Featured Interview With Barbara Raghavan
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Poland in 1956. My early years were spent in Warsaw, until marriage to an Indian diplomat took me first to India and then to a number of other countries.
Since then, I travelled extensively and lived among many different cultures in India, England, Vietnam, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Russia.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Ever since I could put letters together to form words, I have been a life-long writer. I started writing in Polish, but after my marriage I settled down in India and continued writing in English.
My first stories, written at the age of 6 or 7, do not exist any longer. When I was about 9, I wrote a book for some of my friends to read. Once I had left it on my desk and, on return from lunch, I found that the class bully was reading aloud from it and ridiculing it. ‘Hell knows no fury…” Tears streamed down my face while I punched, hit and kicked him, as I snatched the manuscript from him. When the teacher saw the fight and my tears, she scolded the boy, which made me cry even more, since I felt that he was being punished twice for the same misdeed. Who asked her to intervene? I was doing well!
My next memory of writing is connected with the poems of Adam Mickiewicz (a great Polish poet of the 19th century). I was about 10 years old when I wrote a shortened and ‘improved’ version of his poems and took them to a publisher’s office.
I informed the person at the desk that I can work on more poems to make them shorter and more readable. He looked at the precious pages pulled out from a notebook, but didn’t seem interested! I was told that they do not need a shortened version of any poem! I thought I would give them a chance to re-think and left my poems with them nevertheless.
For about a year I kept checking my letter-box.
Need I say, I received no reply…
I kept writing and throwing my manuscripts away – I wish I hadn’t.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I read all genres of writing. The Polish author Boleslaw Prus was one of my earliest inspirations. I am particularly interested in writings that explore human psychology.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
I wrote a novel about a boy with an obsessive compulsive disorder and a girl suffering from anorexia. The novel is complete, but until recently its fate reminded me of that of the shortened versions of Mickiewicz’s poems. Publishers are not interested in first-time writers.
Today’s world has more options for frustrated authors. I have recently put my two novels (“Born to be Perfect” and “Her Choice”) on Amazon, through the Kindle Direct Publishing route. So, I am finally a published author!
The latest novel, “Her Choice”, deals with social and psychological matters surrounding the controversial and sensitive issue of abortion.
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles
Nice answers! Thanks for posting. Will check her out!