Skip to main content

Author Highlight: Rimple Discusses her New Book ‘Handwritten Letters in the Bookstore’ and Stories from her Life

We are back with another author interview. Today, with us, we have Rimple – the author of ‘Handwritten Letters in the Bookstore’. In this interview, Rimple talks about her writing aspirations, the route to getting her book published, and her inclination towards music and romance. Stay on...while we chat with her.

What motivates you to write?

I don’t have any motivation to write. Motivation is a kind of an impulse. To me writing is something that brings me clarity on what I want, who I really am. It is meditative to me. And meditation is not motivation.

Why did you choose to write a musical novel?

I write what I enjoy. And music is something that I am addicted to. In last 3-4 years I wrote about few chapters on many concepts I had for my book. They were all thrillers and emotional drama content, but I realized, it’s more intellectual. I wanted my first book to be from my heart. And my heart always craves for music, books and a deep one to one conversation with someone alike. And that’s how the idea of a musical novel came to me.

What are some of your favorite novels and authors?

Few of my many favorites are books by Khaled Hosseini, books by Rick Riordian – esp. the Percy Jackson and Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series, Mein Kamph, My Hanuman Chalisa, Sita and Jaya by Devdutt Patnaik, The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor, Harry Potter, and the list is very long. Please include all wonderful lyricists like Gulzar Saab, Anand Bakshi, Javed Akhtar, Majrooh Sultan Puri, Shailendra, Prasoon Joshi, Kaifi Azmi,  Irshad Kamil, Amitabh Bhattacharya, etc. And wonderful lost era poets like Kabir, Rumi, Mir Taqi, Mirza Ghalib, etc.

Do you think writing a book from the comfort of bedroom is possible?

Yes, as far as you have clarity what you want to write.

Where do you write from? Do you go to some specific place, like beachside or into the hills?

I sit at home typing on my desktop. I don’t write using pen and paper. But yes, I finish thinking on my story and flow when I am doing other activities like driving, walking, etc. So when I sit on computer, I just have to type. While I am on computer, I cannot do the thinking part. Screens are distracting.

What inspired you to write this book? Any tales to tell…

I wrote the book for many reasons. Will share few here.

We are all leading a busy life, living under perpetual scarcity of time, especially when we are living in a city like Mumbai.

This book came to me in no time and very effortlessly. Just by living simple beauties of life that are often kept aside in the name of career, jobs, and ever-lasting list of important matters. We fail to remember that they are not going to end and we keep postponing some beautiful moments of our life. By this I don’t mean a lavish and luxurious holidays, but may be just 15 minutes of childlike peace, actually like infants, not even childlike. Like a 6 months or 1-year-old baby have full faith in life and people around. They don’t worry that they will be taken care of or not. There is complete peace, there is an innocent smile and laughter, innocent playfulness.  As we grow old, we keep building layers, a layer upon layer, layer upon layer, and we don’t even realize that an innocent child residing in each one of us is buried under those layers.

When I decided to write this book, I created a purpose and that drove the entire process from day one till date. The purpose of this book is to live life experiencing simple pleasures of life like a long drive, music, feeling the rains, feeling the music, writing letters, reading books, expressing and communicating. Love, smile and happiness are very over-rated today. ‘I Love You’ has become so common that it has lost its essence. Smile is quite a fake emotion to look good and happiness is overrated by saying, ‘Don’t worry, always be happy’. This book brings an authentic smile in you when you read it. It will bring you JOY and redefine charm of LOVE. The book will scratch your few memories and bring a smile on your face.

Today we all talk about giving. Receiving is almost a forgotten gesture. Receiving love, gifts, smile, etc.

Also, reading is really diminishing with internet year by year. Handwritten letters are a lost art today, Loving is also a lost art today, communication and expressing is also a lost art today. Everything that books deals with is actually a lost art today. The kind of love the characters have for each other is not superficial with looks, amount of money they earn, career, position, family background etc.

What was your biggest learning experience throughout the publishing process?

Patience, Patience and Patience.

Looking back, what did you do right that helped you break in as a writer?

Writing a book has been my dream since 9th grade. I just kept that dream alive amidst busy life, amidst difficult times, amidst chaos.

Any best piece of writing advice from your side that we haven’t discussed? 

Just write! No ifs and buts.

Something personal about you people may be surprised to know?

Though I have written a musical cum romantic novel. I have never read one. But I have seen movies. But it is also because it is musical. When I think of music, only thing that can comes up with the flow naturally is love, faith and peace. And that is what being reflected in the story. So there is not only love between leads, but also family, friends, love for community, love for country, humanity, etc. Love comes in all forms – in the form of music, human being, animals, books, reading, writing, etc. So with music if I could not combine anything but unconditional love.

Any future books that you would like to discuss now?

It’s going to be completely different than this one. Should be able to finish writing it by November or December 2018

Connect with Rimple:
Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRimple/
Twitter: @AuthorRimple
Instagram: @AuthorRimple
Website/Blog: http://Rimple.in/

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more