Subhechcha Ganguly 
Piyali Mitra is interested in Painting. She has written a beautiful book Of the Heart and soul a mellifluous whisper. She has always enjoyed writing for and making contributions to journals of repute. She is a bioethical research scholar by day and a writer by night. Writing is like liberating for her, breathing oxygen in and out.
Q1) How did you understand your calling as an author? What was your first writing experience?
Ans When I was a little school going girl, I fancied to grow up to write poems for the trees, the leaves and birds flying around me. I had that kind of imagination where I thought trees spoke through the fluttering of their leaves or river spoke through their gurgling. I have been writing for long only of late that I have started considering creative writing in the serious sense of the term. I have been writing since my teenage days, sometimes writing for wall magazines and little magazines but it’s for the first time I thought of a book compiled with my work as such. However, I waited many years to make writing my game changer, but then I think that there is a reason for every happening and now maybe is the time to make a foray into the world of writing and publishing.
My contribution as author for literary journals of both national and international repute gave me the confidence to start writing solo book. I have been a Ph.D. scholar so writing is a regular habit for me. But thesis writing has lots of technical and particular topic to concentrate. But then we all know the things we are passionate about are not random they are our calling.
At a tender I had this habit of penning my thoughts and special events in a notebook. Since childhood I used to be introvert writing diary gave me the gateway to convey my understanding of things that disturbed me, or express my passion, love. I generally found myself to be at tight corner to share my feelings for something I desire so deeply. My writings provided me the words to interact. I remember my poem first being published by a children magazine when I was in class 7 and that bagged me even a token of appreciation. That was the first time the validation gave me the boost to surge ahead and continue writing poems that I love more.
Q2) How did you decide the plot for “Of the heart and soul-a mellifluous whisper”. Give us a short brief about the book.
Ans Of the Heart and Soul a Mellifluous Whisper speaks of love in the course of life. Everything that a human being finds interesting, exciting, and pleasing, can spark love or creativity. People are universally appreciative of both love and creativity. But love can also be aggrandizing at the same time soothing. The book or rather the collection of poems make an attempt to delve into the duality finding existence as the quintessence of the emotion.
Things that intrinsically motivate me catch my attention more than the extrinsically motivated variables. I always try to see possibilities beyond existing constraints. This particular book ‘Of the heart and soul-a mellifluous whisper’ finds inspiration in my childhood days spent among the greeneries and natural beauties left a deep impact inside me. The greeneries and natural
beauty of nature is a strong inspiration for my writing. It is very difficult indeed to assimilate the benign aesthetic of nature. Nature for me is not only an open and cultivated space, it goes beyond that……. that’s the reason why I find joy in the splashing water of the unruly stream, or in wilderness. One such poem speaks of a life as a mariner finding love even in the deep sea among the mermaids, another speaks highly of a flower ‘amarantha’ generally found in the wild forest.
Apart from the elements of Nature, the idea of love inspired me. As Nicholas Spark remarked love is like the wind that can’t be seen but has to be felt. Certain relationships work magic for us and they help us to motivate to flow and ebb in life, similarly my relationship with my mother and friend provided me with an internal drive to write this book.
And now I am blessed to have my son who is a wonder in my life. His presence has woven stories of love and compassion in my life.
Q3) Nowadays a majority of the youth is much more focused on social media rather than reading books. What is your view on this topic?
Ans Reading helps to carve stories in mind and even help editing works. It is said all the rivers do not meet the sea. Some are lost finding their own ways. So do the youth maybe of today all do not find pleasure in reading or in contemplating but they find so in social interaction in the virtual world with some known and unknown people.
It is to be noted that youth of present generation has not completely done away with reading but they read in the digital format. We now have eBooks and audiobooks; they are pretty interesting for people of all age. We have online platforms like Smashwords, Goodreads, Simon teens, Tor.com that are now pulling the youth towards reading habit. You see sitting in the comfort of your home you get access to various reading materials around the globe without having to go anywhere to access the books and writing stuff desired. The discussion, the recommendations of books, commentaries are also available in various book reading groups in the social media that may augment book reading.
Q4) Kindly attach the links of your book so that the readers can get a grasp on these beautiful reads. Tell us one interesting factor of the book, that would keep the writers intrigued about this book.
Ans Love appears as the cornerstone of happiness which involves various positive physical, psychological and mental engagement and behavioural features. And this forms one of the important themes of the poems, the other being nature. The various emotions may have various partners, the poems have Mother, Divine thoughts, Nature as partners of love.
Of the heart and soul—a mellifluous whisper | BlueRose | SELF-PUBLISHING PLATFORM (bluerosepublishers.com)
Buy Of the heart and soul-a mellifluous whisper Book Online at Low Prices in India | Of the heart and soul-a mellifluous whisper Reviews & Ratings – Amazon.in
Words that Remained Unsaid | Ukiyoto
Wide Awake Volumke VII | Ukiyoto
Q5) We know that there is a lot of hard work that goes behind the launching of book from preparing the final manuscript to writing the first draft till publishing. Tell us how your experience was and to whom would you dedicate your success in this entire process?
Ans The most essential step towards attracting the attention of a book publisher is having a certain collection of poems that is unimpeachably strong. To be honest enough it is hard to get poetry published and that too through traditional publisher. Frankly speaking before forging into the world of poetry publishing, I was pretty much into the dark about self-publishing and traditional publishing bifurcation. I was writing poems for ejournals and magazines, one day I happen to get a call from BlueRose Publication House. I was initially reluctant to get my book published through them. But then their traditional book publication unit Hesten Imprint took charges of the publication of the book when I chose to carry on my book publication with another publisher. They employed professionals to edit the book and present the book to the market with less headache for me. My publication manager took charges of everything. If I happen to be not satisfied with their work, I used to call them and pester them to take notice of the changes required. Since my book released during the pandemic times exactly when the book selling business was at its worse, my book fared well and happen to remain best seller in the Amazon India Poetry section for the consecutive two week. Had the pandemic not disrupted the market constantly maybe we could have found some more buyers.
My journey of writing the draft to book publication was both sweet and bitter. However, it was a learning experience and I know now where I lacked in my first venture. And I dedicate the success of the poetry book seeing the light of the world to my mother and younger sister for their constant encouragement and deep support.
