Archives: Authors

Vijay Gokhale retired as foreign secretary in 2020. He dealt extensively with China during his diplomatic career, including as ambassador in 2016–2017. He is author of three previous books on China, including The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India. He lives in Pune with his wife, Vandana, and devotes his time to research on China.

Ronnie Screwvala is a first-generation entrepreneur who failed his Bachelor of Commerce course in college, but that did not deter his intent to set out in the world of business on his own at a time where there was no ecosystem for entrepreneurs. He pioneered cable TV, went on to build one of the largest toothbrush operations in India and thereafter the very successful media and entertainment company UTV. Newsweek termed him the ‘Jack Warner of India’, Esquire ranked him among the seventy-five most influential people of the twenty-first century and Fortune hailed him as ‘Asia’s 25 most powerful’. He is the co-founder of upGrad, which is India’s largest online higher education company. Ronnie and his wife, Zarina, are founder-trustees of the Swades Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to improving the standard of living in rural areas. This is Ronnie’s second book. His first, Dream with Your Eyes Open, was published in 2015. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, daughter, Trishya, and son-in-law, Suhail.

Salil Desai, a chartered accountant and MBA, has spent over sixteen years covering diverse sectors in the Indian equity markets, including at India’s largest family investment office. He manages some of the large advisory portfolios at Marcellus.

Dr G.G. Gangadharan has been a champion of Ayurveda for the past three and a half decades. He is the author of three research papers, twelve research articles, thirteen primary papers and six books. As a renowned expert on lifestyle diseases, he has conducted training programmes in the US, the UK, Germany, France, China, South Africa, Kenya, Nepal, Italy and Hong Kong, in addition to India. During his career, he has collaborated with social organizations, corporate organizations, government think-tanks and international agencies that are interested in improving healthcare. After his seven-and-a-half-year Ayurvedacharya course from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, he acquired a master’s degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is the recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Innovators for the Public fellowship. He also has a PhD from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune, in management of rheumatoid arthritis.

Irwin Allan Sealy was born in Allahabad and educated at Lucknow and Delhi. He is the author of The Trotternama. His other novels include The Everest Hotel, The Brainfever Bird and Red. His Yukon to Yucatan is the account of an overland journey from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico; more recent travels produced the pen-and-ink drawings of his China Sketchbook. Zelaldinus, his portrait of Jalaluddin Akbar, is a cycle of Fatehpur Sikri poems. A memoir, The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, is set in Dehra Dun, where he now lives.

Evi and Nefeli are childhood friends from Cyprus who share a love for ice cream, travel and spontaneous adventures. During her studies, Evi worked at kindergartens and later, was the first employee of a payments startup, where she led product launch and marketing, helping the company scale. Nefeli worked as an architectural assistant and later became an art teacher at a progressive kindergarten.

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).

An alumnus of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad, and a former civil services officer, Acharya Prashant has authored over 150 quintessential books on subjects like Love, Marriage, and Parenting, as well as authoritative bestselling commentaries on scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads. More than six of his books have been listed as bestsellers on Amazon, including the trilogy on Vedanta: ‘Karma’, ‘Ananda’ and ‘Maya’. He is renowned for his command over the entire corpus of wisdom literature from all times – ancient till modern, and all places – East to West. In India, he is revered specifically for his scholarship on Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

His style is forthright, clear, mystical and compassionate. His distinguishing feature is his ability to render lucidity to some highly philosophical texts and present them effectively even to a beginner reader.

With over 50 million subscribers, Acharya Prashant is also the world’s most followed spiritual leader on YouTube – his videos have amassed a dizzying 2.5 billion views till date. He is a veganism promoter, an environmental activist, a science activist, a campaigner against superstition, and a champion of essential human freedom. PETA awarded him with the “Most Influential Vegan of India” award in 2022.

He also conducts a highly acclaimed online teaching program on the Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta, with 30,000 students and counting. You can learn more about him and his work at:

https://acharyaprashant.org/en/?cmId=s07160004

Major General Ian Cardozo was commissioned at the Indian Military Academy into the 1st Battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), where he received his basic grounding as a young officer. Thereafter, he took part in the Sino–Indian war of 1962, the Indo–Pak war of 1965 and the Indo–Pak war of 1971.
Wounded in the battle of Sylhet in Bangladesh, he overcame the disability of losing a leg and became the first disabled officer of the Indian Army to be approved for command of an infantry battalion and brigade. He thereafter commanded an infantry division and retired as Chief of Staff of a corps in the Northeast. On retirement, he worked in the area of disability with an NGO and as vice president of the War Wounded Foundation, before being appointed by the Government of India as chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India, where he worked for nine years.
He is a military historian, author and war poet. His books, poems and autobiography, Cartoos Saab, have been widely acclaimed. His poems on war have been set to music and feature worldwide on leading music platforms. He is also working with an illustrator on graphic novels about the courage and competence of the Indian soldier, of which thirteen have been published so far.

GAURA PANT ‘SHIVANI’ (1923-2003) was among the foremost Hindi writers of her time. Born in Rajkot, her childhood was spent in various places as her father moved from one princely state to another. As a young child, she was tutored by her scholar grandfather, Pandit Hariram Pande, a close associate of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and one of the founding faculty members of Banaras Hindu University. At the age of twelve, she was sent, along with her two siblings, to Shantiniketan, where she spent nine magical years. Throughout her life, Shivani lived by the teachings of her gurus at the Ashram and looked upon Bengal as her second home. Her literary output that spans some forty works bears the deep imprint of both Kumaon and Bengal. Best known for her short stories, novels and newspaper columns, Shivani also wrote several travelogues and a three-part autobiography. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1982.