Poorva Dinesh

About being a part of Anita’s Attic Creative Writing program

Every few years, my life has been marked by an event that has changed the course of my life; Anita’s Attic is one such occurrence, and I know, I am a different person than what I was before the course. To call this a writing course is belittling the Attic. Because Anita’s Attic has taught me to be alive, to use all my senses – which trust me, are more than five – in a way I had never used them before, and to take my time to decode the information because, believe it or not, that’s how stories slowly started emerging.

While writing good and bad pieces of writing at the Attic, something had started happening to me. I had learnt to distinguish a good piece of writing from a bad one, and I could look at my creation, and know exactly why it wasn’t working well. And isn’t that a lovely treasure to acquire? Suddenly, I wanted to read more, write more, think more and talk more.

I feel incomplete now if I don’t write, and trust me, this can be an annoying feeling when two chipmunks (read children) are all over me every time I sit down to write, but it’s a feeling I have learnt to love and respect, and I respond to this feeling by writing. Can a writing course ever teach this? I don’t think so. This can only be taught by a guru who believes in your writing the way nobody else does in the world – and for that Anita, thank you.

I am taking back home with me much more than I ever thought I would, and I am truly excited to start my journey as a writer, because irrespective of whether things work in my favour or not, what I have acquired is strength to go on and on, and not give up. And this means everything to me.

Poorva’s Bio

Poorva is a freelance German translator, and a writer. She lives in Bangalore. Poorva finished writing her first children’s book last year, and is currently working on her second book, which is for young adults.

Poorva is also the Founder and Editor of Interviewing India, an interviewing project with the objective of interviewing people from all walks of life on a myriad of topics that ranges from friendship, sports, online shopping to sex, marriage and education. The project is yet to go live.
 

Poorva reading of her part as author of the collaborative fiction piece, “A Pound of Flesh”