Two Tiny Steps Towards Serving Writers

“Each soul that writes, has the right to get published,” so believes and endorses Mrs. Meena Mishra, the Founder and CEO of  The Impish Lass Publishing House, Mumbai. Through her immense contribution in the field of writing and publishing, armed with a hardworking and meticulous team she has instilled courage and confidence in her writers through these thought provoking words, "If you have a dream, don't just sit there, gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality." 

The dreams of many writers have been realised through the 2nd Anniversary Celebrations, a testimony to the fact that no pandemic can deter her from achieving her goal of helping more and more writers publish their work.

Amidst these trying times, the team of  The Impish Lass Publishing House brought in a breath of  fresh air with its second anniversary celebrations on 15th August 2020. The event began with a motivating speech by Ms. Shubha Sagar, the Executive Editor, who has been with the Publishing House from the time of its inception. She spoke about the phenomenal growth of the Publishing House in a short span of two years due to ‘sheer grit and determination’ of the team editors and prolific writers associated with the publishing house. She read out a heartfelt poem specially penned by her for the occasion.

This was followed by the traditional 'lamp lighting’ and ‘Ganesha Stuti’ by Ms. Rachana Kulshrestha to declare the event open on an auspicious note. A warm welcome was then extended by Mrs. Meena Mishra to each and everyone present, in her inimitable style. She spoke about her dreams and passion about supporting writers and helping them publish their work and thanked everyone profusely for having faith in her and helping her achieve her goal of making publishing possible for more and more schools and writers at an affordable  rate.

The event was graced by some  of the Bollywood celebrities like Terence Lewis dancer and choreographer, Aahana Kumra, feature film, television and theatre actress and Bhoopali Chauhan-Mrs.Top of the World -2017.

   The stage was then set for the book launches interspersed with a variety of cultural programs, some magical and some musical. The in-house performers who got an opportunity to showcase their talent were Zubair Shaikh, Sangeeta Mishra, Bhagvati Ramakrishnan, Kshiraja Iyer, Divya Venkateswaran, Rachna Kulshrestha and Darsh Venkateswaran. Each one presented their individual items ranging from ghazals, medley of film songs to poetry recitation.

   The ‘guest performers’ need a special mention as they came out with scintillating performances like a magic show by Ratnadip Acharya, rendition of melodious songs, patriotic and romantic by Captain Pramod Chaudhary, Ashish Thakur and Zeeshan Khan.

While people were swaying in the fervour of these performances, enlightening and motivation talks were rendered through ‘a rendezvous of several talented people with  the publisher’ Raunak Sharan, Dr. Bishakha Sarma, Dr.Aparna Bagwe, Princess Lubna, Ruchika Rastogi, Dikshit Kothari, Rohit Katke and Meghal Walendra,  which proved to be an eye-opener giving the audience insights into the challenges faced.

The much awaited  “Book Launch Ceremony” wherein 13 books were launched by esteemed authors and editors, was the highlight of the event.

The books launched during the grand event were :

a) “Dreams and Dreamlessness”  by Maini Mahanta, Kavyashree Mahanta and Amrtijyoti Mahanta.

b) “Sixteen drops of  Ink” of Praniti Gulyani by Meena Mishra

c) “The Young Bards : Book 5”  by Shubha Sagar

d) “Cascades : The Young Bards Book 6”  by Naghma Shaikh.

e) “Mumbai Meri Jaan” by Somnath Sinha

f) “Colour My World Green”  by NeetiParti

g) “Mom’s the Word” by Abhinandan Bhattacharya

h) “Khatti Meethi Battiyan” by Madhu Jaiswal

i) “Failure: A brick in the castle of success ”  by Shruti Bhardwaj

j) “Rumour Has It” by Yutika Bhansali

k) “Entwined : A Tryst With My Heart by” by Sarina Annabelle

l) “Pressure Creates Diamonds”  by Anupma Diddi

m) “Dating After Death” by Shubha Sagar and Rachana Kulshrestha

The moment of pride of launching their books was heightened by a heartwarming address by the respective editors of the books, wherein they shared about their experiences with their writers and thanked them for their worthy contributions.

Entire programme was carefully recorded by the in-house media team comprising Vishwas Vaidya, Ruchika Rastogi and Sujatha Sairam .

The event was well organized, systematically conducted and very ably anchored by the ‘Teenage Trio’ comprising of Yutika Bhansali, Shreya Jain and Praniti Gulyani. This young brigade of anchors took it up as a ‘virtual challenge’ to conduct this ‘virtual event’,  to a visibly grand level through their coordinated efforts. The event was live on YouTube and was viewed by almost one thousand writers across the globe.

The event concluded with a vote of thanks by the long time Executive Editor of ‘TILPH”, S. Krishna Kumar, who beautifully wove a story around the names of all the books that were launched. He thanked everyone for their support and wished the Publishing House, the editors and writers, the very best.

 “Impish Lass is not about any one person’s dreams and aspirations, it is about all the writers, irrespective of age, gender or genre and their right to get published. A platform for all those who wish to write and get their work published, specially the students and educators , addressed as ‘The Young Bards,’ and turn their dream of becoming writers into a reality,” said the CEO.

   “I wanted to get published and was intimidated by the hefty fees charged by other publishing houses. The Impish Lass Publishing House made my dream come true at such a tender age through their traditional publishing project and I am the youngest published author for Impish Lass today,” said Praniti Gulyani, a grade 10 student from DPS R.K.Puram, New Delhi.

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