Name : KALPANA MISHRA 

Birthdate: 19 March 1978 

Academics: Graduation with Mathematics Honours from Delhi University        

Hobbies:  Playing badminton and listening to hindi movie songs works as a stress buster for me

1. Your journey as a writer... 

In my opinion, any event or incident in one’s life is enough to prompt them to come out of one’s shell and to do something different. Once I joined my Organisation, there was always a shortage of time to follow Theatre, it being my passion for years. This is when I started writing Articles/ Short Stories for my Office Magazine. The appreciation I received, made me realise my writing prowess, and the outlet that this medium provided for my expressions fulfilled my needs to channelize my creative energies. One of my articles: What is your Zodiac Sign” getting selected for The Times of India, actually proved to be the turning point.

I would say, my journey as a writer has just begun...

2. What is writing for you? 

Writing for me is breathing. I think that sums it up all.

3. What are your views on social media?

Wikipedia says, Social media is the use of marketing platforms to market a product or service.

For me, it’s like the way, we used to have word of mouth publicity earlier, now we have Social Media Marketing. It’s the platform to reach out to the end user directly without involvement of a third party in between. Services of Bloggers, journalists, creative teams can be made use of to sell or sensationalise the product or service.

I personally am a fan of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram as social media tools. These are freely accessible and come at a fraction of a cost of traditional print/TV/radio advertisements.

Today, if you wish to market a product or a service, you have to make use of Social media, or practically you do not exist. Moreover it’s so easy to use, that anyone, be it professionals, housewives, small business houses to the largest ones, can use it

Infact, these days i have seen a new trend.. Now the difference doesn’t lies in the fact as to who uses it and who doesn’t, but now the difference is in the fact as to who uses it more aggressively than the other one.

4. Tell us something about your book/s. 

Love Forever @ Rajpath is my debut fiction.

It begins when Shalini & Kartik compete and join a Government job. Shalini, a Delhiite belongs to a middle-class Sindhi family. Unlike other girls of her age, she is very career oriented and is not interested in getting married. On the contrary, she is scared of getting married as she has read articles regarding marital abuse. So, when her parents approach her, she refuses till she is swept off her feet by her colleague, a Bihari babu Kartik during a study tour. Just when the two love birds profess love for each other, Kartik goes missing. Shalini’s search for him takes her to a remote village in Bihar where she discovers a societal abuse called “Zabaria Shaadi”, where the boys are forcibly abducted and married off without consent. Although, with the help of Police and Kartik’s younger brother Dhiraj, she is able to rescue him, only to find that his eldest brother Pawan was the actual villain and loses her love again to a legal battle with his family elders. Dhiraj supports her throughout, even when Kartik vows never to speak to her again.

As far as overall characterization is concerned, it was a conscious decision to make Shalini the “SHE HERO” and to show her emancipation from a shy girl next door to a mature and independent character. I think our country needs girls like her today. On the other hand, Kartik’s character could be found in each one of us, where the character is sandwiched between right and wrong; between age old traditions and his family on one side, and his own liberated opinions on the other. It also reflects how each one of us has grey characters inside us. The mother’s character shows how selfless the mothers always are, sometimes assertive for their children’s good.

I had based two of my characters on Mahabaharat. Dhiraj’s character is like the Character of Karna, who wants to be with the right, but is forced to be on the wrong side, and the character of Pawan, the eldest brother is based on the character of “Yuddhishthir” who had sold off his brothers.

5. Why do we need to sensationalize the concept of feminism? What is feminism for you?

Ordinarily the definition of Feminism would be equal rights for men and women. This equality is in terms of socio-political and economic equality. But, a few segments like to mis-use the definition. I would call such people who want to reduce the women merely to a shadow of a man, regressive. For Example usage of phrases, like “Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the only man in her Cabinet” is regressive in my opinion. Contrary to that I believe that she was the only one who had the guts and will power too.

When the Hon’ble PM says “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”, I say this is what is Feminism. This phrase, after Rio Olympics ‘16, was extended to “Beti Khelao”, because it were the daughters of India this time who got medals for us.

My book “Love Forever @ Rajpath” talks about construction of public toilets and equality in jobs for women in an interesting and subtle manner, when the lead character finds herself to be the only women in her Department, only women travelling with 24 batchmates, a professor and a guide, all men, where they answer the call of nature anywhere, while she finds herself in a spot.

In a recent Hindi movie “Ki and Ka”, the breaking of the typical gender stenotypes has been brought out rather beautifully. A few of my readers have termed “Love Forever @ Rajpath” as a “She Hero” book. The book brings out the fact that it is she who calls the shots and takes decision for them, while the men around her do not have any qualms to follow her.

6. Your message to the society...

Read, Read, Read

because books always prove to be the best friends rather than any human being.