Archives: Authors

Salma Husain is a food historian, author and Persian scholar. She uses Persia to explore the history of the cuisines cooked and eaten during the Mughal era. She has worked with Indian and international television channels on different perspectives and aspects relating to the history of food. In 2009, her book, The Emperor’s Table: The Art of the Mughal Cuisine received the National Tourism Award from the Vice President of India, as well as the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the same year, from Paris. She worked as consultant on Indian food for the ITC Group of Hotels for a number of years. Her most recent work is a heritage volume, tracing the history of dining and entertainment at Rashtrapati Bhavan, titled Around India’s First Table.
At present, she contributes stories on food culture and history for the Urdu division of the BBC. She is the author of a number of books on food: The Pull of Pulses, 50 Great Sherbets of India, Flavours of Avadh and Islamic Food with a Healing Touch (published by Roli Books). Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, published under the title The Mughal Feast, contains translated recipes from the reign of Shah Jahan.

Aditya Iyer writes travel, sports and human-interest features for Open Magazine. He began his journalism career with the Indian Express, where he covered cricket World Cups, football World Cups and Grand Slam tennis. He lives in New Delhi. This is his first book.

Shehla Rashid is an academic, with research interests in Technology & Politics. She is also one of the well-known youth faces in politics and activism in India. The first Kashmiri woman to be elected as an office-bearer of JNU Students’ Union in 2015, she was a popular student leader. She cares deeply about the condition of Indian Muslims and hopes to make a change.

Nayantara Violet Alva grew up in Delhi and Bengaluru and resides in Mumbai. She graduated from Ashoka University in 2019. Since then, she’s worked as a producer on hit shows such as Anupama at Disney-Star and is currently producing original OTT shows for JioCinema. Inspired by her college life, Liberal Hearts is her attempt at writing complex and nuanced themes in a funny and accessible form.

Vivek Gambhir brings over thirty years in transformative leadership across consumer goods, technology, consulting and investing. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he has had the opportunity to contribute in diverse roles, including being part of the founding team of Bain & Co. India, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products and CEO of boAt Lifestyle. In addition to serving on several boards, Vivek is currently a venture partner at Lightspeed India, where he focuses on supporting entrepreneurs and scaling businesses. He is passionate about mentoring young professionals and shares his insights on his blog, www.monday-8am.com. Connect with Vivek at vivekgambhir@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-gambhir-b955a836/.

Sunder Ramachandran brings over twenty years of diverse experience across healthcare, technology and financial services, including a five-year stint as an entrepreneur. He currently leads Transformation and Commercial Excellence for Emerging Markets at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, having previously served as the country managing director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives at GlaxoSmithKline. Sunder’s insights on career development have been featured in Economic Times, Hindu Business Line, Rediff.com and Daily Financial Times. He holds an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney and an MSc in human resources from the University of Leicester, UK. Sunder is also a chartered fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, UK. Connect with Sunder at sunder.ramachandran@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundertrg/.

Harsh Pamnani is a brand consultant and a business storyteller. He has worked with unicorn start-ups such as FirstCry and Icertis, think tanks like World Bank, and corporates like Deloitte and Cognizant. He is the author of a best-selling book series, Booming Brands, and co-author of the national bestseller Booming Digital Stars. He has also penned over 100 articles on brand building. His work has appeared in top-tier publications like CNBC, Forbes, Economic Times and Financial Express.
Harsh has delivered talks at prestigious forums, including TEDx (seven-time speaker), Josh Talks, IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad. Additionally, he has taught start-up branding course at MICA Ahmedabad and business storytelling at IIM Indore.

Harsh earned his MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. For more information about him, please visit www.harshpamnani.com.

Cailin is a writer and poet of North African descent living in London. At the age of 10 she developed an autoimmune disorder causing chronic pain and ulcers. Despite the turbulence and instability that came with it, she graduated with a degree in Politics and International Relations. She found a safe space in the poetry she wrote to lay down her anger, heartache, and fears without any feelings of judgment or shame. She started posting on Instagram, and has amassed over 100k+ followers over the years. Her account has grown into a community of which uplifts and empowers through beautiful expressions and illustrations, bringing catharsis to the reader.