Archives: Authors

Gurcharan Das is one of India’s foremost authors and public intellectuals. He graduated in philosophy with honors from Harvard University and was awarded Phi Beta Kappa for ‘high attainments in liberal scholarship’. After a successful business career – as CEO, Procter & Gamble India and Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning) – he retired at age 50 to pursue a literary career. As a writer, he went on to shape global understanding of India’s rise and its civilizational inheritance. Through books, plays, and widely read newspaper columns, he influenced public discourse relating to India’s growth story.
The cornerstone of his literary contribution is a monumental quartet on the four classical Indian aims of life, which he uniquely interprets as a timeless ideal of human flourishing for the contemporary world. His masterwork, India Unbound, addressed the aim of artha (material well-being). It was the first book to predict India’s economic rise following historic 1991 reforms, providing an anxious nation with a confident narrative of aspiration. Celebrated internationally — The Guardian termed it “a quiet earthquake”; Washington Post said it was an “eye-opener”; the New York Times wrote, “something tremendous is happening in India and Das has his finger on the pulse of the transformation,” and Amartya Sen, the Nobel prize winner, called it a “wonderful book.”
The second volume of the quartet, The Difficulty of Being Good, offered the civilizational ideal of dharma as a contemporary compass to navigate the moral life, and introduced global audiences to the epic, Mahabharata, as a source of ethical reflection. The book earned praise from Indian and foreign media and world-renowned scholars: the philosopher, Martha Nussbaum, called it “one of the best things I have read about the contribution of great literature to ethical thought”; the Indologist, David Shulman, described the work as “a miracle”; the renowned Sanskritist, Sheldon Pollock, wrote, “This superb book is knowledgeable, passionate, and courageous.” It has become a text at universities and a Case Study at Harvard Business School.
He completed the quartet with Kama: The Riddle of Desire, which shows how to cherish desire in order to live a flourishing, pleasureful life and Another Sort of Freedom, which describes his lifelong struggle to give meaning and purpose to life, while offering a secular take on the final goal of moksha.
Alongside these works, his incisive critique of governance, India Grows at Night, was recognized by London’s Financial Times as “one of the best books of 2013”, further cementing his reputation as a premier analyst of the Indian state and society. He has also written a novel, A Fine Family; a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and an anthology, Three Plays. His latest work is a political essay, and The Dilemma of the Indian Liberal. He has also edited for Penguin a 17-volume economic and business history of India. He lives in Delhi with his wife.

Sophia Naz is a bilingual poet, essayist, author, editor and translator. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, in 2016 for creative non-fiction and in 2018 for poetry. Her work has been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Naz is a regular contributor to Dawn, poetry editor and columnist at The Sunflower Collective, as well as the founder of rekhti.org, a site dedicated to contemporary Urdu poetry by women. Her poetry collections are Peripheries (2015), Pointillism (2017) and Date Palms (2017). Her website is SophiaNaz.com

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1894-1950) was one of Bengali writers greatest writers. His best known work is the autobiographical novel Pather Panchali, now published in Penguin Modern Classics in a new translation. This novel and its sequel, Aparajito, have been translated into several languages and also inspired Satyajit Ray’s iconic and award-winning cinematic trilogy. Badyopadhyay was posthumously awarded the Rabindra Puruskar in 1951, the most prestigious literary award in West Bengal, for his novel Ichamati.

Arun Mohan Sukumar is a PhD candidate at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a junior fellow at the school’s Centre for International Law and Governance. He heads the Technology Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

Matt Reeck (Translator)
Matt Reeck is a writer and translator. His poetry and his translations have been published in many national magazines. He won a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to India, and he has received PEN and NEA translation grants for upcoming work from the Urdu. He is married and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Ritu Sarin is executive editor (investigations) at the Indian Express. One of India’s most renowned investigative reporters, she has received several awards for her work. A member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for two decades, Sarin participated in most of ICIJ’s global collaborations. She is the author of The Assassination of Indira Gandhi (1990).

Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter with the Indian Express. His work on environment and development has impacted a number of policy decisions at the highest levels, and has been recognized by several awards. Mazoomdaar is the author of The Age of Endlings (2016). He also writes on offshore finance.

P. Vaidyanathan Iyer is executive editor (national affairs) at the Indian Express. He writes on the political economy and his work has won several awards. An Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Iyer is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He dotes on his son, Yajas.

Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter with the Indian Express. His work on environment and development has impacted a number of policy decisions at the highest levels, and has been recognized by several awards. Mazoomdaar is the author of The Age of Endlings (2016). He also writes on offshore finance.

P. Vaidyanathan Iyer is executive editor (national affairs) at the Indian Express. He writes on the political economy and his work has won several awards. An Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Iyer is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He dotes on his son, Yajas.

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.