Aparna Jain

Jain was born in New Delhi, but grew up in Bangalore in Karnataka. She has studied in different schools including Sophia High School in Bangalore, and Rishi Valley School, Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh. Jain then moved to Switzerland where she studied at the Alpina School of Hotel Management and received a Diploma with a double specialisation in Sales & Marketing and Food & Beverage in 1993. She moved back to India to pursue a post graduate programme in Hospitality at the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in New Delhi. Jain is also certified as an Integral Master Coach by Integral Coaching in Canada.[7]

Jain has worked with a number of companies which include Sasken in Bangalore to the erstwhile Unimobile in Silicon Valley, and then in media with the India Today Group, where she was marketing head for magazines Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping. She also worked with Tehelka and was an executive director of their annual event, Think Fest, in 2011 and 2012.[8][9] She has consulted with HarperCollins Ltd and was the consultant country head for the self-publishing division of Penguin Random House in India – Partridge.[10][11] She writes guest columns on coaching and women in the workplace for newspapers and online media and also occasionally writes restaurant reviews for the newspaper Mint and Brown Paper Bag.[12][13][14]

Jain's first book is a cookbook on her family's traditional recipes called the Sood Family Cookbook, published by HarperColllins in 2013 [15] It was called a compilation of a Pahaadi family's story, and a family food recipe memoir.[16] Bhairavi Jhaveri from Hindustan Times wrote,

"So when Aparna Jain writes of her Behenji Maasi's famous Himachali mutton and Peggy Maami's celebrated chocolate cake in The Sood Family Cookbook, it sounds warmly familiar. You're drawn in by Jain's colourful family and the back stories accompanying each recipe. You want to know all about her brother Aditya and his culinary experiments, and you feel Peggy Maami is just like the culinary genius in your family, probably your own aunt."[17]

Jain's second book, Own It: Leadership Lessons From Women Who Do, was published in 2016 by Harper Collins India.[18] Based on interviews with over 200 women professionals in senior managerial and leadership positions in India, the book takes a thorough look at women's problems in the workplace.[19] Aparna Piramal Raje from Hindustan Times remarked,

"The book is replete with eye-opening anecdotes – from a promiscuous advertising agency where sex after office hours was the norm, to senior men who use power play tactics to either bully or sexually harass younger women, there are dozens of stories that illustrate the everyday constraints women face in the workplace."’[20][21]

Jain's third book, Like A Girl features stories of 51 women of varying fame—while some, like Kalpana Chawla, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, are household names, many others are practically unknown outside their home territories or professions, such as sports journalist Sharda Ugra and chef Ritu Dalmia. [22] The book was also nominated for the Crossword Book Awards - Popular Shortlist. [23]

Her fourth book, Boys Will be Boys: Inspiring Stories for Smart Kidschronicles the lives of 45 Indian men who followed their heart and dared to be different - soldiers (Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, 2nd Lt. Arun Khetrapal), a sailor who circumnavigated the globe (Commander Abhilash Tomy), a designer who took Indian fashion to Paris (Rahul Mishra), a doctor who revived rivers (Rajendra Singh), a barefoot artist (M.F. Husain), rocket scientists (A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai), entrepreneurs (J.R.D. Tata, Azim Premji), engineers (E. Sreedharan), sportspersons (Bhaichung Bhutia, Vishwanathan Anand), journalists (P. Sainath, Josy Joseph) writers (Perumal Murugan, Vikram Seth, Anant Pai) and activists (Sunderlal Bahugana), among others. [24]

2015-16

• Jury Appreciation Certificate for 'Own it' under the Non Fiction category
• South-Asia Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015-16 [25]