Aparna Jain is an author and an executive leadership coach. She is the author of four books - Own It: Leadership Lessons From Women Who Do, which was shortlisted for the Tata Lit Live Festival's Business Book of the Year category in 2016, Like A Girl (2018) and Boys will be Boys (2019) - biographies on inspiring men and women from India. She also authored the 'Sood Family Cookbook'.
Aparna advocates equal rights for women in the workplace and is a periodical contributor on the issue and many publications. Jain runs her own consulting company Zebraa Works.
Early life and
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
Jain was born in
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
, but grew up in
Bangalore
Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
in
Karnataka
Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...
. She has studied in different schools including Sophia High School in Bangalore, and
Rishi Valley School
Rishi Valley School is an Indian boarding school, founded by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. The school has a holistic approach to education in the spirit of Krishnamurti's pedagogical vision. Community service and extracurricular activitie ...
, Madanapalle,
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...
. Jain then moved to
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
where she studied at the Alpina School of Hotel Management and received a Diploma with a double specialisation in Sales & Marketing and Food & Beverage in 1993. She moved back to India to pursue a post graduate programme in Hospitality at the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in New Delhi. Jain is also certified as an Integral Master Coach by Integral Coaching in Canada.
Career
Jain has worked with a number of companies which include
Sasken
Sasken Technologies Limited (formerly Sasken Communication Technologies Limited) is an Indian multinational technology company, based in Bangalore, India, which provides product engineering and digital transformation services to global custome ...
in Bangalore to the erstwhile Unimobile in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
, and then in media with the
India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...
Group, where she was marketing head for magazines
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Internationalism
* World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship
* Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community
* Cosmopolitan ...
and
Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American lifestyle media brand that covers a wide range of topics from home decor and renovation, health, beauty and food, to entertainment, pets and gifts. The Good Housekeeping Institute which opened its "Experiment ...
. She also worked with
Tehelka
''Tehelka'' () is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague ...
and was an executive director of their annual event, Think Fest, in 2011 and 2012. She has consulted with
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
Ltd and was the consultant country head for the self-publishing division of Penguin Random House in India – Partridge. She writes guest columns on coaching and women in the workplace for newspapers and online media and also occasionally writes restaurant reviews for the newspaper Mint and Brown Paper Bag.
Books
Jain's first book is a cookbook on her family's traditional recipes called the ''Sood Family Cookbook'', published by
HarperColllins in 2013
Variously called a compilation of a Pahaadi family's story, and a family food recipe memoir, the book has garnered rave reviews from food reviewers and bloggers alike.
Jain's second book, ''Own It: Leadership Lessons From Women Who Do'', was published in 2016 by Harper Collins India. Based on interviews with over 200 women professionals in senior managerial and leadership positions in India, the book takes a thorough look at women's problems in the workplace. The book has been reviewed positively as ‘a resource for inspiration for women struggling with issues’ such as bias, bullying, sexual harassment, and impact of motherhood, and as a ‘go-to book for those chief executives and HR heads who are serious about fostering a gender-neutral workplace’.
Jain's third book, ''Like A Girl'' features stories of 51 women of varying fame—while some, like Kalpana Chawla, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, are household names, many others are practically unknown outside their home territories or professions, such as sports journalist Sharda Ugra and chef Ritu Dalmia.
The book was also nominated for the Crossword Book Awards - Popular Shortlist.
Her fourth book, ''Boys Will be Boys: Inspiring Stories for Smart Kids''chronicles the lives of 45 Indian men who followed their heart and dared to be different - soldiers (Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, 2nd Lt. Arun Khetrapal), a sailor who circumnavigated the globe (Commander Abhilash Tomy), a designer who took Indian fashion to Paris (Rahul Mishra), a doctor who revived rivers (Rajendra Singh), a barefoot artist (M.F. Husain), rocket scientists (A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai), entrepreneurs (J.R.D. Tata, Azim Premji), engineers (E. Sreedharan), sportspersons (Bhaichung Bhutia, Vishwanathan Anand), journalists (P. Sainath, Josy Joseph) writers (Perumal Murugan, Vikram Seth, Anant Pai) and activists (Sunderlal Bahugana), among others.
Awards
2015-16
* Jury Appreciation Certificate for 'Own it' under the Non Fiction category
* South-Asia Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015-16
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Aparna
1970 births
Living people
Indian marketing people
21st-century Indian women writers