Subhechcha Ganguly 
Ashu Verma Choubey is a talented writer, who has been writing on many online platforms and has co-authored several anthologies.
She has won several awards in her chosen field.She has been selected for ‘The Best Story Writer 2023’ awarded by the Momma Clan.The Rising star and The purple quill award by the Cherry book awards and has also won the accolade for her English Poem in the Republic day competition by The Story mirror and this list goes on.She is an Electronic Engineer and an English honours graduate by qualification.Having written many inspirational blogs and poems on mental health in women and conveying women’s emotions through her solo book “Shades of a Woman beyond her Lihaaf”, she has made a special place in the heart of her readers.Let us know more about her in this interview.
1)Namaste ! Tell us about your first experience in writing
I’ve had this habit of scribbling my thoughts and poems to vent out my emotions since school days. Those write ups would sometimes be the feelings of a teenager or some beautiful dreamy notes but mostly emotional remembrances of my late father.Writing then relieved me of all the psychological struggles and emotional disturbances I faced. Those heartfelt notes still lie hidden in my diaries.
Writing somehow gave me immense satisfaction in all the forms I adopted, be it answering my question papers in detail or pouring my heart out whenever I felt sad, writing old Hindi songs in my diaries with some lyrics changed or preparing any technical or non-technical notes during my work life for that matter.This all came to a grinding halt as my life took some unfavorable turns, but then my journey of writing restarted in 2020 with a twelve-line poem that has now converted into a diverse collection of over 1200 blogs, articles, flash fictions, poems and micro tales on various online platforms, co-authorship in many Indian and International anthologies and finally “Shades of a Woman Beyond her Lihaaf”.
Whether those teenage experiences or the experiences that I’ve been gaining since 2020, all have been very satisfying both mentally as well as emotionally for me. The comments, the likes mean much more than awards as those words flow out directly from my readers hearts.
2) Everyone has a source of inspiration that acts as a positive source in their life. Who or what has been your source of inspiration?
As I mentioned above that though I had a passion for scribbling my heartfelt notes in my diaries since my school days which though slowed down as I got busier in the drudgeries of day-to-day life, but still continued with the different experiences I underwent as my life took different turns but after four years of happy married life, I started facing issues in conceiving and went through a traumatic and exhaustive period, taking various fertility treatments and then of looking after very prematurely born kids so during all these years there was no motivation to do anything in life and my passion for writing too supposedly went in deep slumber.
But in 2020, when the lockdown happened, the pressure of looking after the kids all alone in those circumstances and the mounting mental pressure started leading me to loneliness and that is when my long-lost passion came to my rescue.I remember it was about 2 o’clock at night when I saw a beetle crawling on the wall of my dining room and it seemed to me such a beauty that I immediately penned down some lines after a long gap.And as if it was destined for me, the next day, I accidently came across an article from a very well renowned online platform on my Fb page. I downloaded the app. and after going through many impressive write ups, I prepared myself to write once again and this time not in my diaries but on public platforms.
So, I thank that creature for putting words in the vacuum of my thoughts that night.
I would also like to give credit today for the success that I’ve achieved to an officer in the organization I worked for, who had advised me never to quit writing, the day I was resigning, “Ashu, I would just suggest you to never quit writing. Whatever you want, you just write and one day you will surely attain great heights and even if not so, still it will help you mentally and emotionally in life”, he had said that day.
It feels as if he had read my future that day for his statement has come true today in not one but both the ways.
Secondly, writing I believe is a source of relieving oneself of one’s tensions and anxieties and has the power to carry the writer into another world and that is why I took to writing to escape my monotonous schedules and get a fresh breath of air for my tired soul.
Later on, I started visiting various platforms to know about their prompts and then I would relate them to my day-to-day experiences to create ideas for the fictions I’ve written.
The day-to-day happenings around us inspire me to write blogs and eye-opener 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.
Then my journey of parenting my triplets has also motivated me to write about motherhood struggles and their potential solutions.
3)… How did you decide the plot for “Shades of the woman Beyond her Lihaaf”. Also share the link for the purchase of the book?
Regarding this dream book of mine, it started as a challenge posted by the bookleaf publishers, that attracted my attention and I filled their registration form. In that challenge 21 poems had to be submitted during a period of 21 days. Initially I was getting too confused about what topic to select because I didn’t wish to just publish some poems but wanted to convey emotions and that brought me to the conclusion that I could utilise this chance to convey the various unsaid feelings of a woman as her life progresses. Her emotions as a small child, a teenager, a college going girl, a bride, house wife, a working woman, a mother and all the other roles that she plays during her lifetime. And thus began the journey of these poems starting from and ending in a question and in between depicting her sentiments as her life progresses from a girl to a mature woman and the various emotions and fears she faces and the questions she raises during her lifetime.
My link to the book is ……..
On Amazon
And
On flipkart
On Amazon it is available both as a paperback and in the kindle version.
4)…. If you have a message to give to the youth on how they can improve their writing skills, what would it be?
Why not. I would like to say that writing is not just an art, it’s much more. It’s human emotions, circumstances and sentiments conveyed in black and white and when conveyed Direct—Dil Se, it has the power to touch the hearts of readers too.
Never think about what others write or think. Write whatever you feel like and what you are, write what you want to convey to the world. Remember every human is different and has a different thought process. Some people may like your work and some won’t but never get carried away by either the compliments or the comments, just focus on how to improve your way of communicating. Neither was my first write up to the mark nor will yours be, but you will improve with every article or poem you write.
Secondly read a lot, not to get influenced but to learn. And this is not only about reading other authors, read yourself too from the third person point of view and then you’ll come across the mistakes that you’ve made and the improvements you can do to make your articles much better. Also, the third person point of view will give an insight of how well you have been able to convey your feelings because that is when you will know what the reader understands out of your article and not what you’ve written.
And focus on editing. Edit, edit and edit is the mantra towards well-crafted articles and stories.
5)… Being a homemaker is a full-time job. How do you maintain the time to write and also participate in several prompts and awards?
Yes, definitely dear. Being a homemaker and in my case a mother to triplets is more than a full-time job. I have sacrificed all I could for the sake of nurturing our preemie babies. Every hobby and every passion took a back seat in my life since my kids entered our lives.
That is when to relieve me of the monotonous and mentally exerting schedules, writing came to my rescue and to do justice to my passion I definitely have to put in lots of extra efforts. I steal time to write micro tales and poems on prompts with deadlines while having my lunch. I keep thinking about themes, verses and plots while working in the kitchen and materialize them in black and white after the world sleeps. I work late in the night to do justice to my writings before retiring of for the day. Actually, this is a give and take relationship between me and my work. I deliver stories and poems and my creations give much required relaxation after my hectic day.
That is the time when I visit various platforms for their ongoing prompts and challenges and make a calendar with all the dates of submissions mentioned.
Some I successfully complete and some I miss. But at the end of the day, I put in my sincere hard work to satiate my thirst for writing.
6)… A lot of writers want to create their solo books but they feel underconfident to do so. What would be your advice to them?
“I’ll not fear, just go with the flow and convey my thoughts, straight from my heart”, make this your motto.
For fear kills creativity.
Always remember the first draft is never the best one. Mine wasn’t either. It always takes lots of editing cycles before the final version comes out as desired.
Do not go by what others are writing, rather give direction to your own thought process. In this world of millions of people, you are sure to find your set of supporters too.
But always remember to read your manuscripts from a reader’s point of view as I’ve mentioned earlier too. It will bring out the faults done and the shortcomings if any and help you convey yourself in a much better way.
Choose wisely and then be confident about the selection of your topic, the choice of your words, the theme of your story or poems, and your style. Everyone has their unique style, I have mine, you might have yours and they might not match. But that doesn’t set the criteria for judging the best. Some people may like my work and some yours. It’s just a matter of matching and mismatched thoughts. No competition can decide a winner or loser. Every write up is a message in itself, but don’t write anything just for the sake of writing. Because as I said earlier, writing isn’t just another art. It’s responsible work and with every article that you pen down you creates an impact on the society. Target topics that need public attention and be wise while choosing your words.
And definitely read more and more to get new ideas, learn more vocabulary and get a hold over the language that you want to write in.
Thank you
Regards
Ashu Verma Chaubey
