Author Interview – Abhishek Goswami

Abhishek Goswami is an author of debut book “The Lonely Drummer and other poems“. It was nice interacting with him.

Q1 – Hello Abhishek, it’s nice to have a chance to interact with you. Please tell us something about yourself.

[Abhishek]: Thank you. I am born and brought up in New Delhi in a middle-class Bengali family.  I did my schooling from St. Francis De Sales School in Janakpuri, New Delhi and then did Bachelor in Science from Delhi University. I also completed my PGDBA in HR from Symbiosis, Pune. I am employed in different MNC firms in Delhi NCR for last 16 years and am currently working in Gurgaon. In my leisure time, I do love to read fiction books, especially mysteries and also watch movies.

Q2 – How was your experience as an Author in World Book Fair of Delhi and Chennai? How does it helped you to established as an author?

[Abhishek]: My experience in both the fairs was wonderful. It felt very nice when people showed interest in what I have written and were curious to know more about my book. Most of them wished me well for the future as well.

This experience helped me to understand the readers very close upfront and direct interactions with them has generated a lot of ideas and thoughts in me which I will surely leverage in my upcoming creations.

Q3 – I have read your poem which was recently published in a leading newspaper. How does it feel getting such recognition?

[Abhishek]:  It feels great when your efforts get rewarded and you get recognition. It serves as a great motivator for the future as well. When you realize that the thoughts and ideas which you grappled with in a corner of a room or while travelling and which you wrote sitting lonely in a room has finally reached thousands of people via a newspaper article, the feeling is both humbling and overwhelming.

Q4 – When did you write your first poem? Who inspired you to get it Published?

[Abhishek]: First poem, good question! Let me think, it might be for a School magazine where I was the chief editor, maybe 20 years back!

However, if you ask me about the 35 poems in this book, out of these, a handful were written around 15 years back which I then included in this collection. But the majority were written in 2016-17 only.

It was always my dream to write a book and get it published. Also, a few friends of mine have recently got their books published which has given me encouragement to go ahead and publish my own.

Q5 – Please tell us something about your journey as a writer. Please tell us something about your book “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems”

[Abhishek]:  As I said earlier, it was always my dream to become a published author. Right from childhood, I always liked reading books across genres like Adventures, thrillers, mysteries, historical, science fictions etc. Gradually, I got interested in writing stuff like short stories etc. One day, many years back, Me and one of my friends decided to write a novel. We developed the synopsis, the main characters, the plot etc and even wrote a few pages. But then, as life is, we were slowly drawn away by our daily life routines, office jobs, family life etc. So, the novel remained unfinished and my writing process also stopped. All these years, the desire to write something worthwhile and reaching out to the wider world with it remained burning inside, but I did very little to fulfill it. I thought with ever increasing responsibilities in life, I will never be able to do it and so did not even try doing anything about it. I also realized that writing a full-length novel is indeed a very compelling task, in terms of dedication, time, mental energy involved and it requires a lot of patience to plan the whole thing out as well. Maybe I lacked the patience and determination to carry out this task. I did use to write short poems to popularize a few office fun activities like the cricket tournaments and wrote a few blogs as well about our offsite trips as well. However, something was still missing and I was not getting fully motivated to write further.

During one of the office events last year, I witnessed some wonderful stuff displayed as exhibits like paintings and photography done by some of our colleagues. I felt that I also can do what I want to do and felt encouraged and motivated. I made up my mind to capture some of the experiences I had in life in the form of short poems. I made a separate Facebook page dedicated to my poems and wrote several of them which got helpful reviews and I felt confident enough to think and plan and write more stuff.

This collection of poems in my book covers several topics like Life, Spirituality, Nature, Humor, Mystery, Science, Lives of famous personalities and even science fiction. This book is intended for all age groups and can be enjoyed by one and all.

We all are surrounded by natural objects like the Sun, moon, stars, clouds, trees, rivers etc and a few poems are dedicated towards these objects. Also, there is one poem in this collection titled “The Blue Book” which I have written in 5 parts as it is a suspense/mystery genre poem. In brief, as humans, we all have various emotions, feelings and interests, this collection of poems does reflect the true variety of all the things we are made of.

Q6 – Why did you choose a title “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems”?

[Abhishek]: The Lonely Drummer is the title poem. It talks about the fate of a performing artist and the state of “Arts” in our modern world today.

There are 34 more poems in this collection which are of different flavor, tone and intensity.

This collection would take the reader through a gamut of human emotions and feelings and tickle the reader’s imagination and curiosity levels as well. If the “Lonely Drummer” talks about the fate of a performing artist, the “Memoir of a Currency Note” deals with a first-person account of a currency note’s life journey and how it is similar to humans as well. The “Blue Book” is a poem of the suspense/mystery genre and is sure to appeal to the curiosity level of the reader.

Q7 – How do you think a poetry can help to shape a society? In your view how does it create an impact?

[Abhishek]: Poetry by itself is a form of literary art, just like prose writing. Where it is different from prose is its ability to convey maximum thoughts and emotions in minimum words as possible.

Today we live in a world of supersonic pace and agility. We have achieved tremendous progress in almost all fields possible. Whereas we have gained in speed, we seemed to have lost in keeping our calm in different situations and be composed and retain our emotional depth. Here, I feel poetry plays a significant role in our lives. It shows us a clear picture of where we are and what we think currently in a short, sweet and subtle manner and encourages us to develop our latent emotional depth and sense the world once again, not in a hurry but in a calm and composed manner.

Q8 – How did you get a chance to published?

[Abhishek]:It was very tough to get any big publishers to even read my sample poems (Hazards of being a first-time author). Still I persisted and sent samples to around 12-13 different publishers, and with a little luck and help from one of my friends who has published one book, I could finally figure out the scheme of things and make my way forward. It was a very challenging and sometimes lonely and frustrating journey, but I kept my self-belief and went on.

Q9 – Can you please share your editing experience about your published book?

[Abhishek]:The editing experience has been good overall. The right suggestions from the experienced folks does help and it was a very smooth ride.

Q10 – What was your reaction when you saw the first copy of your debut book “The Lonely Drummer and Other Poems” which was placed in World Book Fair.

[Abhishek]: Wonderful. It was a dream come true for me!

Q11 – Are you working on your next book? What can we expect from your next book?

[Abhishek]: Yes, I am working on my next collection of poems and have already written a few of them.

The next book would also touch topics about Nature and lives of people around us. But it would be different in terms of scale and intensity, that is for sure.

Q12 – Would you like to share any specific pattern or style of writing with our readers?

[Abhishek]: So, I use all kinds or forms possible. Broadly, a poem can be either rhythmic or non-rhythmic. The non-rhythmic ones generally follow free verse and bit content heavy. So, I do not need to embellish it further with any special forms. In this book, you can find “Circles of Life”, “The Tenth One” to name a few on this pattern.

The rhythmic ones can be Alliterative (repetition of same sound in a line), Limerick (5 line in a stanza with a strict rhyme scheme – AABBA) etc. There are poems based on Alliteration (“Striking Storm”, “Butter Biscuit”), Limericks (“The Lonely Drummer”) in this book.

Connection with nature is one of the recurrent themes in this book which talks about our connection with nature (“The Floating Messenger”, “The Long Walk”). The younger readers can also expect to read and enjoy some lesser known facets about our solar system, scientific discoveries and history in a few other poems. (“Signs of Science”, “Original Nine”, “The Brightest Jewel”).

Q13 – Who is your favorite debut authors? What do you like about his/her work?

[Abhishek]: I do like the “Asura” by Anand Neelakantan and “The Emperor’s Riddles” by Satyarth Nayak. Both the books use historical and mythological references and offer a completely different take on what we know commonly with fresh perspectives on some very well-known characters.

A must-read for all fiction readers!

Q14 –How is your regular day as Abhishek Goswami? Have you experienced a situation where people have identified you in a public place? Please Share that experience.

[Abhishek]: I work for an MNC firm in Gurgaon and stay in Greater Noida (West). As such, the travel time is very high, thankfully I have got time flexibility and don’t need to travel to office every day. In between travels sometimes I get hold of an idea and quickly jot it down for later reference. And then write something out of it in my leisure time.

Still awaiting that moment when people recognize “The Lonely Drummer” in a public place!!

Q15 – What advice you want to give to aspiring authors? If your readers want to connect with you, how can they do that? Tell readers about your socials to connect.

[Abhishek]:Go all out to complete that book which you are planning for a long while.

Don’t get disappointed with delays as they are bound to happen. If you really plan and go for it, you can make it happen.

I am reachable at:

Mail – abhigos@rediffmail.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/abhigos99/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/abhigos99

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-goswami-66995267/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/abhigos/

Best Wishes Abhishek. Hope, you achieve a great Success.

Grab a copy of “The Lonely Drummer and other Poems” from Amazon at Click here