Kiran Manral's Blog, page 2

The Week: ‘All Those Who Wander’ review: Time travel and horror make a gripping tale

This book carries Kiran Manral’s trademark enthrallment

By Jairam N. Menon Updated: March 03, 2023 14:51 IST

“A story,” said Jean-Luc Godard, “should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” Author Kiran Manral follows that bit of advice to the hilt. Her ‘All Those Who Wander’ is awash with beginnings, middles and ends, so entwined they could be a plate of noodles. It is not ‘once upon a time’ any more. It’s ‘once upon many times’ and all of them together. The book’s protagonist is sometimes Anna, sometimes Nayana, sometimes neither and sometimes Sue aka Sukanya. It’s as if time has been dropped carelessly into an egg-whisk until you can’t tell today’s happenings from yesterday’s memories. All this could have been maddeningly perplex but it is par for the course. Manral immerses you in multiple stories so completely that you feverishly turn page after page to find out what happens at the end – the real end.

This book carries Manral’s trademark enthralment, her ability to dally deliciously, dangerously with unconventional ways of telling a story and her infectious infatuation with the paranormal. And when you, like Anna or Nayana, begin to wander, you are rooted by the mesmeric quality of her prose. It covers a wide arc. She can be taking you into mysterious realms of the unknowable one minute. The next minute, you are brought down to earth with the acuity of observations of a middle class housing complex with solicitous but unabashedly inquisitive neighbours. She even gets the maidservant’s vernacular right who fears that some ‘galat kaam’ was afoot.

In the sunless world that the characters inhabit, happy times must necessarily be fleeting because the past – with all its ‘galat kaam’ – is waiting to catch up. Death and dismay stalk the pages. Sometimes people die, and they are the lucky ones. Else, they will live and remember, and memories can be more terrifying than nightmares. They last longer and waking up is no longer an option.

As in many of Manral’s books, the central characters are women, etched in fine, almost obsessive detail. They are vulnerable and fragile, but they seem to know their own minds until the burden of knowledge becomes unbearable.

Read the rest of the review here

Insta Review: All Those Who Wander

Posted @withregram • @asfiyarahman.doonwriter I had been looking forward to reading this book ever since I got a copy but I knew that once I started it I wouldn’t be able to put it down.
( This isn’t my first book by @kiranmanral )

So I waited for the perfect day…and what could be more perfect than Valentine’s Day…a day I dedicate to my first true love..BOOKS!


All who wander is a wonderful book that is so beautifully written that the minute you finish it you want to flip back to the beginning and start reading it again.
It’s a story which is difficult to classify, part scifi, part coming of age , part romance and so so much more.
It’s the story of Nayna and Ana …who is also Nayna…

It’s a story that will grab you and stay with you.

An amazing book!

What is ‘All Those Who Wander’ about?

Here’s what kind folks have said about it on Amazon:

“One of the first books of this genre that I have read. And loved it!! I am now a little wary of looking into the mirror, not sure if I am going to get sucked in into a different life stage. But wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Time & space travel. Losing & finding yourself, bit by bit. A strange story, riveting right from the beginning up to the end.
Recommend. Both for the story & the brilliant language.”

Tempted? I’d always recommend hitting the bookstores to find it first before online sites. I have signed copies at WH Smith at T3 in Delhi and at Title Waves in Bandra, so if you’re around those places you could probably luck out and get a signed copy.

In bookstores and on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3vKniiz

Hope you pick it up. Hope you enjoy reading it.

#NewBookAlert : All Those Who Wander

Some months ago, I had posted a quote from Tolkein.

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

A kind soul on Twitter asked if I even knew what the context of the quote was. Well, I’ve always had a bit of a crush on Aragorn from the time I first read the books and Viggo Mortensen didn’t help when he played him.

So here is my tribute to Tolkein and his genius, in the title of my latest.

“All Those Who Wander.”

What’s it about?

What if the past, present and future exist at once? What if you could rewrite your past? What if you could go back and change it around? What if you could protect the child you were from the trauma you know she will have to live through? What if you were living infinite versions of the same life simultaneously? This is the story of Ana, who is at a different age each time we meet her. But who is Ana—is she really who she says she is? A tangled tale of looped time and non-sequential lives, of guilt and repercussions, ‘All Those Who Wander’ turns the classic time-travel genre into a spine-tingling gorgeousness of who, what, when, where. Wouldn’t you take that one chance to heal your inner child?

In stores soon. Pre-order on @amazonIN here: amzn.to/3vKniiz

Booksfirst: In Conversation With Kiran Manral

An interview on Booksfirst.in in which I speak about my journey as an author, reading influences, bookstores, and more.

“Based in Mumbai, Kiran is a well-established author; her first book was published in 2011 and more than a dozen others (both fiction and non-fiction) have been published since then. Her short stories have been published in leading magazines and bestselling anthologies, her articles and columns have been published in leading newspapers and her books have been long listed for various prestigious awards.

Kiran, who is a TEDx speaker, was awarded the Women Achievers Award by Young Environmentalists Association in 2013 and 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. Her list of awards, nominations and achievements is pretty much endless – see here for all the details. We talk to her about her own journey as a writer, and her favourite books and authors.

You have worked as a journalist with leading magazines and newspapers, and then moved on to writing books, both fiction and non-fiction. Tell us about the journey?

Honestly, it’s been a long and meandering journey that has taken me through advertising, as a copy writer, a journalist, where I first did a bit of city reporting, then business news, moving onto gender and women’s issues, as well as entertainment and feature writing. From journalism I moved on to research, and became a trend spotter and India cultural lead for a US-based trendspotting firm, then a qualitative researcher. I was also an entrepreneur; I set up a content supply firm with a friend in the very first dotcom boom in the early 2000s.

I headed the creative department of an advertising agency I founded with my spouse, then got back into writing when we decided to shut the agency and my husband found his passion in the stock market and trading. I edited a couple of websites, curated festivals, and did backend content writing for corporates. It’s been a career that has been peripatetic to say the least, but most educative. I’ve learnt through my journey to write across different styles and subjects, to write through chaos in the newsroom, to be able to have my focus laser-sharp when I’m the midst of creating new work, which is why I have written most of my books in the midst of chaos, bread and butter work, and everyday domesticity.

What was it that encouraged you to start writing fiction? Which was the first book and how hard was it for you to find a publisher? In this context (finding a suitable literary agent and/or publisher), any tips that you’d like to give to new authors, who may be trying to get their first book published?
 
I was a blogger with a fair amount of popularity at the time, and an encouraging group of readers and friends thought I might have it in me to write a book. Of these, a couple of friends were very persistent, and one, Parul Sharma, who was a published author herself, even helped me connect with her editor. I sent in three chapters I had written after succumbing to their insistence, and the editor, Deepthi Talwar, then at Westland, liked it and asked to see the rest. I hurriedly wrote the rest and sent it off, first draft, spelling errors and all, and I now cringe in retrospect at how raw and confident I was back then. She liked it and the book, The Reluctant Detective, was published by Westland in 2011. I had no takers for my next book for four years, and I had almost given up any hopes of being more than a one book horse, when Ashwin Sanghi, who is a dear friend, told me I must keep sending it out. And then Once Upon A Crush came out in 2014. I’ve had 14 books out since, across genres, and my next scheduled for a Jan 2023 release.

I would suggest first-time authors go through websites of publishing houses very carefully, see who is publishing the kind of books they have written, and submit to those publishing houses. Every publishing house has submission guidelines on their website. And if you want to find an agent, do your research before querying, see who is representing whom and reach out. Most do respond. Himalayan Writing Retreat has some good resources on agents, and publishing houses on their sites.

Something I would like to tell all first-time writers sending their manuscripts out is to not take rejection personally. I still get rejected after all these books. Many published authors do. It is no shame. It is no reflection on the quality of your writing (of course, you have to keep working towards improving it). Keep sending your manuscript out, keep reworking it.”

Do read the entire interview here

New Column for Women’s Web: What If I Hadn’t Escaped The Stalker I Had When I Was 21?

It has been years since I last wrote a column. And I’m happy to start a new monthly one with Women’s Web on topical issues that cut deep and personal. Here’s the first one:

“Why do I speak of a single instance of stalking I experienced decades ago in the same article as a horrific gang rape that mauled and mutilated a young girl, a woman being chopped up into pieces by her live-in partner, a harassment that ended in a woman losing her ten-month-old baby all in the same space? After all, nothing did happen to me, did it? I was not harmed, I wasn’t even touched. It was just implicit the threat of violence, the person shadowing me every single day, making me uneasy enough to drop my course. It was the appropriation of me without my consent by someone I did not know.”

Read the article here

Krishnajamol K et al / Eeriness of Human Psyche as represented in Kiran Manral’s Missing, Presumed Dead(2018).eISSN1303-5150 www.neuroquantology.com Eeriness of Human Psyche as represented inKiran Manral’s Missing, PresumedDead(2018)

Eeriness of Human Psyche as represented in KiranManral’s Missing, Presumed Dead(2018).
“I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the
safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.”(34),
says Kahlil Gibran .The human mind is a source of mystery for psychologists,
psychiatrists, writers, and all those who deal with its structure and functioning. Since the
human mind is a set of faculties like memory, thought, will, imagination and sensation, it
plays a significant role in controlling human behaviour. Even though it is the essential part,
a slight imbalance can harm the proper functioning of the whole system. Both genetic
and environmental factors have an equal role in mental disorders. The impact of mental
disorders on family and social life is a widely discussed topic in movies, literature, and
other art forms. KiranManral’s novel, Missing, Presumed Dead(2018) is a powerful account
of the disastrous consequences of mental disorders in family life.

Read the paper here

4885
DOINumber:10.14704/nq.2022.20.5.NQ22764 NeuroQuantology2022;20(5):4885-4889
NeuroQuantology |May 2022 | Volume 20 | Issue 5 |Page 4885-4889 | doi: 10.14704/nq.2022.20.5.NQ22764Krishnaj... K et al / Eeriness of Human Psyche as represented in Kiran Manral’s Missing, Presumed Dead(2018).
eISSN1303-5150 http://www.neuroquantology.com

Power Women Speaker Lounge

Delighted to be part of the Power Women Speaker Lounge, an initiative of the Power Women group. 
This is an online repository of expert women leaders from diverse sectors & functions. For any speaking engagements you would like to invite me to, please connect with them here. I will be directing all enquiries to them.

https://powerwomenspeakers.in/

#WomenSpeakers #womenleaders #diversity #experts
 https://lnkd.in/dw88geRF

Goa, Bangalore, Gurgaon

If you’re in these places, would love to meet you.

May 14th and 15th, I’m so looking forward to the Goa edition of the Kumaon Literary Festival, Goa edition at Panjim.

Do register here: kumaonliteraryfestival.org/registration

On May 20th, I’m honoured to be part of the inaugural edition of the Alliance Literary Festival in Bangalore. Do register here.

https://www.alliance.edu.in/admlp/alliance-literary-festival/pay/

https://www.allianceliteraryfestival.com/speakers.php

June 2nd, I’m delighted to be back at Quill and Canvas, Gurgaon, where I had my first ever book event for The Reluctant Detective back in 2012. This time, I’m talking about Rising: 30 Women Who Changed India. It’s been 10 years, 14 books.

#Rising30 Airport signings

Signed copies of Rising at WH Smith and Relay at T3 departures, Delhi airport. Delighted to see it at 6 on the airport edition charts, and at 44 on the non fiction charts at WH Smith.

If you’re passing through, do pick one up.