Lost in translation

Mona

Richa Devesar has followed her heart — be it her work or hobbies. Born and brought-up over a staple of filmy magazines, she inherited her parents’ and siblings’ love for Bollywood. So, when she set out to present her first written work, she chose a theme that has been eternal in films — love, and the language too.

We all use Hinglish, and probably write in it on our phones and chats. Richa, however, has gone a step ahead and written her collection of books in ‘Romanagri’ — letters are English and words, Hindi. “Love would always be in fashion,” says Richa, a dreamer who took up radio script writing, followed by RJing. While working with Spice Digital next, she set out to write her book. Both her first drafts — love stories in English —she left midway when she thought of trying her hand at short stories. “With a nine-to-five job, it gets difficult to take out time and write — sometimes you lose the story line or lose touch with characters. So, I thought of the shorter format.”

She also found it challenging to present something new in English, so she picked up Hindi for short stories. Now, since she couldn’t type in Hindi on the computer, she picked up Roman letters with an idea to translate them once the work was done with the help of software. “When I was midway, it struck me that if we can do this for our informal chat, why not for a book!” says Richa. Seeing some such popular pages on the net, she approached Ferntree.

Hardeep Singh Chandpuri has been a huge influence in Richa’s radio journey and she got all his help in her writing endeavour too. “He pushed me do better with each draft,” admits Richa. Her collection has 11 love stories. Impressed by celluloid? “There are bound be impressions, for I have internalised Bollywood,” says Richa, who, to give you an idea, has watched her favourite, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, some forty-odd times. She has been a reader too. “Mujhe na kahin bhi kitabein dekh kar munh mein pani aa jata hai,” says Richa, whose top three favourites are The Alchemist, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and PS, I love You.

Happy at the initial response for All You Need Is Love, she is penning a book on Lord Krishna next. “And, of course I will finish the two novels I have started.”

Published by Ferntree, the book is priced at Rs 200.

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