Akhila Saroha: I would like to begin by congratulating you on the publication of “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes.” What were the events that led to the idea of writing it?
Baisakhi Saha: Actually, the book was inspired inside a dream while battling a life-threatening situation. When I awoke, I felt this inner voice telling me, “You cannot die with these stories inside you; there’s a reason they happened to you and now you must share them with the rest of the world.”
Truly, I have had so many uncanny experiences during my years of journeying across the globe—filled with synchronicities, magical encounters and meaningful coincidences that materialized impossible dreams, disentangled unworkable problems, got me out of inescapable situations, saved my life several times, and laid out in front of me a magical path to tread, that I realized a larger plan was unfolding for me, leading me and pleading me to live out my true purpose, and all I had to do was take the next step with faith and childlike wonder, plunge into the abyss of mystery and paradox, and allow the guidance within to reveal itself. Because it was the path of the heart that my rational mind could not completely fathom or explain.
And yet, my doubtful mind questioned the validity of the dream in real life. So, I wrote three stories and shared them with some publishers and literary agents to test if they would have any audience at all. To my pleasant surprise, within a matter of minutes, I received so many positive responses including a book deal from a leading publisher sitting right in my inbox that I intuitively knew my dream was guiding me to take the next best step on my journey to destiny. So, I compiled the magical experiences from my travels through Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North & Central America into twenty-one short stories, and what followed is Life Is Abracadabra! They are the strangest of stories, however, the most extraordinary stories are often the true ones.
Akhila Saroha: As a title, “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes,” makes the readers wander at different levels about its significance and validity. Did you have any alternative titles in mind? How did you come up with this as the title?
Baisakhi Saha: Yes, the first title I had thought of for the book was: Magic Is All There Is, because it contains magical stories from my travels across the globe that will make anyone perceive life from an altogether new dimension of reality. Yet, I felt somehow this title did not capture the entirety of the magical element in the journey aptly.
As a child, I used to be fascinated with the word ‘abracadabra’ simply because of how it sounded, like some gibberish gobbledygook incantation casting a magical spell! It’s like you utter a bunch of unintelligible nonsensical words and suddenly something magical happens, just like I was experiencing seemingly random coincidences which turned out to be neither senseless nor simple, but life-defining in terms of their depth and meaning.
And so, there is nothing nonsense about the word ‘abracadabra’! In fact, it has a much deeper significance than just unintelligible gobbledygook. It comes from the Aramaic phrase: avra kehdabra, meaning “I shall create as I speak” or “I create like the word” and has its origin in three Hebrew words: ab (father), ben (son), ruach acadosch (holy spirit)—encompassing the holy trinity!
Trinity is the unity of the father-son-holy ghost as three persons in one Godhead, which basically means that all three are one in the same. Each of them has a role and exists as three entities, but they ultimately comprise one main entity—like facets of God’s existence which we experience in different ways. And although we think we live in a world of duality, it is actually the trinity inherent in all that is life! For instance, the following entities existing as the trinity are essentially the same thing in varying degrees of intensity and density:
- mind-body-spirit
- solid-liquid-gas
- here-there-space in between
- up-down-ground level
- hot-cold-room temperature
- masculine-feminine-neutral
- electron-proton-neutron
- north pole-south pole-equator
…and so on! Every experience of life is defined in either of the two polarities or somewhere in between where the extremes balance each other out. And so, ‘abracadabra’ represents the holy trinity, making it even more magical than just how it sounds. Abracadabra spells the magic that is life, hence, life is abracadabra! Got it?
Akhila Saroha: How easy or difficult was it for you to decide the placement of the pace of the text and ensure that the readers would also feel connected to it in “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes”?
Baisakhi Saha: It was pretty easy to do the text pacing and placement in this adventure narrative because I just had to peek into my journey and pick the magical experiences from it then place them sequentially, exactly how they occurred in my life. That said, the first three stories I wrote to test whether the book would even take birth or not by sharing them with imminent publishers, were eventually placed in the beginning, middle and end of the book. Then I filled up the in-between stories, in the order they happened to me, chronologically and geographically. Those individual stories fit into the tapestry of one large story really, just like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle weave into one big picture.
Akhila Saroha: The book breaks ground by exploring subjects that make it unique in itself. Please share about your past experiences in literary writing as well as your future plans in writing.
Baisakhi Saha: My first book, magicNine -a true account of the inner adventures of a young girl to consciousness was penned during my time in one of the most dangerous countries of the world: Venezuela in South America, where I was experiencing intense signs & synchronicities as if the Universe was directly communicating with me and protecting me, so I felt impelled to jot them down. About three years into it, suddenly one day I had a strong impulse to publish my writings, although initially when the process had begun, I had absolutely no intention of publishing—I was just impressing myself in my own imaginations, taking my own breath away with my magical musings! But after publishing the book, my whole life changed and from being an English teacher at local institutions, I became an author and public speaker invited to present the journey in my book at prestigious venues internationally. Later, I also published a calendar and an inspirational journal in three editions based on the book, using meaningful quotes from magicNine and pictures from my live dance performances in Latin America made into inspirational posters and inserted into the calendar and journal.
My next book, Nrit -the dream of finding the self, is already written, which I wish to turn into a feature film post its publication. Another title in the making is: How to travel the world at the drop of a hat, and there’s also a TEDx talk of mine out there with the same name.
Akhila Saroha: Did you have any particular audience in mind while writing “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes”? Which was it?
Baisakhi Saha: Since the book is about life, in the broader sense, it caters to people of all ages. Anyone can benefit by reading this book as it explores life from an altogether new dimension of reality and synchronicity. That said, my magical journey started when I was at university in Singapore, a young, confused IT scholar with no clue whatsoever as to what I wanted to do in life or what my dreams and desires even were. But as I embarked upon this grand voyage of the heart, it led me to encountering my true passion and purpose in life. So, I think it’ll be especially appealing to the youth of today who seek the adventure of being alive and want to pursue their big dreams. Also, women particularly will find a lot of empowerment in the book as I myself, coming from a conservative family background in India where the rules get stricter for a young unmarried girl, had to overcome all limiting beliefs and dysfunctional cultural dictates to fly in the direction of my dreams. That said, many men have also given me excellent feedback about how it has made their dreams bigger and stronger, so, I suppose the book is indeed for everyone who wants to explore life at deeper echelons of consciousness. Besides, it has received many glowing endorsements from renowned luminaries and world visionaries who read it, liked it, and endorsed it. Therefore, the book definitely has a universal appeal to it! Life Is Abracadabra can be classified as non-fiction, memoir, travelogue, self-help, spirituality, synchronicity, journey to destiny, real magic, short stories, adventure narrative, women empowerment, etc. hence caters to a wide demographic indeed.
Akhila Saroha: “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes” has a strong significance on the personal and social levels. Was prose the first format of writing that came to your mind to give words to your expression? Would you like to try the same with poetry as well?
Baisakhi Saha: I’ve always tried to express my inner world through writing. While earlier it used to be private journaling, now it is public writing, be it in the form of books, blog articles, vlogs, or poetry. Yes, I do express myself through poetry as well, but so far, I have not published my poems other than just a page on my website with poetic musings: baisakhisaha.com/poetry. Maybe someday, when I have enough rhythm, rhyme and alliteration under my belt, I’ll publish those verses into a booklet. I haven’t ruled out the idea at all!
Akhila Saroha: “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes” has given a powerful introduction to your potential as a writer. How was the journey of the book in the making?
Baisakhi Saha: Well, as I mentioned earlier, the book had a lot of interest from leading publishers in India. And yet, I wanted to research the international market. Eventually, I found an international publisher whose Indian branch published it! I had secretly wanted Hay House to be my publisher and it happened, so I’m happy about that. And although I had conceived and composed the book literally within a month, it took more than four years for it to be released as I wanted to go the traditional route of publishing which takes time. Moreover, the pandemic came in between and delayed everything with life having literally come to a halt for so many across the planet. And then, I remember the day the editor at Hay House contacted me to start the process, my father passed away, and I had to keep her waiting for months at a stretch, as I travelled from Costa Rica to India to sort out his unfinished businesses. And even though its publication was enormously delayed, I’m happy with the end result at how it turned out and the book cover looks stellar having received so many compliments from the general public. Finally, this book is dedicated to my father who did not live to see it come to life.
Akhila Saroha: “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes” also features a variety of people playing different roles. How easy or difficult was it for you to write about them and remain unbiased and not let the readers’ thoughts be influenced?
Baisakhi Saha: Well, I had only one objective: to bring the stories to the readers exactly in the shape and form they happened to me, in my reality. Of course, my own perspective is involved in it as I am the narrator, spectator and experiencer here, which will always make the stories biased in my favor, but that was the whole point—to show people the journey through my eyes, only then could they also perceive the magic in it. And so, I painted the stories exactly how they occurred to me and how the various characters played their part in my life to cause my personal expansion or what is called self-realization, which makes the writing unbiased from my subjective perspective, as I tried to portray the entirety of the journey as objectively as possible. Know what I mean? Oh well, I’m laughing now!
To put it simply, there is no objective observation of anything in the Universe; the observer always affects the observed. You see, the stories in the book were happening to me and also through me. The path was written for me and I was writing it! The game plays the game, the poem writes the poem; you cannot separate the painter from the painting, the dancer from the dance.
Akhila Saroha: “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes” features a plot that develops swiftly and still manages to keep the readers involved. How did you ensure that the readership would remain involved throughout?
Baisakhi Saha: Well, these stories being non-fiction and extremely uncommon by nature, I knew anybody who picked up the book would be prompted to read further and farther just to know what happens to the protagonist. Reality is stranger than fiction, and the most extraordinary stories are mostly the true ones! If these same things happened to a fictitious character in a fiction book, they would be interesting enough to make a reader keep turning its pages. And so, the stories in my book being non-fiction, make them all the more interesting to keep a reader hooked. I didn’t even have to try; I just put forth the material as is! It is what I call the hero’s journey, with a confused character at the beginning of the narrative contemplating suicide due to a crippling back injury, who then embarks upon a magical voyage across the length and breadth of the planet following the prompts of her heart, and by the end of the chronicle she becomes the hero of her own story by fulfilling her destiny. Doesn’t that make for an interesting read? I thought so!
Akhila Saroha: In the present time, the ideas in “Life is Abracadabra: 21 Magical Stories from My Travels to Make You Look at Life with New Eyes” do not find much mention. What, according to you, could be the possible reason for that?
Baisakhi Saha: Yes, that’s because synchronistic experiences happen to everybody but not everyone follows the calling or even knows how to interpret those mysterious messages from the larger Universe. So, one may dismiss them as mere coincidence and the meaning is lost! A sign or synchronicity never interferes with free will, so it will recede into the past without creating a single ripple in your field of reality should you choose to ignore it. However, if you take heed when a synchronicity appears in your life, your perception of that moment deepens, as passageways are created from one level of the mind to another leading to a fuller and more profound communication with the self.
A synchronicity is like a symbol through which the deeper subconscious mind communicates with the surface consciousness, the higher self converses with the little self incarnated into a lifetime. Just as every human is unique and their hopes, wants, wishes, dreams, desires, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, life experiences are subjective to them, similarly a synchronous episode is a subjective thing that doesn’t occur to a great number of people at the same time. Usually, it is something happening to you at a given moment by dint of your thoughts and desires felt by you in a specific manner, which move energy and attract exterior events; the more intense your desires the more groomed is the energy, but even the most indistinct ways of concentrating upon a wish can cause some kind of synchronicity to appear in your life. Nevertheless, your synchronicities will be different from that of another’s.
The length of our lifetime on earth presents the opportunity to accomplish our objectives and claim our unique destiny, but in this reality of contrasts mired in cultural conditioning and limiting belief systems of dysfunctional societies, we may actually forget and lose track of our target. Hence, synchronicities help connect us to the deeper portion of the mind which is aware of what needs to be done and is quite capable of signaling the surface mind through symbolism exclusively catered to each individual.
Once we become aware of these synchronicities as our guiding mechanism, as our means of deciding what is true for us and what is not, we energize our communication with creation, as the synchronicities multiply, becoming more and more frequent and coherent, so much that we couldn’t possibly count them all. Nevertheless, paying attention to as many as we can will help construct our subjective awareness of reality and personal store of intelligence, as the signs, the guidance, the path will be unique to each of us. It is all just so mind-boggling we’d still have to remind ourselves that it is indeed real.
And so, I tell my tales of hope and faith, of magical coincidences and miracles to anyone that would listen. Yet, many times they went horribly wrong—my manifestations, when I was in deep deep waking sleep and ignored the announcement of outer intention, but it is also through those experiences of contrast that I learned to play better.
Buy Book: https://www.amazon.in/Life-Abracadabra-Magical-Stories-Travels/dp/9394613099/
