Write from your heart. If it moves you, it’ll move others.

Astha, an engineer, a culinary journalist and a self-taught chef, took to arts & travel to have a appreciative view of myriad divergences. This trajectory of perspective building led her to look at life and its trivia with an angle uncommon: life-stories at far-off hamlets, nomadic drummers of urban jungles, crooning poets of absurdities and huddles of affable abnormals.

Her dreamy idealism, life encounters & poetic sensibilities made her to create an art series on ‘She & He: The Emotional Maze’.
Her consistent engagement with different art-forms & writings made her canvas a fusion of visuals & narratives. Her exhibits of paintings on ‘Emotions & Eccentricities’, ‘Man-Woman Relationship’ drew critical acclaim. Words, Colour-Strokes are her splash of expressions…..’form’ is a continued evolution.

What is the story behind your book. Where did you get your idea for the book?

My book is a collection of 200 quotes I wrote over a span of 4 years, based on man woman relationships.

Summary: Yearnings longed,hearts restored,belief of eternal love,memories reminisced and moments revisited.

Description: The series portrays the various phases,stages in a man woman relationship.The different kinds of a relationship between the two genders.How incomplete are they without each other?How this nature made two such different yet such similar emotional beings.Be it platonic or of that of lovers,it captures a variety of shades,hues and colors.One of the most beautiful yet the most unpredictable relationships I see,the most interesting yet the most beautiful relationship i=I see. Living by the way of minimalism in all walks of life,i feel relationships are a blessing and in some or the other way always teach,always.The various phases and stages in a man-woman relationship including the love,the infatuation, the attraction,the attachment, the detachment,the chase,the falling out of love,the hurt,the joy,the pleasure,the contentment,the remorse, the distance,the restlessness,the completeness,the incompleteness,the yearnings,the memories are voiced by these quotes i write that come to me by self.I have never sat down to write them thinking of the man,woman as characters but are penned down by seeing the happenings around and also of self discovery and experiences.In the fast paced life of the Kalyuga we live in today this series is for the love lost,for the hearts broken,for the hope that is alive and for the belief in pure unconditional love.

She was such a page turner, He became his permanent bookmark.

He was miserable without her and she was miserable without him, Neither of them accepted so, They chose misery over one another.

She reads his old messages everyday. He writes her an unsent,new one everyday.

Challenges you faced while writing this book and in your life as an author?

This isn’t a novel, so no challenges on this one. On the new one, short stories are complex beings, am trying to give them love,instead of rushing from one to the next.

Challenges as an author, well, I can say publishing is a tough thing, but then i dont want to go into it, for I understand we are a lot in population as a country and a lot of people are writing these days, which is a great thing so i would say no challenges as such for I don’t ache to be famous or anything!

I am trying to produce some good work and that’s about it 🙂

What is your life mantra?

To spread joy, in which ever way possible. We all can. We all should.

What is your writing process like?

Like anything else it begins with a thought. A single or many thoughts together that have either come by chance to my mind or heart or something that has affected my life and thoughts. I write them down, delve upon them and then write. I am yet to learn how to type on a computer for writing.

Anything special about your book that you want to share?

The relationships today is the inspiration for the book. I am a keen observer that made me see the change in the man woman dynamics over many years. How love has changed in the times we live today.Compassion forms a big part in my life and I think emotions form a person holistically over the years. A good relationship can go a long long way in making a person a great individual.
I feel we need to get back to the real love days, holding hands days you know 🙂

According to you, what are the three qualities an author must have to achieve success?

• Truthful writing
• Persistence
• To actually write & not think they’ll write one day

What are your plans for next book?

What advice do you have for young writers?

Write from your heart. If it moves you, it’ll move others.

Don’t try writing or doing what others are doing. Write what you want to write.

Share a quote or line that has been your inspiration.

“If you’re a writer, you’re sort of spending your life trying to figure things out, and you put your figurings on paper, and other people read them. It’s a very odd thing, really. You do this your whole life, and yet you know that you fail. You don’t fail all the way, or anything, it’s still worth doing—I think it’s worth doing, anyway. But it’s like this coming to grips with things that you can only partially deal with. This sounds very hopeless. I don’t feel hopeless at all.” – Alice Munro