Aparna Piramal Raje

About: Aparna Piramal Raje is a writer, columnist, speaker, and educator and the author of the recently released, Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health, a book on her experiences of living with a serious mental health condition for the last two decades. Her column, Head Office, in the Mint newspaper, looks at leadership through the lens of workspaces and workstyles. Over 100 CEOs have been featured in Head Office. The column led to her first book, Working Out of the Box: 40 stories of leading CEOs. She has also previously contributed to the UK’s Financial Times Weekend, a leading global newspaper. A visiting faculty member at the Anant National University in Ahmedabad, and former CEO of her family’s office furniture business, Aparna studied at Oxford University and Harvard Business School.

BOOK

Name: Chemical Khichdi: How I Hack My Mental Health

Description:

Mental health issues are much more common than we’d like to admit. Yet most of us are quite oblivious on how this affects the patient and the people around. And hence unaware of the challenges they all face in leading a ‘normal’ life. In this context, Aparna Raje Piramal’s book is an extremely bold, honest and refreshing first-person account of someone who has struggled with a bipolar disorder for 2 decades and has figured out some sort of model to deal with it.

Part memoir, part reportage and part self-help guide, Chemical Khichdi seeks to remove some of the stigma associated with a serious mental illness in an empathetic, accessible and candid way. Its 'seven therapies' present a hopeful and helpful pathway for all those with a mental health condition, their loved ones and their mental health practitioners, with the message that they can live with a vulnerability and thrive.