Having a straight, unbiased view on major national issues isn’t easy in the age of social media, but Tishya Saran manages to have precisely that. Legal expertise coupled with the power of the internet. This has helped Tishya Saran’s page – ‘Tishya Says’ – garner attention.
In an exclusive interview with Icy Tales, Tishya Saran opens up on her childhood, online hate, books, and much more.
Q) How was your childhood? How did it help to mold you into the Tishya Saran we see today?
Tishya Saran – I think I’ve always grown up in a very progressive household, and I was sent to a hostel at a very young age where most of my teachers had hardline ideologies. Growing up, I was in Delhi Public School, R.K Puram, and the crowd there is primarily south Delhi kids, and then again, they have a particular ideology. I think that their ideology and their political beliefs affected me very significantly.
So, I feel like the moment I came out of college, and I realized that our textbooks and curriculums had brainwashed us to believe certain things. And it’s not our teachers’ fault, too, because I realized that through all of it, somewhere or the other among those teachers who were certain hard-liners, a majority of my teachers also found a way to inculcate certain values in us. And throughout that, I realized that there was a problem. We have a major problem with our books, with what we are taught, with the things we’re supposed to believe. And we need to start doing something about it.
Q) How did the law happen?
Tishya Saran – I distinctly remember this conversation with my mother when I was in the third or second grade. She said, “You know, you should do law. It’s fine. It’ll be fun. Don’t get into medicine.” Now because my mom is a gynecologist and my dad’s a lawyer. She had seen a lot of hardships with medicine because doctors are not treated the best in this country.
She believed that they (medical practitioners) were not rewarded enough for all that studying, which is why she wanted to push me away from medicine. Not that I would have ended up there (laughs) and encouraged me towards law a little bit. And ever since then, it just stuck.
Q) What is your one piece of advice for those stepping into the field of law?
Tishya Saran – Be prepared to struggle a lot and constantly. For the first 10 years of your professional career, it will be challenging and probably the most challenging thing you’ve ever done. But after that, it’ll be smooth sailing. And that 10 years gap kind of weeds out the people who are meant to be in it, who are passionate about the law, versus those who don’t want to be. And it’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to be; it’s just a job. It’s not who you are.
Q) How did ‘Tishya Says’ come into being? Was it preplanned?
Tishya Saran – It was never preplanned. I remember this one instance where ISIS had come out with a magazine. This was when the Ram Mandir dispute was before the Supreme court. And the issue was being talked about a lot. ISIS had come up with a magazine saying that whenever the temple is built, we will destroy it. I started venting on my personal Instagram, and people were pissed off.
And we will erect a mosque in its place. Now incidentally, what had happened was one of my friends had also uploaded a story to the same effect, saying that the Ram Mandir, whenever it is constructed, should meet the same fate as the mosque. And I realized that my friends are aligned with ISIS. Not consciously, of course, but probably, by mistake. Maybe they don’t understand what they’re saying. And that was a wake-up call for me.
I realized that we are so close to extremism that we don’t even think about it. What we think of is the right and wrong thing to do, which must be relooked at. We think we’re the civilized model nation, but at the end of the day, our society’s models must be reexamined.
That’s how Tishya Says started. Questioning people to introspect on your own beliefs. It doesn’t matter what political ideology you belong to. It doesn’t matter what party you vote for. And I wouldn’t dare presume to tell anyone how to vote and what to think. But it’s just about introspection, putting facts out there, and raising legal awareness. That’s all.
Q) Ever felt nervous with your page? There are a lot of people who easily get triggered by the truth these days. Incidents of people getting open death threats are prevalent.
Tishya Saran – I haven’t received death threats as such, touch wood, but I receive a lot of hate comments all the time. It’s constant, but I think it’s also about dispelling certain people from my page. I don’t want hard-liner right-wingers. I don’t want hard-liner left-wingers. I want reasonable people who I can appeal with reason to follow me. I think that is who the page is specially curated for. It’s not for the extremists. So I get hate all the time, but I try to post content that dispels such people as much as possible.
Q) What would be your top 3 book recommendations?
Tishya Saran – I think I’m reading a little non-fiction right now. So I’d probably say read non-fiction. I would say Vikram Sampath’s books are excellent. They’re one of those that are hard to put down. So read ‘Savarkar’ by Vikram Sampath. I have also recently read ‘Flight Of Deities And Rebirth Of Temples: Episodes From Indian History.’ It’s by Dr. Meenakshi Jain. It’s not a straight-up readable book.
I read small extracts of it. I refer to the book constantly when I see a lot of Instagram posts talking about the complete denial of the Mughal rule over Bharat and the Mughals’ capture of the Hindu temples. Lots of people deny that it ever happened. They say that it was only for economic and political reasons. Dr. Meenakshi Jain dispels those claims. I would also recommend ‘The Land Of Seven Rivers’ by Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal. It is Indian history and economics explained in a very, very digestible way. So that way, it’s a great book. These would be my top 3 book recommendations.
I also have a highlight on my Instagram dedicated purely to book recommendations. And we’re also planning on launching a book club to help people read. It would be like a paid community of people who are serious about reading. And at the same time, we’d have newsletters and other mechanisms to keep you in check and ensure that you’re not putting that book away because many people do.
They start reading, and then they get distracted, and they’re not able to finish the book. Even I am one among them (laughs). It’s meant for people like me as well. So we will keep you accountable and ensure you follow through with the book. And when you don’t, we give you book summaries of what you’ve missed.
Tishya Saran always tries to put out her opinion backed by what should be legally correct, and her short yet informative reels are a treat to watch. Her page does a wonderful job of putting forth serious topics in an easily consumable format, which gives Tishya Saran an edge over others.
Watch the conversation with Tishya Saran on our YouTube Channel!
Last Updated on by Sathi