STRESS AWARENESS MONTH: LEICESTER AUTHOR RELEASES NEW BOOK TO HELP YOU FIND ‘CALM IN THE CHAOS’
- Fraser Urquhart Media
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
A Leicester author has released a new book exploring how people can stay grounded and present, even when life feels overwhelming.
The Happy Rickshaw Driver: Finding Calm in the Chaos by Kirit Thakore is a spiritual, story led take on stress and modern life, set against the backdrop of Mumbai’s intensity. Through the journey of a high-performing stress coach pushed to her limits, the book examines a simple but timely idea: calm isn’t something we find once life settles down — it’s something we learn to practise within it.
The book is being officially released to coincide with Stress Awareness Month in April, a national campaign that has been running since 1992 and encourages people to recognise the impact of stress and develop healthier ways of managing it.
Set in the busy streets of Mumbai, the story follows Hansa, a professional stress coach who speaks confidently about wellbeing in public but struggles privately with the same pressures she helps others manage. Privately, she feels like a ‘ticking time bomb.’ During a rickshaw journey through the noise, intensity and sensory overload of the city, she encounters a driver whose outlook on life quietly challenges everything she thinks she knows about stress, control and happiness.
The experience becomes a turning point, offering a simple but powerful idea: calm does not arrive when life becomes quiet. It is something we learn to practise within the noise.
Author, Kirit Thakore, said the story grew from a moment that changed his own perspective on stress: “So many of us feel we have to sort everything out before we allow ourselves to relax. What I discovered is that peace isn’t something waiting for us at the end of the chaos. It’s something we can practise while life is still happening around us.”
He added: “This book is really about presence. When we stop replaying the past and worrying about what might come next, even a busy moment can become peaceful. I hope readers recognise something of their own lives in the story.”
“Stress Awareness Month is a reminder that so many people are carrying more pressure than they realise. We live in a world that moves quickly and constantly demands our attention, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. The Happy Rickshaw Driver was written as a gentle reminder that calm doesn’t have to wait until life becomes quieter. Sometimes it can begin with a small shift in how we see the moment we’re already in. If the book encourages even a few readers to pause, breathe and approach their day with a little more presence, then it will have done what I hoped it would.”
Blending storytelling with spiritual reflection, The Happy Rickshaw Driver touches on themes including presence, emotional healing and ideas rooted in Eastern philosophy such as Dharma and Karma. Through the journey of its characters, the book encourages readers to step back from the constant pressure to control life and instead learn how to move with it.
Media outlets, reviewers and wellbeing writers are invited to read and review the book as part of the wider conversation around mental health and stress. The Happy Rickshaw Driver:
Finding Calm in the Chaos is available now in paperback and Kindle formats.
Comments