Grains of Stardust, she says, was created at different points in her life. “Some [poems] were typed out on my phone, some I wrote when I was looking at one of my own drawings or at nature. Some came to me while I listened to a beat I liked, I’d sing over it and write down the phrases that I liked,” she says, adding,   “[But] I honestly don’t remember [when I started writing or drawing]. I have many journals that I’ve kept over the years.”

In 2018, when browsing through some old diaries and sketchbooks, her actor brother, Pranav, suggested she put it all together.  “He’s the real poet of the family and I keep telling him that he should publish a book. That’s why I say that this was all so accidental, because it just came together unexpectedly. I didn’t put it together with the intention of publishing it.”

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In the book, her art and poetry lingers on the personal and imagined. In some of her works, the sky becomes her canvas, and the stars and galaxy an inspiration for her verse. Often, she turns inward, describing her mind “as an abstracting painting,” and her thoughts one with “no beginning… moving around circles.” Love, longing, introspection and loss, are recurring themes, but Vismaya doesn’t believe in defining or bracketing her writing. “I will let the reader make of it what they will.”
Her drawings, she says, follow a similar trajectory, emerging out of randomness. “I find the process, the experimenting, the discovering, more fulfilling and personally speaking, just as important as the end result.”

Like many star kids, acting has been at the back of her mind, and it is something that she is working towards. Last year, she joined a Muay Thai camp in Koh Samui, Thailand, shedding 22 kg. “It was honestly one of the best decisions I made for myself. In addition to the training, the environment was perfect… all the people I met there were warm and genuinely kind.” As for her literary career, Vismaya says she will continue to write and draw. “And if something were to come out of that, then I shall continue.”