About The Author
Born and brought up in Delhi, Divya Gupta Kotawala, wears several hats – a wife, a mother to a 15year-old girl Manya, co-owner of a Delhi-based jewellery brand – House of Kotawala – along with her husband Manish and a loyal friend to a bunch of quadragenarians, whom she has known for nearly four decades! However, the role that she has cherished the most in her life is that of the daughter of her father – Shri Suresh Gupta. Divya lost her father to COVID in 2021.
Divya completed her schooling at Modern School, Barakhamba Road where she excelled in numerous extracurricular activities and won many awards of appreciation and recognition throughout. Later, she joined the prestigious St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, where she did her honours in History. Thereafter, in pursuit of her passion for designing and creativity, Divya joined the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), for a course in fashion designing. And post that tried a few freelance projects and partnered in a kids-oriented development and enhancement project Yellow Bumble with a friend to find her true calling. Post this, she went on to join her husband in a 300-year-old family business and that is what she is presently doing.
For Divya, life has been all about simplicity, creativity and maintaining a healthy balance between her personal, professional and social life. When not struggling between these she loves to devote her time to social welfare work and has been closely and give back to society in whatever way she can as a token of gratitude for what she has. Divya also has a strong spiritual side, she enjoys chanting and praying and is an ardent follower of Guruji. It helps her maintain her peace and stay calm in any situation that life gets her into.
A once super happy and fun person as Divys fell into a deep ditch of mourning and grief after losing her beloved dad. She feels that she has finally found her true calling and purpose through this book that made her revisit her oldest passion of writing and communicating her feelings and emotions through words to not only too her hero in heaven but also with the world.
Interview
Q) When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?
A loss in ur life can change you in so many ways, something I had never ever thought, I always loved expressing myself though words it was my hobby since school, infact I used to be on the editorial board of my school n college magazine for the same reason but I had never ever even read one single book in my life so turning an author was something unexpected for me and everyone around me …it’s only when I lost my father to covid I realised there was so much I had to tell him, so much to ask and share but it all happened so suddenly that I didn’t get any time to accept or get closures on my feeling. This book was my way to say so many things left unsaid and share with the world about my grief and journey of transforming my grief into my biggest strength
Q) What inspired the idea for your book?
The idea behind this book was to keep my father alive! In my memories and In the lives of other ppl
Who knew him or didn’t know him At all…it was a way to preserve all of dad’s memories, teachings and beliefs and save them from eventually getting faced over the years in life …this book was a way to celebrate the life my father lived and make him live on in the same way n keep his legacy alive for the generations to come ahead …and the biggest purpose was to share the pain of a daughter on losing her beloved father in the most unexpected circumstances and the beautiful relationship that they shared !
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Q) What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?
Every first book can be a very complexed and nerve wracking experience as it’s a completely unknow territory and so much to learn n understand…to all the first time authors my biggest advice is to believe in yourself, listen to ur intuition and u may listen to everyone for advice but do what make you happy n content the most …don’t compromise as this will leave u with regrets …and believe me the day you hold ur book
In your hand for the first time this will be the most beautiful n satisfying experience…it’s the feeling of actually delivering your baby ..I had the same goosebumps the day I first saw it!
Q) What do you hope your readers take away with this book?
Hold dear to your parents as it’s the most confusing n scary world without them ‘…this is my biggest take from the book…our parents are precious, no one can replace them n we take them so for-granted, not that we don’t love them or care for them but sometimes we get so busy that we feel they will always be around ..but only when they are gone we realise what we have lost and this loss is irreplaceable …also it’s important to celebrate Life in moments, it’s too precious and unpredictable..you never know what happens the next moment so ‘live in today, live in the moment ‘
Q) Any last thoughts for our readers?
There is a father or a daughter in each one of us …no one can say that they have never experienced or won’t experience grief ever …it’s one emotion we all are most scared off n don’t ever want to experience but we all know one or the other day we will have to go though it for any of our loved one …so reading my book will not only tell you about my journey and how I dealt with it without any choice it may help you heal too and maybe give you an opportunity to do all that maybe I could not do as a daughter to say my final goodbye to my father …there is no end to learn from someone else’s life n experience…every life is a lesson to take from
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