In Conversation with Dr. Aparna Ajith

About Dr. Aparna Ajith

Dr. Aparna Ajith was born in Kollam, India, to C.S. Ajith and Y. Ajitha. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Hyderabad and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the Trivandrum Press Club. She later earned her Ph.D. in English Literature from the Central University of Rajasthan. Additionally, she holds two Master’s degrees in Hindi and Sociology. Currently, she serves as an Assistant Professor of English at Sree Narayana College for Women, Kollam, affiliated with the University of Kerala. A passionate writer and translator, she contributes to the Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Kerala, as a freelance journalist. Dr. Ajith is the author of three poetry anthologies: Musings of Venus, Little Anvik in the Tides of Time, and Little Anvik in the Realm of Rhymes. Her literary work has been recognised with the Legacy of Literature Award 2025, Panorama Global Youth Literary Award (2020), the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy Research Grant (2020), and FIPRESCI’s 6th Chidananda Dasgupta Best Film Criticism Certificate of Merit. She previously served as an ad hoc Civilian Teaching Faculty of English at the prestigious Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala. Much of Dr. Ajith’s creative world draws inspiration from the everyday adventures of little Anvik (affectionately called Kunjapp) and the shared journeys with her husband, M.N. Sujeeth.

LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it, and its content.

Dr. Aparna Ajith: The year 2020 has ebbed away into bosom eternity, giving way to a resplendent New Year 2021. COVID-19 has toppled everyone’s lives. All of us were yearning to get rid of the impact it created on our subsistence, thereby transforming 2020 into a futile year. When I look back at 2020 now, I have something to cheer and cherish. The lethargic days of lockdown prompted me to delve deeply into the wisdom of words and innocent thoughts. I was sensing the euphoria of creation within me. I was heavily pregnant with my first baby and going through the whirlwind of agony and ecstasy, exhaustion and exhilaration, and whatnot. From a butterfly’s flutter, I felt the fresh breath of Anvik Sujeeth. Sujeeth and I have become parents! From my womb, the spring of our life, the Anvik baby has come to the world. Anvik, my raison d’être 2.0, has transformed my life into a new empire. Mewling and puking in my arms, I feel his serene charm and sense his innocent gestures. His angelic smile makes me blissful, his charismatic voice makes me delighted. He has bestowed a new world of happiness and happenings on me. He makes me go ahead with spectacular expectations of a better tomorrow. Each story in my Suitcases, Sandcastles, and Little Anvik is a fragment of my tiny world, a reflection of the love especially I share with the tiny soul I was blessed to bring into this world. Through these pages, I tried to make the readers witness the remarkable phases and faces of the travelling experiences that shaped us. All the narratives in this collection portray my tiny world in words with my husband and our tiny human being, Anvik, aka Kunjapp.

LiFT: Why did you choose this title?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: Suitcases, Sandcastles, and Little Anvik: A Travelogue is my humble and honest endeavour to re-create and re-live the best-loved moments of my life alongside my husband and our darling baby boy. My creative smithy has unfurled what I have sensed, felt, and experienced in my real life as the mother of my little marvel. Having called four Indian cities and a serene hamlet my home, my stories carry the echoes of our days, filled with laughter, wonder, and the silent rhyme of everyday life. I really wished to have a touch of my little one in the title as well as the cover page. My deepest sense of admiration goes to my darling travel geek, Anvik aka Kunjapp, for his utmost love and affection. I thank my loving boy for always keeping track of my stories, asking and cheering me with his cute words, “Girl, are you writing about Little Anvik? When is my Little Anvik book coming?” What more do I need when I have my greatest source of inspiration in his tiny form? This book is my love letter to my little Anvik and our moments of togetherness (in exhilaration and exhaustion). For his endless love, his giggles that light up my world, and for simply being my boy. Yet another book in his name to cherish for a lifetime, my baby. My Suitcases, Sandcastles, and Little Anvik is for him, with all my heart. I thank my dearest student, Amal I. Kumar, for offering and sharing his views after reading my little world in words, especially in finalizing the title Suitcases, Sandcastles, and Little Anvik after our long hours of telephonic discourses.

LiFT: When did you realize that you wanted to be a writer, and what was your inspiration behind it?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: The bedrock of my tryst with English Literature and the world of creativity shares a rare emotional connection with my paternal grandmother. She had a typical proclivity for English and Mathematics, something which I have mastered from her. Her stories on Kumaran Asan, his Redeemer boat tragedy and the masterpiece Veenapoovu (The Fallen Flower) continued to pour an enigma and elixir of creativity. I did not know the fact that the stories I had been hearing for the long twenty-two years have moulded me to dabble in the world of fiction and film, poetic rhapsody and alluring odyssey. I developed the habit of writing right from my school days. I used to participate in essay writing competitions during my college days, too. When I drifted to the sphere of literature, I began burying myself in the world of words. When I wield my pen to the fertility of imagination and reality, a Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights captures the contours of my heart. “Stories are a communal currency of humanity”. Yes, the spirit of Arabian Nights transcends me to a world of words. All my life, I wished to be a writer. The empire in me yearns to write back all my lost territories.

LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: Ten years down the line, I envision myself as a confident, rooted, and widely read writer, someone whose voice has found both depth and reach in the world of literature. I imagine having a strong body of published work, especially creative nonfiction, that grows out of my lived experiences, my engagement with nature, motherhood, travel, gender, and social realities. I wish my books to be considered worthy irrespective of the traditional and self-publishing tags. I personally believe a book has to be valued for what it is and how it is. I wait for the day my books written with the real-life blood and flesh get accepted and acknowledged for the motifs mentioned. Ten years from now, I would like to see myself as a writer specializing in creative non-fiction.

LiFT: How important do you think marketing and the quality of a book are in promoting it and increasing its readership?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: I prefer the quality of the book to anything. Even a self-published book will have quality. The tag of the branded publishing firm is not the sole criterion to define the mettle of a creative output. A book far away from the madding crowd, without experiencing the sound and fury of the world, too, will have its own merit. Marketing provides public attention and visibility for any work of art. A book succeeds fully only when it is both well-written and well-promoted. One creates the route; the other gives the journey meaning. In the long run, however, it is the quality that writes the book’s true legacy, while marketing simply helps the world notice it.

LiFT: What message do you want to convey to people through your writing?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: “Writing is like the tap I have in my bathroom in Delhi that never turns off completely,” says my best-loved author, Jaishree Misra. She resonates in my recesses with an insatiable appetite for the imaginary homelands. The exuberant jumble of words guides and girds me. They offer an extended homage to imperfection. At times, my journey to the fictionalscape is exciting; at times, it is exhausting too. The more I feel flawed, the more I am active. Unknown and unexplored words present a dizzying but fertile abyss. When I spread the pen around me, I feel a sense of rapture, an affinity to scribble for a long time. My language and diction no longer seemed to be an unlocked gate. The passage warmly welcomes my heart to unlock the construction of marvel with words. As a message, I can say writing for me is cathartic and that vents out my emotions.

LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: I work as an Assistant Professor in English literature. Apart from writing, I like reading and travelling. I wish to enjoy my me time despite my anxious nature. Having a chivalrous soldier as my better half is a constant source of inspiration and motivation, always and in all ways. The sailing of life has untold sagas of missed birthdays, anniversaries, family gatherings, and festive occasions. Still, life has its own share of joy, also. I wish to create moments and memories with my man and our little Anvik in our handful of days of togetherness.

LiFT: What activities do you resort to when you face writer’s block?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: When I face writer’s block, I take and leave myself for the routine absurdities of life. After a point in time, I will be able to crack the track with some real stories of pleasures and pains. I consider writer’s block as my real breaking out, though it takes time.

LiFT: What if your story were to be adapted into a movie? Who would you want to work as the director or actors in it?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: If my travel stories were to be adapted into a film, I would choose the team very carefully. I would go for people who value nuance, emotional depth, silence, and interiority, rather than spectacle. My stories often lean toward memory, landscape, womanhood, motherhood, travel, and quiet resistance, so the cinematic language would have to be subtle and lyrical. My aim is not to hit the box office but to hit the minds of some people who like movies based on true stories.

LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If so, could you tell us something about it?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: I just scribble at times. I don’t do that with the aim of publishing. Neither do I have a proper theme, nor do I have a planned time frame to come up with the next book. I wish to go on with my writing through the tracks of my naiveness, amateur stories and imperfections. Who knows, it will turn out as a best seller someday? Hahaha.

LiFT: What are your suggestions for budding writers and poets to help them improve their writing skills?

Dr. Aparna Ajith: Keep writing and keep reading. One day, you will be a known writer fulfilling your dreams. Accept constructive criticism and improve your writing skills. Above all, be honest, patient and persistent in chasing your penchant for words. Best wishes!

Click here to order Dr. Aparna Ajith’s Book – Suitcases, Sandcastles, and Little Anvik