1. When was the first time you realized you wanted to be a writer?
When I first realised that I could write, I suppose, write coherently and well, and that writing gave me tremendous joy. This was a decade ago when a back problem had enforced a hiatus in my daily routine of music riyaz, and I turned to writing in the interim as an alternate medium of expression. My articles got published by Talking Cranes and the validation I got from readers was extremely empowering. That pushed me to write more, explore more. Soon I was drawn to fiction, imagining, plotting, crafting and embellishing.
And so, from a temporary pursuit to fill in a frustrating vacuum, writing grew into a compulsive need. My music routine had resumed but I had also become a committed writer. Today I have two books to my name, Of Swans and Songs and Being Good Enough, as well as a running blog (www.rohiniparanjpesathe.com). Every word I write today reaffirms that this is my vocation.

2. What were the highest and lowest moments in your journey as a writer?
When I am deep into a story or a new blog, and it’s all coming spontaneously and perfectly in an unstoppable flow, the energy I feel, the excitement pulsing through, that is my biggest high. It doesn’t always happen but when it does, it’s magic.
Approaching publishers and getting rejected was bitter to swallow. Many, many authors have had to travel this hard road and I am no exception. But it really batters your self-esteem, you begin to doubt your talent and merit, and you have to be crazily committed to get up and do it all over again and again. I’m glad I did. But yes, those were dark days.
So, when Suhail Mathur of The Book Bakers picked up my work, deciding to represent me as my literary agent, it was a euphoric moment. Huge validation.
Getting published was equally huge, it was a public endorsement of my work, gave me a sense of achievement. Appreciation from readers cemented that. Every time a reader tells me that they could relate to what I’d written, or were moved, or pushed to think differently, I feel fulfilled. Taking part in lit fests, getting recognition, that’s the icing on the cake.

3. What is your work schedule like when you’re writing?
I dislike schedules! I write whenever.
Some days I am writing in a frenzy and there are days and weeks when not a word appears.
My most productive writing usually happens in the late afternoons and early evenings. That’s when my mind is free to concretise nebulous thoughts, there is no distraction.
Yet, there is always an ongoing mulling over the theme of my new text, maybe a facet of character here or a plot feature there, a detail in description of ambience and mood or an angle to a new blog. It’s like a pot on a stove, a slow swirling and simmering of content and expression, building flavour, correcting balance, and then bubbling over aromatically when ready.
I am an early morning person, I get up and go to my tanpura. So I have rarely sat up late at night to write, unless the thoughts and words have been in spate, and it feels silly to pack up just because the clock tells me to. Why kill that buzz?

4. You’re represented by The Book Bakers literary agency. Could you tell us about the role they’ve played in your literary journey?
Gosh, the agency came as a godsend to me. As I said earlier, I had been struggling, knocking on publishers’ doors, battling rejections, when Suhail Mathur of The Book Bakers responded to my mail and agreed to represent me. I was elated.
Then my struggles simply melted away. Every single step, right from sprucing up the proposal to publish to actually signing the contract, all went through so smoothly, so wonderfully well, it was a dream walk. Suhail is very patient, guiding me carefully about what needed to be done and how. He got me my publishing deal with Locksley Hall which was a fabulously hassle-free collaboration.
The Book Bakers also designed my book cover for Being Good Enough. They asked me about what I would like, what was my concept, and voila! They had seamlessly plucked it from my mind and translated it into a beautifully and vibrantly evocative cover. Just brilliant.
They helped promote my book, creating a lovely audio-visual trailer prior to the launch, getting press and media coverage, garnering visibility for my book, pumping up interest. I couldn’t have asked for more.

5. Do you think women writers face greater challenges? If yes, how?
I think the challenge is more one of perception of what women writers bring to their readers, and whether that is attractive and viable enough for publishers to invest in.
Most writers write from their own background and their own perspective, their exposure to events, their being drawn to a certain kind of human experience. A lot of that is dependent on the social conditioning they themselves have been subjected to, respond to and from, the spaces and roles that have been earmarked for them. For example, women may be expected to write about families and relationships, men about the world outside, politics, scams, crises. And that there is a hierarchy of genres, the latter superior to the former.
Over the past several decades, these demarcations have become blurred and the echelons of literary genres have been tossed around. Women have been stepping out of their prescribed roles, gathering a multitude of diverse experience, and that enables them to write on any topic at all with equal merit as anyone else. But the tags still remain.
A while ago, there had been a heated discussion in a book club I am a part of: women writers write from an emotional base, while men, mostly cerebral. That analysing emotion and writing about it with clarity and authenticity does not require cerebral involvement is a glaring fallacy in this perception. Further, a dry document factually recounting a political crisis or a scam, for example, will not invite wide readership, unless infused with enough human colour. The clash of egos, the hubris of leaders, the insatiable greed of the scamster, the malleability of morals and ethics, this makes the account interesting. And today, women can do it all, with authority and authenticity. The stale perceptions about what they can and cannot write will also change. Maybe not soon enough, but it is inevitable.

6. Who is your favourite woman writer and why?
No, I can’t pick one. There are so many that I admire. Right from Austen and Christie whom I read when I was younger and continue re-read, to the newer kids on the block, Chimamanda and Ferrante and Evaristo …..there’s a whole thriving tribe today, it’s so exciting.
What I really appreciate about Jane Austen is her insightfulness, her uncanny ability to read minds, measure the weight of social convention and prejudice, and explain how men and women calculate and connive to self-fulfil, all under the veil of societal correctness. Hers are not simply light romances, but social commentaries. And many of her observations still hold true.
A few years ago I was hypnotised by Elena Ferrante (translated from Italian). The precision with which she opens up women (and men), laying bare their desires and vulnerabilities, the moral and emotional compasses they choose to follow or ignore, it’s clinical, objective and merciless. It’s like looking into a mirror and learning truths about yourself. Not always comfortable but valuable nonetheless.
There are a lot of women the world over who write brilliantly, in English too. The much celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun was riveting. I’ve loved her others as well, but this one was complex and gripping, rich in cultural context, diving into socio-political currents and tensions, exposing the human costs of conflict. Gender, race, ethnicity, cultures and conditionings, human relations examined through these prisms, what’s not to like?
Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other was a mind-blowing read. Almost subversive, ripping through all the stereotypes that women have been slotted into.
So many more. Some with a huge body of work, some with just that one path-breaking book. I am a fan of all of them.

7. Are there any subjects which are particularly close to your heart, or any special causes that you would like to contribute to through your writing?
A friend of mine once described me as a ‘feminist author’. I am not convinced that I have earned that label yet, but I guess I am headed that way.
Wherever I come across injustice, be it on grounds of gender or creed or caste or ethnicity, it makes me restless, sets me reflecting on who we humans are, where we are headed and how. That seeps into my writing. Many of my stories revolve around women’s issues, the indignities they suffer, the abuse, the violence. It isn’t as if I purposely set out to write about them, but if they are continuously churning within and without, how does one avoid addressing them?
Violence against women has been happening not merely in the boldly ugly strokes that make news headlines, but also in slyly subtle, insidious ways. Ours is a patriarchal society with power traditionally vested in men and a few token sops thrown to women, especially to those women who have worked through the patriarchs’ favour to carve a safe niche for themselves, thence wielding a margin of derived power, and often, unfortunately, oppressing other women. We see it in homes and in workplaces. There is a suppression of women’s voices, a denial of their choices, a disparity in wages, a skewed assignment of responsibilities, rejection of their leadership, and often, when the woman steps out of her given box, she gets violently hounded back into it. It’s a systemic malaise.
While we may hoist the woman in the abstract on to a pedestal as mother and sister, the nurturer that must be revered, goddess too, worshipped devoutly, the woman in our actual midst, she is often grossly disrespected, neglected, abused, mutilated. That gets my goat.
It isn’t easy to write about this violence, for every time a woman in my story gets beaten or molested or raped, I feel the hurt and pain myself. I want readers to feel it too. Many have experienced it themselves, I shudder to think what they have been through. It has to stop.

8. They say, ‘The pen is mightier than the sword”. What do these words mean to you?
Responsibility. To use my words honestly, carefully, use them to engineer change.
While entertaining the reader, it’s important to nudge them to an awareness of how vast and varied the world is. Any individual’s own lived experience is just a tiny fraction of the entire human experience. And just because something that we encounter does not accord with what we have known to be true or with our way of thinking and doing things, does not necessarily make it invalid. One needs to step into other shoes every once in a while, not judge and censure blindly. Writers help us do that, and the changes in mindsets that are then wrought can be revolutionary.

9. If not a writer, what would you have been?
I have been singing, Hindustani classical, and that would have continued.

10. What are your future literary projects that we can look forward to?
I am finishing my next novel, my next labour of love! It draws from my background as singer, it explains the journeys of musicians, the dynamics of their world, their relationships, their struggles, their egos, their frustrations and fulfilment.
As I said, I continue to blog, writing periodically on topics that interest/inspire me.

Rapid Five!
Your favourite holiday destination
I love Paris. Je l’adore! The history, the architecture, the museums, the galleries, shopping arcades, the food and the wine. And the country beyond, so green and picturesque, so tranquil. I could go back again and again.
Your favourite food and beverage
I am an incurable foodie. Pizza today, golgappas tomorrow, noodles and stir fries, kebabs and wings, jalebis and gateaux, I crave it all, no clear favourites.
I need black tea in the morning, without it my brain refuses to wake up. Vodka to unwind.
Describe yourself in one word
Empathetic.
An interesting book you’ve read recently
Many. I have a bunch of school friends who keep recommending really good reads. The last one was Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, a profoundly moving story of a boy growing up in the shadow of his alcoholic mother. I am reading Igifu now, a collection of stories by Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga. All beautifully, lyrically told.
Your go-to-person at 3 am
My husband.