Today we talk about I Am, a book by Harpreet K Kang published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Harpreet K Kang to get to know her better, where she got the inspiration to write her book I Am and her genuine considerations about what it means to live in 2021!
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
What particularly significant experiences in your life find expression in your book?
The book, “I Am” is a manifestation for those, who are seeking answers. It of course brings out my understandings of the unresolved questions that I carried in the back of my head since my birth. These vary from daily challenges that we brace, and conversely how we accept situations, resolve issues, and therefore evolve mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I have lived a part of my life boxed up in stereotypes, which the book has tried to unpack in the initial chapters. My simple understandings began when someone said a word like Stupid to me. Unless I attached the word with a particular meaning, it did not mean anything. The clarity that there is no need to get attached with anything is something that comes on looking at everything closely. Personally, it has been more pronounced for the past dozen years. Many chapters are derived from my experiments with life and understandings about simple truths, as an endeavour to look beyond the blinds. I was wearing, which have been fed to all of us by the society, education, parenting, laws, systems -living in the box. When I discovered myself and learnt to talk with myself, I was complete, and my problems outside were also complete.
- What would you like to hear from your readers?
Mostly I would love to hear feedback about the book. If it resonates with them or does not? I have had a chance to receive very little feedback, since the book was launched in Europe, and I live in India. Except for a few reviews on Amazon, I am still trying to fathom, how was it received? It would also be equally grand if any of the readers may have read and applied anything from the book, and then to understand if it did or did not work for them? For me, the best learning came through some of the toughest times. Life of course throws challenges at us in many ways. I had my share of them when my father passed away, and then I lost my spiritual teacher the next year. Followed by my son falling sick the year after. As I went through each experience and the pain, it helped me overcome myself. Helped me understand it was always me (as in the ego), that stood between me and my higher self. The experience of getting out of the way has helped me live spontaneously with the flow of eternal energy. So, what has resonated with you dear reader?
- What does it mean to live in 2021?
Very unique times, and different from the rest of the life we have lived. Lots of people have resorted to spirituality in the face of death and uncertainty encountered by them during the pandemic. Nature has restored itself in some ways, and the sky is always more blue than it was before. People are looking beyond money and ambitions towards alternate careers, and have also become more introspective and reflective. The year has made me take a pause and reflect as well. The book, “I Am” was of course penned down in 2020, but this year I have been sort of talking about it in small groups offline and online. Lot of rooms in the Clubhouse, or talk shows, and also locally. These conversations have kept the subject of staying with the truth alive both in my heart and in the world around me.
- Do you have any special habits while writing?
Unlike most authors I know, I am not one, who is structured in thought or flow. In fact whenever I have sat down to write, it usually just flows straight through me. At times, later on I feel like it wasn’t even written by me. Also since I am passionate about a lot of things I write about, there is no other way to pour it out. Since there is no easy way for me to put it down on paper or punch it into my laptop, usually it teems out in bouts when it is flowing. I would wake up in the middle of the night and empty out a few pages. Later on, I have to sit and think where those pages would fit into the book. It is never the sensible, time scheduled kind of writing that works for me. Whenever it comes, I am a slave to it. I obediently open my laptop and start typing it.
- Are you currently working on a new writing project?
Since the way I write is the way I just explained, it is not really something I control. My brain usually does not have the power to sit and figure out what to write next. It will happen whenever it happens. I write my opinions on things and keep filing them somewhere, but these are not so much of a book necessarily. So, I am also sitting and watching it, and with no expectations from myself.
Europe Books thanks the author Harpreet K Kang once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside her on the editorial path that led to the publication of her book I Am. We wish her the best of luck for this novel and for her future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish you to find useful answers, precious thoughts and something you can resonate with by reading the book I am; And once you find them, collect them in your mind and turn them into something that can make your life a better life, everyday!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to really enjoy your reading!
Your Editor!