won several reputed awards earlier.
These days, quite a few good marketing agencies are there and they can be approached. However, one should verify their antecedents before assigning them any tasks for there are many frauds also taking place. Have a realistic person, not someone who promises you the stars – for let me be frank, you aren’t going to get those stars in your very first book. It takes time.
6. Do authors help authors to improve their writing ?
I can’t say about others, but I do. However, I can’t help everyone, for there are more writers than readers as rightly said by Ruskin Bond. I help the ones who have had long term relationships with me, who have read me and those in whose writings, I find something unique. I especially don’t forget the people who were with me when I wasn’t so famous.
However, some people just keep inboxing me their poems and I just hate that. I do have a group called “Poets and Writers Den” on Facebook and I encourage everyone to post in that. If, after reading, I find something interesting, I do my best to encourage.
7. what's your favorite genre of writing ?
I have no favorites. It all depends upon my mood. I love writing novels, stories as well as poetry in English as well as Hindi.
8. Who is your favourite author/ Poet ?
Favorite authors are Erich Segal, Pearl S. Buck etc. Favorite poet is Gulzar sahib.
9 How many hours a day you write ?
It’s not fixed. It depends upon the time at hand, my mood and my personal commitments.
10. Any writing tips for budding writers ?
Be very particular about how you want your first book to be. Work hard to understand how a book is written, whether your language is fine (you can even have it edited), and what should be the contents of a book proposal. If you do some market research on the topics which are a great hit or which have not yet been tried, it will be all the better.
However, as I said earlier, don’t expect your first book to be a big hit. If it happens that way, you should be happy. In the present times, you may also have to plan a marketing strategy.
