Interviews

Kota Neelima is an Indian author, columnist, painter and TV panellist. She writes regular columns for The Huffington Post India, DailyO, DNA and News18 India. Book Link brings to our readers her views on social issues, such as ill-treatment of women in Indian society particularly in villages, farmer suicides and the accepted notions of politics & society. This multi-faceted writer speaks to Radhika Tiwari.

Tell us a little about your journey as a woman that you are now, writer and painter? How did you come up with your first book Tirupati: A Guide to Life?

Kota Neelima: I write about farmer suicides and poverty in rural India. All through my research as I travelled in the villages, I had discovered that people find spiritual strength to deal with the difficult times. That was the inspiration behind my book on Tirupati, through which I tried to explore how religion, and places of worship, provide a spiritual reconciliation to people.

Other than an author you are a brilliant painter, how do you balance both of them? What is more close to your heart – the Pen or the Brush and why?

Art and literature are two of the many methods of communicating human thought. There are times when a thought can be communicated only through language, and there are times when language fails to communicate the thought. That’s when art helps in presenting the thought through the visual. Similarly, when thought cannot be expressed through colours and visuals, language helps in presenting it in the form of text. The dynamic between the two methods enables me to explore the entire scope of a thought without being limited by a single form of expression.