Romila – A dreamer, a thinker and a doer

When Romila started Unicorn magazine in 2020 during the great pandemic, she never knew she was building a brand, a new entity worth a recognition. Surprise growth, surprise partnership and great community relations in the writing industry helped her to scale her dream into a business. 

It was in 2009 she thought to own a magazine and turn into an entrepreneur. 11 years of polishing her writing and editing skills, learning the art of publishing business to making contacts and networking and building her own personal identity, contributed to make Unicorn a reality. 

For few and many, Unicorn is a synonym of Romila to which many writers and creators will agree. Romila, who has set an example of inspiration and self made persona is a Writer/Blogger/Author/Editor with more than 20 years of experience and she says, “magazine(s) on literature and art were annually or were run as blogs (hardly with regular updates) and not in print or anything exclusively dedicated, that’s how Unicorn was born”. 

Romila started Unicorn (without any team) by herself with intention, where writers and artists from all walks, all ages, stages could showcase their work/ideas without being scared of unwanted judgements. And she is happy to say today at Unicorn we have people from early stages of writing/creating to advanced levels, all contribute in the magazine, interact and grow together. 

Today Unicorn is a team of 4 who takes care of editorial, social media, creativity, design, sales, marketing and accounts. Not everyone is aware that Unicorn operates from Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai. Family of Unicorn artists stands at 64 currently and Romila is confident that by end of 2021, it will be a family of 100 members.

We all know Romila, the face of Unicorn which connects most of the artists  ( of all kinds – writers to painters to photographers) today with a strong literary  and creative bond but we less know about her, she is one of the most funniest and simple women and surprisingly grocery shopping and desserts make her very happy. 

She shares “of all the things on the earth that brings an instant smile to my soul, is picking up vegetables (especially scarlet gourd/kundru in Hindi), fruits and range of snacks and diet cola from the supermarket”. She doesn’t shop anything edible online. 

Recently, Unicorn was bestowed with “The Pride of India” award, which is a new feather to the brand. Sharing her happiness, she says “it is very special to earn an award within one year of establishing the magazine. It has reinforced stronger faith in our ideas and business model” 

Not only did Unicorn win an award but on the occasion of the magazine’s one year in July 2021, Unicorn hosted the first annual literary awards which was successful more than her expectation and she plans to have it every year. 

She really has no idea what and where she will be after 5 years but surely she wants to continue her creative and literary journey with writers, artists, readers and Unicorn. 

She says “I see myself still behind the magazine, hustling and building dreams with words, ideas for better writing with much larger family of writers, taking their work to the next best level internationally.” 

Romila has not only given writers, artists and  any one creative – new and old, a print and digital platform to write and showcase their talent but also helps them to stand out in the crowd and make their own identity with her mentorship programs and classes. 

Apart from publishing the magazine, Unicorn renders editing and proofreading services to writers/authors/bloggers. “The projects undertaken by us have been sold internationally and we wish to get more books and meaningful content in the coming time”, she says. 

Romila lives her life in stories, she strongly believes “every person’s story is unique and every story matters, this is how the world runs”. Prior to founding Unicorn magazine, Romila worked as a features writer, research analyst and assistant editor. 

Her work has been featured in Youth Ki Awaz, Women’sWeb, ShePeopleTv, The Odyssey, Literary Voice, Vibrant magazine, Turning point Media, Fame publishing, The Remnant Archive, The Blahcksheep, HydRawzine and more. 

Nonfiction writing is her strength, but whenever she wrote fiction – short and long stories it has won her awards such as Best Storyteller and Best power packed characterisation. She has 15 books to her name. She enjoys teaching “the art of story telling” and someday wishes to see her name on the big screen as a story writer of a movie.  

To get associated or be a part of Unicorn family as an artist, you can drop her an email – writeforunicorn@gmail.com or follow on Instagram – @magazineunicorn