Archives: Authors

RAMESH KANDULA is a journalist based in Hyderabad. He holds an MA in English literature from Hyderabad Central University and an MA in politics from Andhra University. In a career spanning three decades across the media spectrum-print, television and the web-he has been associated with various organizations, including Eenadu, Deccan Chronicle and the Tribune. Kandula is presently CEO and chief editor of Mahaa News, a Telugu news channel, broadcasting from Hyderabad.

Mehr Afshan Farooqi grew up in Allahabad, India. A multiple gold medalist from Allahabad University, Farooqi is currently associate professor of Urdu and South Asian Literature at the University of Virginia. Her research publications address complex issues of Urdu literary culture particularly in the context of modernity. She is interested in bilingualism and how it impacts creativity. A well-known translator, anthologist and columnist, she is the editor of the pioneering two-volume work The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature (Oxford University Press, 2008).
More recently, she has published the acclaimed monograph The Postcolonial Mind: Urdu Culture, Islam and Modernity in Muhammad Hasan Askari (Palgrave and Oxford University Press, 2013). Farooqi also writes a featured column on Urdu literature of the past and present in the Dawn.

Sonu Sood is an international film actor, producer, entrepreneur and social worker. He has won several awards for his work in films. He is also the recipient of the United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Action Award for his humanitarian work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories of his migrant rescue mission feature in school texts in Andhra Pradesh as lessons in ethics. A fitness enthusiast with exemplary people skills, Sonu is now a household name. He resides in Mumbai with his wife, Sonali, and their two sons, Eshaan and Ayaan.
Meena K. Iyer was the editor of Bombay Times, a film critic at the Times of India and edited DNA‘s ‘After Hrs’. She has been an active media professional for the last thirty-nine years. She co-authored Rishi Kapoor’s bestselling book, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. She resides in Mumbai and is currently heading a film company.

Gopi Chand Narang (1931-2022) has won recognition all around the world for his outstanding contribution to literature. Among the many awards he has received, the most notable ones are the Sitara-e Imtiaz (2012) and the President’s Gold Medal (1977) from Pakistan; and the Padma Shri (1990), Sahitya Akademi Award (1995), and the Padma Bhushan (2004) from India. He is recipient of a D. Litt. (honoris causa) from the University of Hyderabad (2007), Aligarh Muslim University (2009), and Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad (2012). He has the rare honour of being bestowed as the Professor Emeritus by both, University of Delhi and Jamia Milia Islamia.

He has also served as the Vice Chairman at Delhi Urdu Academy (1996-1999), Vice Chairman and National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (1998-2004), and President of the Sahitya Akademi (2003-2007). He has written more than 65 books in Urdu, Hindi and English.

Sonu Sood is an international film actor, producer, entrepreneur and social worker. He has won several awards for his work in films. He is also the recipient of the United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Action Award for his humanitarian work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories of his migrant rescue mission feature in school texts in Andhra Pradesh as lessons in ethics. A fitness enthusiast with exemplary people skills, Sonu is now a household name. He resides in Mumbai with his wife, Sonali, and their two sons, Eshaan and Ayaan.
Meena K. Iyer was the editor of Bombay Times, a film critic at the Times of India and edited DNA‘s ‘After Hrs’. She has been an active media professional for the last thirty-nine years. She co-authored Rishi Kapoor’s bestselling book, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. She resides in Mumbai and is currently heading a film company.

Sonu Sood is an international film actor, producer, entrepreneur and social worker. He has won several awards for his work in films. He is also the recipient of the United Nations Development Programme’s SDG Action Award for his humanitarian work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories of his migrant rescue mission feature in school texts in Andhra Pradesh as lessons in ethics. A fitness enthusiast with exemplary people skills, Sonu is now a household name. He resides in Mumbai with his wife, Sonali, and their two sons, Eshaan and Ayaan.

Meena K. Iyer was the editor of Bombay Times, a film critic at the Times of India and edited DNA‘s After Hrs. She has been an active media professional for the last thirty-nine years. She co-authored Rishi Kapoor’s bestselling book, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored. She resides in Mumbai and is currently heading a film company.

Anoushka Khan is an artist and freelance editor. She grew up in Pakistan and the Netherlands, and currently lives in the UK. This is her first graphic novel.

Biswajit Jha is a journalist turned social entrepreneur, columnist and author. Jha started his career with the Pioneer in 2005 after completing
his masters in mass communication. He was principal correspondent at Zee News and head of the sports department at ZeeNews.com when he decided to quit in 2013, after working in New Delhi for almost nine years, to lead a life of happiness and fulfilment in his village, Rajganj, in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district. With a guiding principle of doing something for others and uplifting unprivileged children, Jha, along with his wife,
Dr Sanjukta Saha, started an educational trust that also runs a school-Epic Public School-in Cooch Behar. Having identified how hard unemployment hurts the educated youth, Jha advocates social entrepreneurship as the solution. Determined to give back to his roots, Jha took up the responsibility of running the Rajganj Football Academy, which changed the fortunes of many children in his village. A sports buff and fitness freak, he aims to
promote stress-free learning through games and yoga.

An adjunct professor of media communication at the Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology in eastern Bhutan’s Mongar, Jha is also the joint secretary of the Bengal chapter of the Kudo International Federation of India (KIFI), which is promoted by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. Jha regularly writes columns for the news portals of
national media houses like Times Now, Zee Media, CNN-News18, etc.

True to his versatile personality, in 2019, Jha went to China to conduct the Durga Puja for the Bengali community in Beijing. He currently lives with his parents, father-in-law, wife and son in north Bengal.

For more about him, you can visit the links below:
Website: www.biswajitjha.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biswajit.jha.5
Twitter: @biswajit_jha
Email: biswajitjha013@gmail.com

Sonia Faleiro is the author of Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, which was named a book of the year by the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, NPR and the Economist, and a novella, The Girl. She is a co-founder of Deca, a cooperative of award-winning writers. Her work has been supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Investigative Fund, and appears in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Granta, 1843, MIT Technology Review and Harper’s. She lives in London.