The Time Travelers

The Time Travelers

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? Sometimes it comes from hearing how others turn messy, complicated life stories into something meaningful on the page. This conversation brings together poet and host Jim Hirtle and Indian author triptit Mathura Mevra, whose young adult novel *The Time Travelers to India: From Gandhi to Google* mixes time travel, democracy and modern Indian history.

Aimed at middle schoolers and curious adults, her series drops two teens—Tim, an American boy, and Maya, an Indian girl—into key moments of India’s past, using a magical ring and relics as their ticket through time. Tripti explains how she wanted history to be more than memorised dates. Instead, her characters stand in the crowd, meet leaders, and feel the tension of independence, partition, emergency rule and the digital age.

She stresses that her goal is “entertainment and informing the young adults in an entertaining way,” keeping things accurate without letting the story turn into a dry schoolbook. The chat also turns into a mini masterclass for indie writers. Tripti shares how a mentor helped her learn structure, publishing and audiobook production, why consistent effort and “shameless” self-promotion matter, and what it’s like to compete in an online bookstore where hundreds of thousands of new titles appear every month.

Her reminder to new writers is simple: “You have to read a lot… and don’t wait for the moment. I think this is the right moment to begin writing.” If you’re using writing as part of rebuilding your life, or just need a nudge to finally start that book idea that’s been sitting in a drawer, this gentle, honest chat might be the spark you’ve been waiting for. What story could you start telling today?