Archives: Authors

Devesh Verma was associated with TV journalism for over twenty-two years before he turned to fiction writing. In 2004, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his translation, from Urdu to Hindi, of Sakhtiyat, Pas-Sakhtiyat Aur Mashriqi Sheriyat, an important literary and cultural theory text. His first novel, The Politician, was published by Penguin Random House India in 2021.

Sarbpreet Singh, a writer, playwright, podcaster and commentator, is the author of Kultar’s Mime (2016), The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia (2019), The Night of the Restless Spirits (2020), The Story of the Sikhs: 1469–1708 (2021) and The Sufi’s Nightingale (2023). He is also the author of Jujhar Cheema, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, set in Punjab in the early 1990s. His podcast Story of the Sikhs, which has listeners in ninety countries and is currently in its fourth season, has an expansive sweep and has become a valuable resource for students of Sikh history. His work has been featured on the BBC and National Public Radio, and his commentary has appeared in several newspapers in the US, India and Pakistan. Sarbpreet Singh is also the founder of the Gurmat Sangeet Project, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of Sikh sacred music.

Raageshwari Loomba Swaroop is an actor, award-winning singer and MTV VJ. At the peak of her career, she was struck with Bell’s palsy. She recovered with the help of yoga and mindfulness. Her mindfulness career includes her work with her guru, Jack Canfield, an affirmation CD with the late Louise Hay, a Tibetan Rites documentary and performing at the Nobel Peace Centre. Raageshwari now lives in London and runs her mindfulness company, Unicorn World Events. She speaks at events for a number of global organizations on the power of the mind, and is also a guest speaker at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. She is also the host and curator of London’s AIM literary festival for children.

Padmashree Narendra Kohli is one of the most eminent and well-known Hindi writers of our times. His novel based on the Ram-Katha, Abhyuday, shifted the course of Hindi novel-writing. Another of his novels, Mahasamar, based on the Pandava-katha went on to become just as popular. His novel-series, Todo Kara Todo is considered the greatest and foremost novel in any language on the life of Swami Vivekananda. Abhigyan, Vasudev, Sharnam, Aatmaswikriti, Varunaputri, Sagar-Manthan, Ahalya etc. are his other well-known works. Apart from the Padmashree, he has also been awarded the Hindi Akademi award; Delhi Salaka Samman; Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthaan award; Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Samman, Lucknow; K.K. Birla Foundation award; Vyasa Samman, New Delhi; Madhya Pradesh government and Bhopal’s Maithili Sharan Gupt Rashtriya Samman, among numerous other honours.

Ruskin Bond, born in Kasauli in 1934, grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, which was written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas (including Vagrants in the Valley and A Flight of Pigeons) and more than forty books for children. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999, the Delhi government’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and Padma Bhushan in 2014 for his contribution to literature.

Ruskin lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his extended family.

Durjoy Datta was born in New Delhi, and completed a degree in engineering and business management before embarking on a writing career. His first book-Of Course I Love You . . .-was published when he was twenty-one years old and was an instant bestseller. His successive novels-Now That You’re Rich . . .; She Broke Up, I Didn’t! . . .; Oh Yes, I’m Single! . . .; You Were My Crush . . .; If It’s Not Forever . . .; Till the Last Breath . . .; Someone Like You; Hold My Hand; When Only Love Remains; World’s Best Boyfriend; The Girl of My Dreams; The Boy Who Loved; The Boy with the Broken Heart and The Perfect Us-have also found prominence on various bestseller lists, making him one of the highest-selling authors in India.
Durjoy also has to his credit nine television shows and has written over a thousand episodes for television. He lives in Mumbai. For more updates, you can follow him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/durjoydatta1) or Twitter (@durjoydatta) or mail him at durjoydatta@gmail.com.

Varud Gupta was bred for the business world, a past life spent studying finance at New York University and working as a consultant for Deloitte. And then a brusque millennial existential crisis sent him travelling (and eating) through the culinary cultures of the world. It was in documenting these odd jobs-from cheesemongering in NY to being an asador in Argentina-that his journey as a writer began. Obsessed with storytelling, Varud wrote his first book, Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan, which was a cookery-cum-travel narrative through the faiths and foods of India. The story of Chhotu represents the culmination of the first chapter on this existential path and the search for purpose in a world that can often feel so bleak.

Ayushi Rastogi was born into a family of artists, studying communication design at Pearl Academy followed by a deep dive into illustration and branding at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. It was her upbringing that instilled a need to seek social responsibility in her work; that the stories of art can also drive change. She’s created a board game for children with dyslexia, illustrated a children’s series that tackles topics of diversity and designed books that explore nature conservation, Delhi pollution and much, much more. And through Chhotu she aims to bring to life a fear that gnaws at our everyday lives.

Varud Gupta was bred for the business world, a past life spent studying finance at New York University and working as a consultant for Deloitte. And then a brusque millennial existential crisis sent him travelling (and eating) through the culinary cultures of the world. It was in documenting these odd jobs-from cheesemongering in NY to being an asador in Argentina-that his journey as a writer began. Obsessed with storytelling, Varud wrote his first book, Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan, which was a cookery-cum-travel narrative through the faiths and foods of India. The story of Chhotu represents the culmination of the first chapter on this existential path and the search for purpose in a world that can often feel so bleak.

Ayushi Rastogi was born into a family of artists, studying communication design at Pearl Academy followed by a deep dive into illustration and branding at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. It was her upbringing that instilled a need to seek social responsibility in her work; that the stories of art can also drive change. She’s created a board game for children with dyslexia, illustrated a children’s series that tackles topics of diversity and designed books that explore nature conservation, Delhi pollution and much, much more. And through Chhotu she aims to bring to life a fear that gnaws at our everyday lives.

She may have spent 19 long years as a journalist with leading publications but Harshikaa Udasi promises that none of those years have made her super serious. She still cracks jokes at all the wrong times. When she isn’t chasing her son for homework, food and other mommy obsessions, Harshikaa runs Book Trotters Club, a reading club for children, in Mumbai. And yes, she writes books! Her first, Kittu’s Very Mad Day, was shortlisted for the MAMI Word to Screen 2017 and won the prestigious FICCI Publishing Awards 2017 for the Best Children’s Book (English). She is also the author of I Absolutely Totally Instantly Have To Have A Dog and has contributed short stories to On Your Marks: The Book of Crazy Exam Stories and Flipped: Adventure Stories Ghost Stories.