Navi Disha: Clinical Nurse Manager Monica wins literature award
By Aideen O'Flaherty
Monica Mathias balances her busy role as a clinical nurse manager in the general and vascular theatre in Tallaght University Hospital with her passion for writing short stories and poetry – and her short story ‘Navi Disha’ recently won the prestigious Karnataka Konkani Literature Academy Award.
The award recognises works written in the Konkani language, which is a minority language spoken primarily in the Konkan region of India.
Clinical nurse manager Monica Mathias
However, Monica also writes prose in English and her poem ‘Covid Anniversary’, which centres on the impact the pandemic has had on our lives over the past year, has previously been published in The Echo and the Tallaght University Hospital staff magazine.
Monica, who lives in Kiltipper, took some time out to tell The Echo about what it’s like to balance her work in the hospital with her writing and photography, and she explained how she felt when she found out she had won the Karnataka Konkani Literature Academy Award.
When and why did you start doing creative writing?
I started writing short stories in 1995. The year I joined nursing. I had to stay in a hostel during my nursing studies.
After my homework I had lots of time at hand, so I started penning down my imaginations.
Eventually everyone liked my writing, so I started writing short stories and when they got published, I was ecstatic.
Then I won a few short story competitions that encouraged me to write more.
Since then, I did not rest my pen. When I came to Ireland in 2005, the new atmosphere, new work, and new family, forced me to stop writing for a while.
Then as I settled slowly and my kids grew up, I picked up the pen again.
Where do you draw inspiration for your writing from?
My brother is a poet, and he got an award for his book of poems. When I was small, he used to buy and read many magazines. I was interested in reading stories in those magazines.
Eventually I started writing stories and got positive feedback from publishers, so I continued writing.
Your book of short stories recently won the Karnataka Konkani Literature Academy Award, how did you feel when you found out you had won?
I didn’t believe it when I heard. Many of my friends and family from India called, they said the book deserved the award.
I was over the moon! I used to win first prizes in short story competitions but I had never won a major award. I felt so proud of myself, and my family is so proud of me too.
You balance your busy shifts as a clinical nurse manager in Tallaght University Hospital. What has the past year in work been like for you?
April 2020 was the most atrocious month and year of my life. When Covid started in March, we were preparing and planning for the surge.
Theatre was turned into an ICU for Covid patients, and we had no choice but to look after ventilated Covid patients.
As those were unprecedented situations, theatre nurses became ICU nurses overnight.
Higher management managed the situation very well, with skill mix rosters and providing proper PPE for every staff member who was looking after Covid patients.
In the midst of all this depression and frustration, my friend and her husband passed away in an accident. Me and my family looked after their two girls – a 10-month-old and a 10-year-old – for about three months, until they were safely handed over to their grandparents.
Even during these terrible times, I continued writing. I started writing poems, and they were all sad poems illustrating the current situation. But writing did help.
Has writing and doing photography in your downtime helped you to deal with the stresses of recent months?
Definitely. I just wanted to run away from the present situation. So, I would go to the woods with my camera, while my family did their daily walk. I would enjoy capturing beauty of the nature.
Photography certainly helped me to deal with the stress. I put the pictures together and make a calendar every year, and the money raised from the calendar goes to charity. Last year’s charity was for Rainbows Ireland, they help orphaned children.
The year before, I raised the money for homeless people in Ireland.
What do you find most enjoyable about writing short stories and poems?
Imagining the whole story, the beginning and ending in my mind, before writing it down.
Once I have the whole story in my mind, I start writing and dialogues flow through as I continue writing.
It only takes me a couple of hours to write a story and a couple of minutes to write a poem, if I have a subject.
You’re proficient in a variety of creative mediums, but do you have a favourite one?
Short story writing was my favourite, until I started photography a couple of years ago.
Now I like photography more than writing. I spend my free time going out with my family and capturing the beauty of Ireland, to show the world how beautiful my second home, Ireland, is.
There are many advantages with photography – you get quality time outdoors with your family, nice walks, fresh air, and you get to spend time in beautiful nature.
Where can people go to find out more about your creative work?
Most of my writing is in my native language, Konkani. I only recently started writing a few poems in English, so there is no place to find my write-ups.
But I have a website for my photography, www.monicamathiasphotography.com – enjoy beautiful Ireland through my lens.
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