Niharika Shantharaj is a hard person to fathom. At the age of 17, when reading philosophy might be considered something beyond one’s years, this teen has penned a semi-autobiographical book that deals with the lofty concepts of soul and self, spirituality and metaphysics.
It was as early as sixth grade that Niharika began to write and she went for ‘çomplicated stuff’ — something that had her mother very worried. She says, “Mom was scared that I would go insane and involved me in as many activities as possible. But Dad was relaxed and just encouraged me to write. With time, Mom too supported me and bought me books.”
From Death to Depth, her first novel, was published in February this year and unlike her second novel, which she has been writing since the sixth grade, this one was written during her two months of summer vacation. The book explores the concepts of spirituality, and transcends what we know as reality and the noise of the ego.
So, does the way her mind work make her a misfit in school? She admits that she finds it tough to spend time with friends, but also values their company. “They talk about going to parties and I’m sitting here discussing how time is an illusion! It gets difficult to connect with them but I do talk. I’ve never gone so aloof that I completely isolate myself because I know that I need them. I believe every single person is an asset and we can learn something from them,” she explains. Her friends have also been encouraging of her writing, even if “most of them don’t understand what I write about.”
So how does someone end up having such thoughts in sixth grade? Niharika attributes it to having gone through a lot during middle school. She had realised by then that she was very different from her peers in many ways — a phenomenon that even adults were not quite comfortable with, she says, “Some elders have an ego problem and say things like ‘You’re just a child. How do you know about life?’”
It doesn’t come as a surprise when Niharika reveals that she writes poetry too. She admits to being a big fan of Rumi, and writes poems on horror, depth of madness and coming out of it through spirituality and awakening. Spirituality is a recurring theme in all her writings and her life too as she considers every moment to be a meditation.
Niharika’s description of her second book makes us realise the depth in her thoughts. “It’s about transcending what everyone considers normal and putting a twist to it, saying that there is no normal to anything. It questions reality and the purpose of life. It’s a lot of philosophy and connects metaphysics to time.”
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