Archives: Authors

David Hardiman is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Warwick. He lived and worked in India for many years, and is a founding member of the Subaltern Studies group. He has written extensively on the history of the Indian nationalist movement, Gandhi, and Indian social history.

Sohaila Abdulali was born in Mumbai. She has a BA from Brandeis University in economics and sociology and an MA from Stanford University in communication. She is the author of two novels as well as children’s books and short stories. She lives in New York with her family.

Tania James’ debut novel Atlas of Unknowns was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian literature. She has also written the short-story collection Aerogrammes, and her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Freeman’s: The Future of New Writing, and One Story. The Tusk That Did the Damage was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Kurian John Melamparambil was born on 14 May 1954, the second son of Leelamma and the late M.V. John Melamparambil, a traditional business family of Thiruvalla in central Kerala, India.

He studied at M.G.M. High School, Thiruvalla, and after schooling, joined the pre-degree course in Mar Thoma College, Thiruvalla (1970-72). He completed his graduation and obtained an arts degree from Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum (1972-75), majoring in economics. He then moved to the Indore School of Social Work in Madhya Pradesh and obtained his postgraduate degree in social work in 1978. After that, he joined as an executive at Malayala Manorama, a Malayalam daily.

The sudden demise of Kurian John’s father, who passed away due to lack of proper treatment, made him commence the Melam Group of Companies to raise funds to help poor and needy patients through the Melam Foundation (MVJM Charities).

Kurian John has received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award and a Padma Shri in the field of social work from the Government of India.

For more details, please visit www.melamfoundation.org. The author can be contacted at kurianjohn@melamcharities.org.

Malashri Lal has to her credit fifteen books including In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology (Penguin 2009), Tagore and the Feminine: A Journey through Translations (Sage 2015), and Cosmopolitan Spaces: Indian Literature and Counterpoints of Modernity (Sahitya Akademi, 2018).

Sukrita Paul Kumar is a well-known poet and critic, who held the Aruna Asaf Ali Chair at the University of Delhi till recently. She has published several collections of poems and many critical books including Dream Catcher, Untitled, Without Margins, Folds of Silence and Narrating Partition.

Growing up in Mumbai and engaged in a techno-commercial world, Dipankar experienced a need to follow an inner voice that was urging him to embrace a spiritual change. He began his new avataara first as a sadhaka at the Yoga Institute and then as a monk in the Karma Kagyupt sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He was inspired by parallels between Tibetan Buddhist practices, Yoga Psychology and NLP. Apart from his forays into Eastern mystical traditions, Dipankar is certified in as a Trainer in the UK by John Seymour Associates. In 2011, he and his wife started Tushitta Creative an After School Enrichment program for children. In 2005 he was engaged by QAI Global Institute to incubate a Leadership and Behavioral (LaB) Process Practice.
He produced a feature documentary Mount of Excellence on the Palpung Monastic Seat which was an Indian selection at the Cannes Film Festival. He lives in Bangalore with his wife Anju and daughters Charu and Chitra and works at Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology as a faculty and research scholar.

Vesna P. Jacob, the spirit behind Vesna’s Wellness Clinic is a Bosnian who made New Delhi her home some eight years back. She has established herself as a premier pilates, fitness, and wellness expert with a long list of the glitterati of Delhi’s political, social, and corporate spheres. As a fitness expert, she has made an appearance on many TV channels like CNNIBN, NDTV, Headlines Today, Times Now, VOI, and Sahara TV. She is also a prolific writer. Her articles have been published in Hindustan Times, Sananda, Men’s Health and Prevention. Work it out without a Workout was her first book.

Bibek Debroy, a renowned economist, scholar and translator, is the Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

Debroy is a professor at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi. He has worked in academia, industry chambers, and for the government, including in leadership positions in the Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalising the Economy project and the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Debroy is the author of several books, papers, and articles. He holds degrees from Presidency College in Calcutta, the Delhi School of Economics, and Trinity College in Cambridge..

Hindol Sengupta is a multiple award-winning historian and author of twelve books including the prequel to Sing, Dance and Lead, the national bestseller Sing, Dance and Pray. His Being Hindu is the only book on Hinduism to ever win the Wilbur Award given by the Religion Communicators Council of America. He is professor of international relations at the O. P. Jindal Global University. He has also won the Valley of Words Award, the Kalinga Literature Festival Prize, the PSF prize, and the SKOCH award for his writing. He has been shortlisted for the Hayek Prize given by the Manhattan Institute in memory of the Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek. This is his thirteenth book.