I never had thought about publishing 'Safarnama', it was a fortunate accident says Janhavi Bhat.

Janhavi Bhat is an author and a poet based in Nashik, India. She has done her schooling from Symbiosis School and Civil Engineering from Pune University. Post her graduation, she worked as a freelance journalist for a newspaper.

Q. How does it feel to be a published author?

To be honest life is pretty much the same as before. I don't think anything has changed except the number of people who have now read my words after getting published.

Having said that I'm always curious to know my readers. Many of them are my friends now. It's exciting to know the reader's perspective on what I've already written. I make it a point to message them personally on how did they like my book, what they felt was good, not so good and could be better. It is interesting to have various perspectives about my work.

What I love the most after getting published are these little interactions with people from all walks of life.

I feel blessed to have found something that allows me this freedom of interaction with people across the country. My book has been everywhere from North to South, East to West of India, Mauritius, Dubai, USA, Russia to name a few. It's interesting to have people from all regions to comment on my work.

Q. Did you wanted to be an author since your childhood?

Not really. My memories from my childhood have been those of watching TV, songs, movies and reading books. I have always been in awe of the world of storytelling. In fact everyone in my family has this thing of narrating stories and incidents about what happened, what could have happened right from my grandmother to me.

My dad is more into the journalistic type of narrative where he'd tell you an incident/story that he must have read in a newspaper or anything that happened in front of me.

My mum is a huge fan of suspense, horror and thriller stories. She usually narrates us her dreams. She remembers those in figments and will describe whatever she had seen.

On the other hand, I'm more towards rhythm. I'm inclined towards dancing and music since my childhood. If not an author, I'd definitely have pursued something into the world of art and creativity.

Her debut Hindi poetry collection "Safarnama" was published in November 2019. The same year witnessed the release of her debut Novella "Ashes of Desires" in December.

Q. Tell us something about ‘Safarnama’.

For me, "Safarnama" was a long journey. I never had thought about publishing it. I guess a fortunate accident!

On the contrary I was trying to get in a Masters Program for Writing. Publishing was not the plan at that moment. I used to post my write-ups on Instagram and one day my mentor said "Why don't you publish these?" And that was it.

Safarnama is a collection of a total of 69 hindi and urdu poetry and verses written over a span of 2 to 3 years. It began when I was bedridden and isolated because of a weird eye infection. By the time I thought it was ready to be published, I realized none of these verses were titled. After the final round of read I understood another thing that was never planned. The verses in sequence actually read like a story. It begins at a certain point and ends at a certain point. I evidently took this as some sort of a divine intervention and dropped the idea of naming every verse and poetry. Probably, sometimes titles ruin the essence.

"Safarnama" is a small book of spiritual essence with deep wisdom about love, life, truth, betrayal, and surrender.

Q. Tell us about your life and background a bit.

I come from a family where academics are important and a job in its traditional sense is preferred. Art or any creative pursuit should strictly be meant as a hobby.

On the other hand, I was always encouraged to learn new things every single day and fail at them. Failure at my place is seen as an opportunity to learn something new.

My parents always say, "Make sure you do justice to whatever work you've undertaken".

Maybe that's why even after an engineering degree I chose to follow what I thought I could justify in its truest sense.

Apart from being a poet and an author, I am a copywriter, content strategist and a freelance journalist. So my regular day is full of words, books, movies, my family and cats.

Versatility is her biggest strength. She has worked as a copywriter at a radio channel. Currently a content strategist at a marketing agency, she is pursuing Master of Fine Arts in Writing at California College of the Arts.

Q. Will you continue to be a poetess or you want to switch to fiction writing also?

Even before poetry and fiction I had written a movie script which I kept to myself. After "Safarnama" I released my novella "Ashes of Desires". I'm also working on few non-fiction projects. Being in the creative field, I feel it is essential to play with words. In the past I have written fan-fiction, flash fiction, blogs along with poetry. I also wrote for radio and newspaper for a brief period of time.

Q. What are you going to do next as an author?

As of now, I'm waiting for an opportune moment to travel for my Masters. Post that I'd work on my thesis project - a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Children's fiction is on my mind for a very long time now. I'd also want to experiment with Podcast.

Q. What Kind of person you are?

I'm a cat person (if that actually counts) (laughs)

I'm moody, impulsive, always experimenting, creative and quite much of a thinker. It absolutely depends on the color of the sky. (laughs again).

Q. Your all time favorite books and writers?

As a kid I enjoyed all the works of Enid Blyton. Last year I read "The Henna Artist" by Alka Joshi and I must say I've become her fan.

Circe by Madeline Miller, The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio, Silk Road by Colin Falconer, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor to name a few.

Tolkien, G.R.R Martin, Rabindranath Tagore, J. K. Rowling, Saadat Hasan Manto, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak, Orhan Pamuk are some authors I always look up to.

It's tough to pick one or a few for that matter. There has been such a variety of work in the creative realm these days and everything has its own flavor. That makes it truly special.

Q. How is the response of your book? The best compliment you got for your book so far?

The response by far has been great.

Many! The one thing that has stayed common in many of the reviews is "the unconventional representation and authentic writing style". I guess that's a great compliment for any author.

Q. Your message to upcoming fiction writers.

As an author, give yourself enough liberty to flirt with new ideas and writing styles. Everything might not work out, but something will!

Make some room for play. Remember, you are dealing with words and not numbers. People have a lot to suggest when it comes to any creative field. It is important to understand that what works for others might not work for you and vice versa. Have enough courage to discover your own path and style.

Also, be humble and open for criticism.