Roundtable Wednesday
What you say? Roundtable Wednesday is back already? How could that be??
Well, it be. First Wednesday of every month, and don’t blame Roundtable
just because time has been moving at a rate of speed we never actually consider.
And ye best be aware, I will be coming around to knock on your door
to take part in Roundtable. So, if nothing else, you have been duly warned!
But here we are, a few weeks short of Summer ending and Fall taking center stage.
A time where leaves magically change colors and drift from their limbs
to fall silently to the ground.But I digress. This isn’t about Fall or leaves but our featured Proser, who goes by her name on Prose as Smruti Swarupa. Young, energetic, avid reader and lover of her country’s music and her heritage
Enjoy the read, enjoy here her poem,
though she will tell you, it isn’t a poem.
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Can you shed some light about yourself that other people here can get a feel for who you are?
Hey-yo! This is Smruti Swarupa Mahapatra, 16 years old, hailing from Odisha, India and a Grade 11 student. Always tough, moody, and beautiful. I love doing almost everything. Writing, painting, reading, photography, talking, travelling, dressing up (I dress up over the top even for a walk to buy the grocery, so don’t take this one lightly!), I love everything.
Writer’s write, it’s what we do, but what do you see as your strong point, or motivation to write?
To me, writing means showing a piece of myself. It is like discovering something about myself settled deep inside me. I don’t even know if that makes any sense, but I believe that this is a way I connect to myself as well as people around me. It gives a pace to my emotions and creates a balance and that’s what keeps me motivated to keep writing.
The very first thing you ever wrote, if you remember it, how did it come about?
I belong to a family of writers who have written many great books during their times. This is my paternal family who have pursued it as a side job and I have grown up listening to the stories of theirs narrated by my grandmother. So the very first thing I have ever written is a short story in my mother tongue, Odia when I was some 9 years old. But the stories didn’t felt like me, let me be honest that I don’t have much good ideas when it comes to short stories, so I showed my interest towards the poetry line of my maternal family. I just vaguely remember my first poetry. but I started my journey as a poet after I successfully translated my aunt’s poem, from Odia to English.
Who are your favorite authors and please; give us a few names?
This list is quite long but I am the biggest fan of Shakespeare, Fakir Mohan Senapati, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Anuja Chauhan. They are like my all time favourite. Apart from them I also love Amish Tripathi, Sudha Murthy, Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, The Bronte Sisters, Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, William Wordsworth, Kavita Kane, Koral Dasgupta, Elif Shafak and Ruskin Bond. Gosh! That’s a lot of names.
Any favorite songs/artists you listen to that set a tone for you when writing?
I have a playlist containing all of my favourite songs from Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Jubin Nautiyal. That is like my road to get into the zone. I especially love songs like Khoya Khoya Chand, Rabba Maine Chand Vekhya, Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein, Kora Kagaz, Humein Tumse Pyar Kitna, Raataan Lambiyan, Dil Chahate Ho, Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho, Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan, etc.
Do you have any literary work on tap for publication, or have you been published?
Oh yeah! I am currently working on an e-novel, ‘The Crowning : A Change In The History’. It will be soon published online in the Dreame platform as soon as I finish signing the contract. And... I am too damn excited for this.
Is there any one particular book you have read you would recommend others to read?
It would definitely be ‘The Palace of Illusions’ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It is a rendition of the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharat’ from the viewpoint of Draupaudi, simply about the viewpoint of a woman living in a patriarchal world. Married to five royal husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom, Panchaali aids their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war. But she cannot deny her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna—or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy—as she is caught up in the ever-manipulating hands of fate. It’s a complete mixture of politics, drama, responsibilities and what not.
When you aren’t writing, what do you do that pays the bills?
Bills are still being paid from my mama and baba’s pockets. I am about to earn a few from what I write. That’s it. Well, I would love to start working, be independent and all, that is me since childhood. But then again I need to study very much well so that I can get a good job, get a lots of money, travel the world with my parents, friends and of course my grandma and fulfil all the other dreams that would require a hell lot of money. Gosh, I get too much driven in this arena.
What is one thing you do you give your all to?
Completing a story, I have started. I am so very unstable and even more confused where to actually end a story. So that would be the one thing I would give my all to.
Why did you join Prose and how long have you been a Proser?
I joined Prose because my experience in WtW was not too good. Also, when Sammy proposed me to join Prose I went into a deep thought and realised that it is a very good opportunity for me to make some friends who I can talk to without any pressure or need to be too damn perfect. I joined Prose 10 months ago, November 2020. So, I can still be counted as a fresh new member.
When you hear the term “less is more” … what is the first thing that comes to mind?
If I am being completely honest, the first thing that appeared in my mind was blankness. But something just struck me out of nowhere that my mother has once said me that ‘Simplicity is something that makes everything uncomplicated. It makes you effortless, coherent, intelligent, confident and beautiful, all at once’. And I don’t think anything else can fit the less is more definition of mine better than this.
Are there places as far as social media accounts, perhaps your own website you would like Proser’s to be aware of where you can be found?
I actually have two Instagram accounts of mine but that’s it. Nothing more. I go there by @the_areum_ and @lunar_layout02. And yeah, I tend to give names that can stand out a bit.
Favorite hobbies?
My most favourite hobby would be lying in the terrace looking at the sky changing its colors. Apart from that I love going on walks only if I have a companion. I love clicking pictures of myself fully dressed up for no reason. Adding things to the wish list which I am sure I am not going to buy in the nearby future. Over thinking about a romantic scenario which is very much less likely to happen. Pestering my sister, that is a must. Listening stories from my grandma. Feeding the stray dogs. I know these are some weird hobbies, but anyway this is me.
What is the single most thing you like?
I abso-freaking-lutely love talking. The soothing autumn evening in the beach, Mohammad Rafi music in earphone, ice cream in hand and a companion who can talk and walk limitlessly, that is so me. I don’t even have words to express how would I even feel.
What one thing do you really dislike?
I hate isolation. Like I love having my own space but the thought of me being abandoned, that would make me a over thinker in night and a over manipulative person in the day. It is like, if that “oh poor me”, mode turns on I can became a dangerously emotionally unstable person. I have eremophobia, so I definitely hate that.
With Covid surrounding us, what advice would you want to share with people?
In a situation like this, it is normal to feel sad, worried, confused, scared or angry. You should know that you are not alone and should talk to someone you trust. Ask questions, educate yourself and listen to information from reliable sources. Protect yourself physically and also mentally. Take care.
If you could offer up one piece of advice for other writer’s, what would it be?
Don’t ever participate in a rat race. Just because someone else’s progress is better, any particular genre has larger fan base and someone or something is acing the race, that doesn’t mean you have to travel in that same path. Always write something which you are comfortable about or have experienced earlier or have a strong opinion on. As long as you don’t show yourself in that piece of yours, you are not enthusiastic about it but you are anyway writing it for a ton of other answers, it will not feel real let alone impactful. Your art has a meaning and everything meaningful takes time.
Lastly, your favorite quote?
I have two quotes written in my desk; I love those words that much. Those are, “Look into your own heart because who looks outside, dreams but who looks inside, awakes”, by Jane Austen and “It is far better to patiently endure a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences would extend to all connected to you”, by Charlotte Bronte.
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Smruti, I want to thank ye for taking part in Roundtable Wednesday this month.
It has been a pleasure to know a wee bit more about you and your outlook on life.
Now, as with Proser’s past, Smruti, has no idea which of her writings
I will use to focus on as you read. Just keep in mind,
her words will tell you this isn’t a poem.
Don’t ye just love surprises!
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This Isn’t a Poem
I don’t have any poems for you,
for poems aren’t my friends anymore.
My heart is no longer the sanctum of elegy,
my emotions no longer give birth to poesy.
My sentiments no longer takes shape of couch;
life is an unending gloomy evening, with no hope of a new epoch.
Poems are not my mirrors anymore,
for I am as broken as a glass full of fissure.
You are the complexity of my pen.
You aren’t a deceit, knows my pen.
My mind is a morass.
It has divided me into 17 different parts.
With time,
16 of them might turn against me.
But the only part which shall stay resolute,
is the one that belongs only to you.
Paper is the garden and pen is the till,
Still, the flowers in this garden refuse to be metrical.
The flowers don’t ooze gentleness or beauty;
they are not fearful, for they are fiery.
I no longer mold my fervor,
to make them comprehensible.
My emotions are reckless and unashamed,
no longer fearing being arbitrated,
for that what seems to be eternal penchant,
I am afraid it is evanescent.
Why are we here?
Why are we on different ends of a verse?
Why are we stuck here?
This isn’t our home, is it?
My poems have taken new contours,
my words are no longer pleasant but ferocious.
You might try to compose a song out of them,
but I am afraid they hold any rhythm.
I am on a journey to find my true psyche,
still you are the path I take and shelter I pursue.
Our conversations often create dubiety,
leave them, let’s not waste time looking for clarity.
All I can offer you is myself,
although I have already lost myself.
And you aren’t too a stranger to me either,
I am aware, I have never been rather,
but ‘I’ am all I have to offer.
And listen,
this isn’t a poem.