Q: When and why did you start blogging?
A: I think in 2007.
Q: What topics do you generally blog about?
A: Little observations of life, everyday failings of us, our
victories, our beauty, our ugliness.
Q: You love stir fry and Bengali mithai, and have now
settled to the land of Dhoklas and Theplas.
How do you look at both the cities and how has the shift treated you?
What was Raksha doing before she was a writer?
A: I love the freedom and space that Ahmedabad offers, and I
cherish the city I grew up in Kolkata, its newspapers, to its theater to its
packed roads and of course Flury’s where one can have the most delicious rum
balls and gaze at passers by at Park Street through the glass.
Q: A very good flair for writing is what you seem to posses.
Which author is your inspiration & why? According to you, what is the most
interesting thing about your writing?
A: I have many writers that I look up to. Marcel Proust,
Milan Kundera, Tagore, Simone de Beauvoir, Maugham etc. I perhaps may not be
able to answer as to what is the most interesting thing about my writing but
can definitely say that I am an observer of the little things that affect us.
Q: Family support is very critical. How do your friends and
family respond when they read your books? Who do you think are your best
critics and why?
A: Family and friends are indeed good support. My biggest critique?
I think I, me, myself.
Q: Your girls are voracious readers. So, do your children
also aspire to become like their mother? What do you wish to see them in
future? What does your husband do feel
about your writing? Does he also have a creative instinct like you?
A: It is too soon to tell what path my children will take.
As far as my wish for them, I only want them to do and be what they enjoy most,
be it writing, science, even DJing. My husband Sanjeev is proud of me and
enjoys the little tidbits I share with him of my writing.
Q: All and Nothing, though fiction, has a real base. You’ve
met Tina & her husband, who are also the characters of your the book. We
would like you to elaborate more on your meeting and how you decided to write a
book on it.
A: I met Tina in a club in Kolkata. The mood was light and
we were a few drinks down. We were talking of relationships, marriage,
commitment and then My Tina said that she will make her husband love her, that
it was just the beginning. After a little while, I found myself seated next to
the husband and he said that he is happy where they were in their marriage
(alcohol was responsible for this uninhibited state of course). The contrast
struck me. Two people, one marriage and yet they saw it so differently. While
for one, it was the best possible, for the other it was just a starting point
for something better. That evening, All and Nothing was conceived.
Q: You’ve edited many series of Chicken Soup for the Indian
Soul. Which book has been closest to your heart?
A: Chicken Soup for the Indian Armed Forces.
Q: Teaching English in a street school run by NGO Manav
Sadhna and teaching in the school for the visually challenged in Andh Kanya
Gruh are a part of your life, along with reinventing yourself via Kathak. Does
teaching & dancing help you escape from the rigors writing? What other
social activities have you been doing?
A: To me, dancing and teaching are like meditation. I enjoy
it very much. It is not so much about escaping the rigors of writing as it is
about forgetting the ‘I’ which otherwise is always omnipresent. I have been
involved in some service work since a long time now.
Q: An author, columnist, dancer, wife, teacher and a mother.
How do you balance your professional and personal life with two daughters?
A: I manage…though I would like to devote more time to
reading.
Q: Earlier works from your pen are Me: ‘A Handbook for Life’,
a self help book & ‘ROOTS And WINGS: A Handbook For Parents‘, a parenting
guide. You moved to fiction with All and Nothing. What is the next book in
works and which genre? Which style do you prefer writing? Would you like to
write a biography or an auto-biography in future?
A: I have got hooked to fiction. It offers me space and
freedom. Also, I feel that fiction has more truth than non-fiction. What I
cannot say as Raksha, I can as Tina, or Manas or Poorvi (the characters in All
and Nothing). I have had a few offers for biographies but at the moment I am
into another novel.
Q: You have been editing Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul
series since a long time now. Being a non-fiction series, you have read many
stories which have a range of human emotions in them. How have you connected
with them? How difficult it is to choose one emotional story over another?
Also, how have the stories changed your emotions, perceptions, etc.? Share one
such story that touched your heart or brought about a change in you.
A: The more stories I get, the more authors I meet, the more
I feel about the universality of human emotions. We all feel anger, hatred,
love, empathy, etc but differ in degree only. The wider my database of writer
grows, the narrower is the listing of fundamentals of us. But along with this
there is another reality that where ever we are, at whatever point in our lives,
we all want to grow, be better, do better….and this has been my biggest lesson.
That the desire to be be more than what we are is inbuilt in us.
Q: If Raksha Bharadia was not an author, what would she be?
What are your interests other than writing? You are a workaholic and have been
wanting to stay in a place like Auroville for a week, all by yourself, since
the last 4 years! Has it been fulfilled now? If not, what are you doing to work
towards it? What else does Raksha wish to do but has not been able to?
A: Auroville is still a wish list. If I would not have been
an author I would have perhaps been a counselor. I have so many entries in my
bucket list that you will tire of reading them…:)
Q: We suppose you have a special talent to sense what people like
hearing. So, can we look forward to a scriptwriter or a film director in
future?
A: Inshaah Allah….
Q: How important is it for the blogger to interact with their
readers? Do you respond to all the comments that you receive?
A: Permitting time and space, it is a good idea for a
blogger to interact with the readers. I cannot respond to all the comments I
get, but try and respond to the ones that touch me.
Q: What do you find to be the most gratifying aspect of
blogging?
A:The fact that I can get down in paper what is prime on my
mind.
Q: How, in general, would you rate the quality of Indian
blogs? Share your favourite five blogs.
A:I think there is a revolution happening here. I think
because we Indians have so much more in terms of legacy, number of
relationships, struggles, experiences, traditions that with the tool of
blogging and the power of expression we can be at some place powerful. Just
because there is so much more content in an Indian mind…
Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a blog?
A: Be honest in writing what you do. Do not write for the
reader, write what you feel.
Q: Do you ever get stuck when writing an entry? What do you
do then?
A: Many times. Usually take a break, go for a walk, read,
meditate.
Q: Do you promote your blog? What promotional techniques work
best for you and why?
A: Nope, I do not promote my blog at all.
Q: Do you earn revenue through your blog? How does one go about
it?
A: I do not earn revenue through my blog.
Q: Let’s conclude off with a few favorites.
Color: White and Black
Movie: Closer
TV Show: Two and a Half Men
Book: Many
Time of Day: 6 in the evening when I go for a walk
Your Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
Thank you Raksha for this wonderful interview. We wish you
all the best for the upcoming titles of ‘The Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul’
and your upcoming book. Readers, time to grab the book and let Raksha know your
thoughts on the same.
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