A budding writer Insiya Patanwala, is a gifted child with a creative imagination who has written the fantasy novel series titled Esoterica. This book speaks about the world of angels which fears an invasion by the devils and the story is all about how nine teenagers battle it out to save the angel world. A grade X student in one of the leading schools of Mumbai, Insiya’s passions include reading, writing poems, short stories and painting. Here are the excerpts of the interview with our correspondent Suraj Chandran.
What inspired you to write the book Esoterica?
I did not start writing out of inspiration. Nothing as such inspired me. In fact, I started writing out of curiosity. I used to read Harry Potter series those days. What got me was how J.K Rowling managed to make such an elaborate, beautifully woven plot. My curiosity got the best of me and I started writing just to get an answer to my question: How an author writes the plot for her story? I wrote a very stupid story first and it disappointed me a lot. I decided to scrap out the idea of writing. But then something made me start again. I discarded the original story and started afresh. And somehow, from somewhere, I still haven’t been able to figure out how, I managed to come up with a full length novel.
Tell us something about your book.
At first, I just wrote for fun. But then my reason for writing has changed. I started channelling my emotions into my words. I started writing down what I couldn’t express aloud. My book is totally based on things that I saw and I experienced everyday. The book deals with a teenaged fourteen- year-old girl Sophia Martin and how she hates who she is. She messes everything up and she feels herself to be worthless. That is until an incident changes her life. She is told that she is supposed to defeat evil and save the universe. Thrown into a completely different world full of chaos, betrayal, bloodshed and war, she finds herself desperately trying to survive without losing her mind. The story deals with Sophia’s emotions, the hardships she faces and how she finds her way out of every problem and learns to love herself eventually.
Which is your favourite character in the Esoterica?
I have no favourite character. I love all the characters in my book because without any of them, the book would look incomplete. I love Angelia’s strong willed personality and her mother, Somalia’s gentleness. I love Seleva’s wit and smartness and I love Jake and Jack, Sophia’s twin brother’ happy-go-lucky nature. Hailey and Hadley have their own significance as Sophia’s sisters and her first and best mates. Ethan and Anaya have their own significance as Sophia’s best friends. And so all the characters in my book are my favourite.
Do you relate with the characters in the book?
Yes. I relate to Sophia. In fact, Sophia is just like me. It’s easier for me to relate to her than any of the other characters of my book. Writing about Sophia is easy as I know how she must be feeling at different times and in different situations. I feel what she is feeling and I understand it and maybe that is how I write. It was so that during the course of the time I was writing the book, I was suffering from low self-esteem and trauma. When I used to come home from school, I used to pour out the distorted emotions on the paper. According to that, I wrote. That is how Sophia was created. In truth, Sophia is ME.
Who is your favourite author?
It’s obvious that my favourite Author is J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter series were one of the first books I started to read.
What prompted you to become a writer?
No one did. I acted upon my emotions. Writing came naturally to me and I wrote what I felt. I didn’t write because I wanted to be declared as an ‘author,’ I wrote because it made me feel good. It made me feel relieved and alive.
What is your ambition in life?
I want to inspire people. I want to help them. I want to be the one who makes a change in the world, who makes their mark. I also want to help people get out of their stress and ensure that no other person- teen, adult, child- goes through any kind of stress. Maybe that is why I want to become a psychiatrist.
What are your hobbies?
Writing is obviously my hobby. Drawing, painting, reading are other hobbies. I also like singing a lot but I am not confident about it. I also am going to learn to play the guitar after the conclusion of my tenth board exams.
