Archives: Authors

Ashok Kumar Bal belongs to the 1983 batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and held various leadership positions in government, public sector, and corporates. He combines diverse experience across broad spectrum of activities and domains. He takes keen interest in history, heritage, and culture. He regularly writes for national dailies. His varied interests include history and heritage of Odisha which fascinated him to write the nationally acclaimed book Gajapati: A King Without a Kingdom. He writes in newspapers and journals on diverse issues like politics, economy, and religion. He regularly takes classes at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune. Currently, he is the CEO and patron of the Kalinga Literary Festival.

Leena Gupta is a transformational life coach, wellness expert, spiritual mentor and founder of Leena Gupta Inc. She has coached over 25,000 people across twenty-five countries spanning two decades. She has also been a senior international faculty with the Art of Living Foundation for over twenty-two years and a TEDx speaker who has addressed more than 1000 forums across the world, including numerous Fortune 500 companies.
Leena is an alumna of Smith College, Massachusetts, and has lived in several countries, including India, the US, the UK, Thailand and Hong Kong. This has helped her garner empathy and sensitivity to diverse cultures, perspectives, philosophies and languages. She is a former Miss India–America and has served as a cultural ambassador.