Author Ashutosh Mishra
1. Tell us something about yourself. Who is Ashutosh Mishra in real life? What is your educational background?
I am a family man, banker, and an author. Besides taking care of my family and working my day job, I am passionate about helping and guiding people to make sense of this life. Although, each one of us will find our own path, I consider it my duty to share as many experiences with people as much as possible. I am an engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur.
2. What are your hobbies or how do you like to spend your free time?
Writing started as a hobby and then developed into a serious passion, resulting in two books published by reputed publishers. You can expect more along the way. Besides writing, I am serious about well-being – in emotional, physical, and spiritual sense. I like to devote my time to Yoga, running, exercising and meditation. I also teach meditation to people who want to start on this path. Truly leisure time is spent with family and friends traveling, watching movies, gossiping, and lately cooking as well. I recently learnt making pakodas and Onion rings, and my wife is loving it.
3. After such a successful career as an Investment banker, how did you begin writing? Did you intend to become an author or did you have a specific reason behind writing each of your books?
I was not a born writer. The reason I wrote my first book was that I believed I had a strong message to deliver to the society especially youngsters. But then I discovered that I liked the writing process. It really developed as a hobby where I looked forward to writing more and more. After writing my book, I got into blogging and wrote more than a hundred blog posts on diverse topics like health and wellbeing, meditation, yoga, parenting, corporate life, etc.
The reason for writing the second book was to again share my life lessons with the society- both corporate as well as personal life lessons. I believe one’s professional life and personal life are intertwined with each other and it is important to balance them.
4. How many books have you written? Tell us a little about all of them?
I have written two books so far:
The first – Happiness is All We Want! was published by Bloomsbury. Every person today needs to work on improving their health, emotional well-being, and grow spiritually. Happiness is All We Want is not just another holistic well-being book as it gives an entirely new perspective to the readers while recommending very easy solutions. The idea is not only to give solutions but to explain why it is important to work on this in the first place. I have received excellent feedback from readers and many have been able to benefit from the book.
The second book – Bankers’ Game (Jaico Publishers) is a work of fiction. This story is set in the background of real-life events in 2006-2009 when the last economic crisis hit us. Though the crisis originated in the US, it affected India as well. During that time, I saw many people losing their grip over their lives. They had done phenomenally well in good time but could not manage their success while a few others endured the crisis well. Does life give a second chance? Read on to find out.
5. How did the idea of “Happiness is all We Want” come to you?
Being an engineer, I think I am good at giving structure to any problem. I thought I had developed a unique structure to take care of our health, emotional well-being and spiritual growth. For a modern human being who is always short on time, how does he or she balance self-development in these spheres? How does one develop internally while running the outwards rat race? This thinking led me to write Happiness is All We Want!
6. What kind of research does it take to write a book like “Happiness is all we Want’?
When you are talking about advising people, you better be sure of what you are suggesting. Hence, it took an immense amount of research and self-experimentation to write this book. I not only researched books but practiced all the things outlined in the book. In fact, I had been practicing many of the ideas for more than 20 years. The practice and self-experimentation came first and the idea of the book came later. Since I have experienced these solutions working for me and many others around me, I felt confident in suggesting it for society at large. But in the end- these are only suggestions. Readers are free to try out these or other techniques. What matters more is that you decide to take active control of your life. You cannot determine the ups and downs of life but you can make yourself stronger to face them.
7. Why did you choose Self-Help as the genre of your first book?
As I said earlier, I am passionate about the subject myself and a long time practitioner. Hence, I strongly felt the need to write this book in the self-help genre.
8. Do you want each of your book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
As you can see, both books seem very different- one is self-help and the other fiction. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the two but if you read both, you will realize the connection. Having said that, these are not books in a series and can be read independently. I also don’t intend to develop a series in the future, but things may change.
9. Who is your favorite author of all time? Name some of your favorite works from him/her.
I have liked Eknath Easwaran’s work a lot. Few books from him are – The Upanishads, Dhammapada and Mantram. In fiction, I like Jeffrey Archer and his book Kane and Abel.
10. How has your environment and upbringing colored your writing?
It is true that an author’s writing is colored by his or her environment and upbringing and it has been the same for me. I grew up in Delhi in a middle-class nuclear family. The values inculcated in me by my parents and teachers surely impacted both my books. The qualities of integrity and honesty are foremost and the importance of these values in your health and happiness is very high.
11. Investment banking requires building and maintaining long term relationships with the client. Is that expertise in any way helping you in connecting with your readers?
Yes, banking as a profession needs good relationship management skills and also to keep your client first. For an author, the target audience is the client. Empathizing with your readers and giving them literature that is easy to read and understand, value-adding, and entertaining at the same time can help any author.
12. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Also, tell us something about what’s next in the line?
I am a full-time banker and part-time author as of now. Hence, I don’t have multiple works in progress but I am working on one book that will be my next publication. It is a work of fiction and is evolving at its own pace. I am not rushing it to completion and let’s see how it comes along.
13. Do you Google yourself? If yes, how often?
Yes, I have googled myself but very few times, maybe a couple of times in total.
14. What according to you is Life all about?
This is a deep question and is answered fully in my book – Happiness is All We Want! In summary, life is about having a peaceful, joyful, and healthy time on this planet. There will be ups and downs in this life but it is one’s responsibility to enjoy the success and live the failures with a certain sense of equanimity.
15. Does happiness require autonomy, or community, or both? (Can we be happy alone?)
Every person is different. The first condition for happiness is self-discovery. Know yourself. What makes you happy? Whether you are happy in the community or you are happy alone, knowing it is very important. Next is to strike a balance between both. As long as you are part of the society, any extreme way of living may not be good. If you are very happy alone, learn to have some community time. And if you are very happy in the community, learn to have some alone time as well.
16. Have we become less happy in this age of technology? If yes, can Digital Detoxification help?
Again, it depends on the definition of happiness. If you define happiness from the spiritual perspective of being aware of ourselves, our surroundings, and relishing our experiences, one can say that we have become less happy in this age of technology. We have moved away from being mindful to mindless. We finish our entire meal in front of some screen, either watching a video or reading messages and fail to have a wholesome
17. Is there anything to learn for the humans from the Coronavirus Pandemic?
In the short term, humans are poor learners. While you are under lockdown, you may feel that you do this or that after you get your freedom back, but in most cases the plans may not materialize due to the absence of will power and discipline.
The biggest thing this pandemic has taught us is not to postpone things or not to procrastinate. Just imagine, that you were postponing an important job for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly the lockdown was announced. So, do what needs to be done today and now.
18. What’s your advice for aspiring authors?
Follow your dreams. You will not be given a jungle lodge, with all food and drinks supplied and no one to disturb you, to start writing. Do it here and now, in the middle of all chaos and your life.
19. How can readers connect with you? Share your social media links and email.
Email ID: amishr78@gmail.com
Website: www.ashutoshm.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/authorashutoshm
Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_mishra78
Quora: https://www.quora.com/Ashutosh-Mishra-128
Linkedin: https://in.linkedin.com/in/ashutosh-mishra-32ba825
20. A message for the readers of HappinessDhaba
My universal message is to be happy and count your blessings. Take charge of your life and move forward with full vigor. In today’s world of zillions of distractions, there is a danger that we lose control of our lives and be at the mercy of googles and facebooks of the world. Meditate and explore yourself. I offer a meditation course through WhatsApp no. +91 9820257398. You are welcome to join for free.
You might also like: 10 Books That Teach the Art of Living a Happier Life
This was our 4th Interview in the series “Hearty Conversation with Artists.” And we really enjoyed it. Author Ashutosh Mishra is someone who is very well-placed on the knowledge spectrum. So, conversation with him has always been an enriching experience.
We wish Author Ashutosh Mishra a Happy & Healthy life ahead.
That’s all we have for today. Thanks a lot for tuning in to HappinessDhaba. Hope, you got to know a lot about Author Ashutosh Mishra.
Do let me know your views in the comment section. Till then, Goodbye.
Signing off with my favorite words.
Zindagi Zindabad!
Author Profile
- Psychologist | Engineer | Reader | Blogger
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An Engineer-Turned-Psychologist who loves Literature.
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A beautiful narration of the interview with Ashutosh Mishra, loved it, down to earth nice person ready to work for the humanity by his lovely self experimented ideas. Stay Blessed Always Dear Ashutosh
The book “Happiness is all we want” is Love. It’s a complete guide.