This panel discussion was part of the Homemaker story project, initiated by Tell Me Your Story. I was Project Lead and moderator.
Sutapa Basu is a best-selling author. Her latest book, The Curse of Nader Shah won the Best Fiction Award by AutHer Awards, 2020 instituted by JK Papers and The Times of India. She is the 2016 First Prize winner of The Times of India’s Write India Campaign for Amish Tripathi while her debut, a psychological thriller, Dangle was nominated for the Anupam Kher Award for Debut Novels in 2017. In March 2021, she received an award for Excellence in Publishing by the Public Diplomacy Forum.
She is well-known for her best-selling historical fiction, Padmavati, The Queen Tells Her Own Story. Her second historical fiction initiated the Invader Series with The Legend of Genghis Khan and continued with The Curse of Nader Shah. Recently, her two anthologies, Out Of The Blue, Stories with a Twist and The Anatomy of Affection, Tales That Touch You have been released. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies, Crossed & Knotted, Defiant Dreams, When They Spoke and Write India Stories. Her poems have been published in Muse India, Kaafiyana and The Dawn Beyond Waste. Children’s fiction and poetry written by her have been selected for several textbooks at the K-12 levels. Read her works on her website storyfuntastika.com & Readomania.com.
Meha Sharma is an author and an award-winning blogger. Winner of the Orange Flower Award 2017 and 2020 by Women’s Web, her writings have featured on Huffington Post, Women’s Web, Momspresso, and multiple other forums. Her stories and poems have been published in several anthologies. ‘Rainbow Housing Society’, her debut book was released in February 2020. She holds a Masters degree in English Literature and an MBA degree in HR & Marketing. She has worked as a Business Analyst for Mahindra Satyam and as a professor in leading management colleges. She is married to an Air Force officer and it has exposed her to varied places, cultures, and people. She currently resides in Bangalore with her husband and eight-year-old daughter. She writes at https://oflifeanditsfollies.wordpress.com/
Akhila Mohan CG is a corporate communications professional based in Chennai. Her works have been published in national digital platforms and newspapers on subjects that condemn taboos, stigmas, and discriminatory social norms and practices. Her poem ‘Some Shades of Love Are Grey’ was featured in the poetry anthology One Hundred Shades of Love, published by the All India Forum for English Students, Scholars, and Trainers (AIFEST). Her article ‘Why Do We Assume That Men Aren’t Raped When the Reality Is Far from It’ appeared in the anthology Real Men Don’t Cry: Stories about What It Means to Be a Man, published by Juggernaut. Her debut poetry collection, Tamarind: Sweet and Sour Poems about Love, Loss, Longing, and Life, will soon be published by the Singapore-based publishing group Kitaab International. She is currently working on her memoir based on her personal experiences: having suffered domestic violence, the stillbirth of her child, and society’s stigma for her decision to divorce.
Panel discussion date: 13 November 2021