'You Can't Live Off Your Writing In This Country' - Mita Kapur

Mita Kapur – the name should ring a bell if you are an avid reader of print media. A well-known columnist, Mita is also twice-published and is the founder of Siyahi, the pioneer of literary consultancy in India. Let’s get to know her a bit more personally, shall we?

- Rahul Paul

Authors are one of the most mysterious people and hence difficult to figure. Their personality is not dependent on how complex or simple their writing style and content is. As we try to figure out Mita, we visited her childhood in Jaipur through her memories. Mita takes a moment to recollect and says, “I actually had a very happy childhood. We were three sisters and thankfully no brother,” she got the oddity of the statement. “Because it was so much more fun growing up with girls. My parents were both working professionals; my mother in fact was the first woman driver in Udaipur. Though growing up in early 70s, we were never told not to wear tight skirts or you can’t go to temple during periods. It was that open a household because my parents themselves had gotten into love marriage at a time when it was unheard of even in big cities.”

Mita tells us about the most memorable memory of her childhood which was actually a verbal dispute between her parents in which Mita’s mother was furious about her husband putting her money in a fixed deposit. “I remember that line of my mother ‘who are you to put my money in fixed deposit. I am going to use it to buy jewellery if I like.’ It just somehow stuck with me. I think from her I get my fierce nature.”