BTS - The turning point for a teacher!

Sometimes, life’s most beautiful stories don’t begin with grand plans; they just happen. That’s exactly how Rubi Kolay, a passionate English teacher from Mumbai, found her way into the world of poetry.

“I’m just a teacher who started writing because emotions needed a place to go,” she says with a smile.

Rubi was born and raised in Mumbai, but her roots trace back to Kolkata, where her parents came from due to her father’s job. Growing up in a warm, supportive household with her younger sister, she completed her education in Mumbai and embraced the teaching profession wholeheartedly.

And she’s never looked back. “I’ve been teaching for 18 years now, and I truly believe it’s the most wonderful job ever,” she shares. “Being around children keeps the child in me alive. My students are the golden pages of my life.”

For Rubi, writing wasn’t a planned passion. It was more of an emotional outlet, something that came naturally during her lowest and highest moments.

“Around a decade ago, I started writing whenever I felt overwhelmed. It was never for anyone else, just for myself,” she explains. But it was during a particularly difficult phase in her personal life that writing became her survival tool.

And then came a turning point: BTS

Yes, the global K-pop sensation, the 7-member South Korean band, became more than just music for Rubi. “They were my inspiration. Their words, especially those by their leader Kim Namjoon, helped me understand myself better. When he said, ‘We all have a galaxy within ourselves’, something clicked inside me.”

Rubi began diving deeper into her emotions and writing with more purpose. Her support system? A gang of fellow BTS ARMY girls who cheered her on every step of the way.

Teaching and Writing, Two Worlds that Beautifully Collide

When asked how teaching influences her writing, Rubi’s face lights up with joy!

She shared that over the years, she had taught hundreds of children, from the 2007 batch to the class of 2025. Navigating the world of teenagers, their tantrums, and their tender moments, she explained, had instilled in her immense patience and empathy. Many of her students, she added, viewed her not just as a teacher, but as a mentor, a guide, and even a mother figure. Their stories, emotions, and unwavering affection, she said, often seeped into her writing.

On the other hand, Rubi noted that writing, too, had shaped her as a teacher. She mentioned that writing helped her process chaos, and teaching had taught her to find calm within it. In many ways, she felt it had come full circle, each influencing the other deeply.

She also believed that creativity and curriculum could go hand in hand. Often, she said, her students surprised her with completely unexpected, out-of-the-box interpretations of stories or poems. These fresh perspectives, she admitted, expanded her way of thinking as well.

The Birth of a Book: Tides of Life – Whispers from Heart

Rubi stated that she had never imagined herself as a published author. But thanks to constant encouragement from her close-knit group of friends, whom she fondly calls her “Soul Girls,” she finally took a leap of faith. She reached out to BookLeaf Publications, which eventually published her debut poetry collection: Tides of Life – Whispers from Heart.

She described the book as a journey from a shattered heart to a healed one. With 21 poems, it traces emotional phases: love, heartbreak, confusion, healing, and eventually, peace.

Rubi shared that one of the poems, You, was dedicated to Namjoon, the leader of BTS, whom she referred to as her calm in chaos. She explained that the final section of the book, comprising the last eight to ten poems, was entirely about healing, inspired by BTS, her Soul Girls, and her journey toward self-love. That was why, she said, the tagline of the book reads: "7 purple stitches that healed."

From Invisible Solace to Calmness in Chaos, each poem title she revealed reflects a fragment of her emotional world.

Writer or Teacher: Who Is She?

When asked whether she identified more as a writer or a teacher, Rubi responded with quiet certainty. She expressed that, for now, she preferred to be called a teacher, as it had been an integral part of her life for the past 18 years. The profession, she believed, had gifted her countless relationships and cherished memories.

Writing, she added, had come into her life unintentionally; she called herself an "accidental writer." For her, it had become an emotional outlet, and she hoped to continue writing in the future. 

What the future holds, she said, is yet to be discovered….

Interview & Article by: Patrichia Dcruze