Archives: Authors

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.

Aditya Sharma grew up in Sonipat, aspiring to be cricketer. When his not- so- distinguished cricket career went for a toss, he tsudied law at Delhi University and then practiced in his hometown for a couple of years – until he discovered that he wanted to be a writer. Aditya started by freelanceing for various national newspapers and magazines. When a weekly publication took him on as a journalist in New Delhi, he was more than relieved to be rescued from a lawyer’s drab life in the district courts. His articles and short stories have been published in The Hindu, THe Tribune, Sahara Time and Life Positive. Currently, he works as an editor with Reader’s Digest in Mumbai. He can be reached at aditya.devgarh@gmail.com.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was one of India’s most distinguished scientists, responsible for the development of India’s first satellite launch vehicle and the operationalization of strategic missiles. He was also the President of India between 2002 and 2007.

Salima Hashmi, the daughter of the Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, is an internationally renowned artist, curator, contemporary art historian and activist. She taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore for thirty years, four of them as Principal. She is also a Founding Dean of the School of Art and Design at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, where she is now Professor Emerita.

Salima has curated and produced catalogues for several exhibitions and written extensively on the arts in numerous publications. Among her publications are Unveiling the Visible – Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan and Memories, Myths, Mutations – Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan (co-authored with Yashodhara Dalmia). Her edited works include Two Loves – Faiz’s Letters from Jail and The Eye Still Seeks – Contemporary Art of Pakistan.

During the 1970s, Salima appeared in a series of highly popular television shows like Akkar Bakkar and Such Gup. She is a council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

David C. Buck (b. 1948) has been translating Tamil works into English since 1965. He has also studied Cittar and Saiva religion and philosophy, as well as Carnatic music on the veena. His publications include a number of collaborations with the late Dr K. Paramasivam, including a translation of Iraiyanar Akapporul with Nakkirar’s commentary, as well as some Sangam poetry. He has also published a translation, with comments, of Thirukkurraalak Kuravanci. More recently, he has published a number of translations from contemporary Tamil literature in collaboration with Kannan
M. of the French Institute in Pondicherry. David C. Buck is an Associate Professor Emeritus at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College in Kentucky, USA.

Kannan M. (b. 1968) heads the Programme on Contemporary Tamil Culture, Department of Indology, French Institute of Pondicherry.