Natasha Malpani Oswal's anthology, Boundless, maps her journey, from her professional experiences working in investment banking to her MBA at Stanford, and her return to India after a decade, to leading a creative media platform like Dice Media today. Natasha believes that the book is a culmination of professional and personal lives and experiences. “Poetry is the most honest and raw medium of expression,” says Natasha, investor, entrepreneur and now, a published poet.
In the summer of 2018, with no prior experience as a poet, Natasha first began by writing free verse short-form poetry on her phone, as a diary to collect her emotions. After she found the experience cathartic, she started sharing her poems on Instagram. “I received really good response online. There were women who contacted me, saying that they could really connect with my poems. That's when I decided to compile them and publish as a book,” she says.
Natasha has also attempted to capture the essence of the Indian woman in her poetry. “One thing I’ve noticed about Indian women is the strong emphasis on the quality of sacrifice,” she notes, “I have an entire section of my book dedicated to Indian women, with poems like Ego and Sacrifice. I wanted to inspire women to take time for themselves, to really understand who they are.”
Inspired by E E Cummings and Sylvia Plath, Natasha’s poems guide the reader through her journey, in five hard-hitting chapters — each an allegory to a phase of her life. “I hope that readers take away a message that asks them to take time to experiment and find your own voice and identity,” she says, further urging people to break free from the barriers in their own mindset that might be holding them back from exploring more.
“I was initially scared about moving back to India because I felt that I had changed too much,” says the poet, who returned to the country last year, after a decade abroad. “Writing made me realise that, despite claiming otherwise, I wasn’t being open-minded and I pointless fears holding me back. And so far, coming back has been so much more positive than I expected,” she says.
In love with both startups and storytelling, Natasha believes that leading Dice Media has also been instrumental in opening her mind to reality. Despite the time and energy, the competitive process demands she believes in taking life ‘one step at a time’.
Natasha loves writing but doesn’t wish to stick to poetry. “Maybe I’ll write a book of fiction, or make a movie — I want to experiment with different mediums of storytelling,” she concludes.
