Raam Mori was born in Mota Surka, a village in Sihor, Gujarat and his family’s native village is Lakhavad in Palitana. Ram did his primary and secondary education in Palitana. His parents – Father Bhavsangbhai Mori was into farming and specifically into Animal Husbandry while his mother looked after the house and children – a homemaker.
How the interest sparked?
Books are a man’s best friend and incase of Raam it became his comrade for life. He loved reading and he found this love thanks to his grandparents. They would narrate folk stories and mythological stories to him, it would interest him a great deal and in turn he would go to school and present it to his friends and teachers. He became very popular and teachers encouraged him. A certain teacher J B Chauhan gifted him the popular “Amar Chitra Katha” which played a very vital role in his life. His interest to read and write stories emerged from there.
Raam used to read the Puranas, Ramayana, Bhagavat Gita to his friends and grandparents. He hardly had friends of his age as he loved the company of elders because they had a treasure trove of stories with them.
A movement became a blessing!
In 2007 he shifted to Bhavnagar for his secondary school education. Lok Milap Trust was close to the school, and that gave him an opportunity to read loads of books. Somewhere along these reading sessions, he realized he too can create his own stories and he should give it a go. Every author is also a keen observer and when communications are open it becomes an inspiration to write.
Raam opted for the science stream with an intention of becoming and homeopath doctor. However, changed tracks and took up a course in Diploma in Fabrication Engineering in Bhavnagar.
The ink never went dry for Raam
He attended the “ Gadya Sabha” in Shyamaldas college in 2012. This was a hub where writers met to read essays and stories and engage in discussions. During this period Raam wrote his first short story novel“Sambandh nu Naam” LaghuNaval Katha ( short novel) in Phulchhab newspaper, where 5 chapters were published.
From 2014 he started getting known as a short story writer and he learnt about different formats of writing. Raam attended “SUJOSAFO VartaShibir” held at different locations in Gujarat, at times renowned story writers used to assemble here. Raam Mori presented his stories in this Shibir and learnt a great deal from the senior writers. As his circle of writers expanded with time, he got new ideas in writing.
He came to be knowns as a new age promising writer with his first short story “21 Mu Tiffin”. In the year 2016 his first short story collection named “Mahotu”, comprising of 14 short stories including 7 rural Gujarat stories and 7 metro cities stories was published.
He received the National award and Bhartiya Bhasha Praishad Kolkata Award for Mahotu. It opened an avenue for great work in writing for him. He started writing columns in 5-6 renowned newspapers from the year 2017. He did this for 3 years. In some time, newspaper writing has its own limitations which he realized; hence he gave that a break.
Raam’s next book “Coffee stories” published in 2019 comprised of 51 short stories and included the “Confession Box” which has 26 letter stories. This was something different and Raam always endeavored to break his limitations and not be a stereotype. For him writing a 10 to 15 page short story was easy but writing stories smaller than these proved challenging.
He had written short stories in Divyabhaskar newspaper, the collection of which is part of “Coffee stories”. There is a misconception that short story writer can’t write novel. Raam had to prove others wrong and he went ahead and wrote “Kankuna Suraj Athamya” for mid day newspaper.
Screen writing is also what he loved from the beginning. He was passionate about TV and wanted to write in TV serials. “Balika Vadhu” was the first show which inspired him to write for TV. “Bhakti” (from 2015 to 2017) was the first official TV program to write about Indian mythological stories,“Dharmthi Gujarati”(in 2018)in COLORS GUJARATI. This show showed details about different temples which includes mythological and historical stories of temples. “Dikri Vahal No Dariyo” ( from 2018 to 2020) for COLORS Gujarati and “Roop- Mard ka Naya Swaroop”(in 2018) for COLORS Hindi were projects he was involved in, besides he has written for COLORS, Doordarshan and TV9 Gujarati
In 2018 he was happy writing for TV serials but had a low period with lots of time in hand. Finances also needed a push, that’s when he met Vijaygiri Goswami who asked him pen something for movies. He could never resist a challenge so he wrote the story on his flight back to Mumbai. Vijaygiri like the story and appointed him as a writer and as work started increasing, he enjoyed this kind of writing too.
Raam’s First Film- MontuNi Bittoo (2019), followed by Mara papa superhero (upcoming in 2021) and another film 21 Mu Tiffin is also upcoming and scheduled for 2021.
Achievements & Awards – certainly a morale booster
He received the “ YuvaGaurav Puraskar” from Delhi Sahitya Academy in the year 2017. In 2018 he won the “ YuvaPuraskar” award from Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad Kolkata.“The most Promising Young Writer” award in Gujarat Literature Festival in 2018 was awarded to Ram Mori.
Raam feels that when a creative person says that awards don’t matter, it’s not the truth. Awards do matter because they help gauge your view point towards you as an individual and as far as your work is concerned.
Relevant role models at different stages
At different stages of life, Raam had different role models, during childhood it was histeachers, then well-known writers of literature like Pannalal Patel, Varsha Adalja, followed by renowned TV writers and Film Writers.
Support from inner coterie
My friends are his biggest supporters because they have seen me since grow from nothing. They have always been by my side. True well wishes are those who have faith in you and are always around during good times and bad. Having friends and family around helped Ram cross over hurdles that cropped up along the way.
Success & Failures
Raam always remembers something the famous actress Vidya Balan once said at GLF that she gave 5 super hit films back to back, and also 5 flop films back to back, and the flops made her depressed, but she realized if She can enjoy her success, she should digest her failures too. In shot success and failures are two sides of the same coin. One has to enjoy success and face failure to be complete and happy.
Future filled with plans
Raam in the future wants to keep writing literary stuff and also for films. He would love to watch more movies, read a lot more and keep himself updated with the happenings around the world because if you don’t keep pace with the world you can be left behind and that is something Raam Mori will not let happen!
