Nishant Singh, 26-year-old, is a writer/advertiser. Born and brought up in Kanpur, he did his schooling at St. Joseph’s Senior Secondary School and then shifted to Delhi to pursue journalism and mass communication. During three years of college, he wrote and directed multiple zero-budget short films and interned at Mail Today.
During one of his internships, he worked under the National Award-winning documentary filmmaker Brahmanad S. Siingh. After graduating, he went to Mumbai for a while to get the whiff of the Hindi TV and film industry where he worked as an Associate Creative Head and a dialogue writer (both uncredited) in a couple of daily soaps on Zee TV. He stepped into advertising in early 2017 when he joined a digital marketing startup in Delhi NCR.
During his 5 years in advertising, he has worked on various marquee accounts like Netflix, Maruti Suzuki, Emami, Sandisk, Dabur, etc, along with government organizations like Rajasthan Tourism, Bureau of Indian Standardization, and other prestigious organizations like the European Union, World Health Organization, United Nations.
Nishant’s debut book Sailab was released on 25th June 2021 and his second book is slated to release on the same date, this year. He doesn’t read books, although he has started to hoard some lately. Music is his biggest source of literature consumption and he counts Eminem, Bob Dylan, Mirza Ghalib to be the greatest to hold the pen. A huge fan of the megastar Shah Rukh Khan, Nishant has held him in high regard since childhood.
Traveling to witness the surreal beauty of the Himalayas is yet another of his passion and he does so six times a year. When recounting his journey so far, he describes December 2020 as the ‘life-changing’ period of his life. It was when he decided to quit alcohol.
As an advertiser, it is his firm belief that “Good content is something that works as per research and data while great content is another thing that works while defying the same.” Nishant is humble enough to consider his poetic prowess to be a gift rather than a skill and is forever grateful to the Universe for that.
We at bookGeeks got a chance to interview the young and talented poet. Here is what he has to say about his debut book and his love for writing.
Tell us something about yourself. Who is Nishant as a person and how is he different as a poet? |
I don’t think there’s any fine line. Nishant- the person, Nishant- the poet, live under each other’s skin. My poetries are the spitting image of what I observe around me in real time and the assessment of past experiences, done in hindsight. Both person and poet are dependent on each other, I’d say there are more similarities and barely any difference, apart from the way of expression. |
Tell us about your debut collection of poetry, Sailab. What can the readers expect from it? |
Readers can keep their existing expectations, specially the poetic longings, intact as they step into Sailab. What they shouldn’t be expecting is an array of back to back poetries, they should keep a scope for having a conversation- with the book, with themselves, maybe with the sky too or with the moon on a new moon night. The book is a confluence of three segments and they give birth to an overarching storyline, hence I also recommend it to be read from cover to cover in the first read. |
Which is your earliest memory related to writing? |
When I was in 6th standard, I first attempted writing something which I was then calling a novel. I went on to handwrite 16 pages, I remember, it was on a social issue and it sounded like a course book of Social Studies, it had questions, answers and bullet points. I guess I still have it in some drawer at home. That’s my earliest ‘writing’ memory that I can recall. I think the first poetry that I wrote was in 10th standard and I wrote it as a part of an assignment in the Hindi coursebook. I wrote my first short story in class 12th and it was inspired from one of the chapters in the English coursebook called The Third Level. But please don’t confuse me as someone who would have been very studious in his school days, I was anything but that. |
Does your work on the professional front influence your writing? |
I am very grateful for being one of those people whose profession is quite congruent to their passion. I write professionally too, not books, not always poetry but since I earn my dough from the advertising industry, it keeps feeding my creative appetite and gushing adrenaline. One thing I am really thankful for in this life is to be surrounded by new ideas all the time and staying away from that slow poison of monotony, the poison that doesn’t even taste good. |
What category of readers is Sailab meant for? Who are most likely to enjoy it? |
I don’t know, I have never really thought of it that way and I don’t think I ever will before or after writing a book. A poetry book is a very wide thing, especially one like Sailab which takes you from societal corals to the depths of love to many other places. As cliché as it might sound but I strongly believe that there’s something for everyone out there. If you don’t believe me, just read the book. |
How long have you been working on the poems in the collection? |
I wrote around 50 independent poems of different genres and formats between September 2020 to February 2021. One night I weaved 30.5 of them together with a heartfelt narrative and a book was born. We named it Sailab. |
What is the significance of the title? What does the word Sailab convey? |
Sailab, the word, means overflow or an inundation of something. Sailab, the book, is an overflow of emotions, the book drips emotions of different kinds. It drops right inside the voids. |
Which is your favourite poem in the collection? |
I’d love to say Bazar as it’s the most popular one but since I feel it already enjoys its fair share of celebration, I think Ek Din is my favourite, it’s a promise to self, it’s a declaration of a war against all odds. The morning it was written, I wanted to restore hope in me, I wasn’t the happiest that morning, writing Ek Din was my wake-up call. |
Any other creative avenues that you pursue, as hobby or otherwise? |
I can play a few musical instruments, I am trying to learn a few new ones too. Thanks to my very talented inner circle of friends, they jam all the time and that’s when we learn so much about music and writing and whatnot! I am never gonna stop exploring creative avenues, it doesn’t even matter for me to be good or bad at them because indulging in something that excites me creatively is quite self-satisfying in itself. |
One quote that never fails to motivate you? |
If one quote would do that, I would have been very jealous of its writer. There are artists, their works and their lives that never fail to motivate me, Marshall Mathers, Bob Dylan, Mirza Ghalib, Shah Rukh Khan being on the top but not in order. Everyone has a role to play, we as well. |
What is your biggest strength and your greatest weakness? |
Answering any question in one line and not really answering it. |
Do you follow any writing regimen or are you a spontaneous creator? |
No! Never. It’s always right in the moment. I wonder how someone can confine themselves into one standard regimen and follow it all the time. I do follow structural writing when it comes to scripts but then again it keeps changing as per the brief. |
In your opinion, what should be done to better connect poets and poetry enthusiasts in today’s India? |
If it matters, in my opinion, there should be some kind of productive competitiveness inside the poets of today’s time. I don’t mean Tupac and Biggie or Ghalib and Zauq, but like something between Mark Weins and Sonny Side or a kind of relationship you will see between stand-up comedians in our country. At the same time, organisers should start valuing poetry as an event more and foundations should start valuing the new artists more. I think that will really help the community to not just come together but be stronger and more zealous as well, in my opinion, if it matters. |
Any other writing project that you are currently working on? |
I have completed my second book, Shikayatein, which will come out in June this year. I am currently diving deep into a thought for the third book and letting some stuff out on paper, let’s see where it takes me. |
How do our readers connect with you? |
@nishantwords on Instagram, that’s where I post a lot of writings too, specially written for social media and I do reply to all relevant messages, sooner or later. I am definitely answering mails on nishantwords@gmail.com , not sooner but later. |
Buy a copy of Nishant Singh’s Sailab using the link below.