Interview
Paperian Amit Phulera is driven by perspectives, art forms, and community
Amit Phulera is a software engineer who spends his free time playing guitar, listening to books, and traveling and hiking in the pre-COVID days. He joined The Folded Paper through Instagram. Since then he has been a regular at our community. He says that the Saturday Writing and Creativity Jam meetings ‘light up his Saturdays and have given a new meaning to his 2020 weekends”.
He also facilitated a few of our meetings with quirky Zoom backgrounds to surprise all of us. When we were celebrating our 25th meeting by creating memes on writing and the community experience, his memes belonged to the ‘funniest’ category!
The Folded Paper (TFP): Please tell us about your writing journey?
Amit Phulera(AP): It was in my early college days that I started reading and writing Hindi/Urdu poetry and I still love to do it.
The magical words of Harivansh Rai Bachhan Ji, Kaifi Azmi Sahab, Javed Akhtar Sahab, and Shariq Kaifi Sahab have helped me overcome difficult times in my life and they are a strong source of motivation for me.
I am amazed at how they are able to explain difficult things so easily. It’s really easy to make a simple idea appear hard or complex, but it’s hard to make a complex idea or a sentiment appear simple. Quoting a ‘sher’ from a famous Gazal by Shariq Kaifi Sahab,
ek din khud ko paas baithaya humne,
pehle yaar banaya fir samjhaya humne,
khud bhi akhir kaar unhi vaado se behle,
jin se saari duniya ko behlaya humne.
Translation
One day I asked myself to sit down with me,
First, I befriended myself and then I tried to make myself understand,
Finally with those promises I was convinced,
Which I had been making to others.
Look at the beauty of the above lines, it delivers such a strong message yet is so simple to understand. When we face tough times, we seek answers outside. However, we already know the answers, just that we are too afraid to give it to ourselves.
Poetry fascinates me as to how a complex perspective or observation can be laid down in simple words. I hope to achieve a bit of that skill in my writing.
TFP: You have always been a community person — playing guitar in jams, immersing in the poetry of Hindi/Urdu poets, which is a highly communal and artistic experience. Now, how has it been writing with a community?
AP: When you are writing alone, what you write are your thoughts or perspectives which are shaped by the experiences that you have had over your lifetime. Now when you are writing with a community, those experiences are multiplied, the perspectives that you get with the community are refreshing which you might not have thought about otherwise.
If I talk specifically about the community of The Folded Paper, it is a very safe space where you or your writing is not judged. Your writings are accepted in a very positive way by the community. You get to explore your creative self in meeting activities. A recent one was about our favorite cartoon characters celebrating Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. All the writers dream to cross the current realm they are in to imagine and express things differently, and at TFP we get to see new ideas and imaginations every meeting.
And when the community celebrates your writings, you get confidence and you push yourself to write more. You learn from each other and grow together. The only downside that I see is that I can’t stop admiring the writings of my fellow community members at TFP that I at times tend to forget about my own writeups.
TFP: It appears you really immerse yourself in other people’s writing. Any learning or tips from others writing and your writing as well?
AP: After I joined TFP, the thing that changed me was — ‘saying yes to first thoughts’ — we can optimize the writing later. That was a game-changer in getting me started. I believe once we start writing the next idea would automatically come as if our brains have switched gears to the writing mode.
As I try to replay the sessions in my head, the biggest learning or tips that I have had are:
- The world is full of stories and perspectives. We need to be open to receive them with open arms and celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and ourselves. We can learn from anyone.
- We must say yes to our first thoughts, and then edit the writing later on.
- When we will unchain our thoughts from your limiting beliefs, we will see magic happen.
And a tip for the fellow Paperians — keep attending the sessions regularly as you all do. I learn a lot from you and enjoy listening to your write ups, a bit selfish tip. And to the other writers, join The Folded Paper!
TFP: That is some solid testimonial for us, thanks! The next question we have is whether writing creatively helps your profession?
AP: In my case, yes, it definitely helped. I am working as a Software Engineer and it can be complex to explain things sometimes where jargon or complex processes are involved. Communicating what I mean in simpler terms to the non-technical team members can be challenging sometimes and having nice analogies comes in handy in doing so.
TFP: We would love to see your guitar performances. Could you please share them with us?
AP: I have uploaded a few Hindi poems on Youtube that I tried to play with my guitar and have been trying to post some snippets on Instagram.
Read one of Paperian Amit’s writings here:
Want to write with such writers who immerse themselves in art of all forms? Come join The Folded Paper.
