Archives: Authors

Shashi Deshpande, daughter of the renowned Kannada dramatist and Sanskrit scholar Shriranga, was born in Dharwad. At the age of fifteen she went to Mumbai, graduated in economics, then moved to Bangalore, where she gained a degree in law. The early years of her marriage were largely given over to the care of her two young sons, but she took a course in journalism and for a time worked on a magazine.
Her writing career began in earnest only in 1970, initially with short stories, of which several volumes have been published. She is the author of four children’s books and seven previous novels, the best known of which are The Dark Holds No Terror, That Long Silence, which won the Sahitya Akademi award, Small Remedies and Moving On. Shashi Deshpande lives in Bangalore with her pathologist husband.

Mehru Jaffer was born and brought up in Lucknow, a certain space in India that is not just a city but a state of being. After graduating in English literature from Lucknow University, a career in journalism was launched with a job at the Pioneer newspaper. She continues to write and this is her first book.

Rajni Bakshi was educated at Indraprastha College, Delhi, George Washington University, Washington DC, and the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. She has been writing for a wide range of English and Hindi publications for the last three decades.
Her previous works include: The Long Haul: The Bombay Textile Workers Strike, The Dispute Over Swami Vivekananda’s Legacy: A Warning and an Opportunity, Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi, LETS Make it Happen: Alternative Economics and An Economics for Well-Being. She lives in Mumbai and is associated with the Centre for Education and Documentation. She also serves on the board of Citizens for Peace, as well as Child Rights and You.

Nanditha Krishna is a historian, environmentalist, and writer based in Chennai. A PhD in ancient Indian culture, she is the director of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre. She has pioneered the documentation of the ecological traditions of India, restored over fifty sacred groves, and established schools, a research institution, and a museum of folk art. Her published works include Sacred Animals of India, Book of Demons, Book of Vishnu, Madras Then Chennai Now, Balaji-Venkateshwara, Ganesha, Painted Manuscripts of the Sarasvati Mahal Library, Arts and Crafts of Tamilnadu,and Art and Iconography of Vishnu Narayana, besides numerous research papers and newspaper articles. She is a professor and research guide for the PhD programme of the University of Madras and has received several prestigious national and international awards.