Kiran Manral's Blog, page 45
August 17, 2015
August 16, 2015
Event: Books on Toast. Women and Humour. Saturday 22nd, 7pm. Details here.
What is Women in Humour?
Seems pretty simple, but more often than not the fairer sex needs to explain what they mean, after we’re done ogling the newest Manolo Blahniks of course!
A fun interactive chat with two accomplished women authors; Kiran Manral and Shunali Shroff as they enlighten comedian Kunal Kamra about everything that baffles men about Women and Humour!
It’s a FREE event, so all you need to do is tell us you’re coming, and show up.
Registration and details here. And yes, there will be signings.
https://www.facebook.com/events/622923547811442/
Monday Guest Post: Sujata Parashar talks about the online persona of an author, and the dilemmas faced
As a writer and a public figure, how much is right to share about the personal aspects of my life, thoughts and views with my readers?
You have an image to maintain. You must not share your thoughts so freely with your readers. I have heard this well-meant advice from friends, family members and other well-wishers so often
that it got me wondering. I thought it would be nice to write my views on the subject as a guest post for your blog. I thank you Kiran for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I’m not much of a blogger and your very popular blog gives me a chance to share my take on the matter with a larger base of readers.
Yes, I have an image to uphold. Don’t we all? The only slight difference would be that I might be one of the better known/visible persons among my immediate circle of friends and family since the time I turned writer. So what I say, write and project myself as, creates an impression among the readers and other people.
We all know, most people form their opinion based on what they read about you. Social media platforms have revolutionized the way we interact with each other nowadays. Public figures especially high – profile individuals have to be conscious and responsible in what they talk about or disclose and discuss openly in these public platforms. I’m but a minor writer. However, I too voluntarily share my views on different matters and other personal details of my life with a larger group of people now than I did five years ago. It is natural and unavoidable that people will think/look at me in a certain way. The question is should I maintain a superficial image then?
Over the years, almost all the different social platforms where I hold a personal account have been swelling up and currently I have a reasonably good following in each. It clearly shows, readers are interested to know the author closely. My publishers played their role well. And I won’t deny that I think my stories touched a chord somewhere with the current generation. Of course, there were many who didn’t like my books at all. Many formed an opinion about me based on the books that I have written. That is expected and another matter altogether but an image was created due to my presence and usage of the social network extensively since the time my first book was published. As I move forward in my writerly life, and as more and more people connect with me, it becomes necessary I respond to the questions posed to me by my well-wishers. Is it okay to share my personal thoughts on different issues openly at a public platform? How much is just right to share about my personal life, views et al with my readers, acquaintances, well – wishers and even total strangers especially those connected to me virtually?
Now the above question would not have arisen had I just shared about my work and its related aspects with my readers.
But I am a human first and then a writer. Writing happens to be an important part of my life. However, there’s so much more that I am involved in other than writing. Why should I not share those other aspects of me (that I deem fit) with my readers? For me, it is important to know the person I’m interacting with, better. Even if it’s merely a business interaction it can’t be a one – way thing. It does not work for me. In fact, all relationships however distant they maybe are based on the basic principles of mutual respect, honesty and reciprocal behavior. If even one of them is lacking, there’s no relationship. In order to have that kind of a human to human bond one has to make an effort to be honest, open and expressive about one’s world view, thoughts etc.
And it is impossible to achieve that if one remains superficial or simply use the social media to promote their books with one liners like – My book among top 10…available on Flipkart, go get your copies. Or Happy to share my book has been declared a bestseller by xyz in the very first month of its release. Have you picked your copy yet, et al. (Although, there’s no denying a writer needs to promote his or her work and such posts are the order of the day and play an important role in gaining the attention of the readers). To exclusively or extravagantly focus on just the most superficial part of you would be like giving a piece of information that has little value to others. Readers may certainly admire you for a while or be in awe of you but they won’t be moved or feel anything more than that. To strengthen the bond they need to know the author a little better.
In my case, I share what I think would help bring out the person that I am other than my profile as an author. Staying aloof, interacting with my readers in spurts and jerks; writing lines that I neither mean nor follow, talking shop or merely discussing superficial stuff, is not acceptable to me. Now, I know while interacting with others I might not be able to develop the same level of bonding with everyone however well-meaning the other person (s) might be. That’s neither possible nor desirable. But I’m open, expressive and responsive as much as possible. Of course, certain decorum has to be followed. There are certain basic rules of communication which must be adhered to and respected by both parties. Besides, writers are highly sensitive people. I am no different. So I don’t like it if someone acts too cheesy with me or gets too personal. By using my better judgment such sporadic incidents can be handled. After all to err is human. Besides, my thoughts and expressions may or may not go down well with everyone. That is fine. We are all different and our world views depend on our environment, different life situations and experiences that we’ve faced in life. It would be wrong to judge anyone.
My thoughts reflect my true- self and that is what is important to me as a person. The stories that I pen and the real me maybe intertwined in some ways because they are been created by me.
However, the author is not the character of her book. The story she writes is not necessarily her story. She has her own personality. To display a false image would be wrong. The real person behind the author must also be visible to a reasonable degree to her readers and other people.
That is my aim when I interact with my readers and others connected to me virtually or in real life.
Thank you once again and Keep smiling!
Sujata Parashar
Novelist, short – story writer and poet
(I welcome guest posts on my blog every Monday. Sharply written, insightful, provocative posts welcome, I do no editing, except perhaps spell check. All topics welcome, except politics and religion. If you would like to contribute, do mail me at kiranmanral@gmail.com. Why am I doing this? Just paying it forward.)
All Aboard Blogathon: A Q& A on Inderpreet Uppal’s blog Eloquent Articulation
Today I have the honor to share space and share details about a woman who has set standards in everything she has done. A lady who makes it all look effortless with advice and insights that will force you to re-examine your motivation for writing. Shake you out of your slumber and ensure you never take your muse lightly. Enchantingly enthralling who, you would love to emulate……
I am ecstatic as I welcome Kiran Manral to Eloquent Articulation. She has left me speechless and awed with her nuggets of wisdom as she eloquently articulates her thoughts on her work, writing and her latest new book ALL ABOARD.
Q1. This is your third book, what is different about this one that sets it apart from the others? What inspired All Aboard?
All Aboard came about from a story I heard of a girl who went on her honeymoon with a friend after her fiancé ditched her. I thought that was absolutely wonderful a way to go about dealing with the inevitable pain she must have definitely been in. It took her away from the home ground, allowed her time and space to recoup, and in more practical terms did not let the tickets and bookings go waste. What sets it apart from my previous two? My previous two books have been located firmly in Mumbai, this one is set on a Mediterranean cruise, so that would be the most obvious differentiator. And also, this book is pure romance.
Q2. How do think this book All Aboard has helped you grow as a writer?
One of the primary criticisms I’ve had was regarding my writing being too long winded. Some of my sentences were guilty of going into paragraphs, I was guilty of throwing in esoteric references to mythology into the narrative which often threw the unwary reader off guard, and while I could be a trifle funny, I often overdid it. With this book, my editor at Penguin, Vaishali Mathur, was very clear that I would need to keep it simple and let the story flow. It was a wonderful learning experience and quite a challenge for me to write in a style that was simple, concise and yet communicated what I needed to.
Q3. Of all the hats you wear; writer, social activist, mommy blogger, adviser and an icon to follow which defies you the best?
I would say writer, because that is what underlines everything else I do. I no longer mommy blog or do any social activism. Adviser and icon, am far from being either. But writing is something I do every single day, and define myself by.
Q4. Clichéd but still; what is your advice to struggling writers who find it difficult to strike a balance between their love for writing and the daily grind putting up obstacles to their success?
There will always be something that is more urgent than what you need to write until you make writing something that is the most urgent thing that you need to do for the day. Everyone talks of discipline and putting butt to seat and churning out X number of words per day, which is all very true and important, but all I say is that unless you want to write more than anything else you want to do with your life, life will always intrude upon your writing. There will always be something more pressing, more trying that needs your time. The muse will be reluctant to drop by. You will not carve out the time to write. A lot also depends on your own internal self motivation. If you want to write you will. If you want to loll around watching television or click baiting through the world wide web you will. We all are given the same amount of time, what you choose to do with it is up to you. Also what do you define yourself as? Are you a person who writes on the side, or are you a writer who works a day job on the side? Your answer to that is the answer to how to strike a balance.
Q5. Can you give one line to describe your book, All Aboard?
Because everyone deserves a Happily Ever After, even after heartbreak.
Read the original here.
August 11, 2015
Why I am the unacknowledged queen of list making.
I am, in troth, and I am not ashamed to say it out loud and clear, perhaps the most disorganised person on this planet. Perhaps, there might be a couple who could put up a tough fight, but I would be a worthy competitor and put up a tough fight. As a result, my natural inclination most days is to let things roll, and occasionally let them rock as well. My schedule, thanks to the sheer fact of being a parent is thankfully regimented around the child’s schedule else I would have been pattering around barefooted and unbathed till the evening, and perhaps then put a comb to the hair, and often times, not even that. The desk is a morass of thick undergrowth I need to fling to the floor when I want to clear it, and my ground rule for most paper work I haven’t filed is that if I haven’t needed it for more than a week, I won’t need it ever again for the rest of my life. Ergo it goes into the land where the sun never shines, ergo the cabinets at the back where only the brave dare venture into during the Diwali ki safaai and battle the alien life forms growing there before coming up with the silverfish and termite shredded remnants of what was once documents.
In such a situation, it is a miracle that I ever get any work done. And it is even more of a miracle that I manage to stick to deadlines, given I have a mind like a sieve, with extra wide holes to let most things through, except perhaps the most urgent—buy new make up now. Therefore, when some wise soul, I forget who now (remember, the sieve mind) suggested that I take up list making to get myself organised and be less of a public menace to the world, I took it up avidly.
I soon realised this was something I should have done earlier. I should have emerged from the womb waving a list aloft in my clenched fingers. I was born to make lists.
Today, there is nothing I cannot do, if I have a list in hand, except perhaps cook a complicated meal, drive a car or write computer code. Am sure, with the right lists, I could tackle those as well. I sit down most evenings, after the last meal of the day has been burped, the kitchen cleared and the still of the night begin to get to us, I sit down with my diary and my pen and make out my list for the next day. I put down everything. Word related deadlines. Groceries to be bought. The child’s tuition and classes schedule. The calls to be made. The emails to be sent. The follow ups to be done. Occasionally, I factor in sometime for the books to be read. Despite my best efforts, the books to be read grow beyond themselves and cannibalise substantial bits of the day, but I’m not complaining yet.
Lists soothe me. They calm me down from the inevitable panic of thinking that the day ahead has too much for me to deal with. It divides everything into bullet points which can be ticked off. There is a certain sense of achievement as I tick off each task done that makes me feel I have done something productive with my day and not frittered it all on the bait click links that do the apsara before meditating sage act on my timeline. I’ve realised that the best thing that these lists do, is that they give me back a sense of control over a life and a schedule that has completely morphed into something that I seem to have no modicum of control over. And seeing tasks listed out in order of importance makes it easier for me to prioritise as well, no longer do I begin my day with the least important task and end up at the end of the work day realising that the elephant in the to do list is still trumpeting away in the corner, all too merrily.
And then there are the specific lists. The lists of things to be shopped for, on grocery shopping days, the lists of things to be packed for a trip, the lists of places I want to visit before I day and things I want to do, the lists of people I mean to reach out to, but keep holding myself back from. Am slowly ticking through that last one, ever so slowly. Life is too short to hold grudges and resentments too long.
Right now though, my lists are about the promotions I have coming up for my next book, All Aboard, the cities I will visit, the people I need to ask help from, the things I need to complete. As with every round of book promotions, I go into my headless chicken act before every book release, but the lists reassure me. I will get by with a little help from my lists, and my friends.
Do you make lists too? Tell me more about your lists.
August 10, 2015
On Fashion101.in: Ten things you must pack for a cruise vacation
Kiran Manral
Aug 10, 2015, 11:11 AM IST
A sundress is necessary on a cruise vacation. Photo credit: Nejron Photo / Shutterstock
You’ve booked the cruise, exercised and buffed yourself to levels of immaculateness and are all set to embark on a vacation of your life, but you’re really stumped as to what you should pack into your trunks for a cruise vacation. Given that travel these days isn’t quite the hedonistic indulgence of the past when you could saunter aboard with trunks on trunks of beautiful clothes, you need to make the best of each garment you choose for your cruise. And, of course, given that storage space on a cruise is so limited, you need to pick your cruise wardrobe with a lot of thought as to what you can get the maximum use out of.
Cruise wear must necessarily be chic, minimalistic and easy to mix and match so that you can change your look with minimum effort. Ideally, carry along a lot of separates with the occasional cocktail dress or evening gown for formal nights on board, or partying after a long day on a shore excursion. Fashion101.in gives you a quick primer as to what you must, absolutely, absolutely must carry along.
Read the rest of the post here
August 9, 2015
Guest post of the week: THAT CINDERELLA FEELING: 4 Reasons why I love writing love stories
By Aarti V Raman
I’d like to thank the lovely Kiran Manral for giving me this opportunity to talk to her fans and readers about a subject that is close to my heart, pun intended: Romance
“Why do you want to marry me for anyhow?” he asks. “So I can kiss you anytime I want,” she replies. They kiss and live happily ever after.
“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her,” she says, as she looks at him with a reckless, hopeful desperation that underscores all the ways she loves him and wants to be with him.
These iconic lines from evergreen movies (Sweet Home Alabama and Notting Hill to the uninitiated)
are much more powerful when you have powerhouses like Julia Roberts and Reese Witherpsoon
delivering them. It doesn’t hurt that the men on the receiving end are hunks like Hugh Grant and Josh Lucas. And of course, the magic and lure of celluloid can never, ever be underestimated.
People will be always be more inclined to believe anything they see than what they read or hear. Writing has always been considered a poor, step-cousin to movies where everything is much more immediate and affecting. Action scenes are so much better when you can see Tom Cruise or Akshay Kumar kicking butt. Romance is ten times lovelier when you see Siddharth Malhotra’s Guru weeping stoically as he tries to save his dying wife, and later on, avenges her.
But I believe, truly, that nothing, but nothing beats the sheer joy of writing about two flawed, strong characters who are simply determined to not get together, no matter how much fate and me, the writer, wants them to.
Writing romance is the best.
For one, the genre has so much nuance to it. You can write a cowboy romance like Diana Palmer does or a modern fairytale like Nora Robert’s Cordina series or go kickass like I did in Kingdom Come.
The common thread to all these varied love stories is, yes, you guessed it right. LOVE. Not romance, but love. We just call it romance but there is so much more to writing romance than dreaming up meet-cutes and happy ever afters.
There is the journey of two headstrong, (almost always) stubborn people who go their own ways and create nothing but friction and tension when they meet. And any romance writer worth their salt will tell you this: THEY NEVER DO EVERYTHING YOU WANT THEM TO!
Which brings me to reason two. The human psyche is the most fascinating subject under the sun.
Why do people behave they do? Why do they run from true love even when it is staring them right in the face begging to be let in? Why do they equate sex or not having sex with the ultimate expression of romance? And lastly, WHAT is romance for these two particular characters? Exploring these questions is the ultimate thrill. Especially because each love story follows its own particular curve and no two characters are the same. And that’s precisely because no two PEOPLE are the same and writing romance is just writing about real people in all their infinite, mystical, messed-up glory.
Reason number 3 is a bit of an iteration from the first reason. I don’t write romance. I write LOVE STORIES. Romance, sex, tension, drama, self-actualization and happy ever after are all part of this amazing love story. LOVE is the key here and love comes softly anywhere, everywhere. Calling it
fluffy romance or pulp fiction dismisses that most beautiful and essential of human interactions, which is a damn shame, don’t you think?
Lastly, you know how Sachin Tendulkar feels after he scores a century and wins the match for India?
That ecstatic, nearly perfect moment when you know everything is just exactly right in the world, in your life, that nothing could take away from how RIGHT it feels, that’s how I feel when I write THE END on a love story. A beautiful, perfect moment frozen in time, just like Cinderella at the ball before the clock strikes midnight.
How often do we get that perfect moment in the daily grind of our lives where there is no neat THE END to tie up our stories? Isn’t that what we, writers and readers alike, are looking for? I know I am. And damn it all, I plain love writing about love because I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Till next time,
Xx
Writer Gal
About the author:
Aarti always wanted to be either a lawyer or a writer. So she tossed a coin and picked writer. Or rather, it picked her. Since then, she has valiantly struggled to put words to paper and bring characters and stories alive that make people sigh and laugh and enjoy every moment of.
She has studied Journalism from Mumbai University, Creative Writing at Deakin, and considers herself a student of life. She has a novel out “’White Knight” with Leadstart Publishing and is part of the Rupa Anthology “An Atlas Of Love”. Her last romantic thriller, “Kingdom Come” by Harlequin, was an Amazon India Bestseller.
She was also a panelist at GALF2015 and Hyderabad Lit Fest 2015.
Her three favorite words are, Happy-Ever-After and she has found her own HEA writing contemporary romance thrillers, sweet slice-of-life romances and a dash of dark, YA Urban Fantasy. She also hopes to write EVERYTHING else that she can think of, one day, including the answer to that great question: What comes before? The Chicken or the Egg.
And she LOVES talking to her pals so you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. Her email addy is kingdomcomethebook@gmail.com, if you wish to e her.
You can find her on Aarti V Raman and Goodreads
Psst: I welcome guest posts on this blog and post a guest post every Monday. If you would like to contribute, do mail me on kiranmanral@gmail.com. I welcome posts on all topics, excluding politics and religion.-Kiran
August 7, 2015
My first column for iDiva.com…
Kiran Manral
Kiran was a journalist before she quit to be a full time mommy. Her blog is considered amongst India’s top blogs. She is the author of The Reluctant Detective (2012), Once Upon A Crush (2014) and All Aboard (2015). An advisor on the Board of Literature Studio, Delhi she is also an Author Mentor at Sheroes.in. She now blogs at http://www.kiranmanral.wordpress.com and you can follow her on twitter @kiranmanral.
They’re in little groups on my Whatsapp. The 4 AM friends. The gang of mad caps always up for a hoot, cluttering my inbox with jokes that would have the more puritanical amongst us blanche to white. The ones who knew me from back when I was awkwardness personified in school uniform and soda-bottle spectacles. The professional women who are ever-willing to reach out with a helping hand. The school moms, who keep me posted on project deadlines and assignments. The wonderful, secure, witty ones I met online and who morphed into a sisterhood of the soul. They’re the women who hold me up and keep me going, through bad hair days, through fat days when I don’t fit into my fat jeans, through days where I question life and my purpose in it, excluding all you can eat buffets and 70 per cent sales. They’re my lifesavers. They are my girlfriends.
Read the rest of the article here.
August 6, 2015
A little late in the day, but here they are…
…pictures from Word Up 2015, held at Striker’s Gurgaon in July.
August 4, 2015
At Sheroes.in as a Mentor
This month I go on board with Sheroes.in as a Mentor. It does feel a trifle presumptuous to be a mentor given most of my career has been wing it and see what happens, but here I am and questions asked will be replied to promptly and to the best of my ability.
I also wrote my first article for them yesterday and here it is. If you’ve ever wondered, as a freelance writer, if you needed to build your personal brand, you might find it worth your time to read it.
Read the article here.
