PVLF 2026

Interview with Pooja Misra Khaitan W, Author of “The First Connect”

Pooja’s The First Connect explores first love, longing, and resilience—blending nostalgia, silence, and self-discovery across two generations.
on Aug 26, 2025

Frontlist: The First Connect captures the fragile beauty of first love revisited and the tensions of memory and desire. What personal truths or experiences inspired you to tell this story of emotional rediscovery?

Pooja: The story came from a personal space, not a direct memory, but a blend of nostalgia and introspection. I didn’t set out to write The First Connect consciously. It found me. One quiet February morning in 2023, while swimming, a line from Jubin Nautiyal’s Humnava Mere played in my earphones: “Jo sirf mera, tha sirf mera, maine usey kyun kho diya?” That one line hit me like a wave I wasn’t prepared for. As someone who reflects deeply on emotions, especially the unspoken ones, I found myself wondering: Why, despite so much longing, does love sometimes remain unfulfilled? Is it fate, timing, or simply a failure to fight hard enough? I found myself thinking about what gets left unsaid in relationships, what we suppress for the sake of peace, or simply because we don’t know how to voice it.

The First Connect became a canvas for exploring those silences.

I thought of my own story. I’ve known my husband since school. The more I pulled away, the more he pursued me, until we eventually married. And then I thought of friends who weren’t so lucky, who loved deeply but never saw it come full circle. That contrast stirred something in me. To add more emotional depth, I asked myself: What if a past love reappears after many years? How does one navigate that, especially when life has moved on, but something inside you has not?

That thought stayed with me. I returned home that day and began to write. The First Connect was born from that emotional spark. It’s not autobiographical, but it’s deeply personal, a canvas for exploring silences, longing, and the emotional rediscovery of self.

Frontlist: Kareena and Mouni’s stories unfold side by side—two generations grappling with love’s uncertainties. How did you approach writing these parallel journeys of longing, growth, and self-realization?

Pooja: Writing Kareena and Mouni’s parallel stories was like holding up a mirror across time, one reflecting youthful idealism, the other reflecting lived experience. I approached their journeys as two emotional threads weaving in and out of each other, each offering perspective to the other.

Mouni's story came more naturally, because I’ve lived parts of her life. She carries the quiet weight of choices made, silences kept. Kareena, on the other hand, was more instinctive, impulsive, a character I shaped with bolder strokes. Through her, I revisited the vulnerability of first love, the thrill of discovery, and the ache of unanswered questions.

What connected them wasn’t just love, but longing - for clarity, for closure, for self. I wrote them as two women, at different stages, searching for their own emotional truths. Writing their parallel arcs was my way of exploring how love evolves, how pain recycles, and how healing often happens in the most unexpected ways.

Frontlist: The novel navigates the space between loyalty and longing with exquisite sensitivity. How much of Kareena’s inner conflict reflects your own reflections on balancing past attachments with present realities?

Pooja: Kareena’s inner conflict wasn’t born from my own past, but from closely witnessing the emotional dilemmas some of my friends have faced, and helping them navigate through them. I’ve often found myself in the role of a quiet listener, someone who holds space for others to express what they’re afraid to admit even to themselves.

Through their stories, I began to understand how deeply rooted past attachments can quietly shape the choices we make in the present. Writing Kareena was my way of introspecting on those emotional intersections, where nostalgia meets duty, where the heart wanders even as the feet stay grounded.

While her longing wasn’t my own, the emotional truth of her journey came from a place of empathy, deep reflection, and a desire to give voice to the many silences we carry.

Frontlist: Your title evokes “Moments of Magic” and “Waves of Whisper”—intangible feelings that define deep connection. How do you interpret these delicate emotional experiences, and why did you choose them as the heart of the novel?

Pooja: I chose Moment of Magic and Waves of Whisper as the emotional anchors of the novel because I believe it is not always the grand gestures that shape our relationships. Often, it is the subtle and quiet instances that go unnoticed but leave the deepest impact. A glance that stays a second too long. A sentence that remains unfinished. A familiar song that plays when you least expect it. These are the moments when emotions speak louder than words.

The word magic refers to those rare and inexplicable moments when everything aligns. It is the feeling of being seen, being understood, or being loved without needing any explanation. The word whisper captures the emotional undercurrents that ripple through our relationships. It reflects the intuitive knowing, the unspoken support, the ache of distance, or the warmth of presence.

Love, especially first love, often lives in the unsaid. It’s rarely loud or clear; it’s gentle, uncertain, and deeply felt. I wanted to explore how the most meaningful connections are shaped not by what is said, but by what is felt and remembered.

These delicate emotional experiences are the essence of The First Connect. It’s in these quiet spaces that the soul reveals itself. They define Kareena’s journey, not only through her love story, but her internal rediscovery. They remind us that sometimes, the most ‘magical’ shifts in our lives begin with something as soft and quiet as a ‘whisper’.

Frontlist: In an era dominated by instant gratification and digital connection, The First Connect celebrates patience, reflection, and the power of silence. How important is nostalgia and stillness in understanding love today?

Pooja: In today’s world of swipe-left emotions and instant answers, we often forget that love, real love, rarely moves at that speed. The First Connect was my quiet take against that rush. I wanted to celebrate the kind of connection that grows in stillness, where silence isn’t absence but presence, where reflection deepens emotion rather than delays it.

Nostalgia plays a powerful role in understanding love. It slows us down, reminds us of how love once felt before it was filtered, labeled, or timestamped. Stillness, on the other hand, creates space for awareness, for longing, for truth to surface. In writing the novel, I was drawn to the idea that some of the most meaningful realizations about love don’t happen in conversation, but in pause.

In a hyper-connected age, I believe we need that pause more than ever. Love, after all, isn’t always about constant access. It’s about quiet understanding, shared memory, and the courage to sit with our own hearts.

Frontlist: Your diverse background—from consumer rights advocate to editor and homemaker—shines through your nuanced portrayal of emotional resilience. How have your life experiences shaped your ability to write such authentic emotional landscapes?

Pooja: Every role I’ve held, whether as a consumer rights advocate, editor, homemaker, or just someone deeply observant, has helped me understand people a little better. Listening to others, standing up for them, nurturing them, or even quietly watching them has taught me that beneath every surface is a world of emotion waiting to be seen.

As a consumer rights advocate, I often dealt with people who felt unheard and unseen. That sharpened my empathy and made me more attentive to what remains unspoken. Editing taught me to value nuance and the meaning that rests between the Iines. Homemaking, in its own quiet way, is a daily act of emotional intelligence, balancing, absorbing and healing.

All of this has shaped how I write emotion. Not as drama, but as lived experience. I’m drawn to the quiet strength behind emotional resilience, to the beauty in vulnerability. I think the authenticity in The First Connect comes from that space: a deep respect for the emotional lives we lead beneath the roles we perform.

Frontlist: Resilience shines quietly through your characters’ journeys. How do you define resilience in the context of personal love stories—and what message about resilience do you hope readers take away?

Pooja: To me, resilience in love isn’t about grand gestures or dramatic comebacks. It’s about showing up, on the ordinary days, in the silences, and especially when love feels uncertain or unreciprocated. In personal love stories, resilience often looks like patience, emotional honesty, and the willingness to hold space for both joy and hurt.

As a homemaker, I’ve seen how emotional labor, often invisible, becomes the backbone of resilience. It’s in nurturing without seeking applause, in forgiving without always being asked, in loving even when love isn’t loud. That quiet strength found its way into my characters. They break, they ache, but they also grow. Not by erasing their scars, but by learning to carry them with grace.

I hope readers walk away with the sense that resilience doesn’t mean never falling. It means choosing to rise differently each time. And that in love, true resilience is not just about holding on, but sometimes about knowing when to let go gently, with self-respect intact.

Frontlist: Your novel invites readers into reflection rather than offering easy answers. What is the most important question you hope stays with them after finishing the book?

Pooja: If there’s one question I hope remains in the reader’s heart, it’s this: What do we owe the versions of ourselves we left behind?

The First Connect isn’t about tying everything up in a neat bow. It’s about sitting with the ache of what could’ve been, and the quiet courage it takes to keep loving, despite the uncertainties. I want readers to reflect not just on the people they once loved, but on who they were in those moments and how that version still lives within them.

Ultimately, it’s less about finding answers and more about honouring the emotional truths we carry. If the story nudges readers to pause, to revisit an old feeling or ask themselves whether they’ve truly listened to their own heart lately, then the novel has done what it came to do.