Interviewer- Nandini_001
Interviewee- __wandering__

Nandini: Hello dear! Thanks for giving me the chance to be your interviewee. I hope we have a gala time. Shall we start?

Kiara: Yes!

Nandini: Every person's name is unique in its own way. Even if you don't like it, its a part of your identity. So, do you know the meaning of your name? If yes, then what it is? And if no, what do u think it would be?

Kiara: Well, apparently my name has dual meaning. And both of them are completely opposite to each other. 😊 Since my childhood, I knew that Kiara means "light" or "clear". But later on, when I was in college, I got to know that my name has another meaning too, which is "dark" or "small". I was in awe, realising that the other meaning of my name is opposite to what I have been knowing, as generally all the meanings are similar to each other, right!?

Nandini: Your name is awesome and interesting, I must say. Continuing the topic of identity, the most important element of one's identity is their personality. What do you think about your personality? What kind of personality you have? Do you have atleast one word to describe it?

Kiara: Absolutely! I agree with you. Well, I am a person who doesn't get agitated easily. There have been many such situations where people I know could get revved up but I handle it calmly. I think that when we lose our calm, things can get worse. But this doesn't mean that I don't get angry at all. I do get but not that easily. I am friendly too which has helped me to make some great friends during school, college and in my office too. Mostly, I am a very calm and positive person, that's it.

Nandini: Well, as long as you're a good human and kind to everyone, it's totally fine to have any kind of personality, right? Moving on, there's one more similar element of one's identity i.e. your beliefs and culture. What's your culture? How and why is it important to you? What kind of beliefs you have? How does it reflect the way you are?

Kiara: Well, I am half Odia and half Mangalorean. Basically my mom is from Mangalore and dad is from Odisha. I should be following both the cultures but I am more hooked to the Odia culture, and even my mom is. We, Odias have some or the other festivals or events all around the year. Some of them are similar to those of the other states but some festivals like Rajo Sankranti has a very meaningful significance behind it. So basically, it is believed that the mother Goddess Earth or the divine wife of Lord Vishnu undergoes menstruation during the first three days. The fourth day is called Vasumati Snana, or ceremonial bath of Bhudevi. The term Raja came from the Sanskrit word 'Rajas' which means menstruation and when a woman menstruates, she is called 'Rajaswala' or a menstruating woman, and in medieval times the festival became more popular as an agricultural holiday marking the worship of Bhudevi, who is the wife of lord Jagannath. A silver idol of Bhudevi is still to be found in the Puri Temple beside Lord Jagannath. This is one of the beautiful cultures of our state, which I like the most.
Odisha's culture has made a deep impact on me, the spirituality and positive vibe of the temples of our state imbibes moral values in us. And we, odias are considered as one of the biggest believers in Lord Jagannath. And we believe that he is not our father but our friend. All we need to do is say "Hey Kalia, dekha de ebe!" and we get a solution. This has made me religious and an ardent believer of Lord Jagannath.

And we believe that he is not our father but our friend. All we need to do is say "Hey Kalia, dekha de ebe!" and we get a solution. This has made me religious and an ardent believer of Lord Jagannath. The sweetness of our culture is imbibed in me, which has made me see everything in a positive light. I believe that our culture showcases our origin and is one of the building blocks of one's identity. If you don't respect your culture then you can't respect anyone or any other culture.

Nandini: Wow man, that was so overwhelmingly informative. Each and every culture has a unique essence and so is with yours.
The idea of self-love represents how much time you give to yourself. Loving yourself should always be the priority. Do you agree with it? Are you one of those who keep themselves before everything? If yes, then how often do you face conflicts between you and your loved ones? If no, then what stops you to prioritize yourself?

Kiara: I agree that "Loving yourself should always be the priority.", but I also believe that you shouldn't call selfishness as self love. I have seen many people who have forgotten the actual meaning of self love, and they end up having a complete revolution of their personality. Well, I used to keep myself before anyone before my marriage, I used to spend lot of time hanging out with my friends or doing my own thing such as studies or taking care of my skin and hair. And that time I too couldn't differentiate between self love and selfishness, and result was lots of fight between me and my mom. But after I got married, I became a Family woman, and I got two families to take care of. So you know now, I have to keep my parents and my in laws before myself. As now, my decisions would affect them too, and then realised the difference.  For example, after demise of my husband, I thought of keeping myself busy with my job and MBA preparations. But in that process, I somewhere neglected them in the process of diverting my mind off my grief at the very beginning. But when I realised it, I was damn guilty and made a time table for myself. And have given major chunk of my free time to my family as now, we need each other, not just because we lost my husband, but also this pandemic situation has locked us all in our homes and not allowing us to mingle to lot many people.

Nandini: Prioritizing yourself involves giving enough time to your soul. Our soul should be given enough time to sink in the variety of situations we face throughout. It needs a break from the turn of events. How often do you spend sometime with yourself alone?

Kiara: I believe that having some alone time is very important for every person. It would not only help you think clearly but also would be helping you build yourself from your flaws. I have been doing this from a very long time. I started spending sometime alone since I was in my senior secondary class ie. 11th and 12th grade. And I have seen that it has made me a better person. I have completed my schooling staying in hostel and college staying in PG, so most of the time of those days, I was alone and when I am not doing anything I would sit and start self talking. I know it might sound childish and silly, but I did that! I would talking from both listener side and speaker side. After that I got my job and got married off, so I didn't get that much time, but I do take out sometime As it is the only way, I can make myself better than what I am now.

Nandini: Holy smokes! I gotta question for ya. What's the most significant decision you've made in your life till now? How is it the most significant of all?

Kiara: Hmm.. the most significant decision 🤔. Aisse toh mere saare decisions hi significant. Jokes apart! Well, it's a really nice question. I have not only one significant decision, I have few more. But I would share one of them. I come from a family where all the women are independent and have been in the field they loved. My dadi was an advocate, my mom was a professor and I am in IT industry. I chose what I wanted to do, and I was interested in CSE which has made my job life interesting and worthy. I have seen many of my friends, they had started off with something and ended up doing anything else. As they didn't like what they were doing.

Here, I would give a suggestion to everyone  to step in their career, Guys please! Please choose the right direction. The 4-5 years you spend in studying those subjects and learning things,  would put a deep impact on the rest of 40-50 years you live. I think you should enjoy whatever you are doing, be it your school subjects, or college subjects or your job! So, my most significant decision was the career I chose, as I don't feel a burden (except for the workload my manager gives) on myself.

Nandini: Changing the track, here's another question waiting for ya. Movies provide us the visualized form of various scenes for our entertainment. But what if we somehow don't get to watch a movie? The answer is simple, just read! Reading can definitely be the second way to visualize stuff. You're a reader, I know for sure and that's the main reason you're here on Wattpad. And if you're on Wattpad, you must be having either a small or a long journey, right? We all would love to know about your Wattpad journey so far. Why did you choose to read on Wattpad? Are you a writer as well?

Kiara: I joined Wattpad in 2019. And most of my school and college friends know, that I love reading and writing. Whenever I get opportunity of writing, I give it my best. So, one day my school friend, Krishita told me about Wattpad. She told me that this is platform for both readers and writer, and it helps you explore new domains and also you can make new friends. I had come here expecting other genre stories. But soon I found there are SAMAINA fandom books too. And I was damn happy. Now if you will see, my online and offline library is filled with Samaina and Ashdeep books. Hume the woh the gaane ka line hai na "Jaana tha Japan, Pahunch gaye Chin", toh waise hi mere saath hua. Aayi thi kuch aur books padhne aur lag gayi SAMAINA and ASHDEEP books padhne. And now, Wattpad has become a daily thing to me. I open Wattpad as frequent as Whatsapp.

And yes, I am writer too. I stared writing in 2020. Seeing the amazing stories by singhniki27, _yesha_jain_, MagicalMe207, SixteenAgain, RishikaShrivastava and many other fab writers, I started forming concepts and created my books.  And I have happy and grateful that I have got some amazing and supportive readers.

Nandini: Your refresher was waiting for you for so long. And now that you've reached the tenth question, your refresher's here to entertain you with a couple of situation based questions! So, your first situational question is: If you have to leave your hometown right now due to sudden circumstances. What things would you choose to take with you?

Kiara: I would take my phone as it has all of my important stuffs starting from contacts to important informations, my documents and some cash and my credit card.

Nandini: Who doesn't have a desired destination. Everyone has their one desired destination, be it in their own country or in the world. What's yours? Why is that your favorite one? What attracts you in there?

Kiara: Well, I like travelling. And I have a whole list of dream destinations. So if you ask me to pick one, I would pick travelling Switzerland. As you know, it is known for its mountains, clocks, chocolate, cheese, and political neutrality. And I am a mountain person, I like the calmness and serenity that the environment offers you. And even I have, I won't say obsession but I have a hobby of collecting different style clocks and I love chocolates. You give me a chocolate and I'll forget all the arguements and I'll be your friend again. So, ya! That's the reason.

Nandini: Food can never remain behind whenever talking about places around the world because every place has its own food speciality. I believe that everyone is a foodie from inside. What's your favorite food? Does it originate from your hometown?

Kiara: Amm.... I have a lot of in the list. I would begin with dalma (basically it is toor dal cooked with all sort of vegetables). Then I have Chenna Poda (it is baked for hours at a stretch, and is made from burnt home-made cottage cheese, sugar syrup, and semolina.), pakhala (here, the cooked rice is soaked in plain water or curd whichever way you like, and is eaten with either fish fry or aloo chakutta; smashed aloo mixed onion, mixture, green chillies) and many more. And in other cuisines, I like North Indian food like Chole Bhature, Chaat, Kulche, Mutton Rogan Josh, Butter chicken and etc.

Nandini: We often end up gaining fats whenever we choose our cravings over fitness. Does that happen with you? Do you pay heed to how much fit you are? Is fitness important to you? Is it difficult for you to kill your cravings like me?

Kiara: See, staying fit and staying fat are two different things. And definition of fat completely depends on you. People having 50 Kgs and height around 5'8 also consider themselves as fat, and people having 65 Kgs and height around 5'3 consider themselves as fat. According to us, we will say the other person fat not the first one. So, I keep myself fit and fat both joy. Staying fit means you have the ability to combat the illness and you can have strong immunity by having fruits and vegetables in your diet along with the tasty street food or oily food. I give more importance to be fit, as it will help you stay healthy and very alive. Bahut se slim trim logon ki immunity weak hogi and they could be sick many times. So a person should pay heed to staying fit. Weight ka kya hai, you can gain or lose all your life. I personally have been doing this since I was a kid. I have never abandoned by cravings in order to keep myself fit and thin. What I do is eat in a balanced amount. When we were kids, this Swiggy and Zomato wasn't there and eating outside means chat and all, not pizza and burger. Upar se ghar par Mummy Papa ne mahaul aissa banaya tha ki mahine ek baar bahar ka khana.  So all the ghar ka khana and fruits is a major part in my life. And even my cravings been a part of my life. So I would suggest you and everyone that all you need to is balance. Weekly once or twice is ok, but not every alternate days, you can Pizza or burger or stuffs like that. Mummy ki baat suno aur ghar ki roti sabji bhi khao, tabhi junk ka mazza aayega.

Nandini: Well, my mind can build a question related to the previous question. So here we go with a different one. Since we are all able to enjoy this interview through our Wattpad, this gives the information that how important Wattpad is to everyone present here. Would you like to share your Wattpad journey with us?

Kiara: Well, firstly thank you for this amazing interview. I enjoyed answering to your questions. Secondly, I would thank all the writers for the efforts they put here, in writing great and amazing stories, and how they connect each readers' heart and eyes with their stories. The readers of my stories and other writers' stories, Thank you for being with us. It matters a lot. Your votes and comments have made us achieve what we all have today. I would like apologise to my readers for being late in updating sometimes, and I also wanna say that I love them all too for staying up with me. Lastly, thank you FamiliaDeYUDKBH for inviting me over and conducting this segment. All the best for your future work! And All the best to you too Nandini, for your future endeavours.

Nandini: Thanks a lot for such beautiful wishes! Hope you have a great day.

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