Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena (retd) is the first female Indian Air Force (IAF) officer to serve in the war zone. Long before the first female fighter pilots were commissioned into the IAF, she made history by flying a Cheetah helicopter in the Kargil War and rescuing several soldiers. Saxena was inspired to join the IAF by her father, who served in the Indian Army. As part of the family legacy, she decided to join the armed forces after completing her graduation from Delhi University’s Hansraj College. In 1994, she cleared her Services Selection Board (SSB) interview and joined the Air Force Academy in Dundigal. When the Kargil War broke out in 1999, she helped turn things in India’s favour, becoming one of the first women on the front line.
Kiran Nirvan is the pseudonym used by authors Kirandeep Singh and Nirvan Singh. Together they have authored two bestselling books-Nasteya: The Aryan Saga and 21 Kesaris: The Untold Story of the Battle of Saragarhi. The latter inspired the Akshay Kumar-starrer Kesari. Kirandeep Singh is the former head of the department of management studies, Global Institutes, Amritsar, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in the discipline. He began exploring his passion for writing in his teenage years and has authored more than a hundred poems, short stories, novels, song lyrics and couplets in both English and Punjabi. Nirvan Singh is a serving officer in the Indian Army, while also being an avid artist, writer and adventurer. It is his endeavour to write the stories of grit and determination, wisdom and valour, of men and women from the Indian armed forces, and other exemplary individuals of this nation.
Nilima Chitgopekar is an associate professor in the department of history at Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University. She has authored six books and several articles and essays on Hindu gods and other related matters. She has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, the Charles Wallace India Trust and USIS, and has lectured widely in India and overseas. Chitgopekar has also worked with the BBC and been featured in their documentaries and radio programmes. More recently, in her attempt to take Hindu mythology to a far larger audience, she has been involved in making several online films of her lectures, which have sold worldwide.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan people. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet.
SHASHI THAROOR is the bestselling author of twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a noted critic and columnist. His books include the pathbreaking satire The Great Indian Novel (1989), the classic India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), the bestselling An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, for which he won the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2016, for Books (Non-Fiction), and The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India. He has been Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. He is a three-time member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs the Parliament Information
Technology committee. He has won numerous literary awards, including a national Sahitya Akademi award, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honour for overseas Indians, in 2004, and honoured as New Age Politician of the Year (2010) by NDTV.
SHASHI THAROOR is the bestselling author of twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a noted critic and columnist. His books include the pathbreaking satire The Great Indian Novel (1989), the classic India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), the bestselling An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India, for which he won the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, 2016, for Books (Non-Fiction), and The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and His India. He has been Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. He is a three-time member of the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram and chairs the Parliament Information
Technology committee. He has won numerous literary awards, including a national Sahitya Akademi award, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s highest honour for overseas Indians, in 2004, and honoured as New Age Politician of the Year (2010) by NDTV.
Indira Kannan has over two decades of experience in print and television journalism. After starting her career with India Today, she joined Television18 (later Network18) in 1995. She worked with the media organization until 2011 in New Delhi and New York as a reporter, producer and presenter on shows for various channels including BBC World, Star Plus, CNBC-TV18 and CNN-IBN. She is currently a freelance writer, having contributed to several publications including The Quint, the India Today group, Business Standard and the Financial Express. A native of Chennai, she lives in Toronto with her husband, the journalist and author Anirudh Bhattacharyya.
Author photograph by Anirudh Bhattacharyya
Arfeen Khan is a world-renowned speaker, strategist and consultant. For almost twenty years he has helped over 200,000 people in thirty-four countries achieve personal and professional transformation. Arfeen has worked with an extensive range of people including CEOs, students, Bollywood celebrities and industrialists.
Sonia Golani is an alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, and a postgraduate from Delhi University. She has been managing her recruitment consulting firm, Management Consultants Group, for over a decade now. Her organization specializes in recruitment of professionals (MBAs and CAs) for the banking, financial services, insurance and FMCG sectors. Prior to starting her own enterprise, she was associated with the editorial and marketing of a leading agri-business magazine. Her passion for writing led her to write this book. Going forward, she intends to pen more books and devote time to golf, her other passion. Sonia lives in Mumbai and can be reached at soniagolani@mcgmumbai.com.
