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Rhythma Kaul picks her favourite read of 2022
While the book is about Aparna Piramal Raje’s struggles with mental health, it is not a sob story but one that focuses on the possibility of leading a fruitful life despite such hardships
I have never been able to pin point what prompts me to pick up a book. The reasons are varied: the author, the intro, the font of the text, the book cover (yes, please do not judge me), or, as in this case, the foreword. But it’s what Anand Mahindra, non-executive chairperson of the Mahindra Group, wrote about the author in his foreword to Chemical Khichdi that made me read this book.
“At first glance, Aparna’s life looks ideal. Raised in Mumbai and London, she studied at Oxford University and Harvard Business School. A popular columnist with the Mint, a leading business daily in India, she has previously contributed to the UK’s Financial Times Weekend, and is a published author, with growing interests in education and philanthropy. A former chief executive of a leading furniture business and from a well-known Indian business family, she is married with two children.”
An ideal life, indeed, was my first thought, too. Nothing seemed amiss.
But Aparna Piramal Raje, the author and the protagonist of the book, suffers from a mental illness, and this volume documents her 20-year-long struggle with it.
“Only close friends and family members know that she has struggled with a serious mental illness for over 20 years — bipolar disorder,” Mahindra writes.
But while the book is about Aparna’s struggles, it is not a sob story. Instead, it is an inspiring one that focuses on leading a fruitful life despite such hardships. “We have embraced mental illness as a family. We have accepted it, evolved practices to negotiate it and learnt to not just live with it but to thrive with it,” she writes.
The general tendency is to pass judgement on individuals and situations without giving a thought to what someone might be going through in life. This book helps the reader empathise and see the other side. Extremely relatable, Chemical Khichdi was the best book I read this year.
