Devangshree Saini on her book ‘broke, healed and loved’ presents 81 poems on themes such as love, breaking and healing. Each theme deals with an intense emotion of its kind. The book includes both short and long poems, dealing with extreme painful emotions and having hope to face them. They have a blend of inspiration from life’s stressing downfalls to exciting uphills.
Akhila Saroha: I would like to begin by congratulating you on the publication of “Broke, Healed and Loved.” How has the response to the book been so far?
Devangshree Saini: Thank you for your good wishes. The response to the book has not been much profound. As you may see it is currently available online only and not in any bookstore. Also, readers’ reach and interest to experiment or try a new writer, like me, is minimal at present. This is my first poetry collection because the previous one “An Amalgamation” was unpublished soon after a year of it’s release. So, this could be a possible reason. Anyways, I hope and believe that gradually, someday it’ll achieve the love and place it deserves i.e. the shelves of every reader in the world and that’s what my dream is.
Akhila Saroha: What led to the idea of writing “Broke, Healed and Loved”? Were there any events that inspired the work?
Devangshree Saini: The idea behind it was to console people who suffer in any way in their lives. I realised I’m not the only one distressed and dejected here, there are many alike me to share pain with. So it was to make my words echo in the world. It was to make people believe in love rather than hatred or malice towards others. I tried to do so by poetries to define love in a more aesthetic manner so that the reader could go deep into it’s root and realise it’s need in the world where relations are rotten, empathy is shattered behind selfish reasons and mental problems are reaching at height. Therefore, I decided to publish my collection in a book to reach maximum people. One more idea behind it, is to emphasize the importance of reading more and more books. However, my inspiration is my life itself and most importantly my literature teacher Mrs. Ankita Sharma. I got the fire of love towards literature from Xth class where I first read “Julius Caesar” after which reading became my hobby and ma’am Ankita was the one to fuel it more high. Also the renowned poet Ashish Bagrecha’s works were there to inspire me more.
Akhila Saroha: How easy or difficult was it for you to decide the placement of poetry in “Broke, Healed and Loved” and keep it simple to understand for the readers?
Devangshree Saini: It was easy for me in the sense that it drained out all the suffocation I felt after every dejection. The chief reason of simple and easy to understand writing is when we are in a mentally worst condition we don’t look for heavy words or a perfect punctuation or grammar rules, we just pen in down on the page to suck that poison out of our body. If I talk about myself, every piece in “broke, healed and loved” is an encounter to my ups and downs of life, an encounter to every curse, every loss and mistreatment I’ve confronted. It also represents my cheerful and buoyant moments. Therefore, when I express something true – I write in a natural manner as it comes to me without any embellished vocabulary. However, some people and one or two publishers advised me to use more complex language but it’s my way of writing and expressing and in short – my way is my way. That’s it.
Akhila Saroha: What are your views about present-day writing? Do you think it does complete justice in depicting human nature in the light of “Broke, Healed and Loved”?
Devangshree Saini: The works of present – day writings are covering broad themes and what people are reading and writing now – a – days is much inclined towards mental and emotional problems and expressions, finding the meaning of ‘self ‘ is also one component of it. Readers now find it relatable when writers write as such and they realise they’re not the only one in this suffering and that we all can fight and come out of it, together. In this manner I think “broke, healed and loved” has worked well in expressing human psyche and emotions as the pain is always too much for all of us and there should be a simple yet elegant way to express and heal through it.
Akhila Saroha: “Broke, Healed and Loved” shows the uniqueness of your style of writing. Are there any authors that you enjoy reading or any books which are your favorites?
Devangshree Saini: This is the most difficult one to answer, I must say. Because I love almost every literature work, especially poetries. Anyways in Indian poets I like reading Gulzar sir and as mentioned earlier, Ashish Bagrecha. There are the world famous Atticus – the anonymous poet and Rupi Kaur – my feminist favorite. I read them the most. If we talk about prose then, Chitra Banerjee’s novel “The Palace of Illusions”, “Lore” by Alexandra Bracken, “Shadow and Bone” series by Leigh Bardugo and “Who Will Cry When You Die” by Robin Sharma are among my favorites.
Akhila Saroha: How would you categorize “Broke, Healed and Loved” as its appeal seems to be to a broad audience?
Devangshree Saini: I will categorize it in the same manner as I’ve done in the book as breaking, healing and loving again. It forms a chain, these three are the processes through which we learn to live and know what life actually is. This categorization itself has covered broad problems and messages. If you read it you’ll find a chain I’ve tried to form to describe human functioning and how this cycle helps us evolve overall. I have expressed broken emotions at first and then healing ones which are leading to loving oneself and others (although, most of them portray self love and romantic love for a partner). Poems written after a flower bud in the book, in ‘loved’ section, are all again based on broken feelings and loss in love. I did this intentionally to form a chain and describe that this is the chain our lives run on. It’ll continue round and round like this till we die.
Akhila Saroha: “Broke, Healed and Loved” has given a powerful introduction to your potential as a writer. Can the readers expect more from you in the future? Please share about your future projects.
Devangshree Saini: Indeed they can. In fact I’m working on a historical fiction which will have poetries in between and whenever any great event occurs. This is how I’ve decided to work, a fiction after every poetry book. These are the only two I would like to work upon in my writing career.
Akhila Saroha: What is the story behind the title of your work, “Broke, Healed and Loved”?
Devangshree Saini: At first there wasn’t any idea of publishing my poems as a collection. When I read all my poems one by one I saw that it explains the way things are carried on in one’s life – a time of struggle and pain, some moments of joy and celebrations too, then some were those where I realized what true love is. When my aunt read them she suggested I should publish them in a book and I liked her idea for me of being an author. All the poems in the book defines my Journey to Poetry. It is like, I felt broken then I tried to heal from it and in the process realized my self – worth and loved myself for it. Then it broadened, I loved those who loved me and ironically those are the ones who hurt the most and so it continues again. Therefore I titled the book “broke, healed and loved”.
Akhila Saroha: Of all the modes of writing, what made you come up with the idea of writing in poetry form in “Broke, Healed and Loved”?
Devangshree Saini: Out of all the creative writing techniques, I found poetry to be the most aesthetic, creative and artistic form of expression, as compared to prose. Poetry is something that in a few words talks about a great story and beautifies both – the already ravishing and engaging things and the ones need to be beautified.
Akhila Saroha: In the present time, the ideas in “Broke, Healed and Loved” do not find much mention. What, according to you, could be the possible reason for that?
Devangshree Saini: The ideas presented in “broke, healed and loved” might not find mention in present time but they’ll in the future. Because the way most of us are dealing with each other now a days, is filled with malice, hatred, complexity and unhealthy competition which no doubt, if not changed or improved, will lead to war between humans and great destruction to humanity and world. For instance, take the latest example of riots going on between Hindus and Muslims and especially between the countries – Russia and Ukraine. Nobody is understanding the need of peace and love right now and these riots will gradually increase to the peak and at that time love, peace and hope will be the only needs we humans will long or beg for.
Akhila Saroha: If you were to describe your book “Broke, Healed and Loved” in a few words without giving any spoilers, what would those words be?
Devangshree Saini: Words of an Imperfect Soul.
Akhila Saroha: What advice would you give to budding writers who may be planning to write in the same genre as “Broke, Healed and Loved”?
Devangshree Saini: I would like to advice them to write honest and true feelings and emotions and have patience throughout the process of achieving dreams.
Akhila Saroha: Thank you very much for sparing your time. I look forward to
reading more books from you in the future. All the best.
Devangshree Saini: Thank you for the opportunity. It was great discussing the book with you.
