About Mandar Palshikar
By day, Mandar Palshikar is a seasoned Technologist with over 20 years of experience navigating the architectures of the world’s leading IT firms. A strategist and problem-solver, his professional life is built on logic, binary, and the pursuit of efficiency.
However, beneath the technical expertise lies a Poet at Heart and a Gamer for Life. His fascination with the “syntax” of the soul began during his college years (2000–2007), where he found himself captivated by the ghazals of Ghalib and the soulful verses of Mir Taqi Mir. What started as a student’s curiosity grew into a lifelong devotion to the Hindi and Urdu languages, learning the nuances of shayari not from textbooks, but from the echoes of Sufi melodies.
When he isn’t deciphering complex systems or drafting verses, he is likely at a console. An avid gamer with a deep love for retro gaming and old consoles, he views life through the lens of a player—always ready for the next level, always appreciative of the journey.
He currently lives with his greatest inspirations: his wife, Preeti, and their one-year-old son. While his career was built over two decades, his journey as a writer truly ignited in 2020. His debut book, “Zindagi,” is the culmination of that journey—a bridge between the precision of a techie’s brain and the boundless longing of a poet’s heart.
LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it, and its content.
Mandar Palshikar: My book, Zindagi – Siyahi aur Jazbaat, is a deeply reflective collection of original my poems. It maps the unspoken textures of human vulnerability—the silent battles we fight, the unexpressed longings, and the quiet resilience that keeps us moving. The journey of writing it was essentially a process of slowing down. Having spent over two decades navigating the structured, high-velocity world of technology, this book became my emotional sanctuary. It was written in the quiet midnight hours, capturing the raw friction between logic and the beating human heart. To make the experience immersive, it also features a companion debut audio album titled Zindagi, allowing the verses to breathe through music.
LiFT: Why did you choose this title?
Mandar Palshikar: The title Zindagi – Siyahi aur Jazbaat translates to “Life – Ink and Emotions”. I chose it because I believe life isn’t just a sequence of passing days or mechanical routines; it is an ongoing canvas written with the raw ink of our feelings. The word Zindagi represents the macro-journey we all share, while Siyahi (Ink) and Jazbaat (Emotions) represent the micro-moments—the specific, unprogrammable instances of joy, heartbreak, and quiet realization that give our existence its true color.
LiFT: When did you realize that you wanted to be a writer, and what was your inspiration behind it?
Mandar Palshikar: I don’t think there was a singular “eureka” moment, but rather a gradual awakening. Working in the tech industry, your mind is constantly trained to think in binaries—zeros and ones, cause and effect. Over time, I realized that the most beautiful parts of being alive exist in the vast, chaotic, and fluid grey areas of human emotion that can never be automated. Poetry became my way of decoding those grey areas. My inspiration comes from life’s quietest corners—the unsung anchors like a mother’s unspoken love, the enduring grace of a partner, or the profound stillness that follows a personal storm.
LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?
Mandar Palshikar: Ten years down the line, I see myself evolving as a multi-disciplinary storyteller. I want to continue bridging the gap between literature and music, creating immersive experiences where poetry and audio composition elevate one another. As the world becomes increasingly automated and driven by machines, my goal is to remain an authentic voice that advocates for the raw human spirit. I hope to look back a decade from now and see a body of work that helped people hit pause, feel deeply, and embrace their vulnerabilities without fear.
LiFT: How important do you think marketing and the quality of a book are in promoting it and increasing its readership?
Mandar Palshikar: I view quality as the soul of a book, and marketing as its voice. Quality is completely non-negotiable; if the writing lacks raw honesty and structural craft, no amount of promotion can sustain it. However, as an indie creator, I also recognize that a masterpiece left sitting in a dark room cannot heal anyone. Marketing is the bridge that carries your soul to the reader. Especially in today’s digital landscape, thoughtful marketing ensures that your words cut through the noise and reach the exact hearts that need to hear them.
LiFT: What message do you want to convey to people through your writing?
Mandar Palshikar: The core message I want to convey is that our emotional vulnerabilities, hidden scars, and silent anxieties are not system bugs or flaws to be deleted. We live in a society that hyper-fixates on curated perfection and constant motion. Through my verses, I want to give people the profound permission to just be human. It is entirely okay to sit with your silence, to feel the weight of an incomplete dream, and to understand that our imperfections are exactly what make our existence beautiful and authentic.
LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?
Mandar Palshikar: Apart from writing, my life is a vibrant mix of professional logic, exploration, and grounding rituals at home. Professionally, I am an IT professional navigating the fast-paced corporate tech world. To unwind and expand my horizons, I love to travel extensively, absorbing new cultures and landscapes both within India and around the world. When I am back home, I step away from all the screens and notebooks by diving into the immersive, interactive storytelling of video games, or by spending quiet, comforting time taking care of our two house cats. These completely different dimensions—the structure of technology, the curiosity of global travel, and the simple joy of my pets—keep my life beautifully balanced and constantly feed the empathy that flows into my verses.
LiFT: What activities do you resort to when you face writer’s block?
Mandar Palshikar: When the ink runs dry, I stop forcing the words and switch mediums entirely. I find that writer’s block usually happens when the analytical mind overcomplicates things. To counter this, I immerse myself in music. I will sit with a new melody, listen to classical Hindustani compositions, or simply take a long, quiet walk to let the ambient sounds of Pune reset my thoughts. Shifting from the linguistic brain to the musical brain almost always clears the emotional blockages and lets the verses flow naturally again.
LiFT: What if your Poems were to be adapted into a movie? Who would you want them to be showcased?
Mandar Palshikar: If any of my poems get features in a movie, I would give the professional composers, singers free hand to handle the poem, though I have tried composing some of my poems in audio album “Zindagi” which is available on all leading platforms including Spotify.
LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If so, could you tell us something about it?
Mandar Palshikar: Yes, I am currently working on a series of deeply evocative pieces for an upcoming multi-author anthology themed around the concept of Meaningful Existence. Hopefully it will get published in few months.
My next project after that is a series of poems based on concept of the unsaid words (Alfaaz – Jo Reh Gaye). I will start looking for publishers hopefully by next year.
LiFT: What are your suggestions for budding writers and poets to help them improve their writing skills?
Mandar Palshikar: My biggest suggestion is to chase honesty over perfection. Today, an algorithm can generate mathematically perfect rhymes and symmetrical line lengths, but it can never replicate a genuine human scar. Don’t write what you think a poet should say; write what your heart cannot keep quiet. Secondly, pay attention to the cadence and rhythm of your words—read your poetry aloud. Let your lines have a natural human “burstiness”—sometimes long, sometimes short. True lyricism lies in the natural flow of emotion, not in a rigid template.
Click here to order Mandar Palshikar’s Book – Zindagi – Siyahi aur Jazbaat
