As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven entrepreneur – Sohini Mitra for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. She is a Business Leader, Author, Mentor and Entrepreneur. Sohini is the Founder of Avant Garde Films. Let’s read more about her book ‘Black India’, her inspiring journey and her advice for our growing community through our exclusive interview with her!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Sohini:
Talk us through your background and your journey so far and also share a little bit about your book ‘Black India’, please;
I was born in the city of Joy – Calcutta now renamed as Kolkata. Spent my school and college days in Delhi and Kolkata both.
It’s been 18 years running that I have shifted to Mumbai and have settled here. Have my own creative boutique setup and all I want to do through this first book series of mine is to make people ready stories based on India and its various cultures and traditions. Can’t cover everything as it’s vast and hope readers would like it.”
In addition, I had even started my career as an emcee for sports events with ESPN star sports and people said I had a good stage presence when I used to take the mike.
Through all my writings in the future, I would like to share stories which are encouraging, positive and give dreams to the youth to pursue their dreams or achieve their aim.”
Why did you choose to be an Author over taking up a regular job?
My writing journey started around 7 years ago.
To be honest, I never really thought that I would become a writer someday, trust me neither my family members or even friends would ever dream about it. Around 7 years ago, I found a project which made me do a lot of research and that’s where I had learnt about the culture. This gave me the thought of writing the story first and now during this lockdown .. I just thought let’s share this with the whole world and publish my work. Amazon Kdp looked like a nice platform as I had instantly published my book.
The book has been launched worldwide and is available on amazon and kindle platform. Goodreads has rated on an average 3.5 out 5 and I’m grateful as a new author to a wide and varied audience from all around the world. The audience did give a good rating as per a newcomer and I’d never experienced anything like it before.
Each day, I wake up to lovely messages of encouragement from readers wanting to know about what’s going to happen to the dad of Diana. I have started penning down the second sequel of the book ‘Black India’. Hope audience will love that too.”
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Throughout my creative career, I had tough times. Sometimes extremely good days, low days but it’s all part of the process. I dearly admire the new experience which is helping me to be a better writer every day.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
There are no failures but experiences and lessons.
I hit the lowest point in my life innumerable times. I am a patient of Lupus which gave me a different perspective on life. Every Time I was admitted at the hospital my lungs almost collapsed… I fought back as it was not the time for me to bid goodbye. And my Biggest strength has been my husband and my elder son during those hard times.
I motivated myself by swimming, doing community services, loving my dog … I was never depressed and would ask the youth to neither be depressed too. If you feel depressed… go out and divert your mind and do something fruitful… and motivate your younger generation too ‘life is precious’.”
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I always try to handle and manage with venting it out… the more you shall have grudges and think about it… the more negativity arrives in your life.
I love to bake and cook sometimes and that’s the real stress buster for me.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring Author?
Don’t be an ‘aspiring writer’ for years, instead just grab a pen and paper or your laptop and start writing! In the process of creating your own book, trust yourself, support yourself and go for it.
It’s important that you focus on giving your hundred per cent at a job. Try whatever you want to explore different genres and do your research well.
You don’t have to think about publishing your work and to make it big instantly! It doesn’t work that way for many people. Just sit down and start writing, exploring and create a story which you can nature to the entire world, happy writing.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
