Ridhi Jain – Irresolute to the Indomitable

“Congratulations on writing your first book”, Said, everyone. It’s already been a month to that day and yet it feels surreal. Growing up an under-confident person, who couldn’t even look into someone’s eye while talking to them, writing was my only escape.

I wrote my very first poem titled “My Brother” while I was 15 which also gave birth to a dream of becoming an author someday. And, that is where it all began. By the time I turned 19, I lost the count of poems I wrote every day. Writing became that door of my life which I often used, to escape the harsh realities of the world. Be it the fear of being judged or life lessons I learned the hard way, I started penning every emotion that tried to pull me down. And, there came a point where the taunts of people stopped bothering me; I started enjoying life. Slowly but surely, I was turning into a person I was proud of.

But, the dream of becoming an author was still on hold; until, I connected with a publishing house in 2020. Unfortunately, we all ended up in a lockdown. On the brighter side, I had enough time to work on my book. So, for the next 6 months, I religiously devoted myself to enhance the draft. I would roam around the house thinking of topics and ideas to write poems about the same. At times, I would break down miserably because of writer’s block and overthinking.

But, I was finally able to hit the send button on the mail 20 minutes before my 20th birthday. All my efforts bore fruit as my first debut book “Khwaab ae Khayal” went live on Amazon on 28th March 2021.

A roller-coaster ride with more than 70 heartwarming Hindi poems turned me into a published author that very day and I was finally able to cross one item off my wishlist!

From a shy introvert to a fiercely bold person, expressing her immediate and raw emotions through her words, only one piece of advice came in handy during this journey of mine, and that was –
“With action, consistency, and self-acceptance, you can move mountains; be the person you see in yourself behind those mountains.”