Archives: Authors

Eunice de Souza taught English literature at St Xavier’s College, Bombay for over thirty years and retired as Head of the English Department. Her published works include four books of poems, four edited anthologies, and books for children. Her poems have been translated into Portuguese, Italian and Finnish. This is her second novel. Eunice de Souza lives in Bombay.

Anita Nair is a bestselling and widely acclaimed novelist. Among her several books, The Better Man, Ladies Coupé and Mistress have been translated into over thirty languages around the world. For her total contribution to children’s literature in English, she was awarded the Central Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013. She has also published Malabar Mind, a collection of poems, and Goodnight and God Bless, a collection of essays. A playwright, she has written the screenplay for the film adaptation of her novel Lessons in Forgetting, which won the 2012 National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in English.Anita conducts a creative-writing mentorship program in Bangalore called Anita’s Attic. To know more, visit her at www.anitanair.net and www.anitasattic.com or follow @anitanairauthor on Twitter and Instagram.

Manoj Joshi studied at St Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and Lucknow University. He received his PhD from the School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A professional journalist who has worked as a correspondent and columnist with The Hindu, the Times of India and the Economic Times, he was the Washington correspondent of the Financial Express in 1995-96. He was defence editor at India Today, editor (‘Views’) at Hindustan Times and the national affairs editor at Mail Today. Along with Robert Crunden and Chandrashekhar Rao he edited New Perspectives on America and South Asia (1984). He is the author of Kashmir 1947-1965: A Story Retold (2008). He has contributed chapters to several scholarly books on India’s defence and security, and lectured and written on the subject in professional institutions and journals in India and abroad. He has been a member of the National Security Council’s advisory board from 2004-07, and he was a member of the blue-ribbon National Security Task Force headed by Naresh Chandra from 2011-12. Joshi lives in New Delhi and is currently a distinguished fellow with the Observer Research Foundation.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the acclaimed author of seventeen novels, which include The Mistress of Spices and, most recently, One Amazing Thing. Her books have been translated into twenty-nine languages and two have been made into films. Divakaruni was born in Kolkata and moved to the United States for her graduate studies. She currently lives in Houston, Texas.

K.R. Meera started out as a journalist in 1998. She won a series of awards for her reportage till she quit to be a full-time writer of fiction in 2006. She has since published short stories, novels and essays, and has been recognized with some of the most prestigious prizes for literary writing in Malayalam including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award and the Odakkuzhal Award. She lives in Kottayam with her husband Dileep and daughter Shruthi.
A bilingual feminist scholar, J. Devika has translated Malayali women authors from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary writers like Sarah Joseph, Nalini Jameela, Anitha Thampi and V.M. Girija besides K.R. Meera.

Bipan Chandra, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, was born in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. He was educated at Forman Christian College, Lahore and at Stanford University, California. He was Professor of Modern History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. He was honoured as National Professor and was also the Chairperson of the National Book Trust. Professor Chandra has authored several books on nationalism, colonialism and communalism in modern India.

Puja Mehra is a New Delhi-based journalist. In a reporting career of over seventeen years, she has covered government, especially the finance ministry and other economic ministries, Planning Commission, its successor NITI Aayog, Prime Minister’s Office and Parliament. She won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in 2008 and 2009 for her stories on the impact of the Lehman Brothers’ collapse-triggered financial meltdown and the subsequent global economic downturn in India’s economy. She has been the economics editor of The Hindu. Puja received her MA in economics from Delhi School of Economics.

Rajdeep Sardesai is one of the country’s most recognized and respected journalists. In a career that started in 1988, he has been anchor, editor and columnist across TV and print. He was city editor of the Times of India in Mumbai at twenty-six, became the managing editor of NDTV and later set up the IBN 18 network, including CNN IBN, IBN 7 and IBN Lokmat. He is currently consulting editor to the India Today Group. A former president of the Editors Guild, Sardesai has won several national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, in 2008. He lives in Delhi with wife Sagarika, children Ishan and Tarini, and their beagle, Nemo. This is his first book.

Salman Anees Soz is an international development expert and an economic and political commentator. He is a former World Bank Group staff member with experience across a range of economic development issues in many countries around the world. He serves as a consultant to different World Bank teams and has in the past been a consultant at the Asian Development Bank. His professional interests include emerging market economics, political economy and South Asian politics. He writes op-eds for numerous media outlets. He is a member of the Indian National Congress and, as a party spokesperson, appears on television debates, focusing mostly on economic affairs. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Yale University (New Haven) and a master’s degree in economics from Northeastern University (Boston). He received a BA (Hons) in economics from St. Stephen’s College (Delhi), where he was elected president of the Students’ Union Society in 1992-93.

Ritu G. Mehrish is an executive coach and speaker with twenty years of corporate experience in companies such as Procter & Gamble, GE Capital and its spin-off, Genpact. Throughout her career, she has worked with, coached and conversed with leaders from diverse industries across the globe. In her most recent role, she ran a multimillion-dollar business vertical with 1000 people across eight countries and five continents. Her experience has, in fact, enabled her to bring in a pragmatic approach to leadership development.
Her client list-which includes Google, PayPal, Swiss Re, J.P. Morgan, Applied Materials, Intel, Knight Frank, Johnson & Johnson, AIA Group, Medtronic and Wharton Executive Education-highlights her expertise. Currently based in Singapore, she completed her bachelor’s degree in commerce from India and is a chartered certified accountant from the UK.