Priya Kumar (b. 4 March 1974) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

motivational speaker and writer. She is an author of 12 books including novels and

self-help books A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from ''Self-Help'', an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-im ...

. Her works mainly deal with inspirational and spiritual themes. Her book ''License to Live'' (2010) was nominated for

Vodafone Crossword Book Award The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Bo ...

in 2010. In 2019, her novel '' I Will Go with You'' (2015) was adapted into web television series ''

The Final Call ''The Final Call'' () is a newspaper published in Chicago. It was founded in 1979 by Minister Louis Farrakhan and serves as the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam. The magazine acts as the group's tool to spread their agenda, goals and ...

'', starring

Arjun Rampal Arjun Rampal (born 26 November 1972) is an Indian actor, model, film producer and television personality who works in Hindi films. He made his acting debut in Rajiv Rai's romance film ''Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat'' (2001) and has since gone on to ...

Sakshi Tanwar Sakshi Tanwar is an Indian actress and television presenter. Early life Tanwar was born in 1972 or 1973 to Rajendra Singh Tanwar, a retired CBI officer, in a middle-class Rajput family from Alwar, Rajasthan, India. She was educated in many Ken ...

, Javed Jaffrey.

Early life

Priya Kumar was born on 4 March 1974 in

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She took her schooling at St. Kabir Public School, Chandigarh. She graduated from the

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

in economics, and obtained master's degree in

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

and counter selling. She later done her post-graduation in marketing and sales from

NMIMS university SVKM's NMIMS is a private deemed university located in Mumbai. The University also has campuses at Shirpur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore and Navi Mumbai and two upcoming campuses in Dhule and Chandigarh. It has 17 constituent schools that offe ...

. She started her career as a motivational speaker at the age of 22.

Works

Priya is an author of 12 books. Her works mainly deals with inspirational and spiritual themes. In 2010, she published her first book ''License to Live'', a

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...

book with spiritual theme, which she termed as 'inspiration thriller' and 'spiritual fiction'. It won the

Eric Hoffer Award Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983) was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, ''The True Believer'' (1951), was widel ...

in 2012. It is a collection of fictionalized

fables Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...

with first person narration. Her next book ''I Am Another You: A Journey To Powerful Breakthroughs'' was published in the same year and became bestseller. It deals with the themes such as

self-realization Self-realization is an expression used in Western psychology, philosophy, and spirituality; and in Indian religions. In the Western understanding, it is the "fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one's character or personality" (see ...

and

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

. It narrates Priya's experiences with shamans tribe, an ancient traibal group in

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. ''I Am Another You'' was shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Award. Next year she published her novel ''The Perfect World''. In 2014, she wrote biography of Om Prakash Munjal, an Indian businessman and founder of

Hero Cycles Hero Cycles Limited, based in Ludhiana, Punjab, is an Indian company that manufactures bicycles and bicycle related products. Pankaj M Munjal is the chairman and managing director of Hero Cycles. History Hero Cycles was established in 1956 ...

, under the title ''The Inspiring Journey of a Hero''. Written in the style of self-help book, it narrates Munjal's life journey with motivational approach. The book covers Munjal's major aspects of life including his early life, partition, and handling his bicycle company. It was published by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Alice McDermott in

Sunday Tribune The ''Sunday Tribune'' was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tab ...

and

P. P. Ramachandran P. P. Ramachandran is a Malayalam poet. Works His poems are collected in two books, ''Kanekkane'' (Thrissur: Current Books) and ''Rantay Murichathu'' (Cut into Two) (Thrissur: Current Books). Awards His collection ''Kanekkane'' won the Ke ...

The Free Press Journal ''The Free Press Journal'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper that was established in 1928 by Swaminathan Sadanand, who also acted as its first editor. First produced to complement a news agency, the Free Press of India, it was a su ...

reviewed the biography and praised for its inspiration portrayals of Munjal. It was translated into

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

under the title ''Ek Super Hero Ki Shandaar Kahani'' (2015). In 2015, she published suspense thriller novel '' I Will Go with You''. Its plot follows a pilot of flight, who decides to commit suicide while on board. Instead of dying alone, he chooses to endanger the lives of 300 passengers of the flight and dies in mid-air along with them. It deals with several themes including

afterlife The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...

karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...

, mortality and spirituality. ''I Will Go With You'' became bestseller, and was adapted into 2019 web television series ''

'', starring

, Javed Jaffrey. In April 2019, Priya announced that she is writing the second season of ''The Final Call''. In January 2019, ZEE5 announced another web-series adaptation of her book ''The Wise Man Said'' (2017). She is also featured in the list o
top 10
Indian Motivational Speakers.

Publications

* ''License to Live'' (2010) * ''I Am Another You: A Journey To Powerful Breakthroughs'' (2010) * ''The Perfect World: A Journey To Infinite Possibilities'' (2011) * ''Thinking Aloud: A Collection Of Original Inspirational Quotes'' (2013) * ''The Inspiring Journey of a Hero'' (2014) * '' I Will Go with You: The Flight of a Lifetime'' (2015) * ''Dream Dare Deliver'' (2015) * ''Ek Super Hero Ki Shandaar Kahani'' (2015),

translation of ''The Inspiring Journey of a Hero'' * ''The Calling – Unleash Your True Self'' (2016) * ''How to Write a Book in 8 Days'' (2017) * ''The Wise Man Said'' (2017) * ''Man Hunt'' (2020) * ''Shuttler's Flick: Making Every Match Count'' (2021) * ''A Regal Man: The Life & Lessons of Vasu Shroff'' (2021)

References

External links

Official website
* {{authority control 1974 births Living people 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Indian women screenwriters Indian thriller writers Indian women novelists

Early life

Works

Publications

See also

References

External links