Musing 38- Meet the Author: Mona Verma
MUSING 38- MEET THE AUTHOR
MONA VERMA
A bit of update on my books. “Musings
of a Financially Illiterate Father” is continuously trending in top 20 on
Amazon and is an Amazon bestseller now. My second book, “The
Millionaire Mechanic” is in advanced stages of editing and should be in
your hands by next month. I am also launching my website soon, the details of
which I will share next week.
How does time fly? It has been one full year since my
book, “Musings of a Financially Illiterate Father”, debuted at the lit fest “Valley
of Words” at Dehradun. It was my first appearance as an author at a lit fest
and not surprisingly, there was a swarm of butterflies in my stomach. I was to
do an hour’s interview anchored by a famed author followed by Q&A by the
audience. I was nervous on two counts- firstly, my book was on a non-core
subject and I was apprehensive of being bombarded with questions which I may
not be able to answer. And secondly, facing intellectual and cerebral audience
who may ask no-holds-barred questions without the political correctness as
encountered in my profession.
To cut a long story short, the session went off
exceedingly well, and no thanks to me. It happened because I was guided so
beautifully by the anchor, Mona Verma, the famed author, who soothed my nerves
by meeting me an hour before the interview, telling me what to expect and how
to handle the Q&A. Her charm, grace and poise and the fact that she was
such a celebrated author had a salutary effect on me. On this first anniversary
of my debut lit fest, I thought it fit to introduce Mona and her books to you.
This musing thus is not about personal finance but a fellow author and dear
friend.
Mona incidentally is not only an author of 6 acclaimed
books but also a poet, Academician, Soft Skills Consultant and Corporate Trainer.
How she finds time and energy to do so many things together beats me and
whenever I ask her, she very gracefully sidesteps the question. I though am resolute
to find the answer one of these days as I find it so tough to even don a double
hat- of a working professional and an author.
Mona
is an award-winning author of 6 works of fiction, A Bridge to Nowhere, God is a
River, The White Shadow, The Clown of Whitefields & other stories, The
Other and Lost & Found in Banaras. She has edited various science journals,
self -help books, biographies and is a regular feature writer for online
newspapers. She is on board of various Universities as an advisory expert and
is much sought as visiting faculty for Creative writing, Haiku and Limericks.
She is a regular invitee to Writers' meet called for by Governor of
Uttarakhand, at Rajbhawan Dehradun.
Presently,
she co-owns and runs her firm DISHA, which deals with corporate, organizational
and faculty/student training in Universities and Corporate houses. She is a
visiting faculty at Mahindra & Mahindra, American Express, DRDO, ONGC, THDC
and IITs across the country. Apart from the above, she has a keen interest in
classical music, charcoal sketching, oil painting, photography and travel.
If I
cover her credentials in full, I will run out of space in this blog and hence
tell you a bit about her latest book, “Lost and Found in Banaras”, which is not
only setting new records in sales but also winning critical acclaim. The words describing
her work are of the author herself- Mona.
“Lost and Found in Banaras is entirely a work of fiction, which is based on the
predicaments of the forlorn child widows in Banaras. These women are a plaintive sight with no
dearth to the plethora of the adversities they face in this obsolete culture.
At the receiving end of the misgivings of an abrasive society, the dichotomy
between religion and spirituality further ostracises them from the life they
ought to be living. The protagonists, Brinda and Debi fight a valiant battle
against these acrimonious oddities and stave off the call of the flesh that
they could be pushed into; their hearts waging a war against the sensibilities
of the society that are so severely sedimented into its culture.
While writing this book, I was gripped by a vexed
question: What is the Law of karma, and whether there is a good reason to
believe in expiating, the longing for salvation and its significance in this
hedonistic age. The story is set around Banaras, the most ancient city in the
world; still shrouded in the mysteries, the myths and the legends that surround
it. Pilgrims and tourists throng this place to attain nirvana. The want of
peace in afterlife puzzled me all the more.
Would we want to be born again?
And what is
salvation to us?
Banaras has infinite etymologies surrounding it, the
myths, the tryst for redemption and expiation from the cycle of life and death
but what sense does it make to the common man of today? Do we still want it?
What fascinated me further was that where death is
feared in other parts of the world, it is Banaras's currency. It is welcomed
like a lucrative business. As the story wove on, I felt that Banaras fights the
stereotypes in more ways than one. That is when I had Sia and Uday visit
Banaras for reasons entirely different from the traditional. The former to her
parental home, long left. And, Uday to relive his atavistic fears but in the
name of a professional venture. But unbeknownst to them, they both had a
punishing past, waiting to be unfolded. Does their sojourn help them find a
cogent emotional fix? Does Kashi still render nirvana to the empathy starved
and what significance does the law of karma hold for the contemporary debauched
world to which Sia and Uday belong?
Lost & Found in Banaras draws its inspiration from
reality, albeit it is entirely a work of fiction, yet it does not circumvent
the enormity of these remissive subjects and breaks the paradox. The aphorisms
from the Bhagwad Gita, further reinstate the law of karma. There is an
unexpected denouement to the storyline as a new season is uncorked into the
characters’ lives, which never seemed quite as possible when they had set off
on their journey.
The title Lost & Found In Banaras, applies to the
answers to the vexed questions that life raises again and again and a discovery that freedom from the corroding
past is what salvation is. Sia and Uday
and all those who tread this journey with them find their answers through each
other, as entwined destinies come undone in the face of adversities and
realisations and fate offer them a chance to expiate, not by death but by life.
And what do the child widows discover as they in their
irrelevant existence just treaded their lives as mere white shadows in clear
darkness? Conveniently unseen and forgotten but ubiquitously ambient, just like
the white shadow of karma, something that we are never a moment without…
And it led them to find what they had lost, in
Banaras.”
Hope you enjoyed reading it? I definitely did. Mona
truly is a wordsmith and mesmerises the readers with her subtle play of words.
Do read "Lost and Found in Banaras", it's available on Amazon. I am
sharing the link.
Your honesty while describing your experiences is likely to propel you to next level and we are also equally trying to emulate same for day trading tips in stock market.
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