The muse and the poet

Jasmine Kaur, the author of "8 Days to the Weekend" had a poetry recital last weekend at The Collab House, Begumpet. The event was presented by The Hyderabad Poet Society. It was a two-hour session that not only elucidated on how to write and recite poetry, but also on how independent writers can get published.

Jasmine spoke of her own journey as a writer that published her first book recently. The workshop was attended by quite a number of passionate writers that participated in filling a random prompt that was given and then performing it for everyone that attended. What started off as a seminar turned into a beautiful poetry recital that evening.

"This was my first writing workshop, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was a fun workshop. Initially I thought it would be more of a sales pitch for the book. But it turned out to be really informational. I had no clue about self-publishing, and I think this is going to open a lot of doors for me.

The poetry exercise and recitation afterwards was a lot of fun and for a newbie like me, I mean a newbie at a workshop, it was quite encouraging to keep writing," said Manasi, who is a lawyer by profession and a writer by passion when asked for her opinion on how the evening went.

"I had attended a book launch a few days before the workshop, so I was kinda expecting the same thing - poetry reading by the author followed by Q&A. However, it was pleasantly different. It was firstly good to someone who's so young trying to make it big.

I loved the fact that it was very interactive and not a sermon by someone. It was very helpful in understanding how the world of getting published works, what are the nitty-gritties of things. In fact, the session left me thinking about publishing my own book," said Tavish Chadha, another writer in the making.

We had an opportunity to meet the star of the evening for a Q/A after the recital ended, where she revealed a few inspiring things about her experience as an author.

What made you choose poetry over any other form of writing?

As a child, I had constantly been exposed to theatre and a lot of independent poets. Both my parents and my sibling write as well. It is kind of a family activity.

Can you name a poet that has inspired you?

My two favorite poets are Maya Angelou and Amrita Pritam. Their work is like gospel to me.

What do you think is better, self-publishing or being published by established publishing houses?

Well, both cases have their own advantages and I think it rather comes down to a personal choice when the decision has to be taken. The best advantage you will have with a famous publisher is that you won't have to struggle as much to establish a market base and you have a better shot at selling more copies. What is good about self-publishing though, is that it is really easy these days. It took less than an hour for me to turn the manuscript I worked on for over five years to turn into a book. That being said, each scenario has its own challenges.

Are you a full-time writer?

No, as much as I would love to just write all the time, it isn't practical at this point of time in my life. I am a business school graduate and work for HUL. I basically sell soap for a living on weekdays and on weekends I sell dreams. I definitely hope I get to a point where I can afford to write full-time.

What is your muse?

People. People I care about and that are close to my heart are my muse. I am a hopeless romantic at heart and therefore, see beauty in relationships all around me.

Lastly, are you working on something now? When can we hope to see it come to life?

Oh, I'm glad you asked. I am working on a novel this time. I travel a lot for work and meet some amazing people. I do have some beautiful stories to share from my travels. It will mostly come out by 2021.