The most successful people work to create their meaning of life, and they keep taking action and generate their motivation towards it. Model and theatre artist turned writer and columnist – Parakh Bhatt is among these successful people who have been staying focused in their pursuit to make life meaningful.
A creative star in the making
His father – Yogesh Bhatt – had a government job. His mother – Saroj Bhatt – is a science graduate and worked as a Maths teacher. They were his inspiration from a very young age.
At 19, he was in his second year doing a degree in electrical engineering from Parul Institute of Engineering & Technology, Baroda. At the same time, he also enrolled for the diploma in performing arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. He would be in his engineering college from morning 9 am to evening 5 pm. After that, from evening 6 pm to night 11 pm, he would do studies for the performing arts college. Beyond that, from 11 pm onwards, he would work on drama rehearsals till midnight 3 am. When he had exams and assignments, he would be busier and would hardly get time to sleep. This impacted his health and routine, but he was very focused on his career.
As he has motion sickness and vertigo related issues, he does not enjoy travelling. However, he has been very interested in reading since childhood. He read many religious and spiritual content like Mahabharata, Ramayana and also the literature of legendary and famous authors. During his summer vacation, he was the only person who would go to the library, and the staff there supported and encouraged his interests in reading.
Every ending is a new start
It was not until he got jaundice, he started suffering from back pain. Without sufficient rest, he continued his drama work and neglected his health. However, as the back pain increased, there was a problem in his spine. On getting it checked, he came to know that he had to do surgery and this problem that he got in his spine generally occurs to those in the age group of 50-60 years.
He had to come down to Rajkot for undergoing spine surgery immediately. The surgeon there informed him that the surgery would not be that easy. The surgeon agreed to do their best but also warned him that there could be a possibility of Parakh getting paralyzed on his left side. He was devastated by this and crashed his acting career. But as he had no option, he had to take bed rest. Initially, he took a rest but started getting bored eventually and wanted to do something meaningful in this rest time. This was when he began writing.
Writing as a hobby
During his rest, Parakh would write one article daily to take out his frustration. After his recovery, he had completed 50-55 articles and decided to utilize them better. He went to 16 media houses to pitch but got rejected by all. There were many myths about being a writer, which he had to overcome. He then earned his first break from Azad Sandesh to write two columns per week.
He continued to read many literature books. When he got an offer from Gujarat Guardian, he wanted to write about the knowledge from his reading.
When he contacted a media house, his work was appreciated by journalists and editors at Sanj Samachar. He got an offer from them and joined to work for their current affairs. He got to learn here and improve on his writing.
Then he got a call from the editor of Cocktail Zindagi. This is one of the famous magazines in Gujarat, and Editor / Founder – Mr Aashu Patel called Parakh to appreciate his work. He also offered Parakh the role of a columnist to join Cocktail Zindagi Magazine.
Parakh is very grateful to have his friends and parents supporting him well in the writing field and encouraging him.
Writing to the next level
A background in engineering and drama helped Parakh understand conceptual knowledge of science and story writing. He was offered a meagre amount at the start. He continues to improve on his skills as he strongly agrees that when you start your career in any field, you have to prove yourself.
As a creative writer, he explored writing jingles, punchlines, and innovative lines for advertisement and marketing materials. He likes to explore different areas as a writer rather than limiting himself. He suggests newcomers network more, explore different avenues and work on upskilling for a better career.
Moments of appreciation:
Through this writing and stories, he receives several appreciation and recognition. He was appreciated by the Editor of Cocktail Zindagi Magazine – Ashu Patel.
His work was also applauded and recognized by Dr Devanshu Patel- the trustee and chairman of Parul University. Dr Devanshu Patel called Parakh personally in the early morning to praise his work and give him an opportunity to do his first book launch at Parul University, where he studied his engineering.
The best achievement that Parakh feels is when he got a call from an 87-year old reader for his Mrityunjay series from Ahmedabad. This reader was suffering from the last stage of cancer. So he was looking forward to the launch of his next series as he didn’t want to die without reading the next series of that book.
Looking into the future
As he likes spirituality related writing with science, he is working on his dream project – Mrityunjay (Maha-Asur Series) from 2017. He wants to get this on OTT. He also plans to explore doing translation work and take on more projects for translation to four languages – Hindi, English, Marathi & Tamil in the future.
