Westland Books Launches "Homecoming," India’s First Anthology on Women Leaders and Mental Health

At a deeply moving evening that blended mental health lived experiences and community solidarity, Westland Books yesterday launched Homecoming: Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness co-authored by Neha Kirpal and Dr Nandini Murali, at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi.

Launched in partnership with the India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA), the book is a first-of-its-kind collection that brings forth the voices of 11 women leaders, including entrepreneurs, activists, psychiatrists, philanthropists and educators, who share their stories of navigating severe mental health challenges in India.

With nearly 200 attendees, the launch event became a deeply supportive and meaningful evening, as contributors shared their experiences of living with depression, schizophrenia, chronic anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, suicide loss, and inter-generational trauma in a safe space that encouraged openness and trust.

Neha Kirpal and Dr. Nandini Murali, along with contributors Dr. Poornima Viswanathan, Zainab Patel, Dr. Kavita Arora, Sidrah Naiyer, Kairavi Bharat Ram, Dr. Pheroza J. Godrej, and Janani Iyer, took the stage to share their diverse mental health journeys of courage, healing, and wholeness. They also read excerpts from the stories by Dr. Rhaisa R.M. and Aparna Piramal Raje. The contributors' openness and candour made the evening both emotional and profoundly supportive, creating a safe space of empathy and connection even among strangers in the audience.

The event brought together members of civil society, the legal and healthcare sectors, and business leaders, many of whom shared their own family experiences, sending a powerful message about collective sharing, action, and impact.

Speaking at the event, Neha Kirpal (Amaha Health, Children First, India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA) and formerly India Art Fair) said, "As someone who has lived the reality of being a caregiver to a parent with schizophrenia and as a sibling suicide loss survivor, I know first-hand that sharing lived experience expertise is critical for developing mental health services and systematic change. 'Homecoming' brings first-person narratives to amplify and champion - mainstreaming mental health in India. We hope this book inspires courage and hope for individuals, while also nudging schools, colleges, workplaces, and governments to build more compassionate, responsive mental health ecosystems."

Adding to this, Dr. Nandini Murali (Founder, SPEAK, Vice-President - Learning & Research at Avtar, gender and diversity professional, and author) said, "Women often carry invisible burdens of caregiving, stigma, and marginalization, yet their experiences remain largely absent from mainstream mental health discourse. As someone who has navigated suicide loss, I know the courage it takes to share your story.

Each contributor to 'Homecoming' has brought their experiences with honesty and intention not just to be heard, but to highlight these challenges and push for systemic change. My hope is that these narratives move from the margins to the centre, showcasing women's dignity, survival, and resilience, and inspiring more compassionate and responsive mental health care."

By weaving together deeply personal stories from women leaders, Homecoming draws urgent attention to India's mental health crisis, highlighting how women, in particular, bear the invisible burdens of caregiving, burnout, discrimination, and suppression.

About Neha Kirpal

A creative and social entrepreneur, Neha Kirpal founded the India Art Fair (2008-2018) and then moved her focus fully to mental healthcare. This was inspired by her own lived experiences as a child and carer to a parent with schizophrenia and as a survivor of sibling suicide loss.

As Amaha's co-founder since 2019, Neha helped build what is today India's largest private sector mental health service. With an in-house team of 200+ therapists and psychiatrists, Amaha provides care across 600 cities online and across eight centres in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and recently opened its first speciality mental health hospital.

In 2021, to serve families across the lifespan, Amaha came together with Children First-a specialist child and youth mental health organisation that has been working with families, schools and communities for nearly two decades.

A global mental health lived experience ambassador, Neha is a founding cohort member of the India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA), set up in 2023 to build capacities for mental health professionals and care systems. IMHA has created a national cross-sectoral alliance of over 220 member organisations till date, to establish mental health as a developmental agenda in India.

Neha is the co-author of Homecoming: Mental Health Journeys of Resilience, Healing and Wholeness published by Westland releasing September 2025; an anthology of women leaders navigating severe mental illness alongside their lives, career and purpose.

An Aspen Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow, Neha has been part of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders community. She received NDTV's Indian of the Year Award, Business Today's India's Most Powerful Women in Business Award and is a recipient of the Nari Shakti Award, presented by the President of India.

About Dr. Nandini Murali

Dr Nandini Murali is a gender-responsive, lived experience and trauma-informed changemaker in mental health, committed to dismantling stigma and reimagining suicide prevention and postvention.

Following the suicide of her husband, a respected urologist, Nandini experienced a profound personal awakening that reshaped her life's purpose. She transformed her grief into advocacy by founding SPEAK, an initiative of the MS Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, Madurai, which nurtures safe, stigma-free conversations on suicide. She also launched SPEAK2US (93754 93754), a culturally sensitive mental health helpline, and Project SPEAK, a pioneering rural postvention model that has supported over 600 women bereaved by suicide.

A certified life coach specialising in loss and transition, Nandini has over two decades of experience across mental health, gender and organisational culture. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies and a postgraduate diploma in Gender and Development from the Royal Tropical Institute (Netherlands) and the UN Women Training Centre. Author of several books, including Left Behind: Surviving Suicide Loss, she integrates storytelling, coaching and advocacy to amplify lived experience, normalise conversations on suicide and suicide loss, and drive systemic change.

About Westland Books

Westland Books is an award-winning Indian publisher with a diverse and exciting range of books from popular and literary fiction to business, politics, biography, spirituality, popular science, health, and self-help. Its key publishing imprints include Context, which publishes award-winning literary fiction and non-fiction; Ekadā, which publishes the best of contemporary writing in Indian languages and in translation; Tranquebar, home to the best new fiction from the Indian subcontinent; the eponymous Westland Sport, Westland Business, Westland Non-Fiction, and Red Panda, which publishes a range of books for children of different ages.

Indie Press, a self-publishing imprint was added in 2023 which now is a home to varied and exciting new and old voices. In 2024, it also launched IF, the list for speculative fiction. Westland also collaborated with Pratilipi Comics to bring compelling graphic stories to its readers. In a recent move, Westland launched QD (Queer Directions) an imprint dedicated to championing LGBTQIA+ voices across non-fiction, poetry, and fiction.

About India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA)

The India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA) was founded in the latter part of 2023 to build capacity and alliances for mental health in India by Vasvi and Ashish Bharat Ram in partnership with mental health organisations Amaha and Children First. Taking a cross-sectoral approach and centering lived experience expertise; IMHA has developed and delivered several key capacity building programmes and alliance initiatives in the course of a year, reaching over 220 member organisations from across India, and 2000+ mental health professionals in its first year alone.

The First Annual Convening of IMHA took place in New Delhi on 29th September 2025 bringing together over 200 delegates from 30 states and Union Territories. This occasion also marked the launch of IMHAs knowledge centre- an open-source repository of knowledge evidence based curated resources, templates, reports and research papers across a range of cross sectoral thematics for mental healthcare in India.

A section 8 not for profit organisation, IMHA was set up by Founding Trustees Vasvi and Ashish Bharat Ram together with mental health organisations Amaha and Children First. In 2024, IMHA was joined by Manisha Dhawan as Strategic Donor and Board Member.