An emotional & spiritual experience: Farzana

Farzana enjoys writing for both children and adults. She has been a teacher for 10 years and believes that writing is a beautiful medium to express oneself. After completing her schooling at Bombay Scottish, she graduated in Psychology and Sociology at Mumbai University. Her first book 'Who am I?' a children's book was published in 2002 by Bright Sparks, Tata Info Media Limited. She plans to write more books in the future.

Excerpts from an interview:

Why did you write this book and what did you want your readers to take away from it?

'Grieve with Understanding' was written shortly after the demise of my mother. It was during this time that I learnt the importance of asking for forgiveness, the true meaning of detachment and most importantly being able to forgive myself. I also understood that although anger and guilt are emotions that one feels while one is grieving it helps in self-realisation and spiritual growth. I wrote this book so people could understand that although we cannot change what's meant to be, one could still treasure the good memories and continue being grateful for having spent time with the loved one. I would like the readers to know that although time will never heal an emotional scar nor will never fill the void in one's heart, faith and forgiveness would give them hope and the strength to move on.

Have you been surprised by how the readers are reviewing the book?

Although all the characters in the book are fictional, I was confident that the readers could identify with the emotions and characters. Grieve with Understanding is a fictional book with a real story and real characters.

How has your background in psychology helped you in understanding the topic of grief and then putting it into words in a way that would be unambiguous to the readers?

No number of books or knowledge can make one understand grief unless you have felt the loss of a loved one. Every individual grieves differently and each one is faced with different experiences throughout their journey to self-realisation. Every individual heals differently. 'Grieve with Understanding' was written more from the heart and is, therefore, is about pure emotions that cannot be generalized or put down as a statistic or study.

Mona is a dynamic character that readers are really admiring. What inspired her character?

Mona's character is inspired by the emotions I went through while I was grieving the loss of my mother. Although Mona is a fictional character, everyone can identify her in some way or another.

What's next for Farzana Sarup?

I'm currently working on a book on short stories. Apart from that, I'm pretty excited about the release of my 'Let's talk'' series and 'Fairy tale with a Twist', published by Wonder House Books It is for children between the ages of 2 to 5.