Sweet Nothings by Dinal Jain is a Mesmerising Love Affair Woven into Poetry

Imagine sitting at your window as rain pours outside with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate in one hand while reading a collection of some of the most heartwarming poetry! That’s most poetry lovers’ dream come true. For an ametuer poet, this book can be everything they might be missing in a schedule filled with meetings, work commutes and errands. It’s a moment you take out of a monotonous life of boring, everyday tasks you do as if on autopilot. The book, Sweet Nothings by Dinal Jain is truly “poems like music to the ears”.

The book states that lovers have the tendency to whisper secrets to each other. It is an out-of-the-world language they share when communicating. It’s ‘Sweet Nothings’ as they call it. And the book is just that - a collection of 100 poems is a translation of those unsaid, unheard and extraordinary whispers exchanged between lovers.

An envelope of hope, containing letters to lovers out there who are looking for love, transports you to a land wherein materialism goes out the window. When you are with the book, you are true to the heart and soul. 

The emotions ebb and flow with each poem. One talks about remembering an old love while the next rejoices in being in your lover’s embrace. There are three sections to the book. The first is a collection of poems for the soulmate, the second one is for the lovers and the third talks about self-love. And here is the one that stops me in my tracks.

I am complex

like the

constellations

and black holes

he studies me

like

an astronomer

Local Samosa spoke with the author of Sweet Nothings, Dinal Jain. An interior design graduate, she took up writing full-time in 2019. In 2020, she self-published her debut poetry collection, ‘Finding Hope’. Here, she shares her thoughts on the state of poetry in the digital age and what the process of publishing a book looks like.

The idea behind Sweet Nothings

Reading poetry and writing it are two completely different things. And while prose can be a tough as well, weaving words with emotions, flow and rhyme is even more so. "For seven years now, writing poems has been an integral part of my life. Poetry, deeply influenced by the writer's inner feelings and surroundings, reflects our emotional landscape.", said Jain. The writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda and more are testimony to this. "In 2022, during one of the most challenging periods of my life, my poems turned dark and intense. Seeking solace, I decided to shift my focus and began writing poems that were soft, hopeful, and filled with a certain innocence. So, over a period of one and a half years, I wrote poems that are now part of ‘Sweet Nothings’. It saved me, and that's what the book is all about," said Dinal.

Is Poetry Still Alive in India?

With many changes in the world of literature, we were curious about the state of poetry, especially in India and where it was headed. Dinal shared, "Poetry can never die; it is one of the most influential mediums of expression. Whether it is war or the simple articulation of feelings, we keep seeing poetry as a global phenomenon. However, with the current fight for attention on social media, I think it has become somewhat difficult to be taken seriously as a poet." 

"What I am hoping for poets is to write what’s utmost honest to their character, art, and uniqueness, rather than falling into the trap of writing what’s relatable and getting mass attention. The one thing I would urge everyone, the writer and reader, is to appreciate the people around them. Read your friends, buy their books, and read your fellow writers; it’s all of us who need to give each other support. That way, art can go a long long way!", mentions Dinal.

Digital age, Limited Attention Span and Poems

She shares that if a writer is creating poems that stand true to themselves, irrespective of what the readers would understand or want to read, it is difficult to sell the art. "Not that it should be done in any other way, what I mean is that if the audience is niche and the poems don’t appeal to the simplification of everything in today’s times, I have experienced that it is tough to convince someone to buy your poetry book.", adds Dinal.

It's no news that social media has taken over our lives and that 10-second reels are often skipped for being too long! We asked Dinal how difficult was it to curate a book of poems in this digital age and she said, "The middle ground I have taken while curating ‘Sweet Nothings’ is to simplify the cover, the text of the face and contents, and the back, which speaks to a larger group of people who might get interested in the design of the book. After about a thousand edits, the poems in the book are arranged and put into three sections after I had randomly written them as and when they came to me. The flow is easy to navigate, doesn’t confuse the reader, and tells a story, as it is a typical tendency of a reader to read a poetry book in one sitting."

The Process of Publishing

We talked about the boom in self-publishing and how getting a book published has become as easy as it can be. "I researched some of the poetry books and found out that NotionPress is one of the leading self-publishing platforms in India. I browsed through their various packages and chose the basic one, which offered to publish my book in print and list it on their website, Amazon India, Flipkart, and Amazon US and UK. What I had to do was fill in the details, choose how my book would look, and hit publish. The book went seamlessly live on the platforms within a few days. I do recommend comparing different self-publishing platforms before choosing one. Also, I chose this way, as esteemed or traditional publishers have a stringent review process and as poetry, especially for first-time writers, doesn’t sell well, the book after months of waiting might not get picked.", shared the poet.

Some Favourite Poets and their Works

Some of Dinal's favourite poets are Rumi, Gulzar, and Rabindranath Tagore.

• Rumi: The Book of Love by Coleman Barks
• Selected Poems: Gulzar translated by Pavan K Varma
• Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore

"I also love to discover today’s poets from around the world, and here are a couple of the most interesting and beautiful poetry books I have come across," she said. 

• Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell
• Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav