Archives: Authors

Vasudhendra is a bestselling author in Kannada. He is the recipient of several literary awards, including the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Book Prize and the U.R. Ananthamurthy Award. After working as a software professional for over twenty years, Vasudhendra now runs his own publication house, Chanda Pustaka. For more details, visit vasudhendra.com.

An experienced leader with a vast experience in steering techno-commercial functions in world-class engineering companies, G.S. Rattan continued to teach after retirement. The Punjab Engineering College (Chandigarh) graduate is now on a sabbatical as he pens down his first book and starts a new journey at the age of seventy-two with renewed enthusiasm. It is Day 1 again. With an overall experience of fifty years, he earned the moniker of ‘creative strategist’ from his peers. As a longstanding member of the Tata Family, he had the opportunity to work and learn from industry leaders, like Dr J.J. Irani and Mr B. Muthuraman, who inspired him to be more, achieve more and do more. During his thirty-one-year tenure with the Tata Family, the departments under his care won several awards and appreciation of all seniors. A company man through and through, he rose through the ranks to head the company with unanimous support of his colleagues and seniors.

Kavitha Punniyamurthi is an award-winning children’s writer and editor. Her picture book When Bholu Came Back was awarded the South Asia Book Award (Highly Commended Book). When she is not having existential conversations with the crows on her terrace, Kavitha spends her time creating goofy characters and writing funny stories. Croak, Building a Building and Look Up are some of her other books for children.

Ashvin B. Chhabra is the chief investment officer of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Bank of America. Prior to his current position, Ashvin was chief investment officer at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, where he managed its endowment. He is widely recognized for being one of the founders of goals-based wealth management and for his seminal work ‘Beyond Markowitz’, which integrates modern portfolio theory with behavioural finance. Ashvin grew up in New Delhi and was trained as a theoretical physicist. He received his PhD in applied physics in the field of chaos theory from Yale University, where he also met his Italian-born wife, Daniela Bonafede-Chhabra. They currently live in Princeton with their two children, daughter Maya and son Sasha.

Kalki Koechlin is a French-Indian actor and writer living in Mumbai. She studied drama and theatre at Goldsmiths, and made her screen debut as Chanda in the critically acclaimed drama Dev.D in 2009. She won a FIlmfare award for the same. She is also the recipient of a National Award and Best Actress award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival for the internationally applauded film, Margarita with a Straw. She has also acted in two of Bollywood’s highest grossing films of their respective years, Yeh Jewani Hai Deewani and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. She hosts a podcast with the BBC called My Indian Life, and is part of several series streaming on Netflix and Amazon. Throughout her career, she has continued to write and perform for the theatre, often with her original material. She won the Hindu Metroplus Playwright Award in 2009 along with co writer Prashant Prakash for Skeleton Woman. Her work often addresses the issues of women’s rights and freedom of speech. She is a feminist and an advocate of children’s rights.

Kushal M Choksi runs Elements Truffles, an artisanal chocolate company based in NYC. Prior to that he has had successful exits from a tech venture and a hedge fund. And before that he slaved on Wall Street for nearly a decade.

Shankar Manshani is the professionally engineer, he is used to writing from his adolescence. He has taken a position with writing his so many excellent literary works. His essays and poetries have been publishing in magazines. Mathematics is the interesting subject of the author. He has built a record in Maharashtra to achieve 99% marks in engineering mathematics. The co-writer of this book Aarti Manshani is house-wife but active in writing.

Somak Ghoshal grew up in Kolkata, went to college in Oxford, then worked in Delhi. Currently, he lives in Bangalore with his teddy bear, who has been his best friend for 35 years, and writes about books, art, and people who are fighting to right wrongs. He is a cat person, who also loves dogs and ice-cream. His picture book Piku’s Little World, illustrated by Proiti Roy, was published by Pratham Books in 2019.

Thomas shortened his French literature studies in Tours and started writing for children when he became a father and stayed home to care for his children. He likes alternating between light and serious intrigues, also writing detective novels and comic book scenarios. His poetic and subtle style offers rich, nuanced texts, as stimulating for the little ones as it is for adults. Now living in La Rochelle, Thomas likes meeting his young readers and organizing writing workshops for kindergarten, primary and middle school students.