HEATHER SANCHE has been an early childhood educator, teacher trainer, and author for twenty-five years. Her work experience is in mainstream, Waldorf, and Montessori pedagogical approaches, including ten years teaching and living in Asia.
Heather has been a practicing Buddhist since 1994. In 2007 she took temporary ordination within the Pau Auk tradition and lived in a forest monastery near Mawlamyine, Myanmar. From 2008 to 2012 she completed a traditional three-year meditation retreat.
LAURA BURGES (Ryuko Eitai) is a lay entrusted Buddhist teacher in the Soto Zen tradition. She lectures, offers classes, and leads retreats at the San Francisco Zen Center and at other practice places in Northern California. She is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Laura taught children for 35 years and now mentors other teachers.
Ganesh Krishnan is a seasoned entrepreneur with a proven track record of launching and exiting successful ventures. He is founder and partner at GrowthStory.in, a leading venture builder platform that incubates and promotes new ventures and entrepreneurs. Currently, the companies under GrowthStory employ over 25,000 personnel and are valued at over $4.5 bn. Ganesh is promoter and founder director of BigBasket, Portea Medical, Bluestone, HomeLane, and other new-age tech companies. He has been actively involved in guiding these companies in areas of strategy, fundraising, technology, scaling, and governance.
Sanghamitra Chakraborty is a journalist and editor. In a career spanning thirty years, she has been the editor of India Today Group magazines Reader’s Digest, Prevention and Women’s Health, and worked at several other leading publications at the start of her career, including the Times of India, Outlook, the Statesman and Sunday, writing on cinema, gender, health and environment, apart from news reporting. She lives and works in New Delhi.
Akshara Ashok is an Illustrator and the creator of Happy Fluff Comics (She could’ve thought of a better name). She draws about some really serious stuff in a funny way. She discusses everything from silly everyday problems to body image, sex education, mental health and much more. Akshara started making comics in 2017 when a mean professor yelled at her in architecture school and has made it her career ever since. Her goal is to help break taboos and stereotypes seen in society. She likes chonky animals, nuggets and lying in bed. She lives in Chennai with her sweet pug, two very grumpy cats and crippling anxiety.
Ramjee Chandran is a journalist, author and media entrepreneur with decades of experience. He is the host of The Literary City podcast—on literature and books, featuring guests who include acclaimed authors; and The History of Bangalore podcast about the rich history of his home city, Bangalore.
He is currently working on his second book, The History of Bangalore—a scholarly work crafted as narrative history. This meticulously researched account spans the region’s deep-rooted past, beginning in prehistoric times and tracing through epochs of transformation and cultural significance, traversing across its colonial heritage.
Mitra Phukan is a writer, translator, columnist and trained Shastriya Sangeet vocalist. Her seventeen published works include four children’s books, two biographies, and several novels and short story collections. She has recently selected and edited The Greatest Assamese Stories Ever Told and her column “All Things Considered” is very widely read. She writes extensively on theatre, Indian music and dance. Among her awards are the Katha Award for Translation also.
