An author becomes successful in terms of popularity or critical appreciation. Both these things go on to build the reputation of the author in the future and in the present as well. New authors have to struggle these days because fame does not come to them very easily. Nevertheless, if they are into serious writing and they mean business, the literary business, critics and serious readers do accept their claim and honour them with the appreciation that they deserve. This stands true with Vanisha Uppal, the author of On The Way, her debut book. Though the book is newly-launched and it has not done that magic in the market yet, it is our duty that we honour the seriousness of her writing and apprise the readers with the same.
On The Way has been appreciated by readers on Goodreads and critics on their platforms and blogs. There is no doubt that every one of them appreciates what Vanisha Uppal, the author, has done in terms of her writing, the objective, the vision, the philosophy and the ultimate test of a writer – connection with the readers and their predicament. On The Way, the book, does not make any reader feel left alone. It is for everyone because it deals with our daily issues, goals, successes and failures. The book, though categorised as spiritual non-fiction as well, does not talk about spirituality in direct terms. Readers will have to encounter the life stories of Vanisha Uppal and big-little episodes of her life with her grandparents, friends, employers and students, teachers etc. They will have to extract their messages and interpretation from those episodes, offered as articles, and that’s a very easy thing to do – let me assure you all.
The author’s strength lies in her capacity to connect with her readers. She offer’s book’s content in a way that reflects various conditions that we usually find ourselves in. For example, we might be happy, sad, tense or worried. We may be anxious about some results to come, some answers that we don’t have, some problems that we want to solve. We may be joyous because of our income, when someone says yes when we get out of some sword-hanging trouble and so on… the author has managed to cultivate all these human situations in her articles and shared her experiences about the same. How did she react to some trouble? How did she react to solve a problem? How did she put her trust in God? How did she get help from the act of mediation? What does she think of questions that are not answerable in simple terms?
Vanisha Uppal’s writing goes beyond the simple connotation of spiritual or motivational writing. She tries to simplify the concepts that have otherwise been lionised by many authors who believe in making a mockery of their readers by using high-end words and sentences that are unclear. You might find a few mistakes here and there in the lines by Vanisha in terms of grammar or punctuation. However, you will never find an attempt to download the wit of her readers and that makes her a readable, likeable and ‘simple’ author!
We have to wait for more of her books to come out and then only we will be able to assess her literature on an overall and more holistic foundation. However, with whatever is available right now, Vanisha Stands out as a prodigy turned on late and she has to prove her worth only in terms of a prolonged literary stint. Otherwise, the ones who will read her will find it easy to connect with her writing not because she is a genius, but only because she is a simple person offering her honest opinions about things we all feel and experience.
By Anand for The Book Blog
