There are those who take Twitter trolls seriously and then there are those who take them very seriously. Author Jyoti Arora is the latter. Following her second book, Lemon Girl, which was about rape and victim-blaming, and quintessentially feminist, the trolls relentlessly sent her newspaper clippings of incidents where the opposite has been proven too. There have been quite a few instances where women have filed false rape charges. "And though my second novel carried my feminist viewpoints, it did not stop me from seeing the other side," says Arora.
With the strong urge to present the other side to the readers, she wrote You Came like Hope, a plot so twisted that it involves a pair of twins and how they manipulate things. Basically, it's a love story gone bad. And though writing her second book came easier to her, this one was harder to imagine. Arora also confesses that being a "slow writer" was one of the reasons it took her three years to complete her latest. Though this was primarily because she wanted to be better, there is another challenge in her life that she must face every day. The 41-year-old suffers from thalassemia major, "which makes me look like a 14-year-old," she giggles, having clearly come to terms with her rare genetic blood disorder.
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The Ghaziabad-based author not only writes books, but she’s also a tech blogger and makes the most of staying at home, "though I would love to attend literary events," she says, yearning for more. But we remind her what an inspiration she already is to many others who, like her, are restricted through no fault of their own. She smiles and tells us how people often cite her as an example to others and say, 'If Jyoti can do it, so can you.' "The aim should be to not focus on the problem, but find the solution instead," she says and clearly, she has. Her upcoming book is most likely to be a full-on romance. "I have been too serious; it's time to have some fun," she laughs
