Archives: Authors

Sreekumari Ramachandran is a Malayalam–language novelist, short story writer, orator, columnist, trained dancer and an accomplished singer from Kerala, India.

Nandita Rajhansa works for Marcellus Investment Managers. She completed her postgraduate studies in economics from Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics. An intuitive problem-solver, Nandita enjoys reading books and articles of multiple genres. She is passionate about finding solutions to real-world problems.

Akshita Nanda is the author of the novels Beauty Queens of Bishan and Nimita’s Place. Her debut, Nimita’s Place, was adapted for the stage in 2019 by Singapore arts group T:>Works and in 2020 co-won the prestigious Singapore Literature Prize for English fiction. She also writes non-fiction as a journalist and analyst interested in health, migration and the ocean.

Acclaimed writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqui is also modern Urdu’s most celebrated critic. He was editor and publisher of the highly regarded literary journal Shabkhoon and is the author of a landmark four-volume study of the poet Mir Taqi Mir, and another four-volume work on Urdu’s immense oral romance, Dastan-e Amir Hamza. He received the prestigious Saraswati Samman in 1996 for his contribution to Urdu literature. He also has a novel to his credit, The Mirror of Beauty, originally published in Urdu to
huge acclaim. He is also the recipient of a Padma Shri.

Salma Husain is a food historian, author and Persian scholar. She uses Persia to explore the history of the cuisines cooked and eaten during the Mughal era. She has worked with Indian and international television channels on different perspectives and aspects relating to the history of food. In 2009, her book, The Emperor’s Table: The Art of the Mughal Cuisine received the National Tourism Award from the Vice President of India, as well as the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the same year, from Paris. She worked as consultant on Indian food for the ITC Group of Hotels for a number of years. Her most recent work is a heritage volume, tracing the history of dining and entertainment at Rashtrapati Bhavan, titled Around India’s First Table.
At present, she contributes stories on food culture and history for the Urdu division of the BBC. She is the author of a number of books on food: The Pull of Pulses, 50 Great Sherbets of India, Flavours of Avadh and Islamic Food with a Healing Touch (published by Roli Books). Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, published under the title The Mughal Feast, contains translated recipes from the reign of Shah Jahan.

Aditya Iyer writes travel, sports and human-interest features for Open Magazine. He began his journalism career with the Indian Express, where he covered cricket World Cups, football World Cups and Grand Slam tennis. He lives in New Delhi. This is his first book.

Shehla Rashid is an academic, with research interests in Technology & Politics. She is also one of the well-known youth faces in politics and activism in India. The first Kashmiri woman to be elected as an office-bearer of JNU Students’ Union in 2015, she was a popular student leader. She cares deeply about the condition of Indian Muslims and hopes to make a change.

Nayantara Violet Alva grew up in Delhi and Bengaluru and resides in Mumbai. She graduated from Ashoka University in 2019. Since then, she’s worked as a producer on hit shows such as Anupama at Disney-Star and is currently producing original OTT shows for JioCinema. Inspired by her college life, Liberal Hearts is her attempt at writing complex and nuanced themes in a funny and accessible form.

Vivek Gambhir brings over thirty years in transformative leadership across consumer goods, technology, consulting and investing. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he has had the opportunity to contribute in diverse roles, including being part of the founding team of Bain & Co. India, managing director of Godrej Consumer Products and CEO of boAt Lifestyle. In addition to serving on several boards, Vivek is currently a venture partner at Lightspeed India, where he focuses on supporting entrepreneurs and scaling businesses. He is passionate about mentoring young professionals and shares his insights on his blog, www.monday-8am.com. Connect with Vivek at vivekgambhir@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-gambhir-b955a836/.