Aditi Krishnakumar, a 31-year-old Indian woman author in Singapore has won the ‘Scholastic Asian Book Award‘ for her 32,000-word manuscript rooted in “love of Indian history”. Aditi Krishnakumar won the Singapore dollar 10,000 award for her manuscript “Codex: The Lost Treasure Of The Indus“. Aditi, who submitted her manuscript hours before deadline last September, said she juggles writing with her career in finance and ekes out time at night and on weekends to dream up stories.

Aditi beat four other writers, including home-grown writer and historical researcher Stephanie Ho, who came in second runner-up, for the prize – a joint initiative by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and Scholastic Asia.

The shortlisted entries were whittled down from a pool of 54 submissions from 11 countries. Ho, 45, was in the running for her manuscript, Island Girl. Set in the Malay archipelago in the 1800s, it follows Habibah, a girl who receives a wedding proposal when she turns 13 and finds out that her long-lost mother is alive.