It was a great experience talking with Namrata Gupta, a budding author who own two popular novels A Silent Promise (2015) and The Full Circle.. Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery (2018).
Currently she is working in an MNC as a Deputy Manager after completing Masters of Business Administration from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi also she is pursuing her dream of being a popular author. Her debut novel A Silent Promise was released by Mr. Sudhir Mishra (Indian film director) at Gurgaon International Film and Literature Festival.
What made you want to start writing, not just reading?
I loved writing since I was a kid. I used to write poems and articles for national newspapers and school magazines. I loved English Literature. I was always fascinated by it and found my escape in it. So when I started writing poems, I found myself travelling to a completely different world. The love for such travel increased to a level where I created my own different world and hence ended up writing novels. So I would say that it was the love for Literature and flights of fantasy, which writing allows you to have, that made me a writer.
· What's the hardest thing about writing for you?
I think it would be doing justice to the depiction of the characters in my books. So, for example, in The Full Circle.. Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery, where the male protagonist, Aditya, is a traveler, besides capturing a range of stories at the places Aditya visits, the novel also highlights a range of complexities in its characters, who come from different cultures, backgrounds, mind set and have had different life experiences. Zinnia’s, the female protagonist, is a complex character. She has had her own struggles to fight with. She is tough yet soft. She exhibits motherly care yet is a young girl at heart. In the same manner, Jacqueline and Aditya too have had their own past. Jacqueline’s character is reformed from an emotionally distraught girl to an empowered one. Aditya is shown with fine degrees of empathy, understanding, maturity and kindness.
So I would say that sewing the past experiences of characters and where they come from within the narrative, while justifying their present complexities as rooting from the past or being a result of various psychological and socio-cultural influences, and at the same time keeping those intact and running along in the narrative requires efforts from the writer’s end. Plus, they also have to grow as persons within the story and that too has to be highlighted, keeping their integrity intact, without them coming out as whimsical, if they’re not supposed to.
· The protagonist of The Full Circle.. Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery is a Traveler by nature, do you come across such character or it's completely fictional?
It’s completely fictional. Like I said, being able to escape the reality and creating an alternate world is what I love the most about writing. I have always loved travelling and exploring new things. I feel that the memories of the places one visits is the best form of treasure that one can accumulate in his life and the best of the stories are narrated when they are told across boundaries. Fascinated by the idea of having a home everywhere and nowhere, I went on to explore how travelers live. Impressed by their way of life, I decided to give the idea a greater reach by writing about it. At the same time, wanting to write a thriller, I merged the two concepts. And so in the book, the story of a traveler is charted out in a Romance Thriller framework.
· What do you enjoy most about connecting with readers?
The best part about connecting with readers is becoming a party to different perspectives and seeing how your work has inspired them to create a better world for themselves or become better human beings. I am motivated to keep on writing every time I receive a mail regarding my work. Influencing lives, reaching out to people and making them aware of the existing issues at a psychological, social or even at the spiritual level is a blessing. And what’s better than they relating to your book and being inspired to do the work on themselves or around them. It is extremely joyful.
· Are you currently writing anything? Give a brief idea about it.
Something in the Romance genre. I have something in mind regarding abusive relationships. I am building up on that.
· Whom do you admire most and why?
I really admire the Bronte sisters. Bronte sisters are my favorite because of the complex, daunting, empowered female protagonists they wrote about back in the 19th century. Their work was ahead of their age, I believe. The plot is intriguing, growing, captivating and full of different perspectives that hold relevance even today. The characters they showcased are deep and so are the concepts in their books.
· How was the journey so far ?
It has been great. Of course I have had my ups and downs. As I’ve told you, I wrote my first book, A Silent Promise (2015), while I was pursuing my graduation from Hans Raj College, Delhi University. Being new to the field, finding an appropriate publishing house for my first book became a task. But once I did my homework for the first book, doing the same things for my second book seemed relatively easier.
It has been going pretty good since the release of my first book. I was invited as a speaker to Literature Festivals, college events and book reading sessions. People around me acknowledge my efforts and are impressed by how far I have come till now. I was overwhelmed when a student from Hans Raj reached out to me saying that she has seen my book in the college library. It meant a lot to me that my book actually found a place in my own college’s library and now students can actually go through its pages and get it issued, just like I used to get books issued back in my college days. I get a lot of appreciation among different circles. Readers reach out to me regarding my books and I get overwhelmed by reading their responses to my stories. It is amazing how a work of fiction can move people so much.
I believe that I still have miles to go. I have to write a lot of books. I have to reach out to more people, influence more lives and inspire more people. There are still a lot of stories waiting to be told. I like to experiment with different ideas so I would try that repetition of story lines never becomes a part of my books.
Thank you Namrata for sharing your thoughts.
