Neerja Bhatt was born and raised in Ahmedabad—the Indian city of food and fervor. Born into a creative family where artistic expression was always encouraged, she has been attached with the art of storytelling and writing since the tender age of six, and has written several stories and poetry since then. She has been secretive of her writing, but always felt proud whenever the teacher read her work to the class. You can find the last page of every notebook that Neerja owns covered in her signatures as she feels that a perfect signature is a must have for authors.
The Bad Era: Part I is her debut fantasy novel. In her free time, you can find her reading, playing the piano, or sleeping and dreaming of compelling stories that can later be cooked into sizzling novels.
TBE: The Bad Era duology tackles profound themes like morality, destiny vs choice, sacrificing for the greater good. Yet it does so through the lens of a young protagonist Anokhi. What inspired you to explore such weighty philosophical concepts in a fantasy world, especially with a child at the center?
Neerja Bhatt: I come from a family for which talking about such profound topics has been a dinner-table conversation. I know what it is like to be a young girl like Anokhi who ponders upon deep questions, hence adding the philosophical aspect in ‘The Bad Era’ duology came very naturally.
TBE: Anokhi goes through an incredible character arc from Book 1 to Book 2, facing immense personal growth and challenges. Was this transformation planned from the start or did it organically evolve as you were writing?
Neerja Bhatt: Before I started writing the first book, I spent about 5 months plotting and planning the duology. Since the books talk about a world that nobody knows about (a world created by the big bang before the one that created our earth), planning was crucial. Apart from a few internal conflicts that I instantaneously decided to throw in as I was writing, most of the major ones were already planned out. I wanted a clear vision of how the journey of ending ‘The Bad Era’ would change Anokhi: as no story is intriguing without a good, realistic character transformation!
TBE: World-building is so crucial for fantasy, and The Bad Era cosmos with two semi-circles of Earth, Deloms vs Roweles, technology like the Wheel of Life is incredibly unique. What were some of your inspirations and influences in constructing this richly imaginative setting?
Neerja Bhatt: World-building was one of my favourite parts as I let my imagination go completely wild! While I do not recall the exact sources of inspiration for most of the world elements (they came to me in the form of a brainwave like most good ideas do), for some elements like ‘The Wheel of Life’, I do remember the train of thought that led me there. I always wondered what would life be like if humans could be ‘created’ and not ‘born’. I found that quite fascinating to think about and that was the inspiration behind ‘The Wheel of Life’.
TBE: Mysteries around Anokhi’s heritage, her parents’ past, the “Bad Era” itself are unraveled throughout. How did you go about structuring these reveals? Did you have it all mapped beforehand?
Neerja Bhatt: Yes. In the 5 months that I spent plotting, I had everything mapped out. I knew I had to structure the ‘big reveals’ strategically so as to never lose momentum and always keep the readers on the edge of their seats!
TBE: Anokhi makes heart-wrenching sacrifices and faces so much adversity as a child protagonist. What were your inspirations in shaping her undying determination and courage?
Neerja Bhatt: Anokhi’s bravery and determination is more forced than inherent. The circumstances in her life and the tremendous pressure compel her to make sacrifices and bold decisions. It is never easy for her: she is just a nine/ten-year-old after all, but she knows that she doesn’t have a choice. She must keep going for the greater good. While creating her character sketch, I didn’t expect her to be as brave as she eventually became: I kept writing in the plot points that I had planned to incorporate and thought about how Anokhi would react to those situations and saw that she needed to have all the courage she could muster to deal with them.
TBE: You come from a creative family in the vibrant Indian culture of Ahmedabad. How did your upbringing and environment influence crafting this imaginative Indian-inspired fantasy world?
Neerja Bhatt: I give a lot of credit to my parents for fostering an environment that inspired me to stay in touch with our cultural roots and heritage. When I was very young, they found a teacher who would teach me Indian scriptures, and I believe that knowledge really shone through while writing ‘The Bad Era’ duology.
TBE: As a child, you were secretive about your writing but also proud when teachers shared it. What gave you the confidence later to bring The Bad Era’s deeply personal creative vision to published fruition?
Neerja Bhatt: When I got the idea for the books amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I was only 12. I was too young to be thinking about eventually getting the books published; I wasn’t even sure if I would ever have a first draft ready! Writing them was a decision I made because it had been my dream forever, I had a great idea, and a lot of free time on hand because of the lockdown. I just took it one step at a time, and only when I had a completed manuscript, I started thinking about the next steps and publishing seemed to be the best option if I wanted to share my story with a larger audience.
TBE: As a debut novelist, what were some of your biggest learnings and challenges in bringing such an intricate, epic fantasy series to life? Did you feel pressure with Book 2?
Neerja Bhatt: The biggest challenge was balancing my school work with book work. Since I wrote and published both the books while still being in high school, it got quite difficult to juggle both priorities, especially whenever school got busy or I had exams coming up. I had to be careful with making time for writing as I could not let my studies be affected, and so I started waking up at 5 AM to get more workable hours.
Another challenge was that since no one in my immediate family or friend group has written a novel, I had to spend a lot of time learning about the process of writing a full-length book, and at times I got rather lost and clueless!
As far as pressure about book 2 is concerned, I don’t think I ever felt it. I was writing the books at my own pace. Even though people occasionally asked me when the second book was coming out, I never committed to a date for its release and only when I was ready, did I decide to publish it.
TBE: Now that the Bad Era duology is complete, are you working on any new stories or universes? Where would you love to see your creative journey go from here?
Neerja Bhatt: Currently, I am not working on any novel as it is quite an all-consuming process and I am busy with my twelfth grade. However, I ensure to stay in touch with writing through short stories, poems and articles.
I have a document on my laptop where I have dumped random story ideas that could potentially turn into novels one day, and I would love to go back to those prompts to write many more books in the future! You can stay tuned for any upcoming book releases via my Instagram page (@neerjabhatt_) or my website (www.neerjabhatt.com).