Author’s Background:
Mrinali Jadhav, also known as Luna Arsyn is an author, artist, entrepreneur, and a medical student. She dreams of becoming a performer one day. She loves writing songs, poetries, and telling stories. She believes that ‘Humans’ are made of stories, and stories can only continue to live on when they are told. When they are narrated. May it be through novels, poetry, movies, songs, or any other medium possible! Stories must live on as they make the past understandable and the future dependable. She hosts a podcast show titled – ‘Feel Through Music.’
Focusing on the point that ART can heal oneself, her passion project DESIGNLAZA focuses on healing through the mediums of MUSIC and WRITING. She is the Founder and Chairperson of SOSHA – Society of Self-Healing Arts, where she focuses on integrating MUSIC-ART-HEALING as a single form of medicine to Self-Heal. She also works as MANAGING EDITOR for UNVERBALISE, a literary platform working on bringing arts and literature from around the world in one place.
Questionnaires:
Neel Preet: Firstly, Congratulations on your book, “There Was A Feeling!” What kind of responses are you getting from this book of yours? Please share your experience about this book.
Luna Arsyn: Thank you so much Neel for this question. Actually I think this book taught me a lot. The phase in which I penned down the poems in this book was what I would say a bit of an unstable phase for me mentally and emotionally.
But writing helped me out a lot. The title “There Was A Feeling.” tells a part of my story which addresses the fact that there are a lot of emotions inside us at every given moment, but still we can only notice one prime Feeling among the cocktail of all the feelings inside our heart. And I wanted to make a choice to notice happiness and feel HAPPY.
Also that is what I wanted readers to feel as well, relating to the words of my poems as they read them and surfed through the emotions I trapped in those sentences.
Neel Preet: Your book isa wonderful collection of “Emotional Poems” so what inspired you to write these poems?
Luna Arsyn: I actually wrote the poems from this book as a challenge. I wanted to write consistently everyday for 100 days. Pen down what I was thinking, and maybe create a reason for the emotions I was feeling. That served as the prime inspiration for me.
So I began writing from Jan 1 of this year. Although instead of 100 poems, I wrote and compiled 128 poems as I completed my manuscript on 7 May.
And surprisingly this method worked out as a therapy for me. I used to come back home every evening from college and write down a poem based on how I was feeling. I wanted to keep the process as raw as possible without any filters. And behold the birth of my first book of 2022 “There Was A Feeling.”
Neel Preet: You’ve given a very interesting title to your book, which is very catchy too so, what made you go for this title for your book?
Luna Arsyn: It was very spontaneous for me now that I think back to it. I wanted to have a title that would speak for itself.
Maybe spark a little bit interest in the heart of a passer-by who was consciously or unconsciously looking for something awesome to read while passing by the book store.
Neel Preet: What was your mind-set, while working on this book? What was the impetus behind this work of yours?
Luna Arsyn: Since I wrote one poem everyday, I can’t say there was one particular mind-set throughout.
I wrote with spontaneity and most of the times I tried weaving the words I dedicated to my emotions without even thinking much of the arrangement or the rhyme scheme of the poem. Everyday was a new day, with a new inspiration and new threads of sentences to weave so that I could make the tapestry of the story I wanted to narrate.
Neel Preet: Very few Authors are coming out with ‘Poetry Collections’ these days however you did so, which I believe is a bold step. So, why did you choose Poetry and not something else?
Luna Arsyn: I think Poetry is a wonderful way for narrating a story to someone. Unlike it’s other best friends like Novels, Films or even Songs, it manages to get the message right where it is required and within less amount of time and sentences as well.
Poems are words that come together as if they were destined to come together for the writer who was putting them down on the paper. And thus I believe that I would be in a dedicated relationship with Poetry for a really long time.
Neel Preet: While reading your book, I found that your poems had some really strong emotions and stories inside them, which had greatly impressed me and thus I would like you to explain the overall theme of your book!
Luna Arsyn: The theme is what I would describe as “Singular Feeling.”
When I read each and every poem after completing my manuscript I felt that, let’s say coincidentally due to fate, but I had managed to highlight only the ONE FEELING that I was genuinely feeling while I was writing spontaneously everyday.
Like specifically only happiness or only regret. Thus the Singularity of the emotions I felt during writing the poems was preserved unexpectedly well and the poems came out to be an art with each and every stroke of the brush in the way that I exactly wanted it to be.
Neel Preet: Next, I want you to tell us about some of those writers, who has been your inspiration and whom you follow!
Luna Arsyn: Honestly I could pen down a huge list of writers that inspire me to write. Perhaps due to their style of narrating the story or just maybe due to their choice of words.
But the two people who really inspire me to read their stories and understand the emotions they want to convey so that one day I could become a good storyteller myself are Taylor Swift and V.E. Schwab. They are my mentors and I look up to them.
And one day I want to meet them and tell them that you inspired me to become who I am. You inspire me to become a storyteller, to build the stories I want to read and share them with the world.
Neel Preet: Is there any message which you would like to convey to your readers? Or any piece of advice, which you would like to give to the readers out there!
Luna Arsyn: The only thing that I want to say right now to my readers is a huge Thank you. Thank you for picking up my book. Thank you for giving me a chance so that I could open my diary, my thoughts to you. Thank you for being a wonderful listener as I went to blabbing through my poems and you kept on listening.
I like this relationship we are having here. And I wish to make this the best relationship we could ever have.
And as for advice, I don’t think I could throw in some words to make a great advice, but I can definitely give you a life hack, something I learned from my experiences. And that is- never forget that you have a little child inside you. That child has millions of dreams in his eyes and is also one of the greatest friends you could ever have. So make sure to listen to him, he will teach you to believe in yourself always.
Neel Preet: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Luna Arsyn: Oh this is my favourite question Well I don’t know why, but I have this weird habit of dreaming how my Next Book will be? How it will look like? And the characters in it.
So as for now I am working on a Novel titled REGINA which is a WEBNOVEL EXCLUSIVE novel, which also inspired me to write a Novella connected to it titled TRUTHS OF THE PAST which is an E-Novel as well.
And I am continuing my habit of writing one poem everyday so as to not get thrown out of the flow. It’s fun. Maybe there are a few mistakes here and there but I am enjoying writing and building the stories I want to tell the world.
Neel Preet: Thank you so much for answering all my questions. All the very best to you for future and your book too!
Luna Arsyn: Well thank you so much for having me here. For giving me an opportunity to talk about my book and to express my feelings to my readers as well.
I am elated and honoured to be a part of the second issue of ‘The Literature Times’ magazine and to be honest, it feels great to know that I’ll be getting featured on these pages along side some big names from the industry whom I look up to as my idols.
Thank you to my readers as well. You are my greatest inspiration. I hope and wish there are a lot of opportunities to come and this journey doesn’t end here. This book is only a chapter and I hope you look forward to the next one.