I am Swapna Kishore, a muddled collection of multiple roles, the predominant ones currently being writer, blogger, and resource person for dementia/ caregiving in India.
I write stuff that insists on coming out, even if it gets mangled in the process. I have written both serious stuff and fun stuff as part of my professional work and my volunteer work. I have written about personal things that touch me, and things that make me wonder. And when puzzled, I have written to understand things.
Writing helps (even if often it just stays as a draft in my head 🙂 .
Most of my recent writing and resource creation is related to dementia care in India. This stems out of my concern about the problems I faced as a caregiver and what I have seen other caregivers in India face. Driven by the lack of support and systems around dementia care here, I have created a 120+ page website to specifically support dementia caregivers in India at Dementia Care Notes (and also created its Hindi version of 60+pages here: Dementia Hindi). I have uploaded English and Hindi videos for dementia caregiving topics. I maintain/ update the online resources to ensure they remain up-to-date and usable, and also support dementia caregivers. I have blogged on wordpress.com to share my experiences, observations, and concerns as a caregiver, and have created Resources for volunteers helping caregivers.
My work in the dementia domain is currently my main focus.
Earlier, as part of my professional work (software consultant, trainer and author), I wrote, over the years, several books on process and quality. Most are now outdated and out of print. The more recent ones are available as Kindle eBooks, such as the quiz books on CMMI®/ People CMM® that I co-authored: Quiz Book on CMMI® – DEV (V1.3), Quiz Book on CMMI® – SVC (V1.3), and Quiz Book on People CMM® (V2.0). , my personal favourite is my business novel, Aligning Ferret: How an Organization Meets Extraordinary Challenges which uses a crisis in a fictional organization to explore concepts of strategy and performance management systems for organization-wide alignment. I enjoyed creating and depicting a very normal ‘hero’ who faces extraordinary challenges at work even as he struggles for that ever-problematic work-and-home-life balance. No stodgy, preachy stuff here. The book is available as a Kindle eBook(See: Amazon.com / Amazon.in). I am no longer doing any professional work in these domains.
Some years ago, I was also deeply involved in writing short speculative fiction (and all the fun reading I could justify as “research”). I have some published stories under my belt, including sales to professional (SFWA) markets. Information about my creative work can be found here. This type of writing is currently suspended. Given my current priorities and my extremely lengthy to-do list and wish list, I don’t see fiction-writing as feasible for me in the foreseeable future.
For those who want to know more, long ago, in what seems another lifetime, I studied engineering and management (IITD and IIMA), and then went through a series of jobs and assignments before ending up as the muddle I currently am. I live in India with my husband, Rajesh Naik. My son, Vipul Naik, is much into mathematics and other such stuff.
On the personal side, hmmm. I have been looking for ways to simplify things and achieve that elusive work-life balance for years. Concepts from minimalism have helped, as have some really good books around how to prioritise etc., though I admit it is easier to read the books and watch the videos rather than do what is required. Alas, I have also found that the life clean-up happens in layers – once a set is done, I notice something else that could be simplified/ optimized. I have managed quite a bit on this front as such, but much remains to be done for the work-life balance.
To-do lists notwithstanding, I love reading and taking relaxed walks when time permits (or even if it doesn’t). I am at my creative best while finding excuses, I mean reasons, to avoid socializing. I like to call myself a “realist” though I’m not sure how that matches with the hours and hours I can spend re-reading the Harry Potter books. Which reminds me, if you know where I can get a time turner, do let me know.
®: CMMI and CMM are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.