Neha Jhalani Hiranandani, an author, is the wife of Darshan Hiranandani. She is the daughter of Delhi-based businessman Pradeep Jhalani and his wife Shabnam Jhalani.
For the unversed, Darshan Hiranandani is the CEO of the real estate and infrastructure company Hiranandani Group and the son of Niranjan Hiranandani, real estate tycoon and founder and managing director of the group.
Darshan Hiranandani is the chairman of data centre operator Yotta Data Services, oil and gas and related infrastructure company H-Energy, Tarq Semiconductors, and consumer services offering Tez Platforms.
Neha J Hiranandani is a writer whose columns have appeared in The Indian Express, Huffington Post, NDTV and Vogue among others. She holds degrees in Literature and Education from Wellesley College and Harvard University.Her first book Girl Power! Was published by Scholastic India and her forthcoming book will be published by Penguin Random House in 2020.
Why Neha Hiranandani Writes For Children And Parents
When Neha Jhalani Hiranandani began writing her first book, Girl Power, it was a personal need she was fulfilling. You see, her daughter was reading ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’. She was upset because out of the 100 stories about rebellious women that the book features, only two were Indian.
“Mom, are there only two brave girls in India?” Neha’s heart sank when her daughter asked her the question. She knew she had to write a book about women who had inspired her. Women her daughter could read about and harbour inspiration from.
Those who have followed Neha’s work, the two books that she has written — Girl Power and iParent — and her articles, would know how much she focuses her writing on children. Her articles are often on subjects such as cyberbullying and harassment a child could face online, and she hasn’t shied away from talking about the thing almost everyone would prefer brushing under the rug — child sexual abuse.
With an irreverent way of writing, Neha’s words hit the nail right on its head. Not one to mince words, her columns hold the doors open to conversations on touchy subjects, such as child suicides. Approaching them sensitively and yet directly.
For her first book, Neha Hiranandani went around the country hunting for untold stories, names of women no one had even heard of. She spoke to children and their parents to understand their anxieties for the second. She has put herself in the thick of things, and not just written about the subjects that intrigue her from afar.
Neha Hiranandani is impacting the future of the country by talking about the ways to raise a child at a time when everything and everyone has, to put it colloquially, moved online. Stories have always held the power to shape and change lives. Neha writes because someone’s writing changed her life, and she wants to change the lives of many through hers. It is her bit for the future of the world — children.