Author Interview: Ms. Namrata Gupta.
- Please introduce yourself.
A: I am an English Literature graduate from Hans Raj College, Delhi University and have completed my post-graduation in Masters of Business Administration from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi. I reside in New Delhi. My poems were published in national newspapers like Punjab Kesari when I was ten. My write-up has been published in Hindustan Times. I have academic scholarships awarded by CBSE to my name.- I have authored three popular novels, A Silent Promise (2015), The Full Circle… Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery (2018) and Together We Were (W)hole (2020). My books have won many hearts. A Silent Promise, a readers’ favorite, was launched by Mr. Petko Doykov, the Ambassador of Bulgaria to India. The book was also released by Mr. Sudhir Mishra (Indian film director) at Gurgaon International Film and Literature Festival, held at DLF Cyber Hub (2015), where a reading session was also conducted for the book. The Full Circle… Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery was best ranked #26 in Crime, Thriller and Mystery and #33 in Contemporary Romance on Amazon. Together We Were (W)hole (2020) was recently ranked #1 In Romantic Suspense and #2 in Crime, Thriller and Mystery on Amazon.
I want to make an immutable influence on the minds of the readers through my writing. I love travelling and exploring new things.
- How did you end up becoming an author?
A: I loved writing since I was a kid. I used to write poems and articles for national newspapers and school magazines. I loved English Literature. I was always fascinated by it and found my escape in it. My poems were published in national newspapers like Punjab Kesari when I was ten. So when I started writing poems, I found myself travelling to a completely different world. The love for such travel increased to a point where I created my own different world and hence ended up writing novels. Love for Literature and flights of fantasy, which writing allows you to have, made me a writer.
- Your third book has recently been released. What is “Together we were (W)hole” all about?
A: Together We Were (W)hole is a Romance Thriller. It is a tale of vengeance amidst distorted personal relationships, misunderstandings and masked identities set in a business environment of deceit, power plays and games. Sanaya has looked into the heart of betrayal and managed to stay alive after a perceived emotional and physical battle with someone she cared deeply about. She has risen from the ashes like a phoenix for one purpose, to seek revenge against the man who betrayed her trust and left her to die. There is romance, suspense, lies, deception, misunderstandings, betrayal, revenge, deceit, power plays within the narrative. The plot has business partnerships, corporate life, a warm love affair and thirst for vengeance.
- Can you throw some light on your previous works?
A: A Silent Promise (2015) is about the journey of a youngster, Avantika, towards finding herself and the purpose of her life after an initial setback. She meets a person who helps her find the true meaning of life, only to be tricked by destiny. It is through the trials and tribulations she faces that she grows, becomes stronger and matures. The book also questions social conventions and touches upon social issues like the question of real blood. The story is empowering in its own way. Besides, the book also keeps suggesting to the readers the impending doom, the game that is played by destiny later in the book. So the entire aura of the end is kicked off from the beginning itself, which is one of the things I liked introducing in my debut novel itself.- My second book, The Full Circle… Stumbling Upon A Sinful Mystery (2018) is a Romantic Thriller. The book captures the story of a traveler, who on his journey to finding a ‘home’, ‘home’ in the spiritual sense of the word, becomes a part of various stories and helps people in his own way. The book breaks stereotypes at many levels and questions ‘settlement’ as being related to ‘fixedness’. The concept of a ‘home’ is shifted from the physical domain to the spiritual one and the book asserts that home doesn’t necessarily has to be a place. Home can be a person too. The book opens up in Darjeeling, where Aditya meets Zinnia while staying as a tenant in her mother’s house. As the narrative progresses, he stumbles upon a devastating secret about Zinnia’s past that turns her life upside down. The past and the present merge beautifully as they uncover the truth behind her past.
- How long did it take you to write this book?
A: It took me a month.- What is the most difficult part in the process of writing a book, as per you?
A: I think it would be doing justice to the depiction of the characters in the book. So, for example, in Together We Were (W)hole, Mr. Kashyap’s character is shaped by his traumas, insecurities, ridicule he was subjected to and thus, he wears a mask in public to hide the loneliness deep within him.
Similarly, after looking into the heart of betrayal, Sanaya is completely transformed to right the wrongs done to her. Yet deep in her heart, she yearns to go back to old times and to her unfiltered self. Siddharth runs from his own emotions in the book. In running from his feelings, he showcases a variety of shades and at times, contradictory traits within him.
So I would say that sewing the past experiences of characters and where they come from within the narrative, while justifying their present complexities as rooting from the past or being a result of various psychological and socio-cultural influences, and at the same time keeping those intact and running along in the narrative requires efforts from the writer’s end. Plus, they also have to grow as persons within the story and that too has to be highlighted, keeping their integrity intact, without them coming out as whimsical, if they’re not supposed to.
- Anything you would want your readers to know?
A: Readers, you guys are my support system. You keep me going and make me so happy! Thank you very much for supporting me. Your messages mean a lot to me. I am blessed to be able to reach out to all of you through my books. Please keep supporting me always.
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