What do you do when the one thing
that you know how to do is suddenly the only thing you can’t do?
Ever since I
was young, I wanted to win an Oscar for Best Director. Hence, all my aim was
towards that goal. I did an M.A in Mass Communication, won a National Award for
a documentary, left Delhi to live alone in Mumbai, joined Subhash Ghai to
become an Assistant Director, and lived off a nine thousand rupee salary and no
holiday for years just to work at standing on the Academy Award stage one day. I
was ambitious and determined.
While I was
doing costumes with Kareena Kapoor and later script readings with Katrina Kaif
for Boom, I was writing my ideas in a journal. My stories churned in my head
and I wrote every day. Scripts, screenplays, and novel ideas filled pages and
pages of a spiral notebook. But I never showed them to anyone. I wasn’t
confident that anyone would want to read them.
As expected
in the Indian scenario, I got married and eventually had a child. And my dreams
suddenly crashed. How could I look after this little girl and still work twenty
hours a day? My priorities abruptly changed. It wasn’t important that I became a
director with international acclaim. It was important that I kept my daughter fed
and happy.
However, my passion
of achieving something in life kept me awake at night. I felt my education, my degree,
and my responsibility to my parents had to amount to more than just being a
great mother. Therefore, I started writing again. Just then, a friend visited
me and we chatted about her love life. The idea of changing relationships in
the Indian scenario excited me. I wrote the first chapter of my debut novel Losing My Virginity And Other Dumb Ideas that
night while my child slept.
The title
came immediately. The book flowed over the next few months. Suddenly I had a
purpose. I looked after my child when she was awake and wrote when she was
asleep. I balanced being a mother and being an independent woman. The fire of
ambition was stoked once again. I wanted this book to be funny, identifiable,
and real. I wrote contemporary dialogues and steamy sex scenes. I lived out my
fantasies through my words. And I finished before my daughter turned one.
When I overcame
my fear of rejection, I submitted it to a publisher. I had no idea the journey
the book would take. It became a bestseller with over 40,000 copies sold. I was
left astounded. I was now an Author! A sharp turn left from my old dream. People
wanted to know what I had to say about relationships. My words became the
thoughts that people wanted to hear. My new profession gave me the freedom to
write when I chose to and allowed me to spend time with my child when she
needed it.
Today I am
an author of three bestsellers with my fourth book Advantage Love releasing this month. With a series called Scandalous Housewives and a humourous
book called My Clingy Girlfriend in the
pipeline, I’ve changed my dream from being the best Director in the world to
becoming a Bestselling Author. My daughter, Ariaana has seen how important it
is for her mother to work and earn which makes her conscious of the choices in
her own life to be independent. I balance my time between work and her, which
allows me to be a better mother and a dedicated writer.
Women should
never give up on their dreams. Even if one replaces another, we should always
pursue our heart. Choosing to be a mother is a wonderful decision but when the
child grows up, we will need to do something for ourselves. So why not start
now? You don’t need to make a profession out of every hobby you have. You just
need to find something you love to do and try to do it every day.
Writing was
a natural choice for me because I’ve been writing since I was five years old.
Becoming an author was an unconventional choice because most women would go
back to working at what they were doing before they had children. I chose a new
profession. I turned my aspirations around. I love being able to help people on
their relationships and write about it in my novels, on Twitter and my blog.
Someday, I
may direct one of my novels for a feature film and stand on that Oscar stage
with my daughter by my side. It will be a new aim I pursue. We don’t just make
one unconventional choice in our lifetime. We make many. And through them we
become who we are.
An unconventional choice is nothing
but the challenge to turn your life around!
