Life Is Abracadabra: Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions about the book, Life Is Abracadabra -21 magical stories from my travels to make you look at life with new eyes, by author Baisakhi Saha answered. These questions are actually compiled from several author interviews she appeared in. For press enquiries, check out the Author Media Kit or email press@baisakhisaha.com.

Published by Hay House, a Penguin Random House publisher, it is available in all leading bookstores across India as well as online stores in both Paperback and Kindle formats. The eBook is also available internationally. Read what renowned luminaries and world visionaries are saying about the book here.

Popular Questions Answered

1. Describe your book in a few words or one sentence. 

Baisakhi: An experiential documentation of how to transcend the ordinary into extraordinary outcomes in alignment with our desires, Life Is Abracadabra is peppered with true anecdotes of hope and faith, of magical coincidences and miracles. 

There you go… Did I give away any spoilers? I hope not!

2. What motivated you to write this memoir and not any fiction?

Baisakhi: I hadn’t planned on writing it or any fiction for that matter. It just happened to appear in a dream and I answered the calling. Life Is Abracadabra is a travelogue yet an evolutionary journey to destiny, more like a spiritual memoir written to transcend cultural boundaries and illustrate that magic exists—the abracadabra kind! This magic is available to all of us despite our cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, religious beliefs, traditions, or societal norms. Thus, through the sharing of these 21 stories from my travels, the book attempts to make one explore life from an altogether new dimension of reality and synchronicity.

3. Where did you get the idea for Life Is Abracadabra? Did your inspiration for writing it originate in your real-life experiences?

Baisakhi: The book was inspired inside a dream while battling a life-threatening situation. When I awoke, I felt this inner voice telling me, “You cannot die with these stories inside you; there’s a reason they happened to you and now you must share them with the rest of the world.” 

Truly, I’ve had so many uncanny experiences during my years of journeying alone across the globe—filled with synchronicities, magical encounters and meaningful coincidences that materialized impossible dreams, disentangled unworkable problems, got me out of inescapable situations, saved my life several times, and laid out in front of me a magical path to tread—that I realized a larger plan was unfolding for me, leading me and pleading me to live out my true purpose, and all I had to do was take the next step with faith and wonder, plunge into the abyss of mystery and paradox, and allow the guidance within to reveal itself. Because it was the path of the heart that my rational mind could not completely fathom or explain. 

And yet, my doubtful mind questioned the validity of the dream in real life. So, I wrote three stories and shared them with some publishers and literary agents in India to test if they would have any audience at all. To my pleasant surprise, within a matter of minutes, I received several positive responses including a book deal from a leading publisher sitting right in my inbox that I intuitively knew my dream was guiding me to take the next best step on my journey to destiny. I compiled the magical experiences from my travels through Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North & Central America into twenty-one short stories, and what followed is Life Is Abracadabra! They are the strangest of stories, however, the most extraordinary stories are often the true ones. 

4. Your book name is intriguing and catchy. What is the significance behind this title? Did you have any alternative titles in mind?

Baisakhi: Yes, the first title I had in mind for the book was: Magic is All There Is, because it contains magical stories from my travels across the globe that will make anyone look at life with new eyes—like real magic! Yet, I felt somehow this title did not capture the entirety of the journey aptly. 

As a child, I used to be fascinated with the word ‘abracadabra’ simply because of how it sounds, like some gibberish gobbledygook incantation casting a magical spell! It’s as if you utter a bunch of unintelligible nonsensical words and suddenly something magical happens, just like I was experiencing seemingly random coincidences during my travels which turned out to be neither simple nor senseless, but life-defining in terms of their depth and meaning. 

And so, there is nothing nonsense about the word ‘abracadabra’. In fact, it has a much deeper significance than just unintelligible gobbledygook. It comes from the Aramaic phrase: avra kehdabra, meaning “I shall create as I speak” or “I create like the word” and has its origin in three Hebrew words: ab (father), ben (son), ruach acadosch (holy spirit)—encompassing the holy trinity.

Trinity is the unity of father-son-holy ghost as three persons in one Godhead, which basically means that all three are one and the same. Each of them has a role and exists as three entities, but they ultimately comprise of one main entity—like facets of God’s existence which we experience in different ways. And although we think we live in a world of duality, it is actually the trinity inherent in all that is life. For instance, the following entities existing as the trinity are essentially the same thing in varying degrees of intensity and density: 

• mind-body-spirit
• ice-water-vapor
• here-there-space in between
• up-down-ground level 
• hot-cold-room temperature
• masculine-feminine-neutral
• electron-proton-neutron
• north pole-south pole-equator 

…and so on! Every experience of life is defined in either of the two polarities or somewhere in between where the extremes balance each other out. And so, ‘abracadabra’ represents the holy trinity of life, making it even more magical than just how it sounds.

Abracadabra spells the magic that is life, hence, life is abracadabra! Got it? 

5. What kind of demographics and genres does the book appeal to?

Baisakhi: Since the book is about life, in the broader sense, it caters to people of all ages. Anyone can benefit by reading Life Is Abracadabra as it explores life from an altogether new dimension of reality.

That said, my magical journey started when I was at university in Singapore, a young confused IT scholar with no clue whatsoever as to what I wanted to do in life or what my dreams and desires even were—grappling with a crippling back injury and frequent suicidal thoughts. But as I embarked upon this grand voyage of the heart, it led me to encountering my true passion and purpose in life. So, I think it’ll be especially appealing to the youth of today who seek the adventure of being alive and want to pursue their big dreams, but unsure of how to find guidance on their destiny paths. Also, women particularly will find empowerment in the book as I myself, coming from a conservative family background in India where the rules get stricter for a young unmarried girl, had to overcome limiting beliefs and dysfunctional familial/cultural dictates to fly in the direction of my dreams. That said, many men have also given me excellent feedback about how it has made their dreams bigger and stronger, so, I suppose the book is indeed for everyone who wants to explore life at deeper echelons of consciousness. Besides, it has received many glowing endorsements from renowned luminaries and world visionaries who read it and loved it. Therefore, the book definitely has a universal appeal to it.

Life Is Abracadabra can be classified as non-fiction, memoir, travelogue, self-help, mind-body-spirit, spirituality, synchronicity, synchro-destiny, real magic, short stories, adventure narrative, women empowerment, etc. hence caters to a wide demographic indeed. 

6. Was it easy to decide the text pacing and placement?

Baisakhi: It was pretty easy to do the text pacing and placement in this adventure narrative because I just had to peek into my own journey and pick out the magical experiences from it then place them sequentially, exactly how they occurred in my life. That said, the first three stories I wrote to test whether the book would even take birth or not by sharing them with imminent publishers, were eventually placed in the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Then I filled up the in-between stories, in the order they happened to me, chronologically and geographically. Those individual stories fit into the tapestry of one large story really, just like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle weave into one big picture. 

7. Do you think you have conveyed all you had in mind in Life Is Abracadabra?

Baisakhi: I have captured a journey spanning nearly two decades into less than three hundred pages, so, literally it is just the tip of the iceberg. Because there’s always more… more where that came from! In fact, I could write an entire encyclopaedia just on the topic of synchronicity—the central theme of my book. And if I had elaborated on the synchronistic elements in each chapter, it would have become a mega saga rather than a short non-fiction book. But that would have defeated the purpose of writing it. My intention, right from the start, was to convey its message to as many and as succinctly as possible so that any layman could understand. Hence, I composed my most magical experiences into 21 short stories that will more or less give the reader a true picture of the entirety of the journey. That said, I have intentions of making this an abracadabra series in the near future. 

8. Do you prefer to outline your stories beforehand? Please give us a quick short trip to your story. What message do you hope readers will take away from it?

Baisakhi: Well, in the case of Life Is Abracadabra, I already knew what anecdotes from my travels were going into it. So yes, I did have an outline in my mind and just had to elaborate them on paper by adding all the juicy details into the stories.

As for my story briefly, I left home to study abroad on scholarships while still in my teens. Since then, I’ve not just travelled but dwelled in different continents learning the language of life and love through myriad mirrors of reality. From Asia to Europe to Africa to South America to North & Central America, I have lived with local families, eating their food, adopting their lifestyles, contributing to their economy, inhabiting their culture, imitating their costumes, negotiating extreme realities and belief systems, and navigating varied traditions and religions for several years to answer life’s most pertinent questions. Coming from a conservative family in India, I had to overcome all limitations to fly! 

The idea behind writing this memoir was to highlight the magical elements in the journey, the abracadabra moments, the signs & synchronicities that guided my path and made this grand voyage of the heart even possible. As the book strives to explore reality from another dimension, hence, if not anything else, I hope that readers will understand how synchronicity works through the stories shared in it.

9. How much research/revision did it take to see it through? Please share your research and writing journey with us.

Baisakhi: In terms of research, there wasn’t any as the book recounts true stories from my travels across the globe, highlighting the magical elements and abracadabra moments in the journey. Hence, it literally took me less than a month to finish writing the entire manuscript since the idea of the book took birth.

As for revisions, having been an English teacher for several years in Latin America, I scrutinized the text for grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, semantics and language errors over and over again; I read and re-read then read it some more to polish the draft. Even so, I kept finding something or the other to edit and bugged my editor to make changes until the last minute when the manuscript went to print. Haha, actually, when I read other books, sometimes really famous books, I tend to find minor errors here and there all the time, which I wanted to avoid in my book at all cost—the perfectionist that I am! But I realized, at some point, that when it comes to a book of over 80,000 words, no matter how many times you read or revise it, there will always be something or the other that could be written better or a missing semicolon you discover later. I remember even after the manuscript went to print, I was suggesting edits and my editor had to reassure me several times that it was fine and didn’t need more revisions. That said, in terms of content, we didn’t edit much because there wasn’t much to remove from true stories other than perhaps shortening the length of paragraphs by polishing the language or deleting redundant information. 

10. How was the journey of the book in the making?

Baisakhi: Well, as I mentioned earlier, the book had a lot of interest from leading publishers in India. And yet, I wanted to research the international market which is a lengthy process. Eventually, I found an international publisher whose Indian branch published it! I had secretly wanted Hay House to be my publisher and it happened, so I’m happy about that. And although I had conceived and composed the book literally within a month, it took nearly four years for it to be released—the reason being that I wanted to go the traditional route of publishing, which takes a lot of time, and I had no prior experience. Moreover, the pandemic came in between and delayed everything, with life having literally come to a halt for so many across the planet. And then, I remember the day the editor at Hay House contacted me to start the editing process, my father passed away, and I had to keep her waiting for months at a stretch as I travelled from Costa Rica to India to sort out his unfinished businesses. And even though its publication was enormously delayed, I’m content with the end result, and the book cover looks stellar having received so many compliments from the general public. Finally, this book is dedicated to my father who did not live to see it come to life. 

11. What moments or aspects of the writing process brought you the most satisfaction or joy? Please share with us the happiest and most detested moment in your creative work.

Baisakhi: Actually, the satisfaction came much later when I started receiving the flattery remarks! Whoever has read the book so far has given me excellent feedback, without exception, be it an endorser, blogger, reviewer, interviewer, or a general reader. Some have even reached out to me to share their reading experience about how beautifully it is written, how much it has moved them or made their dreams bigger and stronger, etc. As an author, what else brings us joy? Similarly, the happiest moments were when the book was being generously praised by renowned luminaries and world visionaries, including two-time former-president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Guinness World Records holder, Emmy award winner, Lonely Planet founder, America’s #1 progressive radio show host, international bestselling authors whose books have been made into major motion pictures, prominent media and business personnel, and many more who gave it their glowing endorsements.

There weren’t any detested moments but many challenging circumstances to birth this book. Although Life Is Abracadabra was inspired inside a dream, some dreams can take a long time to materialize. As explained above, despite having conceived and composed the book literally within a month, it took nearly four years to be published owing to all the testing situations I had to encounter on the way, including the pandemic and dad’s sudden demise. And although its publication was enormously delayed, I’m happy with how it all turned out. As they say, divine timing is always perfect!

12. Are there any incidents that you did not want to write about but after some thought put them in?

Baisakhi: While writing the book, I had only one motive: to bring the stories to the readers exactly in the shape and form they happened to me, in my reality, and show them the journey through my eyes so they too could perceive the magic in it. Hence, I wanted to put in more actually but there’s only so much you can fit into a standard non-fiction book. Therefore, I had to cut down on several aspects of the narrative in order to keep it within 300 pages.

13. You added small snippets after each story. How did you come up with this idea? 

Baisakhi: Well, although the book has stories from my travels across the globe, they were written more to highlight the abracadabra moments, the magical elements in the journey, and less of actual travel facts. Hence, the intention behind adding the ‘Fun Facts’ section at the end of each chapter was to give the readers a glimpse of different cultures and belief systems thus weaving interesting travel elements into the tapestry, so the narrative could contain both spiritual and travel knowledge.

14. What do your family and friends think of the book? Any reaction from your first reader that you’d like to share?

Baisakhi: As mentioned earlier, whoever has read the book so far has given me excellent feedback, without exception, be it an endorser, blogger, reviewer, interviewer, family member, or a general reader. Many have reached out to me to share their reading experience about how much it has touched them or strengthened their dreams by making them believe in magic, etc. The first reader was a friend actually who proofread the stories for their magical validity before publication, and she only had praises for it.

15. Are there any specific authors whose writing styles or subject matter inspired your book?

Baisakhi: The format of Life Is Abracadabra with short spiritual stories was somewhat inspired by the Chicken Soup for the Soul books by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen; however, instead of a collection of stories from different people across the world, this is a collection of magical stories from one person who went across the world in her early adulthood. While my book shares some of the synchronistic elements of the classic journeys explored in fiction books like The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it is non-fiction with true stories, making it all the more interesting.

16. Do you have any personal favourite authors who have influenced your writing and thinking?

Baisakhi: Oh well, you can even read about that in my book, Life Is Abracadabra. There’s an entire chapter about my mysterious meeting with Neale Donald Walsch, the famous author of Conversations with God. Another chapter mentions The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Then my book is endorsed by yet another favourite author of mine, the internationally renowned James Redfield for his books, The Celestine Prophecy and The Celestine Vision, which are all about synchronicities carving our destiny paths. And although those are fictional stories, inspired by them, mine actually became a lived reality. It is all just so mind-boggling that sometimes I found it hard to distinguish between imagination and reality, and had to remind myself that my experiences were indeed real. Because magic only happens to those who can make it real in their imaginations! 

17. Was it easy to remain unbiased with your characters and not let readers’ thoughts be influenced? 

Baisakhi: Well, I had only one objective while writing the book: to bring the stories to the readers exactly in the shape and form they happened to me, in my reality. Of course, my own perspective is involved in it as I am the narrator, spectator, and experiencer here, which will always make the stories biased in my favor, but that is the whole point—to show people the journey through my eyes; only then could they also perceive the magic in it. And so, I painted the stories precisely how they occurred to me and how the various characters played their part in my life to cause my personal expansion or what is called self-realization, which makes the writing unbiased from my subjective perspective, as I tried to portray the entirety of the journey as objectively as possible. Know what I mean? Oh well, I’m laughing now! 

To put it simply, there is no objective observation of anything in the Universe; the observer always affects the observed. You see, the stories in the book were happening to me and through me. The path was written and I was writing it! The game plays the game, the poem writes the poem; you cannot separate the painter from the painting, the dancer from the dance! 

18. Life Is Abracadabra manages to keep the readers involved throughout. How did you ensure people would remain engaged? 

Baisakhi: Well, these stories being non-fiction and extremely uncommon by nature, I knew anybody who picked up the book would be prompted to read further and farther just to know what happens to the protagonist. Reality is stranger than fiction and the most extraordinary stories are mostly the true ones. If these same things happened to a fictitious character in a fiction book, they would be interesting enough to make a reader keep turning its pages. And so, the stories in my book being non-fiction make them all the more interesting to keep a reader hooked. It is what I call the hero’s journey, with a confused character at the beginning of the narrative contemplating suicide due to a crippling back injury, who then embarks upon a magical voyage across the length and breadth of the planet following the prompts of her heart only, and by the end of the chronicle, she becomes the hero of her own story by fulfilling her destiny. Doesn’t that make for an interesting read? I thought so too.

19. How is the audience responding to the book? Is it the expected response? How does your work impact the lives of people in general?

Baisakhi: Whoever has read the book and took the time to share their reviews, has only lauded it copiously. So, I know the book holds immense potential by dint of the nature of the experiences shared in it. I always felt that these were not just my stories but that of humanity’s—because if such magical experiences were a possibility for one person, they could be a possibility for all of humanity. And that’s what makes this book so abracadabra! It’s about tuning into that higher dimension of reality and navigating synchronicities on our destiny paths. Besides, the book has already received many glowing endorsements from renowned luminaries and world visionaries, so yes, it is the expected response and I am elated!

The more people come in contact with this information, the bigger ripples are created in our fields of dreams causing the expansion of our consciousness at a collective level. And the more that happens, the more magical reality becomes for all. 

20. The book makes the reader emotional. How did you manage to infuse emotions into your writing while still maintaining a neutral perspective?

Baisakhi: Well, tragedy always moves us to tears, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t say that the book is a blanket of positivity. Far from it, it recounts the tragic encounters, the failures, the pitfalls, the misfortunes, the challenges, the perilous circumstances, which I believe make this account truly extraordinary. You see, it is not always about thinking positive but how to navigate any circumstance life hurls at us magically emerging victorious. And even if life is not always the rosy picture many visionaries paint these days, it is possible to find ourselves, for instance, in grave danger then come out of it unscratched just by not thinking rationally. Magic only happens to those who can make it real in their imaginations. That’s what makes this journey stand out! It shows how life has our back even in the most dangerous and dire circumstances, how mishaps occur due to the Lestrygonians and the Cyclops—the angry Poseidon we have set up in our hearts, how angels are everywhere among people who help us come out of stuck situations, how synchronicities carve our destiny paths inspiring us to live out our biggest dreams if only we would become aware, and more!

Life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Presenting the journey in its wholeness helped keep the tone neutral in spite of the emotional scenes in it. In the Afterword, the book talks about developing authentic confidence and awareness, cultivating a deep trust in life despite the dice thrown at us.

21. What makes the content in your book so unique yet appealing to a large population?

Baisakhi: As this is a memoir, the journey in it although unique, can appeal to a lot of people owing to the nature of the experiences I’ve had—the kind of challenges, obstacles, life-threatening situations I faced and how I navigated them. I might be the only girl from India who did this kind of adventure alone (young & unmarried) at my time when there were no google maps, no smart phones, no bloggers or influencers, no Uber/Ola… I didn’t even have a camera or laptop or mobile phone on me—the only pictures I have from my travels are the ones I was tagged on social media by friends and acquaintances I met on these journeys.

The book establishes a deeper connection with the larger universe guiding our destiny paths, if only we’d pay attention. It can help one cultivate what I call authentic confidence and life intelligence that don’t necessarily come with formal education or high-paying jobs.

22. There are so many unique perspectives explored in Life Is Abracadabra. What was the most challenging part of writing such complex concepts in simpler terms?

Baisakhi: Since the book was inspired inside a dream, I knew there was a reason I was being guided to write it. Therefore, I had one purpose while penning LIA: To bring its message to as many people as possible. Being an English teacher in Latin America for several years and having taught students of all age groups and levels of competence, I knew how best to reach the layman with short stories narrated in simple language yet delivering a profound message. Also, having lived across various continents I have an insight into mass consciousness, and how the collective mind thinks and functions. Keeping these in mind, it was easier to simplify complex concepts and stay away from any flowery language, rhetoric expression, or Shakespearean English for that matter, as my intention was to spread the word without the need to impress anyone. 

So, I compiled the magical experiences from my travels through Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North & Central America into twenty-one short stories, and kept the language in the book simple and comprehensible, which wasn’t difficult to do.

23. How did you make balance while writing your character-driven travel stories and spiritual awareness? How do you even balance between your job and writer’s life?

Baisakhi: I didn’t have to do any balancing between my travel stories and spiritual awareness because the stories by themselves are spiritual in nature that will make anyone look at life with new meaning.

My passion is my job and vice versa, so I don’t need to balance between those two either. That said, I don’t write all the time; far from it, I hardly ever make time for writing. I only write when I’m inspired. And I do other things to be inspired, like spend a lot of time imagining and day-dreaming. Then when an inspiration comes, I pick up the pen. Sometimes I procrastinate a lot, but that is also part of the process, as the delay often hardens the thoughts I want to put on paper.

Yet I am not just a writer, but also a speaker, dancer, actor, performer, teacher, translator, traveller, painter, fashionista, photo model, creative cook… basically, an artist of the heart! I could pick any number of the above as my career, but at some point, I had to focus on one, so that one thing became writing which I often combine with speaking internationally as travelling goes hand in hand, and the other passions continue on the side. 

24. The ideas presented in your book are rare as they do not find much mention in mainstream. What do you think could be the reason?

Baisakhi: Yes, that’s because synchronistic experiences happen to everybody but not everyone follows the calling or even knows how to interpret those mysterious messages from the larger Universe. So, one may dismiss them as mere coincidence and the meaning is lost! A sign or synchronicity never interferes with free will, so, it will recede into the past without creating a single ripple in your field of reality should you choose to ignore it. However, if you take heed when a synchronicity appears in your life, your perception of that moment deepens, as passageways are created from one level of the mind to another leading to a fuller and more profound communication with the self. But we are not taught how to do this, few people know about it; hence, there isn’t much mention in mainstream.

25. Could you throw more light on what you mean by synchronicity?

Baisakhi: A synchronicity is like a symbol through which the deeper subconscious mind communicates with the surface consciousness, the higher-self converses with the little-self incarnated into a lifetime. Just as every human is unique and their hopes, wants, wishes, dreams, desires, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, life experiences are subjective to them, similarly a synchronous episode is a subjective thing that doesn’t occur to a great number of people at the same time. Usually, it is something happening to you at a given moment by dint of your thoughts and desires felt by you in a specific manner, which move energy and attract exterior events; the more intense your desires the more groomed is the energy, but even the most indistinct ways of concentrating upon a wish can cause some kind of synchronicity to appear in your life. Nevertheless, your synchronicities will be different from that of another’s.

The length of our lifetime on earth presents the opportunity to accomplish our objectives and claim our unique destiny, but in this reality of contrasts mired in cultural conditioning and limiting belief systems of dysfunctional societies, we may actually forget and lose track of our target. Hence, synchronicities help connect us to the deeper portion of the mind which is aware of what needs to be done and is quite capable of signaling the surface mind through symbolism exclusively catered to each individual. It’s a heart language!

Once we become aware of these synchronicities as our guiding mechanism, as our means of deciding what is true for us and what is not, we energize our communication with creation, as the synchronicities multiply, becoming more and more frequent and even coherent, so much that we couldn’t possibly count them all. Nevertheless, paying attention to as many as we can will help construct our subjective awareness of reality and build a personal store of intelligence, as the signs, the guidance, the path will be unique to each of us. It is all just so mind-boggling we’d still have to remind ourselves that it is indeed real. 

And so, I tell my tales of hope and faith, of magical coincidences and miracles to anyone that would listen. Yet, many times they went horribly wrong—my manifestations, when I was in deep deep waking sleep and ignored the announcement of outer intention, but it is also through those experiences of contrast that I learned to play better. 

26. What were the situations that led you to pick up the pen and explore your capabilities as an author? Describe your literary endeavour and author journey.

Baisakhi: Well, I suppose my literary endeavour started as a child when I was a voracious reader and pretty much devoured anything and everything I could lay my hands on, except for newspapers! I always knew inherently that one day, I would write my own books, but when or how that would unfold was unknown to me. My first book, magicNine -a true account of the inner adventures of a young girl to consciousness was penned during my travels around the globe on a student exchange program, when I was experiencing intense signs & synchronicities as if the Universe was directly communicating with me, so I felt impelled to jot them down. And I did that for three consecutive years when one day, I received direct signs to publish my writings, although initially when the process had begun, I had absolutely no intention of doing so—I was just amusing myself in my own imaginations, amazing myself in my own creations! But after self-publishing the book, my whole life changed and from being an English teacher at local institutions in Latin America, I became an author and public speaker invited to present the journey in my book at prestigious venues globally. Later, I also published a calendar and an inspirational journal in three editions based on the book, using meaningful quotes from magicNine and pictures from my live dance performances in Latin America made into inspirational posters and inserted into the calendar and journal.

Then Life Is Abracadabra was inspired inside a dream, so I knew I had to give birth to it no matter how many obstacles came on my path. And my next book, Nrit -the dream of finding the self, is already written, which I intend to turn into a feature film post publication. Yet another title in the making is: How to travel the world at the drop of a hat, and there’s also a TEDx talk out there with the same name. I also have a bilingual blog on my website where I regularly pen interesting topics related to my work towards expanding consciousness on the planet. And that pretty much sums up my literary journey so far with hopefully more to come in the near future! 

27. Is there anything else you wish to share with us about your book?

Baisakhi: During these post-Covid turbulent times of uncertainty, Life Is Abracadabra strives to bring more magic into people’s lives—the abracadabra kind! Read it, and judge for yourself 😊

More details about the book, including trailers, teasers, endorsements, synopsis, author bio, etc. can be found on my website at baisakhisaha.com/life-is-abracadabra.

Author Q&A

1. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Baisakhi: An international speaker, author, performer, teacher, globetrotter, I work towards advancing consciousness on the planet, navigating life from a new dimension of reality and synchronicity.

2. Could you sum up your writing journey in one sentence?

Baisakhi: I can write a really long sentence without much substance in it, or a really short one that tells everything about my passion, purpose, and personal legend! 

3. Have you published other books before? Do you have another project in the works?

Baisakhi: My first book, magicNine -a true account of the inner adventures of a young girl to consciousness was penned and published during my time in one of the most dangerous countries of the world: Venezuela in South America, where I was experiencing intense signs & synchronicities as if the Universe was directly communicating with me, protecting me, so I felt impelled to jot them down. About three years into it, one day, I felt a strong impulse to publish my writings, although initially when the process had begun, I had absolutely no intention of publishing—I was just impressing myself in my own imaginations, taking my own breath away with my magical musings! But after publishing the book, my whole life changed and from being an English teacher at local institutions, I became an author and public speaker invited to present the journey in my book at prestigious venues internationally. Later, I also self-published a calendar and an inspirational journal in three editions based on the book, using meaningful quotes from magicNine and pictures from my live dance performances in Latin America made into inspirational posters and inserted into the calendar and journal. 

My next book, Nrit -the dream of finding the self, is already written and I wish to turn it into a feature film post publication. Another title in the making is: How to travel the world at the drop of a hat, and there’s also a TEDx talk of mine out there with the same name. 

4. Was prose the first format of writing to express yourself? Have you tried any poetry before?

Baisakhi: I’ve always tried to express my inner world through writing. While earlier it used to be private journaling, now it is public writing, be it in the form of books, blog articles, vlogs, or poetry. Yes, I do express myself through poetry as well, but so far, I have not published my poems other than just a page on my website with poetic musings in English & Spanish: baisakhisaha.com/poetry. Maybe someday, when I have enough rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration under my belt, I’ll publish those verses into a booklet. I haven’t ruled out the idea at all! 

5. What advice would you give to budding writers who may want to write in the same genre as Life Is Abracadabra?

Baisakhi: Trusting in your journey is the biggest key to unlocking the most difficult of doors, because doubts will always creep in… Am I doing it right? Am I going crazy? What will others think? Now, there will always be those naysayers of society who will judge and criticize you. I remember, when I had started writing this book, a close friend asked me, “Baisakhi, why would anyone want to read your personal stories?” Had I listened to her, I would have never penned this book. And look, now, the whole world is reading and loving my stories! You cannot let doubts spoil what could be your most creative endeavour. And here’s the thing: there is no right way to do anything. There’s only the way you are doing it. So, go ahead and create your masterpiece. And don’t worry about not being perfect. Because what is perfect for one person may be full of flaws for another! Who is to judge what is perfect and what is not? Perfection is merely another word for procrastination. All creative endeavours call for the creator’s commitment and willingness to see the task through. So, get rid of your doubts and ride the winds of victory! 

6. Apart from writing, what other activities or hobbies do you engage in? 

Baisakhi: As mentioned above, I’m also an international speaker and lecture on a wide range of topics exoteric & esoteric, including sharing my personal journey with youths and adults alike, at distinguished venues worldwide in multiple languages, which involves a lot of travelling too. As for hobbies, I like dancing, acting in short films, blogging and vlogging, walking long distances, fashion designing, cooking, and even painting sometimes. 

7. How do you see the future of reading and writing culture as it has gone through tremendous changes in the present?

Baisakhi: I don’t think the concept of acquiring and sharing knowledge will ever become obsolete as long as humanity exists. The format may go through many transformations though, like printed books may take on digital and audible forms, wisdom may be encapsulated in short reels and visually attractive videos, information may be at the fingertips of someone pressing the Google search button, but people will always be curious to learn more, know more, be more, do more, have more, in order to transcend their consciousness into higher and higher dimensions of reality. We will still read and write in whatever form is the trend of the present moment, and continue to do so until the end of time, even unto eternity! 

8. How do you devote time to writing or get into the mood? Do you allocate a certain number of hours every day to write?

Baisakhi: I don’t write all the time; far from it, I hardly ever make time for writing. I only write when I’m inspired. And I do a lot of other things to be inspired. I spend all this time with myself, playing in my mind, fantasizing, imagining, day-dreaming, juggling with possibilities, that penning down my thoughts is actually the last step in the process. The beginning is always the dreams, the playful imaginations, the unconscious witticisms, the childlike curiosity that makes me want to create stories and scenarios in my head, most of the time playing with the characters and circumstances of my own life and creating my masterpiece by weaving all those elements into a magical story. Even though writing is a lonely hobby, it sets my imaginations on fire and brings out the best plots to the story at hand! The best way I enjoy writing is by being uninhibited in the mind.

In our society, we are governed by rules everywhere and free expression is severely inhibited. That is why many face what is called a writer’s block. Because most people are too worried about creating a bestseller rather than focusing on the creative sparks of their soul. I bet if J. K. Rowling had worried about making a bestseller or how to constantly promote her book, she could have never given birth to Harry Potter. She had to be totally free and uninhibited by all these societal expectations, in order to allow higher wisdom to seep into her conscious awareness, which she weaved into her masterpiece. You see, how simple yet profound all this is?

9. Writer’s Block is a common concept in the writer’s world. How do you overcome it?

Baisakhi: I don’t write when I have a block; I just go about my ways knowing if I don’t push it the inspiration will flow sooner or later. That said, I day-dream a lot, not because it’s necessary, but because I enjoy it so much! So, I’m continuously tuned into my imaginations and it is during those moments that I find the urge to pen down my thoughts no matter how silly they may seem on the outside, because it is often those silly conjectures that create the best humor and forward the most interesting plots! Writing makes me feel so alive as if it is an extension of my soul… which it is! 

10. What are some dos and don’ts you follow as a writer?

Baisakhi: As mentioned earlier, an author must be free in the mind and unafraid to express herself nor worry about what is acceptable and what is not. Writing is an extension of the author’s soul. First be wild, then be mild! What do I mean by that? At the outset, don’t put any barriers to your ideas, let the inspiration flow uninhibited. And only after you’ve written it all, jotted down all the pointers, you start editing the piece, chipping away the extras to sculpt your art and give it structure. You can even get it proofread by a trusted friend or acquaintance who can give you valuable feedback on the manuscript. But don’t allow others to influence your writing so much that you lose your originality. In the end, it is your creation, your painting, a projection of your soul, so make sure it is something you can be proud of.

Inspiration comes in many forms: you may be walking on the road and an idea strikes like a flash of lightning, you may see a billboard or hear a song that can trigger a sensation and lift you from a stuck chapter or inspire your next plot or whatever it is, however it comes, just be open… don’t edit it in the moment because you may lose your line of thought as logic seeps in and you dismiss what could have been your most creative pursuit. Don’t judge your thoughts, hints, hunches, snippets of wisdom and incredible imagination… because they are often what I call cosmic downloads i.e. your inspiration from heaven! So, just write them down. Later you can always edit, but in the moment an idea is flowing, don’t let your mind take over to rationalize the experience or hinder that sequence of inspiration. Because it is when your soul is dancing!

11. Would you like to share any advice or final words for aspiring writers?

Baisakhi: My final words to aspiring authors would be to go for what feels right; don’t just write to make a living, but to make a life. “What’s the difference?” you may ask. Well, writing should be an expression of your soul, your art, your heart, your creativity, your talents and skills. So, make sure you enjoy the process because that will be reflected in your composition, believe you me! If you don’t enjoy it, if it feels like a chore, then don’t do it. Because remember, the whole world will be reading it. Therefore, don’t portray a mediocre projection of your soul onto the canvas… it has to be your masterpiece that you came here on earth to paint, a damn good one at that! 

12. Name your top 5 favourite books from any genre, fiction or nonfiction.

Baisakhi: See below.

1. Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch
2. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
3. The Alchemist and Aleph by Paulo Coelho
4. Only Love Is Real by Dr. Brian Weiss
5. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

13. Where can people find out more about you and your work?

Baisakhi: For more details about my evolutionary work, visit my website at baisakhisaha.com where you can find my bilingual blog with evolutionary topics, ideas, thoughts, perceptions, concepts discussed in Spanish and English, and links to all my social media channels as well.

Travel Q&A

1. Your book is about magical travel stories. How can people connect with or benefit from it?

Baisakhi: When I was a teacher in South and Central America, at the beginning of every new batch, even before I learned their names, I always asked my students what their dreams were, if they had a passion. Over 90% of them told me their biggest dream was to travel the world. And I am not exaggerating here—I could count on a single hand how many students in a class did not want to travel. Almost everyone I asked told me about the same dream:

“My big dream is to travel the world,” they said.
“So, what’s stopping you?” I asked them.
“But teacher, I don’t have the money,” one said.
“I will travel after I retire,” another said.
“I am saving money to travel in the future,” and another said.
“I am building a house so no money to travel now,” yet another said.
Then I asked, “Are you building a house or are you building your dreams?”
“I am building my dream house, teacher!” was their reply.

You see, people spend so much money in building this dream house then they get caged within its 4 walls and the adventure of life ends there. The rest of their lives they become a slave to that house, maintaining it, cleaning it, grooming it, furnishing it, revamping it, refurbishing it, and most importantly showing it off to their social network! Yes, okay, you can get a house for yourself, but how much space does one need to live? I know people who build mansions then they keep most rooms in the house locked, because there aren’t enough people to live in them! And most people do the same when it comes to traveling. They try to plan and secure every aspect of their trips, so much that there is little or no room left for adventure or any real exploration of life. And if something goes out of plan, they fret and fume, instead of enjoying the experience.

Everybody wants to travel, especially today’s youth and old! During my travels across the world, I realized the most common dream of humanity is to travel the world, but most traveling is boiled down to seeing a few well-known touristic spots, taking pictures and posting on social media, once again to show off, just like that grand house they are building! People take up tour packages, insurances to secure their trips, stay in hotels, and execute a well-planned itinerary. But really have they travelled? Yes, they have seen a lot of places but they have not known any of those places. Because real traveling has nothing to do with any of that! It only begins at the end of our comfort zone. I have been to nearly 30 countries, lived in eight of them across five continents and what I discovered about traveling and the real-life education it provides has nothing to do with the way we are educated in schools or taught how to behave in society. You have not really travelled until you have lived with the local people, eaten their food, spoken their dialects, tried on their cultures and customs for size, attended religious or traditional functions with them, worn their costumes or perceived life from their shoes.

2. What are your top tips for those who want to travel but are afraid to go the distance?

Baisakhi: People are scared of the unknown, they watch the news and all the negative things then believe the world is a scary place, one mustn’t talk to strangers, etc. But through my travels I discovered the opposite. The world is a friendly place and people all over the world want to connect, share their stories and create meaningful friendships. Strangers aren’t necessarily bad! Lol, just a shift in focus, holding the possibility that people everywhere are looking for connection and bonding can create an altogether different reality for aspiring travellers, mostly by removing fear of the unknown from their minds. Then they can travel much more freely and go on to create magical connections wherever they go. Here are some of my best travel tips:

1. Travel light: do not carry those heavy suitcases; take the bare minimum and that is enough
2. Backpack: nothing like traveling long distances with just a backpack that contains everything you need, but nothing you greed
3. Build tents: the fun of building your own tent by the seaside and spending the night listening to waves crashing onto the rocks is a miracle
4. Travel in groups: this is best to do when you have a low budget
5. Travel solo: this is important if you want to know yourself in experience; you take it all in—the good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, process them in your own heart, learn, evolve, and grow adding more dimensions of reality to your personality
6. Take up exchange/volunteer programs or foreign internships: there are many programs and exchange organizations like AIESEC, Servas, Fullbright scholarships, etc. that can provide the skeleton for you, and the rest you can manage on your own
7. Couchsurfing: stay in people’s houses when you travel, share with them; most times, this is free or paying very little in exchange for the warmth of someone’s home… maybe you can buy them lunch in return for a free night’s stay—there are reliable websites where you can register for this
8. Airbnb & youth hostels: if you really want to know other cultures and people, these are other options to interact with locals, tourists, foreigners or stay in their houses for much less than what you would pay in hotels
9. Mitfahrgelegenheit & car pool: travel in shared cars and save money on local transport
10. Trust in the unknown: have faith in the goodness of life and you will be rewarded generously by life
11. Have no fear: believe you are okay and you will be; the only real security is within you, nowhere else
12. Potluck: you can pool in food, each person in a group buying something and cooking together—it’s so much fun and cost-effective
13. Get invited to people’s homes: during your work/foreign internships, you can befriend colleagues and work partners who can invite you to their houses, show you their culture and feed you delicious homecooked meals
14. Wear their clothes: it is always so much fun to wear local costumes and attend local events; you get all the attention as a foreigner in a native garment—much more than what you would get on social media
15. Attend religious or traditional functions: this one really opens up your mind; do this not to buy into other’s religions, traditions or belief systems, but to understand how your own religion, tradition and belief system is just one way of thinking and there are others who think and believe differently, and that is okay
16. Make merry: never forget to cherish each experience for that moment will never return
17. Have passion: passion is everything—it defines you; if you have no passion, then don’t do it
18. Go the distance: a street corner in Berlin has more stories to tell than what your entire life can teach you; just go, don’t stop, don’t second guess, don’t pause—if you look for opportunities, they will present themselves to you

3. What insights can you share from your travels across the globe?

Baisakhi: I firmly believe if more people could travel like this, there would be little or no room in our world for religious wars, racial discrimination, cultural hatred, dysfunctional belief systems & harsh judgement in our societies, because you will see the futility of it all! You will see that your culture is just one culture, one way to look at life, but not the absolute truth or the only way. Someone in Asia believes this, someone in America believes that, someone in Africa believes something else. Do you know that in Africa men pay dowry to marry women whereas in some countries in Asia it’s the other way round? Do you know that in Latin America there is no concept of shaming a woman’s body whereas in Asia if a woman exposes her body she is considered to be of loose character? While in a rich oil producing country like Nigeria people literally live in darkness with nearly 20 out of 24 hours a day of no electricity, in yet another oil producing country like Venezuela one could fill a whole car tank with less than what a bottle of water costs. You will notice opposites and marvel at life’s idiosyncrasies. You will find out that sometimes the nonsense makes the best sense. You will discover that what is right in one culture, is wrong in another culture. What is polite in one country is rude in another country. What is respectful in one region is disrespectful in another region. What you think is good, another thinks it’s bad. You may lose your grapple of reality, not knowing what to believe anymore, how to behave appropriately. Sometimes you won’t know right from wrong, good from bad, and that is okay. Sometimes you may feel alone, that nobody understands you, a feeling that you do not belong, because others are still holding on so strongly to their cultural definitions and dogmas, while you have seen so many different cultures that you know inherently, none of it is real. We are making it all up, all the way!

As you get a bite size of all cultures, races, religions, ethnicities, backgrounds, your world view will expand to hold more of reality in it, a grander truth, a bigger picture of humanity! It is all just different lifestyles, different belief systems and cultures. One is not necessarily better or worse than another. Just different. And that creates variety. You will see that your god, your belief, your religion is just one of many thought systems, and that there are others with their definitions of god, their faith, their culture, their religion, their tradition, and everyone is right in their own world. At the end of the day, none of it matters really!  You will see that what is going on within you is going on inside everyone else. You will start understanding yourself; the storm inside your soul will suddenly start speaking to you. You will not let culture define you, rather you will define culture, create new ones should the old be dysfunctional. You will develop more tolerance and love for humanity. You will break molds, shift paradigms, and transcend mindsets.

4. What would you say to those who think they don’t have the money to travel?

Baisakhi: The one thing that stops most people from traveling is money. But traveling is never about money. I have spent years on the road, with what money, what savings to bank on? Nil. I never even had enough for the tickets. Nonetheless, those were my best days, my most cherished adventures, my fondest memories: eating poorly, sleeping on hammocks, building tents or backpacking, not comprehending local dialects, communicating through gestures and symbols, depending on others for my survival, using currencies that were mere paper to me, befriending strangers, adopting strange traditions, breaking cultural barriers, treading lonely street corners hoping I wouldn’t get mugged, getting robbed, putting my faith to test again and again, and after all of it I discovered a totally new person within me, metamorphosed by all the treasures of the heart I had amassed over time and space; I changed countries, cities, continents, like people change clothes. You see, traveling is not about money as much as it is a matter of will. There are two things you need in order to travel, to adventure, to really explore the world you were born into: tenacity and audacity.

During my travels, I always met other people from other countries who were also on different exchange or volunteer programs like me, and whenever we had opportunities or days off work, we came together and travelled in groups. We found the cheapest deals. We backpacked. We hiked and built tents. We hired cars together and did road trips. And we had all the fun. We made bonfires and danced around it. We went snorkelling in the deep seas, climbed down waterfalls canyoning, went river rafting, hiked up flat-top mountains called tepuys, dived from rocks and waterfalls, climbed up volcanoes, slept in hammocks, built our own tents, drank from spring waters and watched crystal formations in mountains, did long road trips, ventured the amazonian jungles, shared culture and exchanged food, cooked in groups, and so much more.

Honestly, you will be amazed at just how little money one needs in order to travel like that. I can’t even remember how much money I spent where. Doing foreign internships that paid very little to interns, if I could do all of this, then I know I spent peanuts on these adventures but created the best memories of my life. And doing this kind of traveling is not difficult at all. The easiest way is to join some kind of organization, groups, volunteer or exchange programs that take you to a foreign land or provide travel opportunities. Then once you are there, you can explore in groups with like-minded people or on your own. There are many such organizations worldwide that offer these kinds of programs to students and adults.

…magic only happens to those who can make it real in their imaginations!  ~Baisakhi Saha