Archives: Authors

The late Ashvin Desai published his debut novel, Between Eternities: Ideas on Life and Cosmos, in 2008. Desai was the father of Booker prize-winning novelist Kiran Desai and the husband of veteran writer Anita Desai.

Kaumudi Marathe is a journalist by training and chef by choice. Born on Maharashtra’s west coast, she grew up in India, Britain and North America. She started researching Marathi cusiine in order to connect to her roots.

Shobhaa De, voted by Reader’s Digest as one of ‘India’s Most Trusted People’ and one of the ’50 Most Powerful Women in India’ by Daily News and Analysis, is one of India’s highest-selling authors and a popular social commentator. Her works, comprising both fiction and non-fiction, have been featured in comparative literature courses at universities abroad and in India. Her writing has been translated into many languages as well as French, German,Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. She lives in Mumbai with her husband and six children.

Twinkle Khanna, aka Mrs Funnybones, crafts satirical stories and funny fables when she is not running a design business, selling candles or running in circles around her small but rather odd family. She narrowly escaped a gruesome tragedy when Bollywood tried to bludgeon her brain to the size of a pea, but she ducked at the right moment and escaped miraculously unharmed. Currently, she is in the process of creating lame jokes like, ‘Why do all Hindu boys worship their mother? Because their religion tells them to worship the cow.’ She firmly believes that nothing in life is sacred except laughter.

Dr. S B Mathur is the pioneer among writers writing on personality development and management. He has written many unique books and his books have been translated in many language of the country and abroad. He has received many awards also.

PREM PRAKASH, a veteran Indian journalist, has
reported on major events in the Indian subcontinent
from the ’50s to the turn of the century. He has
worked with foreign broadcasters-like Gaumont
Actualités in France, Deutsche Wochenschau in
Germany and Warner-Pathé News in the US-who
were the pioneers of their time. In 1957, he was part of a group that launched the news agency Visnews in London.

He has covered some of the most important
stories of post-Independence India, including the
1962 Indo-China war. He was at the forefront of
war coverage during the 1965 war against Pakistan,
climbing Haji Pir with the Indian Army and covering
the tank battle in the Sialkot sector, conducted by
General Rajinder Singh ‘Sparrow’ himself.

Prakash has interacted with every prime minister
of India and interviewed many of them on camera.
He is currently the chairman of ANI, India’s premier
multimedia news agency, which he helped set up.

Kartik Shanker is an ecologist and a writer. He has done extensive research on olive ridleys, leatherbacks and other sea turtles. He is the author of From Soup to Superstar, a history of sea turtle conservation in India. With his students, he studies the ecology of fish, frogs, snakes, birds and plants. He has written two books for children, Turtle Story and The Adventures of Philautus Frog. He loves hanging out on islands, where he is either looking for turtles or diving off reefs with his family, which includes Meera, the tree-frog-like Vishak and their two tree-deprived cats.

Sanjeev Aggarwal is a lifecycle investor. He has seen the entire start-finish spectrum of multiple start-ups, from the ambiguities of their early years to the structural challenges of their growth years. He has spent three decades in the Indian technology sector. At the turn of the century, Sanjeev co-founded Daksh, a pioneer in BPO industry. Daksh was acquired by IBM in 2004 but Sanjeev continued to be the company’s CEO till 2006. During this six year period, company grew to 20,000 people. In 2006, he co-founded Helion. It was the beginning of tech investing in India and Helion helped in creating a ‘startup’ ecosystem. In 2017, he co-founded Fundamentum with Nandan Nilekani, with a view to leverage his experience as an entrepreneur and investor to help build lasting institutions.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was one of India’s most distinguished scientists, responsible for the development of India’s first satellite launch vehicle and the operationalization of strategic missiles. He was also the President of India between 2002 and 2007.