Interview

Featured Author Interview – In conversation with lyrical and thoughtul Manish Kumar

By Nandan Jha

Ghumakkar – By now, a lot of Ghumakkars know quite a bit about your love for traveling and undying passion for music. Please tell us something about your personal life. How a regular day unfolds for Manish ?
Manish – Yes, my love for traveling or Ghumakkari is probably quite popular and as you said that my undying passion for music keeps me awake and working for long time. Let me go back and share my story beginning from school.

I did my complete schooling from Patna, a city which has been there for ages. (Read Mahesh’s story on Patna – here ) Then I moved to Ranchi to finish my engineering from BIT, Mesra. That was close to 20 years back. I quickly moved to Faridabad, a suburb of National Capital Delhi, and worked briefly before going back to academics to finish my Masters from Roorkee. I joined SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) in 1997 at Ranchi and been here since then.

Vishal Rathod in a tête-à-tête with Ghumakkar

By Nandan Jha

I am fairly prepared for going through this kind of stuff, and often multiple times and having learnt through trial-and-error, I believe that if you hang-in long enough, you would get through. In this particular case, I could sense the perseverance. I had my doubts but I kept my belief intact. More weeks went by and Vishal, the alert among you would have made this out, and myself continued to find our ways together, stitching stories and getting better with every new day. We hanged on (or hung on, whatever) and it is been less than a year and I am so proud to share with all of you (one more time) that Vishal is our ‘Ghumakkar Featured Author for April 2012’. I had the opportunity to talk to him early this month and here is the conversation we had with Vishal over phone and email, where we discussed spirituality, travel, NASA and much more.

Ghumakkar Featured Author Interview with Professor Manish Khamesra

By Nandan Jha

I often cherish the only trip I did with the couple in 2002 (or may be before) to Orchha. Countless evenings of Tea, Rajasthani namkeens, sitting on those cool white marble floors at their place, discussing books, religion, morals, Hindi poetry and numerous stupid things which we do when we are young. Even the local market (the now famous sector 18 of Noida) was not at all busy and one can just sit alongside those rickety fountains and spend the evening, doing nothing. Sometimes we would polish the day off with a movie at Dharamplace or Alka theatre which still looked and acted like being in 60s, frozen in time. Old world charm is what some say. When you meet your old friends you always feel the warmth of assurance, the ether which connects you is just viscous enough to hold you together without restricting any freedom.

Presenting Nikhil Chandra, “Ghumakkar Featured Author” for February 2012

By Nandan Jha

I also apply the usual tricks of showing interest in those things that has been mentioned in the Bio, and try to put up a fake face of being someone who is so passionate about those interests as no body’s business. I know it sounds so stupid and average but then you have to do full justice for any job you take on. To appreciate and understand this better, I would encourage you to read his profile at Ghumakkar. For February 2012 ‘Ghumakkar Featured Author’, I did all of this but realized that I am as ill-prepared and un-equipped as I was a fortnight back. There is hardly anything (Ok, may be 3-D modeling is not listed) which is not there.

To make things worse, there was a scheduling gap so the interview didn’t happen at the identified time. The few hours delay, didn’t make the things any easier for me and I braced myself for a eventful and adventurous talk with Nikhil Chandra, the ‘Ghumakkar Featured Author’ for Feb 2012.

घुमक्कड़ साक्षात्कार – द्विभाषी घुमक्कड़ मुकेश के साथ

By Nandan Jha

घुमक्कड़.कॉम के पाठकों को नव वर्ष की हार्दिक शुबकामनाएं| “Featured Authors” की श्रंखला में २०१२ जनवरी में एक ऐसा नाम जुड़ा है जो इस…

Featured Author Interview – In a tete-a-tete with Devasmita

By Nandan Jha

Ghumakkar: Besides being a Ghumakkar, what else does DC dabble in?
DC: I love to dabble in photography. A good picture opens the gateway for many a stories to unfurl without a single word spoken. Such is the power of photography. I am also an ardent believer in the power of the pen. I love to write about anything I see: about places, about people, about relationships, about families. Over the years, I have made a little niche for myself in photography and writing. I have done a little bit of script writing and stage performances in Seattle. I have also participated in a couple of dance shows. Between academics, writing, photography, and traveling, I manage to keep myself happy.

घुमक्कड़ साक्षात्कार – जीवट जाट संदीप के साथ

By Nandan Jha

घुमक्कड़ पर साक्षात्कार लेने के परंपरा बहुत पुरानी नहीं है | हालांकि हम हमेशा से मौके ढूँढ़ते रहे हैं की किस तरह से घुमक्कड़ों…

Meet Aurojit, Featured Author for October-2011 – Interview

By Nandan Jha

And then ensued a high energy interaction, anecdotes, life experiences, general gyaan and how Sharmi and Auro are more of Sanki travelers hunting for special plans and scouring local stone shops for the special gems.

Thank you Auro and Sharmi for the lovable and warm conversation, your thoughtful insights and the frank admissions.

In a tete-a-tete with Amit – Featured Ghumakkar Author for September 2011

By Nandan Jha

Amit is our featured author for September, 2011 and in continuing with the tradition, we caught up with him over email and phone. I…

In conversation with Anand – Featured Author of Aug 2011 – Interview

By Nandan Jha

Anand is our featured author for Aug, 2011 and we caught up with him, discussing things from riding to travel to writing to life…

Meet Archana Sundara – Featured Author for July 2011

By Nandan Jha

Archana is our ‘Featured Ghumakkar Author’ for July 2011 and Vibha caught up with her over e-mail and I had a delightful talk with…

Travel Book Launch – Three men ride South

By Archana Ravichander

Travelling with the Amigos is always fun and worth writing about, but the fun and unplanned element of the first part of the ride really added to the fun. I met a lot of interesting people and saw a lot of interesting things – and that makes the story fun to tell.

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