Khushwant Singh was born in 1915 in Hadali, Punjab. Today he is
India’s best-known columnist and journalist. Among the works he
has published are a classic two-volume history of the Sikhs, several
novels (the best known of which are Delhi, Train to Pakistan and
The Company of Women) and a number of translated works and
non-fiction books on Delhi, nature and current affairs. His
autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice was published in
2002.
Bhisham Sahni was born in 1915 in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan).
His first collection of short stories, Bhagya Rekha (Line of Fate)
was published in 1953. Since then he has published five novels,
eight collections of short stories, three plays and a biography of his
late brother, the actor and writer Balraj Sahni. Many of his books
have been translated into various languages. His most famous novel,
Tamas, was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975.
Saadat Hasan Manto widely regarded as the world’s greatest short
story writer in Urdu was born on 11 May 1912 at Samrala in
Punjab’s Ludhiana district. In a literary, journalistic, radio-scripting
and film-writing career spread over more than two decades, he
produced around 250 stories, scores of plays and a large number
of essays, many of them, controversial. He was tried for obscenity
half a dozen times, thrice before and thrice after Independence. Two
of his greatest stories—‘Colder than Ice’ and ‘The Return’—were
among works considered ‘obscene’ by the Pakistani censors. He
also wrote over a dozen films, including Eight Days, Chal Chal Re
Naujawan and Mirza Ghalib. The last one was shot after Manto
moved to Pakistan in January 1948. Manto’s greatest work was
produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great financial
and emotional hardship for him. He died several months short of
his forty-third birthday in January 1955 in Lahore.
C.K. Prahalad is the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of business administration at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration and chairman of the board of Praja, a technology management company in San Diego. He lives in San Diego but travels extensively.
Venkat Ramaswamy is a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Anees Jung was born in Hyderabad. Her father, Nawab Hosh Yar
Jung, was one of the principal advisers to the last reigning Nizam
of Hyderabad. She was brought up as a child in strict purdah, but
later went on to study at Osmania University and the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she took a Master’s degree in sociology
and American studies.
She has been the editor of a magazine, Youth Times, and has
written for several of the world’s major newspapers. She has also
written two books—When a Place Becomes a Person and Poems
in Prose.
Anees Jung lives in New Delhi.
Born in 1899 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, Saradindu Bandyopadhyay started his literary career by writing poems when he was a student in Vidyasagar College, Calcutta. Subsequently, he studied law, and then dedicated himself to writing. By 1932, when the first Byomkesh mystery appeared, he was already an established writer. He went on to become a popular and renowned writer of ghost stories, historical romances and children’s fiction in Bengali. He was the recipient of the Rabindra Purashkar in 1967 for his novel Tungabhadrar Tirey. He also received several other awards before his death in 1970.
Bimal Jalan is one of India’s well-known economists. He was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1997 to 2003, demitting office on his nomination to the Upper House of Parliament by the President for distinguished service to the country. He has held several top positions in the ministries of finance and industry and in the Planning Commission. He was also Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and represented India on the boards of the Internation Monetary Funds and the World Bank im Washington DC. his recent publications includes India’s Economic Crises: The Way Ahead (Oxford University press 1991) and, as editor ,The Indian Economy: Problems and prospects (Penguin 1993) Bimal Jalan was educated at Calcutta, Cambridge and Oxford Universities.
Jaishree Misra was born in Delhi and maintains an ambiguous relationship with the city. She has worked, variously and briefly, as a special needs teacher, social worker, Journalist, broadcaster, writer. She is also a wife and mother. Ancient promises, Her first novel, garnered her wide readership. She lives in London.
Anurag Mathur was born in Delhi and educated at Sciendia School, Gwalior, St. Stepen’s College Delhi, Delhiand The Unversity of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He is a journalist in the print and electronic media and loves music, eating out and Tennis-besides reading ofcouse. His published books includ the best selling novels The Inscrutable Americans and Scene from an Executive Life.
Indira Srinivasan, educated in Delhi, Waltair, Chennai and Plymouth, is an English teacher with twenty years of teaching experience at the high school level. A resource person for teacher training programmers all over India, she is involved in the production of training materials. She is associated with the British Council’s Business English programs and is a trainer in business English courses from various corporate houses in Chennai. She is the author of several text books, including the Connect series, and is presently compiling another English textbook. She is married and lives in Chennai. Chetna Bhatt, educated in Chandigarh, Delhi and Plymouth, has been teaching English in a public school in Delhi for nearly twenty years. She has conducted teacher training workshops all over India for English teacher at the secondary school level and is a resource person for CBSE and the British Council. She is also associated with the British Council as trainer for the Business English Programs and is a course writer for Indira Gandhi National Open University. She is the author of Interactions in English and several other English textbooks for high school students. She is married and lives in Delhi.
