29/09/2023
Rising is a celebration of 30 Indian women who have shattered all ceilings and are an inspiration to other women to claim their space.
Review:
Kiran Manral has written a truly inspiring book about amazing, courageous women. Reading it just might change your life!
About the book:
With stories of 30 amazing contemporary Indian women, this book looks at what shaped them, the challenges they faced, the influences they had, the choices they made and how they negotiated around or broke the boundaries that sought to confine them, either through society or circumstance. From diverse backgrounds, different generations, they have risen through sheer grit, determination, bolstered with passion, and are, today, names to look up to, to hold out as examples to the next generation of young women and girls, giving them courage to reach out to their dreams. From politics to sport, from the creative and performing arts to cinema and television, from business leaders to scientists, legal luminaries and more, this book features the stories of these much celebrated, fabulous women: Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Diksh*t, Fathima Beevi, Mahasweta Devi, Amrita Sher-Gil, Amrita Pritam, Sonal Mansingh, Lata Mangeshkar, Anita Desai, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Harita Kaur Deol, Madhuri Dixit, Bachendri Pal, Rekha, Chhavi Rajawat, Karnam Malleswari, Shailaja Teacher, Hima Das, Naina Lal Kidwai, Shakuntala Devi, P.T. Usha, P.V. Sindhu, Ekta Kapoor, Kiran Bedi, Mary Kom, Menaka Guruswamy, Tessy Thomas, Aparna Sen, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Gayatri Devi, among others.
About the author:
Kiran Manral is an award winning Indian author, TEDx Speaker, columnist, mentor and feminist. She has written books across genres in both fiction and nonfiction. Her books include The Reluctant Detective, Once Upon A Crush, All Aboard, Karmic Kids, A Boy’s Guide to Growing Up, The Face at the Window and Saving Maya. She has authored a short series called True Love Stories for Juggernaut. She also has published short stories in various magazines, in acclaimed anthologies like Have A Safe Journey and Boo as well on online apps like Juggernaut. A short story by her has been selected for inclusion in the The Best Asian Speculative Fiction anthology to be published by Kitaab, Singapore.
Her nonfiction book, Karmic Kids: The Story of Parenting Nobody Told You, was listed amongst the top five books on parenting by Indian authors in 2015 by the Sunday Guardian. One review called her the “Bombeck of Bombay.” The Face at the Window, released in 2016, was listed amongst the top 30 books written by women authors in 2016 by The Ladies Finger, as among the must read books by contemporary women authors by BuzzingBubs and received much critical acclaim. The Times of India stated that “Manral may have very well pioneered the "Himalayan Gothic" genre” with this book.
In 2013, she was awarded the Young Environmentalist’s Women Achievers Award, and in 2016, the WOW, Women of Worth awards for Creative Writing. She was among the six women authors shortlisted for the Femina Women Awards for Literature in 2017. The Indian Council of UN Relations (ICUNR) supported by the Ministry for Women and Child Development, Government of India, awarded her the International Women’s Day Award 2018 for excellence in the field of writing.
An ex-journalist, she currently writes a column on feminism at SheThePeople.tv, and has been a columnist on sexuality at DNA, on gender issues with Tehelka and on parenting at yowoto.com. She was also on the planning board of the Kumaon Literary Festival, a mentor with Sheroes and an advisor on the Board of Literature Studio, Delhi. She has co-curated Festivelle 2016 and is the co-curator of Women Writer’s Fest by SheThePeople.tv which has editions in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. She has been a speaker and a panelist at most of the leading literature festivals in India, as well as at educational institutions and conferences. She is also considered a social media influencer.
She was part of the core founding team of Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month and Violence Against Women Awareness Month, two social media initiatives that ran for four years. She also initiated India Helps, a volunteer network to help disaster victims which worked on the rehabilitation of 26/11 attack victims. She is the anchor for the monthly talk series, Bombaywaali, from SheThePeople.tv and a mentor with Vital Voices Global Walk 2017.
She lives in Mumbai with her family including ‘the brat’.
