Archives: Authors

Nayanika Mahtani once harboured dreams of becoming a stage actor, but she followed the proverbial left side of her brain to do an MBA at IIM Bangalore and became an investment banker. A decade later, she followed her heart to live in Africa. Since then, she’s been following the right side of her brain and is now an author and screenwriter. Nayanika’s books include Across the Line, Ambushed and The Gory Story of Genghis Khan (aka Don’t Mess with the Mongols). She has also recently co-written the story and screenplay for a Hindi film based on the extraordinary life of the mathematical genius, Shakuntala Devi. Nayanika lives in London with her family, their dog, hamster and two goldfish named Sushi and Fishfinger.

Leila Seth was the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court and the first women to be Chief Justice of a state in India. She retired as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh in 1992. She was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India and responsible for the report on Free and Compulsory Education of Children. She is involved in human rights activities and with a number of schools and colleges. She has a diplomatic in Montessori education. In 2003 her autobiography on Balance was published by penguin to much critical acclaim.

Kabir Taneja is a researcher and writer based in New Delhi. He is currently a Fellow with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). His work focuses on India’s relations with the Middle East, specifically looking at the security dimensions raised by transnational jihadist groups. His bylines and quotes appear regularly in national and international media.

Michelle Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Mrs. Obama started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She later worked in the Chicago mayor’s office, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Mrs. Obama also founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an organization that prepares young people for careers in public service. She is the author of the #1 global bestseller Becoming and the #1 national bestseller American Grown. The Obamas currently live in Washington, D.C., and have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Saibal Dasgupta has enjoyed a ringside view of major political and business changes in China during his work as a journalist in Beijing since 2005. He spent the previous three years working in Hong Kong and Singapore. He has worked as the China correspondent of The Times of India for over a dozen years besides writing for Voice of America and contributing to BBC’s Hindi and Urdu services. He also contributes research on China to think-tanks. He earlier represented several international publications including Asiamoney and Euromoney from Hong Kong and Singapore. In India, he has worked for the The Indian Express, The Statesman and Business Standard in New Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.

Rakesh Anand Bakshi is a scriptwriter and the author of Directors’ Diaries: The Road to Their First Film and Let’s Talk on Air: Conversations with Radio Presenters. He is an aspiring director and actor, and a swimming, cycling and gym enthusiast. Rakesh runs Bicycle Angels, a non-profit social initiative supported by friends that gives bicycles and wheelchairs to the underprivileged and teaches the visually impaired how to use a computer. He co-founded, with Kanika Kedia, I Adore You Diaries, which creates personalized diaries. He also authors a blog, Beautiful Bicycles Beautiful People, on cyclists, their rides and stories.

Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao was born in Karimnagar in the erstwhile state of Hyderabad in June 1921. After playing an active part in Hyderabad’s Independence movement, he served as a Congress minister in Andhra Pradesh, and became chief minister of the state in 1971. In 1977, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, and went on to hold several cabinet posts under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, including those of foreign minister and home minister. After Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, Rao was chosen to lead the Congress party, and became prime minister of India. Leading a minority government, Rao was the first prime minister from outside the Gandhi-Nehru family to serve out a full five-year term. His premiership is remembered for the liberalization of the Indian economy and the move towards free-market reforms. Rao resigned as Congress president after the party lost the 1996 general elections. He died in December 2004.

Dr Rekha Shetty PhD is a bestselling author and the founder of the Mindspower brand (www.mindspower.com). She is the managing director of Farstar Distribution Network Ltd, a consulting company working exclusively on innovation initiatives, happiness and work-life balance. She consults for some of the region’s foremost blue-chip companies and is keenly involved in social action for clean water and population-development issues. She is among the first women Rotary International governors in Asia and a recipient of the Rotary’s ‘Service above Self’ award. Her ideas are practised in over thirty countries. This is her eleventh book.

You can get in touch with Dr Rekha Shetty via email at rekhashetty123@gmail.com or rekha.shetty@mindspower.com; visit her blogs www.innovation90days.blogspot.com and www.thehappinessquotient123.blogspot.com; and join www.facebook.com/authorrekhashetty.

Aruni Kashyap is a writer and translator. He is the author of the novel The House with a Thousand Stories (Penguin Books, 2013). Aruni is also a translator from the Assamese, and wrote the introduction for celebrated writer Indira Goswami’s last work of fiction, The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar, for Zubaan Books (2013). He won the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for Creative Writing, the University of Edinburgh, in 2009, and his unpublished poetry collection, There Is No Good Time for Bad News, was a finalist for the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and the Four Way Books Levis Award in Poetry, both in 2018. His short stories, poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in various journals and anthologies, including The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India, the Kenyon Review, the New York Times, the Guardian, The Hindu, Joyland Magazine, Evergreen Review and others. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Georgia, Athens.

TARAN N. KHAN is a journalist and author based in Mumbai. She grew up in Aligarh and was educated in New Delhi and London. Her works have been widely published in India and internationally, including in Guernica, Al Jazeera, the Caravan and Himal Southasian. Her writing has also received support from the MacDowell
Colony, the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, among others. From 2006 to 2013, Khan spent long periods living and working in Kabul. Shadow City is her first book.