Archives: Authors

KALIDAS DESAI, born in a farming family of modest means in a village in Gujarat state, studied at Bombay’s celebrated Elphinstone College on a scholarship. He started teaching English literature in Surat at the M.T.B. College, which was managed by the philanthropic Savarjanik Education Society that sent him to Cambridge in 1926. He later served as the principal of the college.
PADMA DESAI is the Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems at Columbia University, New York. A leading scholar on the Russian economy, her publications include Conversations on Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin (2006), which was the Financial Times’ Pick of the Year in 2007, and From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery (2011). Her memoirs,Breaking Out: An Indian Woman’s American Journey, were published by Penguin/Viking in 2012, and subsequently brought out by the MIT Press. Her awards include the Padma Bhushan and an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College, USA. She is married to the economist Jagdish Bhagwati.

Janice Pariat is a writer from Shillong, India. Her work, including poetry, fiction and articles on art and culture, has featured in a wide number of national magazines and newspapers. She edits Pyrta, an online literary journal, and spends most of her time walking city streets in search of stories. This is her first book.

J DEVIKA is a feminist historian, social researcher and translator, currently with the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. She translates literary writing from Malayalam to English and social science writing from English to Malayalam. She has translated the literary writings of K.R. Meera, Sarah Joseph, Unni R., Ambikasuthan Mangad and Lalithambika Antharjanam, among others. Her website, www. swatantryavaadini.in, is a collection of translations of the writings of early twentieth century feminists in Malayalam-speaking regions.

As a member of the Indian Police Service, Kirpal Singh Dhillon served
as director general of police in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, and as
joint director, Central Bureau of Investigation, among other challenging
assignments. After retirement, he served a tenure as vice chancellor of
Bhopal University and has also been a hockey administrator and a human
rights advocate. He is the author of Defenders of the Establishment, Police and
Politics in India and Identity and Survival: Sikh Militancy in India 1978-1993,
and has written essays on the Indian Constitution, human rights, minority
issues and the Bhopal gas disaster. He is a fellow of the Indian Institute of
Advanced Study, Shimla.

Vandana Shah grew up in Ambala and moved to Mumbai as a teenager. She studied at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai and has since donned various hats including that of a model, a deejay and an advertising professional.
After being thrown out of her marital home with just the clothes on her back and Rs 750 in the bank, Vandana rebuilt her world and founded the first Indian support group to help people going through a divorce, 360 Degrees Back to Life. She has since come full circle from being a litigant to being a divorce lawyer and practices at the family court in Mumbai. Vandana writes a monthly column in the magazine, Black and White, Oman and she edits Ex-Files, India’s first divorce newsmagazine. She has also participated in the Lead India Programme and was the winner from Mumbai in 2010.
Vandana’s work for the cause of women going through divorce in India has resulted in a BBC documentary about her work, entitled Invisible Women of India. This was broadcast worldwide on international Women’s Day in 2014.