Welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 10. I am your host ambalika and our guests for today are Sandeep Kochhar & Rishabh Iyer Kochhar, a rather fascinating father - son duo who are so passionate about inspiring change for personal transformation.

Sandeep is the Founder CEO of www.blewminds.com, an eclectic Leadership Consulting Practice with 30+ years of experience in poetry, storytelling & creative writing. His ‘Wabi Sabi’ StoryTelling Leadership series has helped people around the world make big and radical improvements in their lives & in their way of thinking. His goal in life is to Touch & Transform 5 billion humans by 2030. 

Till date he has written more than 4500 stories, each with 500 millions of views and was declared LinkedIn top voice India 2019.

Rishabh is a grade 11 student with a passion for behavioral science, sports, gaming, public speaking and psychology- a combination that has led to his book on parenting, Parenting is a two way street '.

What a delight to welcome Sandeep & Rishabh to the show and heartiest congratulations on the excellent writing performance.

Episode Highlights?

Nah, not this time 🙂

Just a father - son duo talking about what makes them write; how their habits of reading and writing and perspective on these shapes their bond 👏🏽✨

So what I doing in there, then? 😁

Listening in and getting my doubts on reading and writing cleared, what else! 😃

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Welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 9. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is noted Hindi language author and columnist, Ashutosh Garg.

Ashutosh writes majorly in the mythology genre and 'Indra' and 'Ashwathama' are two of his noted bestsellers. Till date he has translated more than 40 bestsellers including, the NY Times bestseller, The Girl on The Train.

Heartiest welcome to Ashutosh & what a privilege to have him on the show!

Episode Highlights:

• A mythology genre author translating thrillers: what's going on? 🙂
• What happened first - becoming an author or a translation?
• Why doesn't India focus more on translation?
• The role of translators in making Indian literature global
• How to become very good with translation
• A win- win formula for translators & publishers
• Re-telling of mythology: good or bad?
• How not to spoil mythology re-telling

Connect With Ashutosh

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Hi there!

And welcome to Celebrate: The Podcast!

This is a 10 episode series that looks to honour, acknowledge and thank 10 Indian Authors whose writing has been positively impacting people by encouraging them to question, challenge, reflect and introspect on many aspects of our society and nation.

You are listening to Episode 8. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Ruby Ahluwalia.

Ruby is a former bureaucrat, an experienced financial advisor, artist, author and the founder of Sanjeevani Life Beyond cancer- an award winning trust that focuses on delivering comprehensive support from awareness to rehabilitation of cancer conquerers. 

This episode was recorded 2 days after her birthday :)

Episode Highlights

• The essence of her book, Fragrance of a Wild Soul- Cancer, creativity and spirituality
• In writing about her life, did she also crack the code to conquering uncertainty?
• The importance of re-looking at one's life from a spiritual point of view
• Cancer isn't gender specific. Yet, cancer awareness seems to have a gender specific mindset. How to change this?
• Adverse life events cause people to get self -disconnected and go into isolation. What's the fastest and best way to beat it?

Connect With Ruby

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Sanjeevani- Life Beyond Cancer

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Welcome to Episode 7. I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Rajiv Gupta.

Rajiv ji is a well seasoned, successful C suite leader with over 30 yrs of experience. While his specialisation includes Sales & Marketing, cross functional leadership, managing profit and loss in multi national companies, joint ventures and family owned businesses, he has also managed to channelise it all as the author of a very, very important book! 

So here he is today thanks to his incredible book, The Good Employee's Guide to Surviving A Lala Company. 

Delighted to welcome Rajiv ji with heartiest congratulations on the wonderful response to your book! 

Episode Highlights

• How much of his own journey as a professional influence him in writing this book
• His writing style: matter of factly+ hard hitting truths+ humour
• How have the Lalas of the world responded to the book
• Is this book for new joiners or full fledge professionals
• What is Rajiv writing next?

Connect With Rajiv Gupta

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Facebook

The Lala Company Book Website

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Dr. Theyiesinuo Keditsu is a feminist poet, folklorist, writer, lyricist and educator. She is the co-founder of Centre for Indigenous Knowledge & Alternative Learning (CIKAL) and advocates the revival of Indigenous Naga textiles and women’s narratives through her popular Instagram account : @mekhalamama for which she has been featured in The Vogue magazine 

Her two published books of poetry are Sopfünuo and Wake and Her poem, “Whore” was translated into Gujarati by Sitanshu Yashaschandra. 

So delighted to welcome Theyei to the show and heartiest congratulations on the excellent performance of her writing & the storytelling journey of Mekhala Mama!

Episode Highlights

• How can multiple identities co-exist peacefully maintaining their uniqueness
• Voiceless-ness / lost voices due to cultural beliefs, colonization, convertion & globalization
• Is creativity trapped between cultural norms & corporate guidelines?
• Oral tradition vs the written
• Is feminism really about "let's smash patriarchy" ? Men bashing? A battle between the sexes?
• Keeping up appearances - body image issues & fashion trends

Connect With Theyie

Instagram

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Welcome to Episode 5!

I am your host ambalika and our guest for today is Chandrachur Ghosh.

Chandrachur ji is an author, independent researcher and commentator on history, economics and environment. He has co-authored Conundrum: Subhas Bose’s Life After Death, which features among the bestsellers in Amazon. He is also the author of the most authentic biography on Netaji- Bose: The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist is a national bestseller. His most recent book is India: Birth of a Republic 1947-57.

 He is one of the founders of the pressure group Mission Netaji that has been the moving force behind the declassification of over ten thousand secret document pages in 2010 related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Such an honour and privilege to welcome Chandrachur ji to the show!

Episode Highlights:

• the transformation of a young Botany graduate to being a biographer for India's last greatest freedom fighter: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
• is he an accidental author or an intellectual who is leading a revolution through writing? 
• the defining moment when the Environment Consultant transitioned to Founder, Mission Netaji
• From Yahoo Chat Rooms to Triple Agent Addas on YouTube: how technology has helped the cause
• Is nationalist consciousness getting diluted today?
• Secret behind his emotional resilience
• Synergy with Anuj Dhar in a world of paid and unequal partnerships/collaborations
• Yesterday's Freedom Fighters Vs Today's Freedom Activists: gloomy or glorious?

Support Mission Netaji through anyone of the following options

Paytm/GPay/PhonePe - 9818457947 || Bank transfer - Ac name - Chandrachur Ghose, Citibank, Ac No - 5027720228, IFSC - CITI0000002 || PayPal - chandrachurg

Consider signing this petition for publishing the complete works of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and setting up of a dedicated, authentic Netaji Research Centre by clicking on this hyperlink

You can also read more on why this is urgently needed for our country's progress ahead on this link

Connect with Chandrachur here:

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YouTube

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

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Prasun Roy writes in varied genres, including narrative non-fiction, biography, adventure, mystery, thrillers, translation and young adult fiction. He is also the Director of his family-owned business of pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing and is trained in western classical piano and loves to travel! 

Prasun's latest book is The Devil's Teacup a translation collection of 13 horror stories by noted Bengali writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandhopadhay and as we speak today, it has aced it's way up the best sellers's list on Amazon!

Episode highlights:

• Why makes Prasun choose different genres to write in?
• Is it advisable to write like this?
• Do writers also get stereotyped like actors?
• How writing across genres helped Prasun grow as a person?
• Forgotten classical authors across India who are better than Hogwarts, Game of Thrones and the ilk
• What makes The Devil's Tea Cup so exciting
• Why aren't more books getting translation to other Indian languages?
• What change does the Entrepreneur Prasun Roy see in India's publishing industry in the next 5 years
• OTT + Cafes Vs Books: We need a win-win!

Stay connected with Prasun :

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Facebook

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A bubbly little child who grew up writing for various newspapers and magazines since her childhood Mridu turned into a corporate professional winning hearts with her work for street dogs and trophies for her valor with badminton rackets and cricket bat. Mridu turned into a full fledged writer when the corona virus pandemic threw a curve ball at her life. 

Ever since, her writing and personal journey of self discovery and resilience has been inspiring adults and children alike. Her life is a wonderful testimony to the fact that it is indeed possible to win matches be it in the sports arena, boardroom or the playground of life. She is truly a beacon of resilience and joy!

Thank you so much Mridu for joining us and sharing your journey with us today. Our best wishes for your work ahead!

Episode highlights:

• The motivation behind the title of her first book
• How she wrote down her vulnerabilities as she relived the happy past
• What she learnt about humanness or the lack of it when coping with grief
• Writing for children: her books

Connect with Mridusmita

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Neelam Saxena Chandra is a bilingual novelist and poet with close to 80 published titles, the most recent being 'Beneath the dead skin', a book of poems that came out in October 2023, at the time of recording. She also has 3 records to her credit in the Limca Book- for.maximum number of titles published in a year, the second one for jointly writing a poetry book with her daughter making them the 1st mother daughter duo to do that and the third one, with her sister, for being the first sister duo to write a book of poems . 

For her writing, she has been decorated with numerous awards, the most recent being the Ruel International Lifetime Achievement Award.

In this episode I have a free wheeling chat with Neelam ji on:

• what really got her started with creative writing and then get hooked!
• are Indian adults letting down our children when it comes to children's literature?
• her secret to creative ideation!
• her tryst with folk music and dance : a trip down the memory lane
• her secret to turning out a back to back writing- some great tips for aspiring writers!
• why she is unimpressed and unhappy with ChatGP's creative ability & how she deals with its intrusion
• ..... and so much more!

Connect with Neelam ji here:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

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Sandeep is both an author and an entrepreneur, having founded RudhAbha, and NGO that supports artists across Punjab. He is also the founder of Para Wanderers , a travel company that offers unique artistic travel experiences.

But of course, he is here because of his path breaking book: The Speaking Window: Tales From a Bloodied Timeline. 

In April 2017, two students and a teacher started to reach out survivors of the partition of 1947 to document their recollections through a Facebook page: Bolti Khidki. When the project ended in July 2023, the trio had interviewed over 100 of the survivors and in October of that year, 47 of these stories made it to a book by the same name. 

Ever since it's Publication, the book has been winning hearts and rave reviews around the globe.

In this episode, we discuss about :

• What inspired Sandeep to go in search of the survivors of India's partition in 1947
• Two important truths of India during partition that he discovered from them- This will leave you baffled!
• How technology enabled a seamless collaboration in connecting with survivors around the world
• His personal story of transformation as he travelled around India meeting them
• Why the stories of these survivors are important and relevant even today
• Their one and only wish today
• What can we do now

Connect with Sandeep and learn more about this project - book here:

LinkedIn

Bolti Khidki

Instagram

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