Shivani Sibal was born and raised in Delhi, India where she currently lives with her two daughters and husband. She is the daughter of author Namita Gokhale and politician Kapil Sibal’s daughter-in-law. Drawing on the memories of her mother’s resiliency after the passing of her father, Sibal was able to find inspiration to push herself and published her debut novel, Equations in July 2021. The novel garnered much praise for how the story encapsulated the struggles of power and privilege dynamics, aspiration and change in our lives.
Her father died when she was young and so her, her mother and sister went to live with their maternal grandmother. She grew up playing with anyone around her neighborhood regardless of backgrounds and caste or social statuses. In her days, children could roam around outside freely without the fears we have now. This is what she considers to be a luxury her children didn’t have as we now live in a world of planned and organized “play dates”.
She also didn’t consider herself to be a writer but she had the story in her mind for a long time burning to be shared with the world. So somehow, someway, she wrote the story.