Over the past few years, young writer Vani Dadoo has established herself as a truly integral member of the Write the World community. Not only has Vani served as a Peer Ambassador, offering thoughtful reviews to her fellow writers, she’s also published more than 80 pieces on the site—one of which earned her the prize for Best Entry in our Travel Writing Competition. We were excited to talk to Vani about the most common misconceptions about her hometown of Mumbai, India, her experiences as a Peer Ambassador, and her writing resolutions for 2019.
Back in July, you were awarded Best Entry in our Travel Writing Competition for your piece “The Good Bay” about your hometown, Mumbai, India. What did you hope to achieve by writing this piece?
I think everybody wonders what other places are like. And this impression is almost always formed by stories and pictures, especially classics. I always wonder what others think about India. Many think of India as this richly cultured place teeming with decorated elephants and spicy food. While that might be true of rural India, urban India has a completely different side to it which the world has yet to discover. Through my piece, I wanted to paint a picture of modern Mumbai where we have a culture of workaholism but where we also take the time to experience different cultures; it’s a place where tradition and technology stand in juxtaposition.
You’ve been one of our Write the World Peer Ambassadors. How has this experience helped shape how you view your own writing process?
Being a Peer Review Ambassador was one of my best experiences ever; not only because it taught me to analyze writing from various viewpoints, but it also taught me how to look at my own writing objectively. You begin to learn how to emphasize the strong parts of your writing and how to elaborate on the vague or misleading parts. Sometimes, you even start to think from the perspective of the reviewer: What will intrigue the reader more? What will puzzle the reader? In fact, after being a Peer Ambassador, I understood the reviews I received on a deeper level because I’ve been on the other end. I started to incorporate the reviewers’ suggestions in subtler ways in my pieces.
When you’re not writing, what are some of your favorite activities?
I’m a big fan of spoken word poetry, so in the little free time that I have, I try to visit open mics. After that, if I have some more time, I study entrepreneurship because the way businesses grow fascinates me. I’ll also delve into astronomy and try to learn everything I can about black holes. Apart from that, I’m also part of a club that creates content for social problems on media platforms, where I use writing to support visuals.
We’re approaching the end of 2018. Do you have any writing resolutions for the new year?
I’m not the best person to keep up with resolutions, but I guess my goal for 2019 is to make a writing notebook that I can carry everywhere and to really use those notes in my pieces. I’ll use the notebook to pen ideas that come to me at the oddest moments. It would be like a sketchbook except that I would paint with words :) .
Who are some of your biggest writing inspirations?
There are so many. Every writer I’ve ever read has earned a bit of my admiration! But there are two writers in particular that have really taken my breath away: Mirza Waheed and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. In Mirza Waheed’s The Collaborator, the audience becomes very close to the character and learns so much about him only to realize he is never actually mentioned by name in the story. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni weaves emotions so expertly into her writing that I feel like I am really experiencing the circumstances she describes. I also enjoy the writer Khaled Hosseini who is ruthless with reality through his characters.
