In a candid conversation with Preeti Chaturvedi, founder of The Sunflower Seeds, India’s leading literary consulting company, Puja talks about the inspiration behind her work.
Q1: What was your inspiration behind your first novel For My Sister?
A: I wrote short stories inspired by my nonprofit work in healthcare and organizations focused on girls education. One of these stories was of the characters in my book, Amla and Asya. Every time I met girls who had life tribulations and also had dreams like I once did, I thought how they could be like any of us. That’s why I wrote a story where readers could relate to girls who were unknowingly trafficked. To connect on a global issue through the eyes of girls that could be like anyone. With over 40 million trafficking victims worldwide and the majority as women and girls, this story offers a voice for the voiceless.
Q2: How has meditation played a role in your journey as an author?
A: While I spent years working in healthcare, diving deep into my own meditation journey allowed me to find my true voice by realizing and reminding me of who I am at my core, a writer. It’s the same message I portray for Amla and Asya, the more they focus on their breath and meditate the way they learn in their yoga class, the more they find themselves, and when they lose everything they know they return to their inner knowing because that’s all they have. That’s all any of us have, the truth inside of us.
Q3: Why are your main characters twins?
A: I researched the psychology of twins as characters for the art of this story and also loved the concept of duality as portraying twins offers this very concept. The twins represent what is at play in every single person. While they are identical twins by how they look, they are very different. Asya follows the rules, Amla breaks them and so the book is told in both their perspectives. Society wants us to follow rules as women. What`s expected of us like Asya acts. And we all have the side of us that we weren`t born that way and want to question it, like Amla.
Q4: Why did you title the novel For My Sister?
A: I have a sister of my own. We are very close and grew up together in a way that allowed me to capture the essence of sisterhood. My mother is 1 of 4 sisters and I always saw the strength of their bond. I know with twins the bond is even deeper, I wanted to tap into that on a symbolic level of universal sisterhood. The power of women and girls being together even in the darkest moments.
