In Conversation with Ashu Verma Choubey

 

Ashu Verma Chaubey is a beautiful writer with a collection of over 1200 blogs, flash fictions, microtales and poetries on various well renowned online platforms. She has also been a proud co-author in many anthologies brought out by Indian as well as international publications.

She has recently compiled her own book portraying various unsaid emotions of a woman titled, “Shades of a Woman Beyond her Lihaaf”.She draws inspiration in writing from different experiences and thoughts.

She has received multiple awards in the literature field. Let us know more about her in this interview.

 

1)…. Hello Ashu, how do you define yourself to our readers? Which profession are you working in?

 

Ans… Hi dear readers. I am more of a sensitive, hardworking, well balanced but more of an introvert kind of an individual. Honestly speaking it’s very difficult for me to initiate discussions with unknown people or releasing myself out from set boundations and come out openly and for the same reason many times in life people have mistaken me as an individual who carries a lot of air about herself. It’s not that I don’t want to but it’s just that I want the person opposite to initiate. In fact, you’d be surprised to know that many people who took me to be a woman with attitude went on to becoming my best friends. When it comes to friendship and relationships, I can do everything to maintain cordial relations and if need be, I can go to any extent to help my friends. I truly believe in the saying, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”.

I am electronics engineer by qualification and used to work with DMRC, Delhi. I had to leave my job post marriage and shift to Gujarat as my husband was posted there. Along with this physical relocation, I also shifted from a very busy job life to a newly wed housewife’s life with nothing much to do. It was then that I thought of pursuing English Honours and used my time to earn the degree from SOL, Delhi University .

 

2)…. Please share your journey of being a writer? When did you start and why did you choose writing? What’s your inspiration behind it?

 

Ans… Oh this is very interesting. Well, as I said earlier, I’m not one of those socialite kinds of ladies who have all the time to gossip about current affairs of their societies so whenever I used to get time, I used to read my favourite novels and scribble my heart felt notes in my diaries but unfortunately as time elapsed, I started having complications with my pregnancies and suffered recurrent abortions. For those eight years my inspirational notes took a backseat. Then after the delivery of my premature babies, there wasn’t any time to even think about writing.

My babies were just two a half when Covid and lockdown happened. During those days I had to work twenty-four by seven with minimum help and mental pressure and loneliness was kind of playing havoc with my brain, increasing my frustrations levels. With the restrictions imposed there was nothing much that any of us could do. Remaining confined to the four walls now started taking on to my nerves and to relieve that tension, my passion for writing came to my rescue.

One night I just saw a bug moving on the wall in my room at night and looking at it, after years of pen-down, I wrote a poem. Then as if Almighty had planned it all for my rescue, one evening, I happened to read a microtale which one of my friends had written on a well renowned platform and posted on her FB account. I discussed with her about how does it work and then after going through many articles and microtales on that platform I prepared myself for my second innings, as a writer. And with a twelve-line poetry, I started my career which has now transformed into a journey of 1200 plus blogs, fictions, articles, microtales and poetries on various online platforms and in anthologies and finally my solo poetry book.

 

3)… How has writing helped you and how has life changed after being a writer? How do you manage to bring out new ideas for your work?

 

Ans…. Writing, I believe is one remedy that is very effective in relieving you of your tensions and anxieties. Especially while writing fiction, one is transported into a totally different world with different characters revolving around you. You create them the way you want to. Your mind is busy thinking about their reactions to the set of circumstances that you have created for them and in due process you forget your own self, your worries, your emotions and tensions.

On the other hand, poetries vent out your emotions and sentiments. It depends on your mood, what genre your poetry will adorn. Your mental set up decides what words will flow out of your brain. And out it flows from the depth of your heart taking away along with it all your tensions, emotions, excitements and worries.

Hence to summarize, writing acts as a stress buster for me.

And that is how my life has changed after taking to writing. To get relieved of all the stress after my hectic day, I’ve made it a point to write something every night before I sleep for a cool and relaxing rest time.

Visiting various platforms, getting to know about their prompts and then relating them to my day-to-day experiences creates ideas for fictions. Whereas the day-to-day happenings around us inspire me to write blogs and eye-opening articles. Poetries, as I said earlier are a flow of my own emotions mostly.

And the inspirational ones definitely draw ideas from our society, current affairs and culture.

 

4)… What does success mean to you? What was the most challenging task in your writing career? What suggestion do you have for aspiring writers?

 

Ans…. Success to me means satisfaction. The beautiful certificates, the awards, the tags, comments and likes definitely have their own charm and anybody who’s working hard desires that his/her work be recognized, but at the end of the day, a blog with a beautiful message or a poetry portraying emotions perfectly or an inspirational article responding to which even one person says that it’s going to be helpful in making them happy satisfies my heart to the core.

In my writing career the biggest challenge is finding time to write. With triplets at home and my responsibilities towards my house and family leaves me with very less time to write.

But as they say where there’s a will there’s a way. My collection is the result of my hard work and extra efforts that I put in.

Today I see, most of the authors write just anything for the sake of writing, whereas in my view it shouldn’t be like that. Writing is one thing which when taken on a public platform should be capable of influencing the society in a positive way. As a writer I feel if you should be responsible enough not to create a negative impact on the society. Though as a fiction writer, I understand the importance of creating both positive and negative characters for the drama to continue but overall it should have some message hidden in it which finally positively impacts the society.

If you feel that your pen has the power then you should target topics that need public attention. Allow your words to let those topics reach your readers.

Also just don’t write and forget, read your own articles from a third person point of view and you will yourself discover your mistakes. And you will know where you need improvement. You know sometimes we think that we had written such a good story which deserved the attention of the editors but it didn’t, and we feel bad about it but then when we go back and read it as a reader, we easily see the mistakes we did, which may be as small as spellings or grammatical errors to some character misfit, etc. etc. So, reading one’s own write ups time and again is very important.

And definitely read more to get more ideas, more vocabulary and more hold on your language

 

 

5)… What do you do apart from writing? How do you manage time for writing and are you writing something as of now?

 

Ans…. Haha, apart from writing. In spite of doing everything, I do what they say. “A housewife does nothing”. Well jokes apart, these days I do not get time to do anything apart looking after my triplet kids who are in their naughtiest phase. And performing my duties as a house manager.

Manging time is up to one’s discretion. If one wants, one can find time to fulfil one’s desire. I normally do not get time during the day and sit to do my work only after my kids retire to bed at night. That is the time my imaginative senses spread their wings and take a flight. And outflow my words and tales numerous.

Right now, I am concentrating on writing some articles related to social evils and mental health. I also plan to write a fiction novella soon. I have many hindi series stories well liked and appreciated and might further detail them.

And in between poetries keep on flowing in from the neurotransmitters in my brain.

 

6)… Kindly attach the link to your book so that readers can get a grasp on this beautiful read?

 

Ans…. Yes definitely. And I shall also attach the links some of my inspirational blogs that can motivate readers.

“Shades of a woman Beyond her Lihaaf”. A collection of twenty one poetries

 https://amzn.eu/d/2O4JjI4

I’m sure every woman will connect to the emotions expressed in the book.

Links to some of my motivational and fictional blogs  both Hindi and English are also attached for the readers to read and connect with me and my thoughts…..

 

 

 

7)… Is there any message you want to share with our readers?

 

Ans…. Sure, why not dear. My message for the readers is that please share with the us authors your feedback, whether positive or negative, whenever you read our story. It helps us grow. It brings a smile on our faces and motivates us to write more and more.

Your thoughts are as precious as the awards that we get for our work and sometimes even more than that.

My motto is, “To impart smiles, positivity and motivate the society if you can with the help of your pen”. I write so that I can bring a change, both outside and inside.

So please join me and other authors in spreading the messages we want to through our poems and stories.

Lots of love and happy reading.

Thank you

Ashu Verma Chaubey