Author Anuradha Prasad gives insight into her writing journey as to how it is, being a women author in India.
“More and more women are breaking into streams that are extremely vigorous and goal-oriented. If you take the case of journalism, it is extremely competitive and rigorous. A lot of energy and bravery is required for reporters to venture into unknown strife-ridden territories to report stories, which are not considered as a female thing! Having said that, writing as a craft was always dominated by women. It is seen as a woman’s domain like the professions of- doctors, public speakers, professors, teachers, dancers, models, actors, singers or nurses”
“The nationalistic literature for freedom struggle or inspirational literary expression or story-telling, the women of India dominated it for decades! On the other hand, spot reporting is still a male domain not because it needs a lion’s heart but because one needs to travel to remote or
dangerous locations often! Having said that, women are making great strides in every field in our country today! Be it the army, politics, engineering, or piloting! We have truly stepped into the 21st-century cauldron of gender excellence and equality. Feature writers and editors are majorly women today” she added.
Going on about her Breakthrough in writing and publishing her books she states “Did I face a problem for a breakthrough as a woman into writing? No! But as I said, women do have to make a difficult call of nurturing their families and spending that precious time outside of their homes. It is more of nature’s design of gender conformity.”
She continued “Women need to constantly strike a balance! Coming back to my story, writing, and getting published was more crucial for my recognition rather than being recognized as a woman writer. I had no gender excellence to prove in the field, to make a point! My earliest memories of writing were at the age of 6 or 7 when I penned poetry after school hours. The verses were lost to time as life happened.”
The writer in me raised its creative head now and then. An inspiring note here or there, an article that provoked thoughts, a revolutionary outpour for a leading magazine found its way through my pen. I am happy to share that I never experienced a struggling writer’s pit-falling woes. My work found its way to publishing easily.
Dr. Anuradha Prasad also shared her inspiration in writing. “Danielle steel! I had read all her books by the age of 10. Thanks to my mom (she was a teacher), my reading habit developed at a voracious pace. She had her little library of books at home that I diligently read through when she took her afternoon naps. Thus, I read all the genres of books from a very young age of 7.
My mom would get a novel a day, for her afternoon reading siesta, before napping and the books became mine after she snoozed off. I read adventure, adult romance, rom-com, and crime thrillers from an early age! She did hide her books after I was caught reading Herold Robbins once, but then I was smart to find them, nonetheless. I chewed every word that was and developed a vociferous love for reading. My favorite books of Danielle Steel are- ‘The Ring’ and ‘The Stranger in the House.’
What inspires me is her simple writing style and language. As a ten-year-old ‘ME’ could galvanize the profundity of emotions, descriptions.”
The author went ahead and talked about her next literary work “My next book is all about being the best that you can be. It is also that we are not demi-gods to the parenting roles that we play for our offspring! We are human so we can err. The supermom superwoman/super parent images bestowed on we women is all over-expectation of modern living! Moms are moms as regular people. Parents are normal individuals. The book has an exciting backdrop of suspense that sets it apart.”
She shared her favorite lines or quotes from her books and that she is happy she chose to write “You cannot change who you are. But you can be what you strive for” is from ‘Two winters and 365 Days’. “It’s the dreams that make you big or small. Dreams that give you the power to live! Raghu was feeling like a king! His dreams made living in such a rat hole exciting! Is it from ‘Coming back home’ and Are everyday heroes those people who have their names etched in golden words in the history pages? Or like you and me, who have just set an example by their random acts of kindness? from Raindrops and Caterpillars.”
The author has written “TWO WINTERS AND 365 DAYS” in 2014. The title caught the eyeballs, and it became an instant hit. The second book was released in the year 2016 was- “Coming Back Home and The third is a collection of short stories released in the year 2018 – “Rain Drops and Caterpillars.”
Anuradha Prasad is an artist, speaker, and author. She has worked with and published thousands of articles in top newspapers and magazines. She has a PhD degree in English literature from Mumbai University and was on the cover of Times Westside Plus and several notable publications.
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