An author should write, and not be expected to market books
Disha Chhabra believes to bring out the best in her writing, it cannot be a profession from which she earns her bread and butter
Disha Chhabra, 35, is a product manager at Google, Bengaluru. Her
day job involves a lot of document writing, meeting several cross functional
stake-holders and driving consensus on various issues.
Chhabra’s
love for books comes from a cousin who was very fond of reading. Though she
used to write poetry while she was in school, it was really at the Indian
Institute of Management, Calcutta, that Chhabra started writing regularly and
even had blog. Even then, she had no plans to write a book till she got
fascinated by some of her batchmates who had left behind well settled career
paths to pursue higher education. “One common challenge for each of them was to
balance professional ambitions with personal responsibilities. I found this
fascinating and decided to write a book about some of these struggles,” she
says. This collection of short stories, My Beloved’s MBA Plans, was
published by Srishti Publishers in 2013, right after her graduation. Finding a
publisher was not an easy task though.
Chhabra, who
has published three books, has never really stuck to a particular genre while
writing. She has written a romantic non-fiction, a non-fiction self help in the
area of disability as well as a corporate satire. However, the underlying theme
of all her books is real life inspirations. Her second book, Because Life Is
A Gift, which happens to be her favourite of the three, deals with
disability through the eyes of some inspirational people. It was published in
2014 by her previous publisher. Her third book Corporate Avatars,
published in 2017 by Jaico, is a humorous take on the different kinds of people
we meet everyday at our workplaces and how can we deal with each of these 40
plus personality types.
Day job vs writing
Chhabra is clear that she has no plans of
taking up writing as a profession and would rather pursue it as a passion. She
believes to bring out the best in her writing, it cannot be a profession from
which she earns her bread and butter. “Writing is a non-negotiable trait in my
job. My role demands a lot of professional writing everyday. Be it simple
emails to peers to three year plans for executive presentations, 70% of my
workday is writing, so being a writer actually helps,” she says. “I also write
a lot of professional articles on LinkedIn and Medium, in an attempt to share
my knowledge with those who want to be product managers,” she adds.
Writing rituals
She does not have a set time of the day when
she writes. “I generally do not even push myself to write. But there are days
when an idea, a subject gives me a lot of food for thought. And that is when
the writer in me cannot wait any longer,” she says.
Kindle vs paper
Chhabra prefers books to a Kindle. She tried
reading on a Kindle but says nothing beats the physical books. Lately, she has
been getting hooked to audio books. She listens to these while working out.
A writer’s
challenges
Crossing the barrier of the first 25 pages
has always been the hardest barrier for her. While she loves to write, she
feels strained with the process of marketing and selling her books. “I wish
there was a well-oiled system to take care of everything else and leave the
writer alone with the pen,” she says.
Reading right now
Chhabra just finished reading Never Lost
Again by Bill Kilday, one of the founding members of Keyhole, which was
acquired by Google. Kilday gives behind the scenes glimpses to how Google
Maps—which revolutionized the world— came in to being. The book , she says, is
about imagination, and implementation. She is currently reading Thinking
Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Patrick Egan. “It is a great
reflection of how the human mind creates biases without meaning to, what are
its implications and how can one be conscious of these biases and work towards
a more informed decision making,” she says.
Most favoured
author
Ayn Rand is a favourite from childhood days
and continues to be one. “She revolutionized my thought process through her stories
and strong characters. Howard Roark, from The Fountainhead stayed with
me even after decades,” she says.
Source | The
Mint | 7th January 2019
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Research
Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Mobile @
9665911593
No comments:
Post a Comment