Archives: Authors

Living between Manhattan and Kashi, Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a licensed, board-certified physician, integrating ‘Good Medicine’ with Ayurveda for the past fifteen years. She is Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Weill
Cornell Medical College and a PhD researcher in Ayurveda at Banaras Hindu University. She is a 2014 senior Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, recipient of American Medical Association’s Leadership Award and the first Indian to speak at
Commencement Exercises at Harvard University. Her work is featured in the documentary, Healers: Journey into Ayurveda, on The Discovery Channel. Her website is:
www.drbhaswati.com.

Rakesh Basant is professor of economics and JSW Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His teaching and research have focused on public policy and regulation, firm strategy, innovation, intellectual property rights and entrepreneurial business models. He is well published in the areas of competition policy, technology strategy, industrial clusters, innovation-internationalization linkages, incubation models in higher education and industry-academia partnerships. He was a member of the Sachar Committee that wrote a report on the social, economic and educational conditions of Muslims in India. In continuation of this work, part of his current research focuses on affirmative action and other issues related to caste and religion in India. He has taught at universities abroad and worked as a consultant to several international organizations.

JUSTICE ROHINTON FALI NARIMAN, a Parsi priest, scholar of Western music and comparative religion, is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. A polymath and a polyglot, he is an institution in himself. Justice Nariman was former Senior Counsel, Supreme Court of India. Justice Venkatachaliah amended the rules to make him a Senior Counsel at the young age of thirty-seven against the mandatory age of forty-five. Justice Nariman has practised maritime law in New York at Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens for a year. He has practiced law for close to four decades and has over 500 Reported Supreme Court Judgments to his credit. He has authored 360 judgments as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on diverse subjects, in particular the Constitutional Law, Arbitration and the Insolvency Code 2016. He is an expert in comparative constitutional law and civil law.

Akhtaruzzaman Elias (1943-97) was a Bangladeshi novelist and short-story writer who, despite writing only two novels, is regarded by most critics as being part of the pantheon of great Bengal authors. Chilekothar Sepai (1987) detailed the psychological journey of a man during the turbulent period just prior to Bangladeshi independence in 1971, and offered an unrivalled depiction of life in Puran Dhaka, an old town. Khwabnama (1996) depicts the sociopolitical scene in the rural pre-partition Bangladesh. His many awards include the Bangla Academy Award for Literature (1983), the Kazi Mahbubullah Gold Medal (1996) and the Ekushey Padak (posthumously, 1999).

Mahadevi Varma (1907-1987) is the greatest woman poet to have written in Hindi in the twentieth century. She did an MA in Sanskrit from Allahabad University and became residential principal (later, vice chancellor) of the pioneering women’s institution, Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth. She worked in the Gandhi-led movement for independence, and edited several journals, most notably the women’s magazine Chand. She was one of the four pillars of the Chhayavad movement in Hindi poetry and the author of several collections of poems, such as Nihar (1930), Rashmi (1932), Nirja (1933), Yama (1939), and Deepshikha (1942). She wrote several prose works, including reminiscences, pen portraits, essays on women’s predicament, and works of literary criticism, such as Sahityakar ki Astha (1962). She translated numerous works from Sanskrit to Hindi.

Mahadevi founded a trust to support writers in need. In 1979, she was the first woman to be made a fellow of the Sahitya Akademi. Among other awards, she received the Jnanpith in 1982, the Padma Bhushan in 1956, and the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 1988.

Evi Triantafyllides
Evi is the CEO of Worldwide Buddies, an educational startup that creates picture books and toys that celebrate diversity. She is the author of children’s books A Marvelous Mexican Misunderstanding and China’s Child. Evi holds a BA in Geography from the LSE, an MA in Anthropology & Cultural Politics from Goldsmiths and an MA in Individualized Study from NYU, with a concentration in creative writing and education. Evi is fascinated by discovering new places and learning new things. An advocate of education, she loves books, adventures and ice creams, and has a mild obsession with polar bears. In 2018, they came together and started creating picture books and toys that celebrate diversity, helping thousands of little ones learn about different countries through fun, interactive ways (and always off-screen).

Nefeli Malekou
Nefeli is the CDO of Worldwide Buddies, an educational startup that creates picture books and toys that celebrate diversity. She is the illustrator of A Marvelous Mexican Misunderstanding and China’s Child. Nefeli received her BSc in Architecture at the University of Bath in the UK, where during her last year of studies she designed a retreat facility for children with developmental disorders, in an effort to create a sanctuary where differences are embraced. Nefeli is a nature lover and a yogi. She cares deeply for animals and strives to lead a sustainable lifestyle.

Vivan Marwaha is a user researcher who works on technology projects in emerging markets. A millennial himself, he cares deeply about understanding India and its future through its youth. He has lived and worked in New Delhi, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Buenos Aires, and has written for the Washington Post, New Statesman, Mint, and Times of India, among other publications.

Ruth Vanita (Author)
Ruth Vanita taught English at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi, 1978-90, India’s first nationwide feminist magazine. She is the author of several books, including Memory of Light; Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India (2005); Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780-1870 (2012); and Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). She is the co-editor of the pioneering Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma ‘Ugra’ (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Saleem Kidwai (Author)
Saleem Kidwai is a historian and independent scholar, who taught at Ramjas College, Delhi University, for twenty years. He has published several academic essays on medieval and modern India, and translated several works, including Song Sung True: A Memoir by Malka Pukhraj and a collection of Syed Rafiq Hussain’s short stories, The Mirror of Wonders. Apart from the author herself, he is the only person to have translated the novels of Qurratulain Hyder, Chandni Begum and Ship of Sorrow.

Ruth Vanita (Author)
Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University for twenty years and is now professor at the University of Montana. She was founding co-editor of Manushi 1978-90. She is the author of several books, including Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996); Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India (2005); Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture (2005), Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780–1870 (2012); Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema (2017). Her first novel, Memory of Light, appeared in 2020.

She is the author of over sixty articles on British and Indian literature, and has translated many works of fiction and poetry from Hindi and Urdu to English, most notably Chocolate: Stories on Male-Male Desire by Pandey Bechan Sharma ‘Ugra’ (2008). She divides her time between Missoula and Gurgaon.

Saleem Kidwai (Author)
Saleem Kidwai is a historian and independent scholar, who taught at Ramjas College, Delhi University, for twenty years. He has published several academic essays on medieval and modern India, and translated several works, including Song Sung True: A Memoir by Malka Pukhraj and a collection of Syed Rafiq Hussain’s short stories, The Mirror of Wonders. Apart from the author herself, he is the only person to have translated the novels of Qurratulain Hyder, Chandni Begum and Ship of Sorrow.

Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi (1855-1907) was a towering figure in Gujarati literature, such that most Gujarati writers claim to have been influenced by him. The period of 1885-1915 was known as the ‘Pandit/Govardhan Yug’ of writing. It can be said that the modern Indian novel and the creation of the ‘national’ were in no small way influenced by his work.

Tripathi is the author of the classic novel quartet, Sarasvatichandra (1887-1901), known as the first Indian social novel. His other books include Snehmudra (1889) and The Classical Poets of Gujarat and Their Influence on Society and Morals (1894). Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali debuted in television in 2013 with a serial based on the Sarasvatichandra.