Growing up around books, reading and writing came naturally for author Illya Bhattarai.  Persisting with a knack for writing that she picked as a child, Bhattarai has now penned a total of seven books ranging from children books to travel memoirs.

In this conversation with the Post’s Samikshya Bhattarai, the author talks about women in the Nepali literary scape and her deep-rooted relationship with literature. Excerpts:

How did you first get into reading and writing?

I grew up around books or to be more precise, I was born around books. Growing up, we had a lot of books in our house and everyone used to read a lot. So, for me reading was the most natural thing to do. I don’t actually remember a time that I was not reading. We used to read books like Pallo Ghar Ko Jhyal and comics like Vetal which were really good. Later, I wrote my first story when I was eight years old and showed it to everyone in my family. All of them said that it was really nice which encouraged me to write more and I think that is how I fell in love with writing.

You mostly write children books and travel memoirs. Why are you pulled to these genres?

I have always loved geography and reading about travel from my childhood, as they give you a feeling of being at a place you have never visited. So when I went to England for the first time, I thought I should write about the place, so that I could give other people the same joy that I had felt while reading as a kid. So, I started writing travel logs as a means of preserving my memories. And as for writing children books, I had to tell new stories to my children every day, so I used to make up something new all the time. Eventually, I typed all the stories and published it, so I have to say motherhood was my inspiration behind writing children’s book.

What are the challenges of writing books for children?

I think the biggest challenge of being children’s book author is finding something new that children will enjoy. Children will not listen to the stories if they find it monotonous and repetitive. So you need to understand child psychology before you actually start writing—you need to look at the story from child’s point of view.

Nepali literature is largely dominated by male writers. Has the literary scene evolved to become more accommodating for women?

There has been a big change since I was just a young writer,  but still there are few instances which make me feel like we still have long way to go before being acknowledged as just a writer rather than a female writer. Most of the places I go, whether it be book launches or award ceremonies, they introduce male writer as just a writer but for female writer they use their gender first. Also, there might not be any discrimination while publishing books but when the books are being reviewed there is a big difference. So, there is still a long way to go before the work and content of the book is looked at prior to gender of the writer.

What for you is good writing?

I think good writing is something that is based on the ground realities and truth. Even if the book is a fiction, it should be able to evoke realistic image, for an example, Buddisagar’s Karnali Blues, which despite being a fiction, portrays the realities of the Far-western region. A good writer is someone who is in touch with reality and can write any piece in a very interesting way. Also a good writer should be able to entice the readers even with simplistic language.

Any advice for readers?

I think readers should read good books rather than any other book they get their hands on.I think the mainstream media is sometimes biased and doesn’t provide space for the reviews of good books, or most of the time doesn’t even review them, so people are misinformed and read the books that are not really very good. So, I think the media should firstly review books without any bias so readers can choose properly and readers should think about the content of the book rather than going by popular opinion.