Miscellany (2) : Book Discussion: Onam in a Nightie: Stories from a Kerela Quarantine

The Department of English organized the 2nd session in its “Miscellany” series, on 25 April 2022, for students to have an interface with another practitioners of literature, in its diverse forms. The session was held virtually via Google Meet. 

 

The speaker, Ms. Anjana Menon - a Journalist, Columnist, Consultant and Author - was invited to address the students with the aim to inspire, guide and motivate them in their journey towards achieving their goal. The session began with an introductory speech by the Head of Department, Dr. Rimika Singhvi. It was then led by Ms. Menon who began by talking about her Literature days; her time as a columnist for The Economic Times, Moneycontrol.com; as an intern writing opinion for The Business Standard, and CNN International; and, as one of the founder-editors of the business newspaper, Mint. She further spoke about a book co-written by her, entitled What’s your Story? The Essential Business Storytelling Handbook, which became a bestseller within weeks of its launch.

 

Ms Menon shared her personal experiences as a student and explained how being a student of English literature helped her learn a wide variety of other subjects, for literature widens the scope of one’s creativity, facilitates the ability to learn a new skill-set and also liberates the mind. She credited her stint as a contributor to her college magazine for leading her to bigger opportunities and talked about how she was offered to write for the Sunday section of the Pioneer wherein her first piece was published as the cover story. She advised students to learn more about things they always thought they could not pick up, by giving her own example of her lack of aptitude for Mathematics and which she had to learn later for career-advancement. She then spoke at length about her experience while working as a Forex and Telecom Reporter with Bloomberg News, Southeast Asia and Europe, and as Editor with NDTV Profit

 

Finally, she talked about setting up her own content strategy consultancy and brought up her book Onam in a Nightie: Stories from a Kerala Quarantine, which she began as a daily journal, during the last two years of the pandemic, and which too has received rave reviews.

 

Ms Menon closed by answering questions put forth by the students seeking some more information on her background in Literature; exposure in the field of business journalism; steps towards entrepreneurship; and, her foray into creative writing aa well.