Archives: Authors

Vinit K. Bansal is a banker by profession and a writer by passion. Having edited and compiled the hugely successful Uff Ye Emotions series, he has also authored books like I Am Heartless and Soulmates, both of which became bestsellers.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi was high commissioner for India in South Africa (1996-97) and in Sri Lanka (2000-02), Secretary to the President of India (1997-2000) and Governor of West Bengal (2004-09). He has written a novel, Refuge, on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, a play in verse, Dara Shukoh, The Essential Gandhi, and Of a Certain Age, his biographical sketches on twenty notable Indians. More recently he has translated the Tamil classic Tirukkural and written Abolishing the Death Penalty.

Susan Hershberg Adelman, MD is an author, a paediatric surgeon and an artist. Born in Rochester, New York, she went to the University of Michigan to study geology. When she married a law student, Martin Adelman, she changed to pre-med, completing the classes while teaching geology at Wayne State University (WSU) and studying in the WSU art school. She graduated from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, secured an internship and surgery residency at Henry Ford Hospital, and a paediatric surgery fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
She was editor of the Detroit Medical News for seventeen years and wrote a monthly column in AMNews for ten years. Dr Adelman continues to paint, sculpt both marble and wood, and she has become a jeweller and silversmith, as seen on www.doctoradelman.com. She has travelled all over the world, collecting textiles, gemstones, art objects and beads.
Dr Adelman speaks French, Arabic and Hebrew and reads several other languages.

Gautaman Bhaskaran is a journalist and writer, having worked in two of India’s best-regarded daily newspapers, the Statesman and The Hindu, for thirty-five years. Now editor South Asia for The Seoul Times, he also writes for a variety of other publications across the globe. Bhaskaran teaches cinema at Manipal University and English at Chennai’s Loyola College.

Ashok Ferrey is the author of seven books, all of them variously nominated for the Gratiaen Prize (Sri Lanka’s premier literary prize), the State Literary Award and the DSC Prize. His last book, The Unmarriageable Man, went on to win the Gratiaen. His first book, Colpetty People, remains Sri Lanka’s top-selling book twenty years after its first publication. Former host of The Ashok Ferrey Show on Sri Lankan television, Ashok builds and renovates houses and is the only non-architect to have been nominated for a Geoffrey Bawa Award for Architectural Excellence – for his last building the Cricket Café in Colombo.

Born in Colombo, raised in East Africa, educated at a Benedictine monastery in the wilds of Sussex, Ashok Ferrey read Pure Maths at Christ Church Oxford, ending up (naturally) in Brixton, converting Victorian houses during the Thatcher Years.
He describes himself as a failed builder, indifferent mathematician, barman and personal trainer to the rich and infamous. His earlier Colpetty People and The Good Little Ceylonese Girl as well as Serendipity were shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize, Sri Lanka’s premier literary award.
Today Ferrey continues to design houses, and is a guest lecturer at the Sri Lanka Institute of Architecture. His hobbies include pushing the car when it’s out of petrol and de-ticking the dogs. Oh, and vegetable shopping at Raheema’s.

Gail Omvedt has an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been living in India since 1978, and was a senior fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. Among her numerous books focusing on social and economic issues are Buddhism in India (2003), Dalit Visions (1995), Dalits and the Democratic Revolution (1994), Reinventing Revolution (1993) and Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society (1966). She has also collaborated with Bharat Patnakar in translations from the Marathi into English.

Ashok Ferrey is the author of five books, all of them nominated either for Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize or its State Literary Award. His last book, The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons, was also longlisted for the DSC Prize. By day, he is a personal trainer.

Pankaj Bhadouria is the winner of MasterChef India Season 1. A school teacher who quit a job of sixteen years to participate in the first season of the show, she has hosted the TV shows Chef Pankaj Ka Zayka, Kifayati Kitchen, 3 Course with Pankaj, Rasoi se-Pankaj Bhadouria ke Saath Sales Ka Baazigar and Health in 100. She was the first MasterChef winner across the global franchise to write an official MasterChef cookbook. Pankaj has written two more cookery books, Barbie: I am a Chef and Chicken from My Kitchen.
Pankaj is the face of the brands Knorr, Brooke Bond Taaza (HUL), MasterChef Travels with Cox and Kings and Eastern Masalas, a leading spice brand from south India.
In August 2012, she launched the Pankaj Bhadouria Culinary Academy where she shares her love for the culinary arts with cooking enthusiasts, indulging in what she does best-teaching.