All Aboard by Kiran Manral – An interview

I had a talk with Kiran Manral when she had published her second book ‘Once upon a time’

 Now she is back with yet another book ‘All Aboard’, a story completely different from her other two books but entertaining nevertheless. Her characters are normally the people you meet on daily basis. She talks about an interesting character from her book Rina Massi, “eccentric retired school mistress who is the protagonist Rhea Khanna's aunt and she's a livewire.”

Synopsis:

When Rhea Khanna is dumped just days before her marriage, by her boyfriend of four years, the only thing she wants to do is to get out of the city to clear her head.  The opportunity presents itself immediately when her aunt, a retired school headmistress, invites her to accompany her on a Mediterranean cruise.

As Rhea struggles to cope with her grief of being dumped at the altar, she finds herself getting attracted to the seemingly unavailable Kamal Shahani—the infuriatingly attractive ex-student of her aunt and a hot shot entrepreneur.  To add to the confusion, Sonia, Kamal’s very attractive ex-girlfriend boards the ship in a bid to win him back.

Will Rhea heal her broken heart, or will she end up even more shattered than she was when she got on this cruise?

Kiran Manral Speaks:

 What was your inspiration behind writing the third book?

It began with an anecdote I heard about a friend of a friend who decided to go on her honeymoon after her fiancé ditched her at the last minute, albeit taking a friend along for the company. I thought that was a most fun way to deal with the heartbreak, it was the mark of a survivor, and somewhere the seed was sown for this story. Of course, I did change it around a fair bit, but that was the genesis of this book.

Share some resources that help you when you are writing

Spell check on the computer. Seriously. And of course, Google baba.

Your favorite character

From this book? Rina Maasi. She's this eccentric retired school mistress who is the protagonist Rhea Khanna's aunt and she's a livewire.

A paragraph of your work before and after editing

Ah, the work goes through so many infinite versions, from first drafts through four edits plus a rewrite to simplify my tendency to run on and on with sentences as long as paragraphs, that this is quite difficult, because one really doesn't have first drafts anymore.

Your favorite (not too famous Indian) author, why?

I must say Annie Zaidi. Not because she's a dear friend but because what she writes goes straight to the heart, always.

You prefer: twitter or facebook..why?

Both have their place, but twitter definitely helps you to reach to a lot more people a lot quicker, facebook is limited to friends and family and a few acquaintances in my case.

Three books you would read in isolated places

Ah, I prefer to read in a crowd so I am not compelled to make conversation. But books I can read over and over again, Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, anything by P G Wodehouse or Dave Barry or Erma Bombeck, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

You prefer: Ebook or hard cover, why?

Can I be contrarian and say I prefer paperback. Ebook, I have still to acquire an electronic reading device. If Kindle decides to convert me, I'm open to the trying of it. Hard back is too much of a pain to carry around and I have a book in my handbag wherever I go. Ergo paperback.

Favorite place to hang out: beach, cafeteria or library

None of the above. My favourite place to hang out is at home.

What book you reading now? How do you choose it?

Am between books right now. Therefore am busy re-reading Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding. It is great fun to read Bridget Jones, she's someone who could have been me.

Thank you Kiran for sharing your thoughts, wishing you success on your new book. Shine on…….

The Pre-order links for the book here:

Amazon India

Flipkart India

Amazon.com

A Dialogue of a Different Tone

After the success of her first humorous book,The Reluctant Detective, she is back with a second book. 

I was happy to learn that my writer-friend, Kiran Manral, has published yet one more book “Once Upon A Crush” and it will soon hit the bookshelves. It feels good to see my friends achieve success.

I met Kiran Manral the first time at Lavasa resort. Back in 2011, we were group of 8 privileged bloggers who were invited during car rally from Mumbai to Lavasa to celebrate the women’s day. The trip to Lavasa was one of my best trips and I met lovely people there.

We met as strangers but at the end of our two-days trip, we became good friends.

Kiran Manral is very warm and affectionate woman and immediately makes the person feel as ease. During our conversations, I learnt that she founded ‘India Helps’, a volunteer network to help ‘disaster victims’ post 26/11 and has worked on long-term rehabilitation of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack victims and 13/7 Mumbai bomb blast victims, amongst others.

Soon after this trip, she became the part of the core founding team behind CSAAM and Violence Against Women Awareness Month, two very well received social media awareness initiatives across twitter and the blogosphere. She also blogs at ‘Tehelka Blogs’ on gender issues.

When I followed her on twitter, I realized that she is considered a 'social media star' by the TOI and ‘IBN Live’ named her as among the 30 interesting Indian women ‘to follow on twitter’ and among the top 10 Indian moms ‘to follow on twitter’ for 2013. Her blogs, forty-two and counting and karmickids, both are in Labnol's list of India's top blogs.

The best way to congratulate a writer friend of this caliber is to interview her.

So here goes my chat with Kiran Manral

Reading the synopsis of your book, I learn that this book is about the office romance, is it inspired from real life characters?

It is more inspired from a composite of many people I know, and have spoken with and bits and pieces of experiences around me when I was working full time. Office romances happen all the time, and it is inevitable I guess seeing that people spend time with colleagues even more than they end up spending with spouses or partners. I think there is always a conflict about whether one should take a crush in the office further or not and whether it would be unseemly, or not work out, in which case it could be rather embarrassing for both parties. Office romances are like a minefield. Anything can set them off, and they can be rather devastating.

How long did it take you to write this book?

That's a difficult one. One writes then one rewrites. And rewrites. And if you're a writer like me you're probably writing two to three different books at a time, so its very tough to say this book took so long, because one is constantly working on it off and on for at least a year or so, and then it goes out to publishers, after which one reworks bits and pieces that work or don't work, according to the feedback.

Did you ever come to a dead end and had to start all over?

I never start all over. I keep reworking what I have. Over and over again until I'm happy with what is done. Or the editor is happy with it.

Most of the young mothers that I meet today complain about time constrain in dealing with work load of the children and house, knowing you and your busy life, how do you discipline yourself to write a book?

I believe you always find time or make time to do what you want to do. If you really want to do something you will ensure you make time for it. I don't believe in writing when the muse strikes, I sit down and write out what I have to every day even if it is just 500 words. It all adds up in the end.

Do you have reader in mind while writing a book?

Depends on the kind of book, for the first book it was my friends, married women with children, suburban moms. For this one, it was single women everywhere.

Do you have moments when you notice something and say, “Ah! This should go into my book”

All the time, all the time. I take frantic little notes either in my notepad or on my phone or in the diary I always carry around with me and keep going back to them. People who know me will find snippets of things which have happened with me in my books.

Have you got the urge to get up in the middle of the night to jot down your thoughts, fearing that you might not remember in the morning?

Sadly, never. But I've woken up and pondered over my dreams which are rather fun at times.

Have you used the same style as in your first book or the approach is completely different?

It is still humour, but the voice is a little different, given the protagonists are very different, in different lifestages, in different situations.

What according to you is the difference between lust, crush and love?

A crush is a someone you are attracted to, it might or might not be a physical attraction. Normally, crushes pass within a few months, if it lasts longer than that, you might have crossed into love. Lust is purely physical attraction, very immediate. Love, that is very different. To me love is a state of mind, where everything else gets subsumed by the person one is in love with. Love can be passionate fiery, all consuming, or it could be gentle, accepting, encompassing. And love sometimes accepts the person one is in love with warts and all, accepting all their flaws, but yet continues to love the person intensely. I think we all have very different takes on what comprises love depending on our personal experience with it, but yes, when you are fuelled on love, you become omnipotent, you can do anything for the object of your adoration.

As a published author what advice would you give an aspiring writer?

Write as much as you can. And read as much as you can. That's it.

Don't wait for the muse to strike, don't be too critical of your work, don't over analyse it, don't write 'to' an audience. Write for yourself. And because you must write. That should work.

I enjoyed my chat with Kiran, hope you did too.