Archives: Authors

As the Associate Editor of GQ India, based in Mumbai, Rhea Saran spends most of her time immersed in the world of luxury travel, food, and drink-whenever she is not behind the wheel test-driving sports cars for the magazine, that is. Prior to this, Rhea studied and lived in Manhattan, a place she still considers home, and took her first tentative steps into the big bad world of magazine publishing, promptly falling in love. This is her first book-and, hopefully, not her last!

Subrata Dasgupta is Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Louisiana where he also holds an Eminent Scholar Chair. He has worked for many years on the Bengal Renaissance. He is the author of eleven previous books including a memoir, Salaam Stanley Matthews.

Nila Iyer grew up amidst the verdant serenity of Kerala’s landscape at her ancestral home. As a child, she loved to listen to her grandfather’s stories about damsels, dragons and princes on black stallions. By the time she was eighteen, she had devoured every romance novel at her disposal. Nila now lives in Mumbai and spends her days seeing her fantasies come alive on the imaginary pages on her laptop that she carries everywhere with her. A hit at parties, she is adept at conjuring up colourful and sometimes questionable love stories for her friends.

Alessandra Shahbaz loves romance novels for empowering women to acknowledge their desires and pursue their fantasies. Her ideal day involves sitting on her balcony with fresh fruits, red roses, and her pet lamb Shy Shy, reading and writing from dawn until dusk. When she is not reading and writing, Alessandra enjoys baking, practicing jujutsu, building tree houses, and foraging for edible plants. She dreams of some day living in a fig orchard with her loved ones and continuing to write tales filled with passion… tales that promise the fulfillment of dreams.

Vithal Rajan has served as a mediator in Northern Ireland and was founder and faculty member of the School of Peace Studies, Bradford University, UK. He has worked with numerous civil society organizations and NGOs in India, and has held various positions across Europe such Chair of World Studies, International School of Geneva, and Executive Director for the Alternative Nobel Prize (Sweden). In 2006, he was made Officer of the Order of Canada-the country’s highest national honour-for a lifetime of achievement. His other fictional works include The Legend of Ramulamma, Sharmaji Padmasree, ‘Not So’ Stories for Older Children, and The Anarkali Diary.

Femina, first published in July 1959, is India’s leading women’s magazine, published fortnightly by Worldwide Media.