Archives: Authors

SUNITI NAMJOSHI is a poet, fabulist and children’s writer with over forty books to her name. After a stint in the Indian Administrative Service, Namjoshi moved to Canada where she earned a PhD at McGill University, taught at the University of Toronto for many years, and then moved on to doing what she loves best—writing. A selection of her works is published in The Fabulous Feminist (2012). Her books include Suki (2013), a memoir about her beloved cat; Foxy Aesop: On the Edge (2018), which asks point-blank whether it is the function of writers to save the world; and Dangerous Pursuits (2022), which contains ‘Bad People’, the first part of the trilogy about Ravana and his siblings.

K. Anis Ahmed is the author of Goodbye, Mr Kissinger, a collection of short stories. His short ?ction has previously been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Ahmed is the publisher of the daily Dhaka Tribune. The World in My Hands is his ?rst novel.

Ananda Devi (Ananda Nirsimloo-Anenden) was born in Mauritius in 1957. The multicultural and multilingual aspects of her birthplace are echoed in many of her works, which explore with lyrical and probing language and imagery the depths of conflicted identities, with a particular focus on women and the consequences of non-conformity. One of the Indian Ocean’s leading and most prolific writers, she has published poetry, three volumes of short stories and ten novels. Ève de ses décombres (2006) was awarded the Prix des Cinq Continents de la francophonie and the Prix RFO. Ananda Devi was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2010.

Dr Rishma Dhillon Pai is an honorary consultant gynaecologist at the Jaslok and Lilavati Hospitals, two of the best known hospitals in Mumbai.

Her special interests are infertility, minimal access surgery (keyhole or endoscopic surgery), menopause, and adolescent problems. She has trained in minimal access surgery, IVF, and ICSI at Antwerp, Belgium. She has also trained in egg and embryo freezing at the world’s biggest IVF centre in Japan, and also advanced her skills in this field in Italy, China, and Portugal.

Dr Pai has served as the senior vice president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, which is a large federation of 26,000 gynaecologists of India. She is presently the Jt clinical secretary of MOGS (The Mumbai Obstetric & Gynaecological society), treasurer of Indian Association of Gynaecological Endoscopists (IAGE), and honorary secretary of the Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction (ISAR). She is the first Indian to be elected on the board of the World Endometriosis Society. She was also the chairperson of the Food, Drugs, and Medicosurgical Equipment committee of FOGSI. She was the organizing secretary of the All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, AICOG 2013, Mumbai-one of the largest medical conferences in free India attended by more than 10,000 delegates.

Dr Pai is among the first doctors in India to start the procedure of uterine balloon ablation therapy for heavy bleeding. She is one of the first in Asia to offer a non-surgical treatment for the common problem of fibroids, using MRI guided ultrasound. She was one of the first in India to start and teach other gynaecologists the use of abortion pills.

She also holds the distinction of having delivered a 60-year-old woman’s baby, one of the oldest patients in India. She, along with her husband Dr Hrishikesh Pai, has had the fortune of treating thousands of infertile couples and helped them to have their own child.

Carl Muller (1935- ) is an unusual man. He is no academic; kicked out of three schools, he never went to university and served in the Royal Ceylon Navy, the Ceylon Army and the Port of Colombo as a pilot station signalman. In advertising briefly, he was also involved in the travel trade, and donned the robes of an entertainer. A pianist and a journalist, Carl Muller has a large number of published titles, ranging from poetry to science fiction, under his belt. His ‘Burgher novels’ earned him special acclaim, especially the first one, The Jam Fruit Tree, which won the Gratiaen Memorial Prize, 1993, for the best work of English literature by a Sri Lankan. He has also won the State Literary Award for his historical novel, Children of the Lion, the first book in this series. He lives with his wife, Sortain, in Kandy.

“L. Subramani is currently Senior Subeditor with Deccan Herald (The Printers Mysore Ltd) in Bangalore. He was affected with Retinitis Pigmentosa aged 18 and had to experience gradual loss of vision in two years, though the drastic vision reduction happened in a six month period, leaving him totally blind in the end. He is currently involved in setting up a support system for patients having rare disease or who experience progressive or sudden vision loss. He is doing this with the help of fellow RP patients and other social workers. He haspledged a portion of the proceeds of this book to his new initiative.”

Dr Seema Hingoranny is the country’s leading clinical psychologist and relationship and EMDR therapist. She is also the author of Beating the Blues: a complete guide to overcoming depression. She deals with patients battling with loneliness and depression and provides counselling to a host of people ranging from married couples, children, and housewives to models, celebrities and drug- and alcohol-abused patients. She writes regularly for leading dailies like DNA, the Times of India, and Mumbai Mirror, providing expert advice on such issues. She resides in Mumbai, India.

You can contact her at seemahingorany@gmail.com

Vesna P. Jacob, the spirit behind Vesna’s Wellness Clinic is a Bosnian who made New Delhi her home some eight years back. She has established herself as a premier Pilates, fitness, and wellness expert with a long list of the glitterati of Delhi’s political, social, and corporate spheres. As a fitness expert, she has made an appearance on many TV channels like CNN IBN, NDTV, Headlines Today, Times Now, VOI, and Sahara TV. She is also a prolific writer. Her articles have been published in Hindustan Times, Sananda, Men’s Health, and Prevention. Work it Out Without a Workout is her debut book.

Chitrita Banerji grew in Calcutta, studied at Harvard University, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of several books on the food history of Bengal and India. Mirror City is her first novel.

Swami Vishnudevananda (1927 -1993), a disciple of Swami Sivananda, was the founder of the International Sivananda yoga Vedanta Centres. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachres’ Training Course, a unique program in the West at the time. His book The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga is considered to be the bible for yoga practitioners. Swami Vishnudevananda was a Karma Yogi and a peace actvist who flew on several ‘peace flights’ over places of conflict, bombarding war-torn areas with flowers and pamphlets while repeating the peace Mantra: Om Namo Narayanaya.