Compulsive writer Vibha Batra takes you on a Euro Trip

Interview Vibha Batra: Euro Trip is a roller coaster journey

Author, advertising consultant, full-time mom, poet, chick-lit romance writer and funny woman, what do you make of Vibha Batra? Right from her first book, The Reluctant Capitalist that garnered wow reviews to the spicy Glitter and Gloss, Vibha knows how to break the boredom and add zany twists to life. She has an incredible track record of writing more than 11 books in such a short span of time and the cherry on cake is that her short stories are adapted into plays. Her new book, Euro Trip is launched today and the lady knows how to master the art of telling a good story in a conversation and is never shy to be at her funny best. In this interview, Vibha speaks on the reason for coming up with the children’s book, Euro Trip and what it takes to click as a writer where she is never is short of expressions. Mind you! There is funny take and hope you’d enjoy as much as I did speaking to her, making it a peppy affair for she is no Reluctant, dunno about Capitalist but is a maven at wearing all glitter and gloss. You can check her profile on Goodreads and Euro Trip’s link here. 

 

Author of Euro Trip, Vibha Batra.

Your next book, Euro Trip, will soon hit the marquee. What the book is all about and it seems that you are moving global to take readers on a European journey?

Vibha: Euro Trip is my first book targeted at children between the age group of 10 and 12.  I love traveling and think of myself as a young adult. And the hubby likes to say, “Acts like one, too!” So that’s how the concept was born.  The book’s about Rohan, a tween who goes on a trip to Europe, with his folks and a bunch of strangers. It is a conducted tour.  All he wants to do is click as many awesome pics as he can because he wants to win the Summer Photo Essay Contest back at school. But, it’s one crazy and rollercoaster journey with loads of surprises – some nice, some not so nice – in store for him.

How did you decide to translate the work of your grandfather, the Late Shri Vishnu Kant Shastri’s book on the Ishaavaasya Upanishad? Was it your calling that set you off to become a writer and can you describe your whole experience with this work?

Vibha: Why do I write? Like everything else in life, I blame it on my genes. My late grandfather, the late Shri Vishnu Kant Shastri, was an academic, Sanskrit scholar, and a prolific writer.  When he passed away, I decided to translate his work on the Ishaavaasya Upanishad – a book that combined philosophy, mysticism, spirituality. And that’s how it started.

Coming to the actual process of translating the book, it took me about a year and a half. I was working at an advertising agency and scared not be able to do it where questions raged in my head that it would be too tough and time-consuming. The worst fear was abandoning it mid-way. So I did what all those self-help books taught and ask us to do. I announced my goal to the whole wide world. And it worked. I couldn’t chill for a minute without family, colleagues friends asking me, “Hey, don’t you have a book to write?” It took me one and a half years to complete the translation, and shortly thereafter, it was published by Rupa. And I went from copywriter to being an author.

Your books, The Reluctant Capitalist and Glitter & Gloss have made waves where you carved a name in tapping the pulse of the youth lapping on rom-coms and there is also the poetry collection Tongue in Cheek, short stories like Family Crossword and a Twist of Lime. Tell about your fascination with Chennai where most of your stories are based and what motivates you to write, albeit tapping the youth by weaving fun characters?

Vibha: Haha! Chennai’s home. I like everything about it that includes the weather and it always raises eyebrows. #CrossMyHeart.  I dunno about tapping the youth. I am just a compulsive writer and got to write.  And I really, really, REALLY hope my readers are having fun, ‘cos, boy, sure I am!’

Your book repertoire also includes a young adult trilogy, Sweet Sixteen (Yeah, Right!), Seventeen and Done (You Bet!), Eighteen and Wiser (Not Quite!). Did you wake up one morning to script a trilogy and how did the idea struck?

Vibha: Haha! I wish! Eons ago, I’d moved from Kolkata to Chennai where I thought there was a story there. A funny one, at that. It was playing in my head for quite a while. So I just decided to sit down and write it. About time too! The first installment was a runaway hit, the sequels came quick on its heels.  BUT, I would have written the sequels anyway. Can’t let real life play spoil sport when it comes to chasing our dreams, right?

You have an impressive record as a writer achieving the feat of writing more than eleven books. How long did you take to finish a book and do you have crumpled drafts staring at you but also what inspires you to go on a writing spree?

Vibha: How long? Well, it was different with every book. With one similarity, after agonizing over the drafts, editing and polishing them or adding those finishing touches which never seemed to finish, I just had to send them out. Or I’d still be at it! Trust me on that.

Where do you draw the inspiration to write and what do you think when authors say they are forever writing during an average day, forever imagining situations and quirky characters?

 Vibha: That’s the problem. Everything inspires me. Hey, like the other authors, I’m forever writing too. These days, though, it’s mostly in my head. I tell a secret: Have a legit excuse and all. Am a new Mom.

The good news is that your story has been adapted into the play, The Theater Group. For sure you must be elated at it!

Vibha: Tuk Tuk Theatre Company adapted my short stories into plays that were performed by children in Mysore. They are coming to Chennai next month. Yay! Can’t wait for it!

My plays have been performed before but by adults. For the last couple of years, my plays have been staged during the Short and Sweet Theatre Festival South India. This year, my play won the Best Script of the Week.

Do we see Vibha Batra being into playwright in future and what it takes to become one?

Vibha: To become a playwright? Just write a play, I guess.

9. Describe your average day as an author and the entire process while writing a book?

Vibha: It’s a mad whirl of obsessing over the colour/consistency/frequency of poop (the baby’s, that is), battling hunger pangs (my own), apportioning blame for leaky diapers (the hubby), writing furiously (only in my head), misleading account executives at the ad agency (Am sending the copy any minute now), gaping at Kareena’s photos on social media (How can she look like that 46 days post delivery, HOW?).

How do you see the future of literature in India? Do you think writing pays as a full-time job coupled with the survival of print in face of e-books storming in a huge market like India?

Vibha: Gosh, I really don’t have any heavy-duty gyaan to dole out on the future of India. All I can say, with utmost confidence, is that I sure as heck will be writing. Writing. And writing some more.

 

TAKE 5:

If you were not a writer what you would have been?

Vibha: Dead

Stuck on an island with a bottle of wine, pen and loads of paper, what you would make of it?

Vibha: Stranded on an island? Ooooh, I can just see myself passing out on the sand. Making up for the sleep deficit. So yeah, it’ll have to be the most boring book on the planet (Maths textbook from Grade XII, anyone?). I’ll only have to open it and zzzzzz. *claps happily*

If you had to exchange place with a Film biggie, who would it be and why?

Vibha: Quentin Tarantino. Why? To paraphrase him, “To explain is to take the piss out of it.” Pardon the, ahem, French. But it’s Tarantino, you know. 

Going on a Euro Tour free, what are the places you would trot and why?

Vibha: Been there, done that. So, may I puhleeze opt for North America, instead?

If you were a character in your book, whom you would want to be?

Vibha: The fly on the wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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