You’ve just published “A Teenage Soul through Ebb and Flow, a collection of poems. What prompted it? What do you want your readers to take away from this?
Publishing a book was initially a wild imagination or a dream for me. I always wrote poetry because it served as an emotional outlet during any overwhelming situation. These poems allowed me to express my thoughts and emotions and reflect on experiences in that particular moment and were written with the idea that no on was ever going to actually read them. The fact that my friends or anyone I ever read a poem to connected with the incident / emotion I was trying to express was the first time I thought about sharing what I had written with the world.
My book represents the vulnerability and honesty with which one savours any beautiful or formative moment / emotion. It’s a direct window into my soul but my hope for this book as a debut author is that whoever reads this book is able to find a piece of themselves in my words. Whether it’s a stranger or a close friend, a 13-year-old or a 30-year-old, I hope they are able to find some aspect of their life in my poems because at the crux of our being, our souls go through the same ebbs and flows at many different levels and fronts.
You have been writing poems since eight. How did that journey begin?
I don’t really recall the exact moment when I started writing poetry, but it’s the journey I would like to emphasize more on. It started with me reading poems in my school magazine when my attempt to writing in Class III was limited to rhyming ‘cat, mat and bat. Gradually I developed admiration for poems in both English and Hindi. I became more of an avid reader than a writer of poems, and slowly after reading poems for about three to four years, I started writing again. I wrote in both Hindi and English, and two of my Hindi poems were published in a newspaper when I was in Class VII.
Over time with a stronger grip on the languages and enhanced ability to articulate my thoughts, I started writing again.
Also, shifting from Kolkata to Mumbai was a big transition in my life. That , and the lockdown were two milestones when I started writing very frequently.
How does writing poetry help you?
Poetry is a form of catharsis for me. It’s an emotional outlet and is a way to capture a moment or a fleeting emotion I which cannot be captured through pictures and videos. It’s quite funny how my brain works because during any overwhelming situation, instead of looking for a solution, my brain starts tying words into rhymes. This way, my ’emotional’ side is able to rant all the thoughts out and then the ‘rational’ side comes into play and finds a solution. So by the time I finish a poem in 10-15 minutes, I’ve poured my thoughts out and also found a solution in the same poem.
With your involvement in community and volunteer work, and fund-raisers, it is clear you are socially responsive to issues. What prompted this, and has this changed you?
I’ve grown up in a family where I can proudly say that the values and ethics which have been inculcated are an integral part of me. I’ve always seen them give back to society in several different and unspoken ways. When I used to volunteer as a student-teacher, I realized that many times not only was I teaching the children, but they were teaching me various things. And this realization filled my heart because since then I have always followed the belief that no one knows everything but everyone knows something, and hence everyone has a unique way of value creation in society.
How do you manage time between your interests / concerns and academics?
It’s never been difficult for me to actually manage time per say. We all have 24 hours and just knowing how to priorities and allocate it does the trick. My hobbies and creative pursuits are as important to me as academics, and I have always continued them parallel to my studies. The only difference is that sometimes I allocate more time to my academics and sometimes more to my hobbies and social life, and that’s how I try to maintain a balance because both help me grow in different ways.
What are your aspirations?
I have been inclined towards finance, business, and economics since I’ve watched many people around me pursue these, and I believe I have a good aptitude for them. But I still look forward to exploring different subjects in the future. My dream would be to actually make a positive impact in whichever field I choose to pursue. I always try to create an environment of community, mutual upliftment, and positivity, and this is something I will continue doing regardless of where I go.
Picture Credit : Google
