Richa Kumari fondly known as Richa Kashyap belongs to Noida. She is an Award-Winning Author for the book named Those Fallen Breadcrumbs, Engineer from prestigious institution (Birla Institute of Technology Mesra), Best Public Speaker (Toastmasters International), Pageant winner (Mrs Asia Universe 2020), Masters (MBA-IIM Raipur), Robotics Champion (represented India at NASA Kennedy Space Florida) and a social worker at International Inner Wheel.
She is a budding author and has Co-Authored more than 5 Anthologies. Richa is a Product Manager by profession at a London-based multinational currently and a painter by passion. She always wondered to chase her dreams & uplift her writing skills in the World of Literature.
Richa as the mere name itself has originated from the Sanskrit word “RUC”, which means “To Praise”. Richa Kumari is a creative person and loves to do everything because of her incessant curiosity.
TBE: Congratulations on this amazing book ‘Those Fallen Breadcrumbs’. It contains so many important insights and observations the world needs to hear. Tell us about your book, can you share with us something about the book that isn’t in the blurb?
Richa Kashyap: The Book “Those fallen Breadcrumbs” shows a mirror to the society. It is actually for everyone who has forgotten the dreams of their lives and accepted the path shown by others as their realities. This is the story of a boy named Akshay who, after failing IITJEE, follows the standards of success set by society and, like all of us, is in a dilemma – was engineering really his dream? He is confused and is searching for answers about what he actually wants.
Clarity unfolds when he meets his college friend after three years. This book aims to change the mindset of society so that the younger generation can choose the path that makes them happy and not the path that makes others happy. It will retake us back to their memory lane when we were in similar confusion.
TBE: What was the first initial thought or thing that sparked the idea for ‘Those Fallen Breadcrumbs’? Was it the basic idea of a story about a guy dealing with the challenges of getting admission in an IIT?
Richa Kashyap: No the basic idea was not about a guy dealing with the challenges of getting admission in an IIT but it is for every student out there who is confused about to choose and end up choosing engineering or medicine as the final career option.
‘Those Fallen Breadcrumbs’ is the book where every reader, be it a student or parent, can relate to some of its characters, scene or plot. Hence the subtitle as ‘It’s your own Story’. This book will not teach you how bad things happen to good people but will tell how a group of engineering students coming from radically different backgrounds had turned and twisted their fates to make everything fall into place. Caged and chained by the societal norms, they ended up together following the most travelled path. Those fallen breadcrumbs were the façade of the correct direction, and they went on a crazy roller coaster ride of laughter, sorrow, fun, suspense and entertainment.
TBE: Did you have a personal motivation behind writing a story dealing with the Engineering culture and stereotypes, or was it the interest in the topic? Or the need to talk about it since teens face an unbelievable amount of pressure and stress from both their parents and the world around them?
Richa Kashyap: There has been my personal motivation behind writing a story dealing with engineering culture and stereotypes and at the same time I needed to talk about it so that my voices reaches all the teenagers who face an unbelievable amount of pressure and stress from both their parents and the world around them.
TBE: The self-identity is a big theme of the book. What inspired you to explore this theme?
Richa Kashyap: Yes, this is the main theme because what I have experienced in my life is people getting carried away by other’s concept of right which may or may not be correct. The trigger behind was the book was the misunderstood passion that I saw as commonality among the youth. They were being tagged as useless while in reality they were Used- less and I want to send out a message to the youth to hear to their inner voices. This is to say, your chosen tears are better than their imposed smile. The idea occurred in 2018 when I saw a boy joining Medical when in reality he was aspiring to be a journalist.
TBE: While writing this book, you must have put yourself in the shoes of your main character. How would you sum up the journey that the characters go through in ‘Those Fallen Breadcrumbs’?
Richa Kashyap: If I had to sum up the journey of the characters that go through in my book “Those Fallen Breadcrumbs”, it would be self-realisation.
TBE: What was your writing/research process like?
Richa Kashyap: My writing process is imaginative and interactive. I want the readers to imagine and recreate the scenes. In concurrence to that I want them to relate the to the plot and characters as much as they can. I follow a simple principle of 60-20-20 wherein I believe 60% of the work is done when your draft is ready but one should never underestimate editing which accounts for rest 40%.
TBE: Do you read much and if so, who are your favorite authors?
Richa Kashyap: My favourite author is Ayn Rand and I loved her book The Fountainhead. My father is my literary mentor who always motivated me by saying that I am the best writer and the idea to become an author happened when I was actually in Standard 5th.
TBE: In your opinion, what is the most important thing about any book?
Richa Kashyap: The most important thing about this book of mine is truth. Infact all my upcoming books are based on facts and experiences. Recently my book entered into India book of Records because the book has real life experiences explained by scientific facts . I think the plot and characters of the book may be fictional but the idea behind the book is true and real.
TBE: What was one of the most surprising things you learned during creation of your book?
Richa Kashyap: I wish I could answer it candidly but want to be correct and precise. I used to think that the book title should be unique and should have taken before but that was not true. There are many books out there with a slight change in title . However, when I was finalizing the title (oblivious to the above fact) , I chose one title and wrote the first 2 chapters revolving on title’s theme and at the end of 2nd chapter, I got to know that the title was taken. I was shaken and sad. I decided to choose another title and finally found the beautiful title “those Fallen Breadcrumbs”
TBE: Is there anything you are currently working on that may intrigue the interest of your readers?
Richa Kashyap: I will be soon launching my next two books and I would share the theme and genre soon. One thing I will like to say to aspiring writers is Fiction is the genre that requires you to sit and contemplate about both the plots and the characters. So invest the initial days in planning before starting with your first draft.
