Dear Reader,

I discovered London Writers Salon (LWS) a few years ago. I’d been struggling with writing, with getting away from the distractions of the day - the meetings, teaching assignments, social media and such like. London Writers Community with its free, daily virtual writing sessions felt like the nudge I needed.

“Writers Hour starts in 15 minutes” would arrive every weekday at noon in my inbox, summoning me to write. There were quotations too, like this writerly advice from Adam Grant “What if I’m so nervous my breathing sounds like Darth Vader? I ended up going forward when I realised the only way to overcome my fear was to walk straight through it. I started writing and speaking.”

One afternoon I logged on and found myself in the company of three screens full of writers on Zoom. Many had cameras on, and they wrote studiously, sometimes exchanging comments on how their writing projects were going. It felt like a fantastic community.

Then in February this year, at the Jaipur Lit Fest, a friend told me she had run into the co-founder of the London Writers Salon. “Her name is Parul, and she seems lovely,” my friend said. And I was immediately compelled to meet this creator of such a useful resource for writers.

Two weeks later we do meet. On a sunny winter afternoon, in my home city of Mumbai. It’s Parul’s mother’s home city too, and Parul is here to meet family and explore possible collaborations. We sit overlooking the Arabian Sea, drinking cappuccinos and talk about how growing up in different continents impacted Parul, how London’s Writers Salon began and why ChatGPT will not replace writers. Here are edited excerpts of our conversation:

Tell me about your childhood years - you moved around a lot?

My family were originally from Africa, but just before I was born my father decided to move to New Zealand, so I spent my early years there. When I turned nine my father sent my elder sister and me to a boarding school in Panchgani in India, because he thought that we didn’t know anything about being Indian. The first few days I was terrified. I had a very strong New Zealand accent, and no one understood me. Luckily, I made a friend immediately, and so that made everything smooth.

Then my parents moved to Doha, and we were sent to a British school there. I came in with an Indian accent and my hair tied back, and I had to quickly adapt to fit in - keep my hair loose, lose my accent. People watched a lot of American TV in Doha, and we all had an American twang. So, when my father’s job moved to London, I had to change accents again. Through all these years, one thing I did was read - all kinds of books like Sweet Valley High Twins and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink.

And the cross-cultural upbringing taught me how to adapt quickly and connect with people from diverse backgrounds—skills that helped me build a global writing community.

You studied economics and philosophy at London School of Economics, you worked as a consultant at Accenture and then KPMG and then you........

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