Pen drive

Gurnaaz Kaur

“I’ve always been creative. I have a wild imagination and I’ve always put it on paper,” Nandhika Nambi begins with this brief introduction about herself and her interest. This final year medical student is also a part-time writer, not since some years but as far as she can look back.

“I’ve been writing since I first learnt to form sentences. I was in class 10 when my father found a story by me on our computer and chose to surprise me by self-publishing it. Seeing my writing as a complete book was inspiring. In no time writing felt more than a hobby,” she shares.

Her second book too was self-published by her father but these two times were so encouraging for Nandhika that she decided to set out on her own process by submitting the manuscript of her third book Unbroken to various publishing houses in India. “I didn’t tell my parents about it. I faced some rejections before Duckbill okayed to publish it. It has been an interesting experience. Marketing, getting reviews and then more reviews pouring in and a step about that was winning the Hindu Young World Good Book Award last year. All of a sudden I was being interviewed, invited to talk at literary events, and book clubs. It gave me a lot of exposure in the writing world,” she smiles.

This time, she conducted a workshop on creative writing for teenagers at Dikshant Public School and feels a sense of accomplishment. “Teenagers have a lot of issues. Being able to build a rapport with them, seeing them open up, was very nice. I love talking to children. I helped them expand sentences to add more emotions and share their inner stories,” she shares.

Ask her what next, and Nandhika says, “I am passionate about both medicine and writing. Right now I am busy with my studies but I plan to pursue writing more seriously in the future and no matter what, I will make time for both my passions.”