BHARATI PAWASKAR
By the time her first piece of writing, ‘The Diplomat’ was published, this 19-year-old NRI already knew that journalism was her calling. Deciding to pursue it as a career she post-graduated in Broadcast Journalism at American University in Washington DC. It’s since then that Ashwini Devare has been writing - for television, print or as an independent author.
Ashwini who came to Goa for the first time has fallen in love with the place. Goa was always on her bucket list. “Goa is a magical place. It has the Arabian sea. Goa is everything that I had imagined. It’s charming, I’m taken aback by the beauty, the people, the food, everything,” quips this global citizen who comes to India very often. Admitting that India is her home she states, “I feel very rooted to India. Even though I belong to the diaspora, for me, India is an inspiration for everything,” she admits.
A linguist, Ashwini knows and speaks English, Hindi, Marathi, French and a little bit of Korean too. A former reporter with BBC’s Asia Business Report and CNBC India, her first book ‘Batik Rain’ (2014) is a collection of short stories that received critical acclaim. A regular moderator and speaker at leading literary festivals in Asia, she began her broadcasting career in Maryland, USA, where she worked as a reporter/presenter for CTV News for five years.
Ever since she can remember, Ashwini has been writing. She always had a large collection of notebooks and diaries, growing up. She still maintains a diary, which came in very handy while writing her latest book - ‘Lost at 15, Found at 50’ - a memoir.”
She recalls, “Writing was a stress buster for me, growing up. We were posted in different countries (my father was a Foreign Service officer) where I didn’t have any friends - very often I was the only Indian in the entire school. I found solace in writing. I would create weekly magazines, in which I would write features about the countries we were in, and draw illustrations. My sister was my avid audience!”
Nature inspires her writing. Music and nature unfailingly fire up her imagination. Since childhood, her most favourite space is her desk. “My desk is my sanctuary, where I can sit for hours. It is the place where I seek refuge, surrounded by my favourite books, paintings and photographs. It is here where I can reflect and daydream,” quips this NRI writer who comes from a family of writers. Ashwini admits that it took her almost three years to write ‘Batik Rain’.
Set in six different countries, the book is very well received by the Indian diaspora as many of the characters and stories relate to these universal themes like searching for home, identity, displacement and cross cultural conflict. She got a lot of positive feedback for this book. People could really relate to those stories. Currently she is working on a documentary on ‘Paithani’. Her book on Paithani, co-authored with Sarita Alurkar is in the pipeline, too.
When you go from country to country and there’s so much travel and transit, it becomes like a blur. But in Ashwini’s case it doesn’t feel like a blur because each of these countries has something so remarkable happening in them.
“Wherever I go, I try to imbibe the best with the positivity around me; it’s the people, friends, families, that’s where home is. I don’t really have a concrete plan where I want to settle. Currently, I would say I’m in Singapore, surrounded by my family, friends, children and that’s home. Tomorrow it could be somewhere else,” says Ashwini.
What her whole journey has taught her is that one has to give time for reflection; has to slow down in this very manic busy world that we live in.
“Our lives are caught up in this treadmill and we have to be able to slow down to appreciate what we have, who we have. Pausing is really important because otherwise we miss out on things. Spend some time with self. Appreciate life and people around you. The biggest learning experience that you’ll read in my latest book is learning to slow down and to appreciate the past, present and people around you,” advises this wordsmith.
