Rrashima Swaarup Verma has built two lives in parallel, one in corporate boardrooms, the other on the page. With her latest novel Weight Wars, she brings both worlds together in a story that is funny, honest, and impossible to put down. She spoke to AboutHer about body image, the superwoman myth, and why guilt is the one thing women must stop carrying.

By Sangeeta Relan | The AboutHer Show, Season 3

She has published in The Times of India and a literary journal in California. She has won awards for short fiction, moderated prestigious book launches, and run workshops in educational institutions. She holds a senior director title at a leading US-based consulting organisation and is represented by The Book Bakers literary agency. She is also, she will tell you with characteristic directness, permanently sleep-deprived.

Rrashima Swaarup Verma does not do things in half measures. And in a conversation that moved effortlessly from body image to boardroom politics to the economics of a creative life, she made one thing very clear: the fullness of her life is entirely intentional.

“There are things we choose to do, and then there are things that choose us.”

THE BOOK THAT BEGAN WITH A HEALTH CLUB

Weight Wars, Rrashima’s latest novel, follows Radhika, a 42-year-old corporate woman who is confident and capable at work and privately engaged in a very different kind of battle with her body, her self-doubt, and her sense of self. It is sharp, funny, and deeply recognisable.

The idea, Rrashima explains, grew organically from a very specific period in her life. She and her husband ran a state-of-the-art health club in Delhi NCR and what she witnessed there, day after day, was both moving and hilarious.

“Radhika is an inspiration from so many people I met. These are real life situations and because they have been picked up from real things that I actually witnessed, I think everybody would relate to it,” she says.

The humour in the book is not incidental. It is a deliberate creative choice, and one rooted in a lifelong belief. “Laughter is the best medicine. If you lighten something for your readers, they seem to enjoy it more even if it is a very heavy subject. The ability to laugh at yourself is quite something.”

She could have written a self-help book. She chose fiction instead, and the result is a novel that delivers its message without ever sounding like a lecture.

“It is a book about winning against all odds and having faith in yourself.”

WHAT THE 40S ASK OF US

Why 42? Rrashima laughs at the question. The number, she says, simply arrived. But what the decade represents is something she takes seriously.

“Fitness is something we need to talk about more. It needs to be a part of our life and it is not about getting into a certain size or being seen a certain way. It is everything to do with your relationship with yourself and giving yourself a little self-love.”

There is a fitness quote she returns to: your body is the only place you live in, permanently, so take care of it. For Rrashima, this is not aspirational language. It is practical instruction.

Radhika, she points out, does most of her battling internally. The chaos is rarely visible to the world. “We want to appear perfect constantly and that is a lot of pressure. It is quite needless to constantly appear as if you have everything in control.”

“All we really need to do is to forego that entire concept of superwoman.”

NOT AN EASY PLACE

Rrashima has spent her career navigating industries from pharmaceuticals to automotive, working with clients across the world, and doing it all as a woman in rooms that are still overwhelmingly male.

“If you see entry level and mid-level, you will find a lot of women in the corporate sector. But not more than 12 to 15 percent at senior management positions. When I walk into a conference room, it is very clear that it is not an easy place for women. There is definitely a glass ceiling.”

What makes it harder, she says, is not just the structure of corporate life but what surrounds it. Societal expectations, familial demands, and the guilt that accrues when a woman chooses ambition. She recalls a friend, then working at Merck, who faced an agonising choice between a promotion and the pull of motherhood. The dilemma was not about competence. It never is.

“If husbands and children are taught at a younger age to support the dreams that the women in their family are trying to accomplish, we will have a better place. It is kind of an impossible task when you are trying to manage everything on your own.”

“It is not an easy place. There is definitely a glass ceiling.”

OXYGEN, THERAPY, MEDIUM OF EXPRESSION

Writing, for Rrashima, did not require a decision. It was always there. What required a decision was everything else: the corporate career, the books, the columns, the workshops, the poetry.

Also Read: She Chose Real Over Quick

“Writing is oxygen to me. It is therapy. It is my outlet and my medium of expression. These are two sides and both of them give me a lot of happiness in different forms.”

Her body of work spans short fiction, poetry, columns, and now five novels, published in outlets across India and internationally including The Statesman, Women’s Web, West Trestle Review in California, and several others. She won the Orange Flower Award 2023 for short fiction. She has also recently completed a travel journalism course from the London School of Journalism, which signals where she might be headed next.

Does she ever worry about the economics of being a creative? Not in the way one might expect. “A lot of writers in India, and internationally, have other jobs and other professions. If I am lucky enough to be a full-time writer one day, I will embrace that with a lot of happiness. But for now, both things give me what I need.”

WHAT SHE SEES IN THE NEXT GENERATION

When Rrashima speaks at literature festivals or conducts workshops in colleges, she pays close attention. At the Orange City Literature Festival, a panel discussion on women and work drew an audience of young women who surprised her.

“They were very pragmatic. They knew what their challenges were. Some of them knew they would not get the cooperation or support they needed to pursue the career paths they wanted. They spoke to us very honestly. What they needed was inspiration and the motivation to believe in themselves.”

She believes women who have followed their own paths carry a particular responsibility. “When they see women like you and me who come from similar backgrounds, they have a story they can believe. They can say, if she could do it, so can I.”

IN HER OWN WORDS: THE RAPID FIRE ROUND

One word to describe Radhika that is not in the book?
Adorable.

Diet culture in one word?
Fake. A lot of fake news, fake diets, fake expectations.

The last book that made you cry?
Love Story. I reread it every few months. It stabilises my belief that love is the only thing that makes the world go round. And every time I read it, I end up crying.

A woman finds her voice when she stops…?
Feeling guilty.

“A woman finds her voice when she stops feeling guilty.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01. Your body is the only place you live in, permanently. Take care of it.

02. The superwoman myth serves no one. Letting people see your bad days invites more understanding, not less respect.

03. There is a glass ceiling in corporate life and it is reinforced by everything outside the office. The fix begins at home, with how we raise the next generation.

04. Writing does not have to be a financial gamble to be a serious pursuit. Many of the world’s best writers have day jobs.

05. Young women today are not naive about the challenges ahead. They need role models, not warnings.

06. Guilt is the single biggest thing standing between a woman and her voice.

Weight Wars is published by Sushi Publishers and available now. Rrashima Swaarup Verma is represented by The Book Bakers literary agency.
This interview was conducted on The AboutHer Show, Season 3, Episode 156.