Q1. Tell me something about yourself and take us through your journey to IIM Ranchi.
Well… that is a loaded question. But, let me give it a shot. I am from Bhopal. I completed my engineer from NIT Bhopal, then, for a while, I worked for a digital marketing start-up in Pune and eventually, I landed here at IIM Ranchi. But, what tells more about me is the fact that I am a writer at heart. I published my first book in Feb 2017, named
“Melody in Malady”, and the second book
“Love Knot” in March 2018. I have also been curating a Facebook page
“Poem-ed”, here I publish my latest work.
I joined IIM Ranchi in June 2018. During my time, I learned not only in the classroom but also out of the classroom. The course structure is such that it helps students in their holistic development. Apart from theoretical stuff in the classroom, students are also given live projects to work upon. And, honestly, I believe that if you sincerely desire to learn, you must take your projects seriously.
I was also fortunate to get an opportunity to summer intern with JSPL, Gurugram. This provided a real-life corporate world experience. It was also a worthwhile chance to get my priorities straight and pick a specialization of my liking. I personally believe, with IIM Ranchi, I have grown a lot in this past year. The journey till now has been quite extraordinary and rewarding.
Q2. You are also the topper of the batch. How do you manage to balance learning and writing?
Writing and learning both are an integral part of me. They are both come naturally to me. I come from an academician family. My grandfather was a professor and half of my family have a PhD degree. My Dad and brother are also poets. I think I am just lucky to inherit those “nerdy” and “creative” genes.
Q3. What is your “mantra” for being a topper in a B-school?
I believe in time management and being consistent. Most of the days, my schedule is to sleep at 11 PM and wake up at 6 PM. So, I get ample time to follow my passion (writing) and do some pending work in the morning, before college starts. The best thing about the mornings is no one will disturb you, no WhatsApp messages, no Instagram chats and no party invitation at 6 A.M.
Also, my “cheat code” is to pay attention in class. Your 70 per cent preparation is done in the classroom. I really like learning new things and my philosophy is “even if I get to learn one new thing out of a 90 mins lecture, it was worth the time”. So, yeah, attend classes, be attentive and manage time. It is pretty simple.
Q4. Tell us about your book “love Knot”, and what inspired you to write it?
The book is essentially a collection of proses which reflect upon the contradictory nature of love. You can either be loved or not/ you can either love or not, both the situations have their distinct nature and possibilities. For some love is a maze where they lose themselves, for some, it is a labyrinth, where they re-discover their true identity. This same idea has been the central theme of the book and hence the title Love [K]not!
There was a time in life when I was in a rut, things were not moving at all, and I was all alone. That was the time I started writing and talking about it to my family and friends. Later, I realized that it was not only me but there many people facing the same problem. The book is for all of them.
Q5. What is the process of publishing a book? What has been your journey been like?
Publishing a book takes perseverance. When I first got into this, I had to talk to many publishing houses, I kept on submitting my manuscript to them. Some accepted and were ready to publish, but then there is a catch. They charge huge fees upfront, which is to the tune of 50K-1L.
So, I would say that the process of getting published is an elaborate one. To shorten the process, I got my book digitally published on Amazon’s online kindle platform –KDP. It’s a pretty user-friendly platform. All you have to do is fill out the basic details such as title, cover picture, name of the author/s, nature of text et al. along with the .docx file of your book. KDP then takes 2-3 days to approve the content and check for plagiarism, and voila! Your book is published and available for purchase. And, the best part is they will only take a cut if you make money. They take a 30-40 per cent out of your total sales amount per month, depending on the location. It is actually a hassle-free platform for students and newbies.
Q6. What are your future plans in writing? Do you wish to publish more such writings?
Of course, I would be thrilled to publish more. I am dabbling with short stories. Let’s see how that pans out. If everything goes right, you will see a new title soon.
Q7. What advice for you give to budding writers who are currently pursuing MBA or completed an MBA and want to publish, but are finding it difficult to start?
Don’t be in a hurry. Before you take the final call on whether to get published or not, first try to informally gauge the quality of your work. Get it read by your peers, your colleagues, and look for a response. Show it to the people who you think would be open and honest to you, there is no point collecting faux reviews. Once you’re sure that people will actually like your work then only go ahead and publish it.
Remember,
a delayed but well-rounded effort will always reap better dividends than a hasty ill-planned one.
Read the book here -
Love Knot
Link of Facebook page:
poemwine
IG handle:
jain_sir_ki_beti