Shunali Khullar Shroff: Mom's The Word

Her debut non-fiction novel 'Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother' hilariously explores the challenges of parenting in the 21st century. One-time journalist, now blogger and full-time mom Shunali Khullar Shroff talks to Hi! Blitz about the role of gay marriages in parenting, how much of a hands-on dad Shravan Shroff is and the bias that exists about pretty women being taken seriously.

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What was the most challenging part of writing Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother?

Taking out the time to write this book was the hardest part of writing it. I am a full-time mother and do not have the luxury of getting away to Goa or Bhutan to meditate on my life and get my creative juices flowing. I could be in the middle of a highly creative process when my thoughts are flowing from me incessantly and my younger one will pop by and start demanding my attention or a car-pool mom will call to discuss the school pick up. Self-discipline required in writing a book and taking the time to do that are any writer’s greatest challenge anyway.

Though more humourous, did you think parallels with Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother would be drawn, considering it also features a mother bringing up two daughters with two dogs?

When I was writing the book, it had no name. My editor Ruchika and I decided after it had been put to bed to call it Because I Said So. Ashok Chopra from Hay House, my publisher, felt the title wasn’t working and that in many ways I was the anti-Christ of Amy Chua, if you know what I mean and that’s how the name came about. As concocted as that sounds, Chua was the furthest thing from my mind when I wrote this book.