Mother's Day 2025 | Mother, engineer, poet: How a teen son helped his mom’s hidden poetry talent go viral

Apeksha Purohit started sharing her poetry online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo Courtesy: Apeksha Purohit

Growing up in Santacruz, Apeksha Nimesh Purohit was always surrounded by creativity, thanks to her father, a writer. However, life took her in a different direction - she developed an interest in engineering and went on to become an electronic engineer. As she began her professional journey and moved to Dubai in 1997, the writer within her never truly faded. It simmered quietly, often surfacing in the form of a few lines of Hindi poetry scribbled in her notebook.

While raising her children and managing the demands of life, Purohit dedicated the next 10 years to her work as an electronic engineer. But poetry never felt like work - it came naturally to her. The Mumbai-based mother shares, "We returned to India in 2007 because my husband's presence was needed to manage a family business my father-in-law had started earlier."

With her family involved in the business of manufacturing fluid connectors, the 47-year-old now juggles multiple roles - managing human resources, administration, back office, and logistics - while also caring for her two children. Yet, through it all, she finds solace in writing Hindi poetry.

However, things changed during Covid-19 as she got a lot of free time. Purohit, whose pen name is Tina, her maternal name, shares, "I thought to myself that I should write poetry. My dad is a writer and from childhood he used to tell me to read story books, and it never hit me till then. It is like this, 'Jab woh hona hota hai tabhi woh hota hai', and engineering was such a tough journey. It also took up a lot of my time. But language was never a focus. I think I had the skills but they were never highlighted during that time."

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Juggling engineering and poetry
Even though Purohit continued to write, she never thought of it as anything more than just a personal hobby. However, things changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. She shares, "During this time, my son used to play games on the phone. We hadn't given it to him before because he was young. However, once when he was playing, he came across my poetry on my Notes app and asked me, "Mamma, is this written by you or have you copy pasted from somewhere? I said no, it is written by me."

Immediately impressed by her work, Purohit recalls her son, a Gen-Z, urging her to post it on YouTube. "I told him no, as I was writing for myself and didn't want to share it," she says. However, her 17-year-old son, who was just 11 at the time, continued to encourage her. Eventually, he convinced her to create videos and share them on the platform. Six years later, Purohit is now passionate about sharing her poetry on her channel, Poetry & Beyond.

The whole experience has given Purohit, her son and elder daughter the chance to bond beyond their everyday life. "The entire process of giving the name to the channel, and shooting the video is done by my son. My daughter helps me get ready to face the camera and even designs the set using different corners of my house." shares the Mumbaikar proudly.

Today, Purohit balances her career as an electronic engineer while moonlighting as a Hindi poet, all while being a devoted mother to two children she loves dearly. It feels only poetic that they helped her rediscover her creative side.