Interview with Subhash Kakarla, The author of Soul and Salvation

Subhash Kakarla is an MBA from IIM Ranchi and Bachelors’ Degree holder in Electronics and Communication Engineering from GITAM University. Subhash worked with World’s most coveted Investment Bank - Goldman Sachs in the Global Investment Research Division, and for Factset Research Systems India as Financial Information Exchange Analyst. Subhash received a Gold Medal from the Hon'ble Vice President of India - Sri M. Venkaiah Naidu. Being a Cambridge qualified Business Communication specialist, he has published 16 research papers in the areas of finance, technology, marketing and analytics in reputed journals having high impact factors with ISBN & ISSN.

He is the Board Review Member for 5 prestigious International Journals Including the International Journal of Research and Analytical Review (IJRAR), International Journal of Research in Management and Business Studies (IJRMBS) and International Journal of Marketing (IJM). He has also authored several books in the domain of Management, Technology and Spirituality published with International Standard Book Number (ISBN). He received many awards such as the University Merit Award, the Best Leader Award, Active Young Researcher Award and corporate achievements like Inside IIM Intern of the Year in Finance, L&T Outthink, Reliance T U P, IIM Calcutta Startup Launchpad, etc for his meritorious contributions.

He is currently serving as the Chief Advisor of Public Relations & Media Cell-GUH. He is a distinguished public speaker, having made over 100 speeches while the single largest audience comprised over 1,00,000 people, and more than 20 Television programs in which he has featured have been aired. He is highly interested in rural skill development & education and he is also the President of an NGO: Yuva Seva Sangathan, based out of Hyderabad. He has been recently nominated to the Harvard University US-India Initiative 2020 and as a Youth Delegate to Virtual Conferences with Ambassadors of 4 different Countries to India.

Ravi: What’s your favorite short story?

Subhash: I enjoyed reading short stories of Tenali Ramakrishna, a famous Telugu poet of the 15th Century.

Ravi: The Best piece of writing advice?

Subhash: Every author has his/her own style of writing. Its most important to retain the unique style that one has, and not to surrender to reviews and feedback

Ravi: Where do you write?

Subhash: I usually write short write-ups on my own blog, and have contributed writings to various international journals and books.

Ravi: Where do you get your ideas?

Subhash: My main source of inspiration is my surroundings, people and nature. My best mate often inspires me to write my thoughts down, some of which went on to take the shape of a book.

Ravi: Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Subhash: Writing energizes me to the extent that I exhaust all the thoughts and fall short of them!

Ravi: How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Subhash: I longest it took is about a month and the shortest is a couple of days. It is quite undeterminable.

Ravi: If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?

Subhash: I would have read more books, for a writer is born only with the thoughts that you get while reading things.

Ravi: What is your favorite childhood book?

Subhash: I had always enjoyed reading ‘Barrister Parvatisam’ a novel by Mokkapati Narasimha Sastry, a renowned Telugu writer.

Ravi: What are your favorite literary journals?

Subhash: I do not have one, in specific!

Ravi: What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?

Subhash: I had tried giving up my laziness to pen down spontaneous thoughts, I am yet to work on this.

Ravi: What was your hardest scene to write?

Subhash: While writing the book ‘Soul and Salvation’, I was rather very careful and hence, found it difficult to express myself, as there is a huge chance for misinterpretation in anything dealing with religion.

Ravi: Do you Google yourself?

Subhash: I have done this to see what comes up, just a couple of times!

Ravi: Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Subhash: This happened with one of my books. I had written a piece that would have go perceived differently by the readers, and only my friend who inspired me to write the book would understand, In a way, it was a secret!

Ravi: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Subhash: Yes, I am open to constructive feedback. I appreciate rational feedback while I do not shy away from giving my response to bad reviews.

Ravi: Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

Subhash: Fiction is a genre that has predominantly not been my cup of tea, hence I would prefer not to comment on this.

Ravi: How many hours a day do you write?

Subhash: It is not a strict timeline that I follow while writing books, as creativity suffers. While on a serious project to write, I had spent more than 15 hours a day writing.

Ravi: What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

Subhash: Research depends on the theme of the book that I plan to write. To quantify, it ranged from 3 months to 2 years for those I had written yet.

Ravi: How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Subhash: 2 as of now.

Ravi: How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

Subhash: I don’t think it had a great impact, I believed in keeping my style intact with other variables changing

Ravi: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Subhash: You are doing a great job, just be yourself!

Ravi: What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

Subhash: Among my circle, there are very few who write. However, my circle inspires me with thoughts to write books on assorted topics.

Ravi: Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Subhash: My focus has been on sharing what I want, rather than writing what readers want to read.

Ravi: What advice do you have for writers?

Subhash: Preserve your identity, be yourself and unique!

Ravi: What are the most important magazines for writers to subscribe to?

Subhash: I would not suggest any, as the very suggestion would limit the audience to only those few.

Ravi: Tell me about your recent book to our Ravi Reads Blog Readers?

Subhash: ‘Soul and Salvation’ is a recent book that I had written with the inspiration I drew from my best mate. I tried to comprehend the philosophy of oneness amidst plurality, concepts of religion and spirituality among others. “In a world of strife, polarization, and bestial violence, Subhash Kukrala's book "Soul and Salvation" beckons the lay, and elite to explore the interstitial spaces between religion, spirituality and bridges the disparate incommensurability between approach and theology, to elicit the essential unity. Written in the simple, lucid, language it handles esoteric concepts with ease and is reader-friendly. Concepts of heartful living, vyashti and samasti, are pearls of wisdom. The definitions of anger, envy, hatred, and fear are brief but so pointed out that its comprehension is etched in our hearts forever enriching us emotionally. The discourse clarifies man's eternal search for meaning with spellbound erudition in terms of tradition, knowledge, ancient wisdom and seeking on the whetstone of philosophy, psychology and science of modern age. The scientific approach does not exalt reasoning at the cost of intuitive wisdom. Subhash has delved deep into the ocean of spirituality and fetched us the uncommon gem of insight imbued with love, compassion, and rare insight. A must-read for curious readers who are buffeted by rising waves of religiosity and violence and in need to soothen their frayed existence in the twenty-first century.” Said Dr. Hemant Shrivastava, Fellow, IIM Indore, Chairman, Sambodhi Learning & Dev. (P) Ltd. As a first reviewer to this book.

To Know more about Subhash's SOUL AND SALVATION check out this link

Thanks to Subhash for agreeing to this interview! If you know of an author who’d like to be featured in an interview (or you are an author who would like to be featured), feel free to email me at the address on my contact page.