Watcha' out for this wordsmith!

Bengaluru-based educator, Rasil Kaur Ahuja has been writing for as long as she can remember. But winning Disney’s Pitchkiaow, a literary campaign for aspiring authors, brought her into the business of being an author. Her latest book, a book for Disney, Watcha Gonna Do, Rosie Singh? explores everything from humiliation and owning up to your mistakes to finding the resilience to move forward through an eight-year-old’s perspective!  

The story follows Rosie, for whom trouble begins when her skirt accidentally falls off in front of her entire class and now everyone knows she wears bloomers! And Rasil candidly shares that the book takes off from real instances in her life. “After recess one winter afternoon, I was wrestling with the zipper of my jacket when my pants fell off in front of my whole class! These things happen for real and not just in books or TV shows,” she says, having written her first chapter in her head years ago, but completing them at various coffee shops dotting Indiranagar. For a 44-year-old, writing from a child’s point of view can be a daunting task, but Rasil manages to do it quite flawlessly. Ask her why she chose to debut with a children’s book and pat comes the answer, “I think kids live multi-faceted lives – one life at home, one at school, one on the bus, one at piano class, etc. Their daily activities and experiences are rich with detail. Their thoughts are even deeper. I’d like to explore their real lives.”

To her, this writing journey isn’t new. Although she has a BA in government and politics and a master’s degree in business information systems, she confesses that writing played a major role in all of her careers. “In grade six I hand wrote, illustrated, designed a jacket, and bound my first book. I penned an autobiography at age 11. I wrote about the move from Baroda to Washington, DC – what it felt like, looked like, smelt like when I stepped off that PanAm flight. Cold. Grey. Rain,” she recollects.

Now, with life and the things you can’t make up to inspire her work, she replies with a bright “of course” to questions about her upcoming titles – she can’t stop now that she’s seen her son read her book at bedtime and laugh out loud and her mother nestled in the sofa, reading glasses perched on her nose. When she finds time to unwind too, it’s with a childlike curiosity. “I love reading especially random and curious facts like the New Zealand kea’s (parrot) infectious warbling sound that triggers other keas to come play. It’s like the kids in my building – one scream and everyone races to the playground. I play tennis even though I’m hopeless at it. As a family, we love to try cooking (often burning) new dishes,” she smiles in conclusion.