“If I Find Nothing Else, I Will End Up Reading Paper Bags”: Shakhi, Author Of The Month, May 2018

An insightful writer, Shakhi loves to delve into the unsaid – into the “things we feel but don’t speak of.” Indeed, her writing on Women’s Web brings to the fore many such issues.

Every month, the editors at Women’s Web identify three from our 2500+ contributors, whose work we and audiences have loved, who have brought something unique to the platform. This May 2018, Shakhi is among our three featured Authors of the Month.

Shakhi is skilled at weaving in her emotions into a piece of writing, in a way that makes the deeply personal very relatable to other readers. Her empathetic writing always touches a chord in the reader’s heart. You can find her writing at Women’s Web here, and at her own blog, Shakhi Speaks.

I write to express what is in my heart. Being an introvert, I have always found it easier to express myself on paper than through the spoken word.

Writing provides me the vent to express my feelings whether they be anger, love, sorrow, or whatever I am feeling.

What do you enjoy reading? Does any of it help your writing?

I love reading, period.

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If I find nothing else I will end up reading paper bags.

I love the old English classics. I love Charles Dickens. Paulo Coelho, Jeffrey Archer, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte are all my favorite. I love reading poetry Keats, Byron, Shakespeare.

I love Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple. I enjoy psychological thrillers. The list of my favorite novels will feature War and Peace, Wuthering Heights, The Devotion of Suspect X, Little Women, The Heart of Darkness, The Little Prince, and so on.

I love reading, period.

Whether reading helps in my writing?

What I read influences the way I think so yes to some degree it does influence what I write. But it is not a conscious thing.

When it comes to writing on/for/about women, what questions and issues drive you the most?

Emotional and psychological issues. Things that we feel maybe, but don’t speak out. We speak about how a wronged wife feels, but how many of us care to ask how the ‘other woman’ feels.

Things that are present around us but not spoken of. A man when he hits is wife is bad but when he hits his daughter he is just a strict father.

Could you narrate an issue or incident in your life which you think was gender related, and you handled it in a way that has made you proud.

When I read this question I really had to think hard and frankly speaking I am still thinking. I can’t think of any such incident.

It is not that I am a lucky girl who has never faced gender discrimination but rather this gender discrimination has become so subtle that we probably don’t even realise it.

But I will like to point out that I have been very lucky where my parents are concerned. They don’t even believe in sayng, “tu hamari beti nahin beta hai” (You are not a daughter but a son to us). Because as per them a daughter is enough in herself, she doesn’t need a comparison to prove her worth.

What are the things you would like to write about in the future for Women’s Web?

I would like to write about things that affect us not just as a woman but as a person. Things that make us sad, happy, afraid. Things that make us angry, things that make us think.

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