Kiran Manral is a distinguished Indian author renowned for her contributions to both fiction and non-fiction. Manral's educational journey took her through Duruelo Convent High School and later Mithibai College, where she graduated in English in 1991. Her professional career began in advertising as a copywriter before she transitioned to journalism, working with DSJ TV, The Times of India, and Cosmopolitan India. In 2000, she became a freelance journalist and blogger, establishing popular blogs "Thirtysixandcounting" and "Karmickids," which she eventually closed to focus on her family and writing career.
Manral's literary debut came with "The Reluctant Detective" in 2011, a novel that received favorable reviews. Her subsequent works continued to explore themes of romance and personal growth, with titles like "Once Upon a Crush" (2014) and "All Aboard" (2015). In the same year, she ventured into non-fiction with "Karmic Kids," a parenting book based on her experiences raising her son.
Her novel "The Face at the Window" is a dark, mysterious tale set in the Himalayan foothills, showcasing her versatility as a writer. Manral's novella "Saving Maya" was longlisted for the Saboteur Awards UK. Her psychological thriller "Missing, Presumed Dead" (2018) was praised by The Times of India for its portrayal of mental illness.
In 2019, Manral co-authored "13 Steps to Bloody Good Parenting" with Ashwin Sanghi. She has also written the True Love Stories series and "A Boy's Guide To Growing Up" for Juggernaut, an app-based reading platform.
Manral is also an advocate for disaster relief, having founded India Helps, a volunteer network supporting disaster victims. Her latest work, "Rising 2.0: 20 More Women Who Changed India," is a continuation of her effort to highlight the contributions of Indian women. This book features stories of iconic women such as J. Jayalalithaa, Ismat Chughtai, and Kalpana Chawla, among others, spanning various fields from science to the arts. With "Rising 2.0," Manral aims to bring to light the resilience and achievements of women who have made significant impacts on Indian society.
1. Your latest book, "Rising 2.0: 20 More Women Who Changed India", highlights the contributions of exceptional Indian women. Can you share what inspired you to continue this series and how you chose the women featured in this volume?
> When I did Rising-30 Women Who Changed India, the first book which was released in 2022, I had drawn up a list of women, which unfortunately had to be curtailed to 30 in order to fit into the word count. I realised back then itself, that it would be impossible to have a definitive list of just thirty women, and I would need to have more women featured, possibly in another book. That’s how Rising 2.0 came about. I did try to have as much as geographical cross section of women featured, as much as keeping in mind other factors such as profession, socio economic strata, etc. Perhaps the most important factor for me was if their story impacted me, I wanted to put it down, if they had done something beyond the norm in their field or profession, against all odds, I definitely wanted to have them in the book.
2. Among the women featured in "Rising 2.0", which story resonated with you the most on a personal level, and why?
> I think it would be Kamala Das. A writer, a poet, an iconoclast, she lived life bravely, on her own terms, and what for me was interesting was that she wrote in the intervals of being a mother, a wife, a homemaker. I identified with that. Not having the luxury of uninterrupted time to create, but having to carve out time in bits and pieces and to persist with writing. And the urge to express herself regardless of social outrage. While I have not had the courage she has had, I think in my fiction I do try to dismantle the tired tropes of mother, wife, woman and reposition the women in my stories as women with minds of their own, which do not fit into societal stereotypes.
3. Your career has spanned various roles, from advertising copywriter to journalist to author. How have these diverse experiences influenced your writing style and choice of subjects?
> Honestly, I have no idea. I write because that’s the only thing I know how to and I enjoy. What might have influenced my writing style with all these shifts in careers, is my ability to write across genres and switch voices. My books are very different, some humorous, others dark and intense, and the nonfiction matter of fact narratives, heavily based on research, which definitely owes itself to my journalistic background.
4. The transition from blogging to writing books can be significant. What motivated you to make this shift, and how did your blogging experience help you in your journey as an author?
> I like to think of my blogging days as my riyaaz, and the books happened when I was prepared. My taiyyari was done. I blogged every single day even if it was for ten to fifteen minutes of just writing down a post, and that was discipline that I inculcated. I think it was a natural progression to shift to writing books once I was established as a blogger.
5. In "Karmic Kids", you draw on your own parenting experiences. How has writing about personal experiences shaped your approach to fiction and non-fiction writing?
> Karmic Kids was my parenting blog that got converted into a book, so it is autofiction in a way. Fiction does draw upon one’s personal experiences because one derives from a lot of what one has lived through, in terms of location or emotions, or even trauma. The trick, as an author, is how well do you manage to camouflage it. Non-fiction, not really. There you work with facts. The only way I think my lived experience has emerged in my non-fiction is with my parenting books—Karmic Kids, 13 Steps to Bloody Good Parenting, A Boy’s Guide to Growing Up and Raising Kids with Hope and Wonder in Times of a Pandemic and Climate Change.
6. Many of your novels explore themes of romance, mystery, and psychological thriller. How do you decide which genre to write in next, and do you have a favorite genre?
> I have a low boredom threshold, so the next book is generally a complete antithesis of the book I have just completed. So, a comic mystery might be followed by a dark noir one. A sci fi might be followed by research-based non-fiction. But that said, I tend to work on multiple books at a time, so it is just me picking up what I feel like working on that particular day depending on my mood.
7. "The Face at the Window" is described as a "dark brooding story of mysterious, concealed identities." What inspired this narrative, and how did you develop its complex characters and plot?
> It began during a trip to Te Aroha at Dhanachuli, near Mukteshwar. I saw the cottages at such a distance from each other and wondered how people lived there in such isolation, and what it would mean to live a retired life there, waiting to die. And then, what if someone was living here, old and feeble, and alone. From there came the character of Mrs McNally, a retired Anglo-Indian school teacher, her illegitimate daughter and granddaughter, and the secrets that haunted her. And of course, the mountains were the perfect backdrop to add a spooky element.
8. Your work with India Helps reflects your commitment to social causes. How do your experiences with volunteer work and social activism influence your writing, especially in your non-fiction works?
> They don’t. These are separate compartments in my head.
9. What challenges have you faced as a female author in India, and how have you navigated them to establish yourself in the literary world?
> I don’t think there have been any challenges being ‘female’ per se except for some random male reader who will tell you to your face that they don’t read women authors because they’re too sentimental or whatever, or they feel women authors are not ‘serious’ or ‘important’ enough to be read. I think I have a long way to go to establish myself in the literary world, I’m still struggling to get readers. Hopefully, I’ll get there before I die.
10. Looking ahead, what themes or topics do you hope to explore in your future works, and are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?
> I love experimenting with genres so I am curious to see what I will do next. I do find myself veering towards the darker side in my writing, and haven’t written a funny one for a while. So, perhaps, my next work might just be a funny one. Fingers crossed.
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