“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you grow.”
This beautiful and thought-provoking quote by E.L. Doctorow elucidates the writing journey of the young author and writer Ms. Shruti Priya. She started writing in 7th grade when she was 13 or 14 years old and had made a writing blog then where she posted her self-written poems in Hindi and English. The blog was named after the constellation in which she was born- “Rohini” रोहिणी (shanushruti.blogspot.com).
During her teen years, her main motivation for writing was her teachers who insisted and gave her many opportunities to write and take part in various elocution and debate competitions as she was good at orating and public speaking. While delivering on stage she used to observe and feel the reaction of the audience she could see those scintillating eyes, blissful smiles standing ovations and those claps and shouts , all of this triggered her to perform more , to write more. She has delivered many of her self-written poems in various school and state-level poetry competitions and Pakhwada and won various medals and trophies but there were times when she lost too but overall it’s about learning, she remembers this quote of hers : “ jeetenge ya seekhenge” and because of this every competition in which she took part in taught her new ways of writing and speaking. Also, she had the opportunity to learn from her competitors too. Shruti’s mother, Mrs. Mamta Kumari also writes well and she has been her mentor and guide throughout her journey, professionally she is a teacher but indeed as it is said a mother plays an important role in the upbringing of her child and thus Shruti is grateful to her mother who has taught her how to write, how to present and deliver on stage.
Shruti has co-authored around 6-7 books like When Hiraeth Whispered, Shabdon ka Karwaan, The Shades of Rainbow , Emerald-Vol. 2 by the Wordings , Out of the Common to name a few and got to know about all of these through her networks and pages available on Instagram. She has also been featured by the pages of The Wordings, Urbaneofficial, Namya Foundation and The Sharedpen Offiical on Instagram.
This clearly shows how young writers like her can utilize various social media platforms like Facebook , Instagram, LinkedIn to avail competitions and internships and increase their skill set. She will soon be publishing her solo book “Forever is a Delusion” next year. Over these years of her participation on various platforms and organisations has given her a lot of experience and she has learnt so much from her co-authors and the publishing houses.
She shares that writing has been a habit now from hobby so she writes as if she breathes. It calms her down , soothes her soul and make her all the more focused and clear which in turn helps her in memorizing the concepts of her academic curriculum. She is currently a first-year btech student at NIT Jamshedpur and whenever she gets time or if she needs some mental clarity, her first to do list is writing.
Well, babit is a thing which you practice daily and then slowly it becomes a part of your daily-life, if we take a look on lifestyle of today’s youth , the Gen-Z gen, they are mostly moved by the internet and things presented by it, well this doesn’t mean that internet is bad, it can bring the whole knowledge of the universe at your fingertips. Does that say to not look into books or to not read?– NO, But today’s youth have lost the habit of reading, since childhood and due to today’s education system books are made to seem boring and some of the current generation kids really just fear books because they were not exposed to the variety and allurance of the books.
Same can be said for creative writing. Say like you have an English Exam and a topic is given for writing essay in 500 words. Now, most of us will think that essay is hectic and uninteresting, but to say that “Wasn’t it the 500 word limit or a topic which you may not even like? And did you ever try to write a topic you really liked with no count of words?”… This whole thought process would not have crossed most of the minds of today’s youth. If you ask someone who writes as habit, it is like some medication, making your own universe on a blank page.
However,there is a section of youth like Shruti , who has taken up the hobby of writing with utmost passion and interest.“ No one can tell your story so tell it yourself. No one can write your story so write it yourself “ and “MAKE YOUR OWN UNIVERSE ON A BLANK PAGE” as these young budding writer of the present generation are doing.
