In Conversation with Multi Talented Personality Kavita Misra

 

Kavita Misra,is a brilliant student,teacher,writer,translator,proofreader and a motivational speaker.She believes that learning is a life long process.She is teaching English in a reputed school.She has been an author in more than thirty anthologies.She has translated several legal documents.She has been to many poetry events and contests as a motivational speaker.She draws inspiration from different experiences and thoughts.She has received different awards in literature field.Let us know more about her in this interview.

 

1.Hello Kavita, how do you define yourself to our readers? Which profession are you in?

 I define myself as “a teacher and public speaker by choice, translator/ content writer by profession, writer/ poet by passion and a woman, a mother by the grace of God” ( I am blessed with the best of family because God is very happy with me). I guess that also answers the question about my profession. I teach English in senior classes in a reputed school, but that is more out of my love for the students. I also take up freelance tasks in translation and content writing.

 

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

My journey as a writer began as early as my school days when I wrote short and simple poems or articles for the school chronicle. But that was mostly taken as a part of the curriculum. I switched to Hindi writing and more of emotional writing in 1996, after my mother’s demise. I used to share everything with my mother. Her loss gave me the urge to express myself and my diary became my best friend at that time.

 

3.How has writing helped you and how has life changed after being a writer? What suggestion do you have for budding writers?

Writing has always been the best way for me to vent out my bottled emotions. Whenever I’m too filled up with an emotion and I can’t share it with anyone, writing acts like a stress-buster and it helps me feel light.

 For budding writers, I only wish to tell them one thing- just like ‘Every good student need not become a good teacher, but every teacher needs to be a good student.’ Similarly, every reader might not become a writer, but every writer should necessarily be an avid reader. Reading gives us thoughts, ideas, perspectives and a writer should always be full of all these.

 

4.What is the best part about being a writer? What was the most challenging task in your writing career? How do you bring out new ideas for your work?

The best thing about being a writer is that writing connects us to the people yet keeps us detached, it helps us express yet keeps our true selves a secret- every piece of writing has some part of the writer in it, yet no writing is ever capable of portraying the true self of the writer.

The biggest challenge for me, as a writer, has always been the pressure of deadlines. The flow of creativity usually clashes with the strictness of deadlines.

I am never short of ideas. I may or may not write about something; but everything, every person and every situation is worth writing. ‘Whatever happens, has happened, can happen’ can be written about; ‘everyone in our life, whether near or far, dead or alive’ can be written about. Ideas are always there all around us and within us, we just need to give them words.

 

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

As I said, I’m teaching in a school and also take up translation and editing /proofreading tasks, and that leaves me with very less time for writing. But, whenever I get a  writing assignment, I somehow manage time and write. I cannot write in pieces and in short sittings, but spare an hour or two and try to write a piece in one go. If at all I get emotionally bottled up, I don’t need to find time, the writing comes out automatically and I can move ahead only once I’ve put it on paper.

 

6.What does success mean to you? What is your strength? What do you think most defines your work?

 Success, for me, is three-fold. Physical, financial and social or emotional- physically, we are successful if we have enough strength and stamina to work for ourselves and our loved ones; financially, we are successful if we are able to provide basic needs to the ones dependant on us; emotionally or socially, we are successful if we have at least five people in our life who are just a call or text away whenever we need them, at any time of the day.

My strength, as a writer is the emotional connect between the readers and my writings.

One word that could define my work is “honest” because that is how I am. I do not write something unless I believe in it or I am convinced about it. I do not claim to write the truth about everything but I definitely give my true opinion about whatever  my writing speaks of.

 

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

 I love you all and am thankful for your interest in reading what I have to share. I have just one request to make. If you aspire to be a writer, try your best to stick to the traditional pen-and-paper method instead of typing on a mobile or laptop. When the final draft is ready, then typing it out and keeping a soft copy is perfectly fine; but in the first instance, the emotions should come out original on the paper.

 

Till date, I have co-authored more than 30 anthologies. Presently, I am writing a book and I am actually ‘writing’ it.