Our Star Cast

Ameena Saiyid OBE is the Managing Director of Oxford University Press Pakistan, director and co-founder of the Karachi and Islamabad literature festivals, and co-founder of the children’s and the teachers’ literature festivals. She is the rst woman to be appointed head of a multinational in Pakistan, the rst woman to be elected President of the 150-year-old Overseas Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the rst Pakistani woman to be awarded the most excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Queen: the OBE was awarded in recognition of her services to women’s rights, education, intellectual property rights and Anglo-Pakistan relations. e government of France awarded her knighthood for her contribution to arts and literature.

Amit Khanna has worked in theatre, radio, television, journalism, lms and is a pioneer in the converged media space, and writes and lectures on media and culture.
He founded Reliance Entertainment and was its chairman from 2000 to 2013, and continues to be on the board of several Reliance Group companies. He started his lm career as an executive producer in Dev Anand’s Navketan in 1971. He has wri en lyrics for 400 lm and non- lm songs as well as a dozen award-winning feature lms scripts and documentaries. He pioneered business news and daily soaps on Indian television. In the 1980s, he wrote, directed and produced many critically acclaimed lms. He also directed India’s rst music video in 1984.Amit Khanna set up Plus Channel in 1990 and was its managing director and group editor from 1989 to 2000. He has also been on the governing councils of the lm institutes in Pune and Kolkata. He was the rst Indian to serve on the international Emmys Jury and has also been on the jury of lm festivals and other awards in India and abroad. He co-authored Encyclopedia Britannica’s Encyclopedia of Bollywood in 2003, and published Anant Raag: In nite Verse, a collection of his poetry in 2013.

Ashok Dilwali has been a professional photographer since 1971. He has been involved in all the departments of photography but his rst and foremost love is the Himalayas. He has trekked and travelled there extensively and has produced twenty-three books on the region. He now keeps himself busy with creative aspects of photography like night photography, infra-red photography and time lapse photography, although landscape photography continues to be his forte. He lives in New Delhi with his wife Manjula and has three children and ve grandchildren.

Avirook Sen is an independent journalist based in Gurgaon. He has been a reporter and editor for twenty- ve years, working in print, online and broadcast media. Sen launched the Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times as resident editor, has edited Mid-Day, and was executive editor of the news channel NewsX. He has wri en on a wide range of subjects from cricket to terrorism, and, most recently, crime. His work has appeared in India Today, Hindustan Times, Express Tribune (Pakistan), New Scientist, NDTV, DNA, Firstpost, Mumbai Mirror and a number of other prominent publications. His rst book, Looking for America (HarperCollins, 2010) was described by Vogue magazine as a ‘Kerouac-like’ travelogue. His bestselling second book, Aarushi (Penguin, 2015) has reignited a national debate on the criminal justice system, on media ethics, and Indian middle-class a itudes. e book has been described as ‘masterly’, ‘disturbing’, ‘meticulous’ and ‘explosive’. Ian Jack has said: Few accounts of modern India can match its compelling story and unforgiving light – it ma ers to the here and now as few books do. I found it unputdownable.’Sen is an ardent admirer of Capote and Hitchens, and even more so of Hunter ompson. He is also greatly inspired by Fela Kuti, the (late) Nigerian musician, whose line ‘I no be gentleman at all’ resonates with him. Sen was born and raised in Calcu a.

B.N. Goswamy is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. His work covers a wide range and is regarded, especially in the area of Indian painting, as having in uenced much thinking. Among the honours he has received are the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Rietberg Award for Outstanding Research in Art History, the Padma Shri (1998) and the Padma Bhushan (2008). Professor Goswamy has wri en extensively and among his most admired books are Essence of Indian Art (1986); Pahari Masters (1992); Nainsukh of Guler (1997), and the most recent, e Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works (2014).

Barkhaa Roy comes from an illustrious lm family. She started her career at a young age and produced several feature lms including the blockbuster Sanam Teri Kasam. She also produced shows for mainstream television. She is the co-author of a biography of the legendary actress, Meena Kumari, and is presently working on a feature lm based on it. She is also working on a docu-feature on the iconic writer Amrita

Bhaichand Patel was on the sta of the United Nations at its headquarters in New York for twenty-six years and retired as Director. In August this year he was the president of the jury that gave the International Critics Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. He is the author of four books: Chasing the Good Life, Penguin Book of Cocktails,Superstars of Bollywood and a best-selling novel, Mothers, Lovers and Strangers. In one of his last published interviews, Khushwant Singh said that Bhaichand Patel was one of his three favourite writers.

Bob Rupani is one of India’s most senior and respected auto journalists. He has edited magazines such as Car & Bike International, Auto Motor & Sport, BBC Top Gear India and Auto India. Presently he is consulting editor ofOverdrive Auto Media. He has authored the bestseller Driving Holidays in India and other acclaimed books likeMore Driving Holidays in India; India’s 100 Best Destinations; Tracking the Tiger: 50 Days in India’s Best Tiger Reserves; Living the Royal Life and e Royal Udaipur Rolls-Royce. He has also co-authored a book on Mercedes-Benz, called Story of the Star in India, with Gautam Sen. Rupani has successfully participated in several races and rallies and is a founder member of the prestigious ICOTY (Indian Car of the Year) award. He is also currently the chairman of the jury.

Bobby Bedi has produced feature lms (Bandit Queen, Fire, Saathiya, Maqbool, Mangal Pandey, Train to Pakistan) and wri en as well as directed documentaries (Kehta Hai Joker, on the life of Raj Kapoor) Ladkiyan (six short stories on the girl child). His rst feature screenplay, Laajo, was based on Ismat Chugtai’s ‘Gharwali’. Bobby has been on the governing and academic councils of the FTII and is frequently invited to speak on IPR and Anti-piracy forums including WIPO.

Cdr Dilip Donde In 2010 Cdr Dilip Donde sailed into Indian maritime history by successfully completing the rst solo circumnavigation under sail by an Indian in an Indian- built boat. Five years later he published his book e First Indian which chronicled his progress over four years, from building a suitable boat with an Indian boat-builder, weaving his way through a ‹sea-blind› and o en quixotic bureaucracy, training himself with no precedent or knowledge base in the country around the world. On completion of his path- breaking voyage, and nally sailing solo he continued sailing and grooming the next generation. He participated in two races from Cape Town to Rio and, more recently, the Transatlantic race 2015. He is the recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, the Shaurya Chakra, the MacGregor Medal and the National Maritime Achievement Award.

Dr Farokh Erach Udwadia is a legend in the eld of medicine. He is patron and president of several medical bodies and is the youngest Indian to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, at the age of 38. He was also a Master Fellow of the International and American College Chest Physicians in 1997 – the only Indian and second Asian to be conferred this award. In 1977 he was appointed consultant physician to the Governor of Maharashtra. Dr Udwadia is the author of several highly acclaimed medical books, as also books on medicine that would interest a layperson. Some of these are Man and Medicine: A History, Bedside Clinics in Medicine and e Forgo en Art of Healing and Other Essays. He has contributed to several international text books on medicine and over y international and national journals. He is also the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Padma Bhushan, Giants International Award for Excellence and Dhanvantari Award.

Dr Farooq Abdullah has served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir many times since 1982. He was a Cabinet minister in the UPA government and in 2002 he became a member of the Rajya Sabha. He is also the president of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, a state political party that was founded in 1937. He was honoured with the B.C. Roy National Award in 1999.

Dr Kalpana Sahni is a scholar who has authored many books on literature and culture. She is known for her research work on Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Russian Orientalism and cross- cultural studies. Professor Sahni was the head of the centre of Russian studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Dr Pankaj Singh Academic, critic, editor and translator, Pankaj K. Singh retired as Professor of English from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. A former fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, she has been a visiting fellow at several universities abroad, and has published extensively on gender issues, modern drama, new literatures, cultural studies and translation. Founding editor of Indian Journal of Australian Studies, she has translated works by Bhisham Sahni, Balwant Gargi, Atamjit, Rashmi Bajaj and others into English. She has recently completed a Hindi translation of Bhisham Sahni’s literary autobiography in Punjabi, Meri Sahit Yatra.

Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a well-known writer, critic and literary historian. She is best known for a much-acclaimed book on Delhi’s lesser-known monuments called Invisible City: e hidden Monuments of India and a well-received collection of short stories, called Release and Other Stories. Her PhD.
on the Progressive Writers’ Movement as Re ected in Urdu Literature has been published by Oxford University Press as Liking Progress, Loving Change. Her translations of short stories by Premchand and Intizar Husain have been published as e Temple and the Mosque and e Death of Sheherzad respectively. Rakhshanda Jalil runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.

Dr Sumita Misra was born and studied in Lucknow. A er a masters in economics from Lucknow University, she joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1990. She has been serving in various administrative positions in Haryana since then. Poetry, in English, Urdu and Hindi, has been an abiding love. Her poems have been published in leading popular and literary journals. Her rst book of poetry A Life of Light was published in 2011 with a foreword by Khushwant Singh. The language and sensibilities of her hometown Lucknow surfaced in Zara si Dhoop, her second book of poems, in Urdu and Hindi. She is the founder chairperson of the Chandigarh Literary Society and the director of Literati, the Chandigarh Litfest organized ever year in November by the Chandigarh Literary Society. She is currently Principal Secretary, Departments of Tourism and Science & Technology, Government of Haryana. Travel, environmental protection, gender and photography are other interests. Her next books Petrichor and Other Poems and Andekhe Khwaab are likely to be published in early 2016. She lives in Chandigarh with her husband Paramjeit and two college- going daughters.

Fahad Samar is the bestselling author of Scandal Point and Flash Point, the rst two novels in his Mumbai trilogy published by HarperCollins in 2014 and 2015. He studied at Bombay International School and at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, from where he graduated with a degree in English literature. He began his career as a lmmaker with Merchant-Ivory Productions in 1987. In 1993, Fahad established his company, Bombay Talkie, and has since wri en, directed and produced scores of commercials, documentaries, corporate lms and TV shows. A pioneer in youth culture programming in India, he has directed cult TV shows like BPL OYE!, Superhit Muqabla and e Poppadum Show. Fahad is a well-known social commentator and has regularly contributed columns to the Mumbai Mirror, DNAand the Indian Express over the past ten years. He also writes on food, wine and travel for Upper Crust magazine. his articles and essays have appeared in Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Conde Nast Traveller among other publications. He is also a lm critic and presents a weekly TV show, Friday Double Bill, on NDTV Prime and Filmology with Fahad Samar on Radio One 94.3FM. Fahad lives in Mumbai with his wife, Simone Singh.

General V.P. Malik was Chief of the Indian Army from 1 Oct 1997 to 30 September 2000. Concurrently, he was Chairman, Chiefs of Sta Commi ee of India from 1 January 1999 to 30 September 2000. He coordinated and oversaw the planning and execution of Operation Vijay to successfully defeat Pakistan’s a empted intrusion in Kargil sector in 1999. General Malik was awarded the Param Vishishta Seva Medal for distinguished services in 1996; ‘Excellence in Leadership’ award by Atur Foundation, Pune; ‘Distinguished Fellowship’ by the Institute of Directors, New Delhi; and ‘Pride of the Nation’ award by Doon Citizens’ Council in July 2000.

Apart from writing ‘opinion’ columns in newspapers and professional magazines, he has wri en several papers on defence planning and security issues and authored two books: Kargil: From Surprise to Victory and India’s Military Con icts and Diplomacy: An Inside View of Decision Making (both published by HarperCollins India). Post retirement, he was nominated as a member of the National Security Advisory Board for two terms. He is also on the board of some well-known multinational companies as an advisor/independent director.

Govind Nihalani is one of India’s best-known cinematographers and lm makers. He has to his credit seventeen feature lms as Director-Cinematographer including Aakrosh, Ardh Satya, Tamas, Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa, Deham and Dev. His lms have won twelve National Awards in various categories in addition to several awards at international lm festivals. Tamas alone received three national awards including the Nargis Du Award for the best lm on national integration. Nihalani received the National Award for the best cinematography for his work on Junoon by lm-maker Shyam Benegal.

He was also the second unit director and cameraman on Richard A enborough’s lm Gandhi. He has served as a member of the feature lm jury at Montreal, Pyong Yang and Damascus, the Bangkok International Film Festival and Laddakh International Film Festival. His current production is an animated (CGI, 3D) feature lm Kamlu, which is wri en, produced and directed by him. In 2002, he was conferred the Padmashri by the President of India for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.

J.D. Ghai Born in 1968 in Ludhiana, Jiwandeep Singh Ghai did his B.Com from Panjab University, Chandigarh and his MBA from Punjabi University, Patiala. His passion for humour motivated him to found SantaBanta.com in the year 1999. His dedication and perseverance have made SantaBanta.Com one of the top entertainment portals in the world, enjoying more than 150 million monthly page views. Currently, he is the Chairman and CEO of SantaBanta.com Ltd as well as of several other companies.

Jatin Das studied art at Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai.
He has held 68 one-man shows and participated in group exhibitions in India and overseas. He participated in Paris Biennale, 1971, Venice Biennale, 1978 and India Triennale, 1971, 1976 and 1978. He has executed many murals and sculptures and set up the JD Centre of Art in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 1997. His large collection of hand fans (pankha) will be donated to the proposed National Pankha Museum in Delhi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2012.

Javed Akhtar is easily India’s best-known script writer, lyricist and poet. He has won several national lm awards as well as seven Filmfare awards. He has also been honoured with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan by the President of India. He has published several bestselling collections of poetry including Tarkash, Quiver and In His Own Words. In 2013, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection Lava.

John Elliott is a former Financial Times journalist, who has been in South Asia for over twenty years and also wri en for e Economist, the New Statesman, and Fortune magazine. His prize-winning book Implosion: India’s Tryst with Reality has been issued as an updated 2015 paperback, and will soon be available world-wide. Based in New Delhi, he writes a blog on South Asia current a airs called ‘Riding the Elephant’ that also appears on the websites of Newsweek (US), Independent (UK), and Asia Sentinel (Hong Kong).

Juggi Bhasin was one of the rst television journalists
in India and has landmark coverage to his credit including the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the coverage of the worst period in Kashmir’s militancy and insurgency. He was the lead anchor for Lok Sabha TV when it was rst launched. He made his debut as a writer in 2012 with the critically acclaimed and successful thriller, e Terrorist, which was followed a year later by e Avenger, both published by Penguin India. Blood Song is his third book in the series. Juggi Bhasin is also a stage actor.

Kamla K. Kapur was born and raised in India and studied in the US. Her writing has included plays, novels, poetry, essays and reimaging Indian spiritual writings. Her critically acclaimed books include Ganesha Goes to Lunch: Classics om Mystic India (2007, Mandala, USA; retitled Classic Tales om Mystic India, Jaico Publishing, 2013); Rumi’s Tales om the Silk Road, Pilgrimage to Paradise (Mandala, USA and Penguin India, 2009). Her new book, e Singing Guru, on the legends of Guru Nanak, was published by Mandala in 2015. Her highly praised books of poetry are As a Fountain in a Garden (Tarang Press, 2005) and Radha Sings (Dark Child Press, 1987). In 1977 she won the Sultan Padamsee Award for two of her plays: the second prize in the full-length category for Kaamiya, and the rst prize in the one-act category for Zanana. e New Mexico Arts Division selected her as the Playwright in Residence for two years in 1985.

Khurshid Kasuri was foreign minister of Pakistan
for ve years from November 2002 to November 2007. He believes in a pluralistic, progressive and inclusive Pakistan and resigned when the former PML(N) government announced the 15th Amendment/Shariat Bill which negated those values. Maximum progress was made on the peace process with India during his tenure, including a back channel formula on Kashmir. He is currently Chairman Kashmir Commi Tehreek-e-Insaf and has just launched his book on Pakistan’s foreign policy, Neither A Hawk, Nor A Dove.

Malavika Sangghvi is a journalist, editor, author
and columnist with over three decades of experience in the media. She has edited some of the country’s largest circulated newspapers and wri en for its most respected international journals like the New York Times and the Sunday Times (UK). She has been responsible for creating a number of media trends in the process, and has been regarded as a pioneer in lifestyle journalism. She has been on the founding team of papers such as Midday, e Bombay Times and DNA.
Spirited Souls, her book on Mumbai’s outstanding women, was commissioned by the Indian Merchants’ Chamber. It pro led over twenty exceptional women and is regarded as a benchmark on the subject. She has also edited a book on her mother’s iconic café, ‘ e Samovar’. She is a published poet and author and currently writes a popular daily weekday column for the Midday, ‘Malavika’s Mumbai’. She is also a consulting editor for Business Standard.

Mehr Tarar is a Pakistani journalist.
A graduate of West Virginia University, she is the author of Leaves From Lahore.

Namita Gokhale is a writer, publisher and festival director. She has wri en twelve books including seven works of ction including Paro: Dreams of Passion, Gods Graves and Grandmother, A Himalayan Love Story, e Book of Shadows, Shakuntala: the Play of Memory, and Priya In Incredible Indyaa. She has wri en extensively on Indian mythology including the landmark anthology, In Search of Sita, e Book of Shiva and e Mahabharata for young readers. Gokhale is passionately

concerned with showcasing the Indian languages. She is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival and of Mountain Echoes: the Bhutan Literary Festival.

Paran Dulat (A S dulat) Amarjit Singh Dulat is the author of the recent bestseller, Kashmir: e Vajpayee Years. He served as the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s spy agency, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He later joined Vajpayee’s Prime Minister’s O ce (PMO), where his job was to ‘monitor, manage and direct’ the government of India’s peace initiative in Kashmir. Dulat was born in Sialkot, Punjab, in December 1940. With India’s Partition, his father, Justice Shamsher Singh Dulat, ICS, was posted to Delhi. Dulat was educated at Bishop Co on School, Shimla, and Punjab University, Chandigarh, a er which he joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1965, and then the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1969, where he served for almost thirty years. At IB he headed the Kashmir Group during the turbulent 1990s till he joined and headed R&AW. Since leaving the government in 2004, he has been active on the track two circuit. During service, he accumulated a vast reservoir of goodwill with Kashmiris of all shades. As Jane’s Intelligence Digest put it in 2001, ‘Well known for his social skills, Dulat prefers dialogue to clandestine manoeuvres’.

Pradip Shah, the founder of Ind Asia, a corporate nance and investment advisory company, is a gold-medallist chartered accountant, management accountant and MBA from Harvard, who was involved in establishing HDFC, the rst retail housing nance company in India; CRISIL, the rst and largest credit rating agency in India; the Indocean Fund, a pioneer private equity fund; the AMP-IndAsia India Fund; Universal Trustees, for estate planning and trusts; and Grow-Trees.com, a social enterprise. He has served on several expert commi ees of state and central governments, and is chairman or director of various companies in India and abroad. He also sits on the governing boards of some non-profit organizations and chambers of commerce.

Prem Shankar Jha has been editor of the Financial Express and the Hindustan Times, economic editor of the
Times of India, columnist for e Hindu and Outlook, and correspondent of e Economist for India. He has wri en several books, notably India: A Political Economy of Stagnation (OUP 1980); Kashmir 1947: e Origins of a Dispute ( OUP, 2001); Twilight of the Nation State: Globalisation, Chaos and War (Sage, 2006) and Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger: Can China and India dominate the West? (Penguin, 2010). In 1990 he was media adviser to Prime Minister V.P Singh.

Prof. Harish Trivedi, former Professor of English at the University of Delhi, earlier taught at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and at the universities of Chicago and London. He is the author of Colonial Transactions: English Literature and India, and has also published on postcolonialism, translation studies, comparative literature and world literature. He translated a biography of Premchand from Hindi into English, and edited Tess by omas Hardy (Oxford University Press) and Kim by Kipling (Penguin Classics).

Ranvir Shorey is one of the more talented and versatile actors in the Hindi lm industry whose work has been appreciated by critics as well as the audience. As the son of a Hindi lm producer, he grew up on the fringes of the Mumbai lm industry. He has a diploma in lm/ video production from St Xavier’s Institute of Communication. He also holds a diploma in digital lm from the Digital Film Academy, New York, and studied acting at the Atlantic eatre Company, also in New York. He started his career in television as a video jockey on the immensely popular Channel [V]. erea er, he was one of the lead actors in e Great Indian Comedy Show on Star TV. He co-hosted the successful talk show Ranvir Vinay Aur Kaun..? He made his lm debut opposite Manisha Koirala in the lm Ek Chhoti si Love Story in 2002. His next lm, Jism, in which he had a supporting role, was a hit. It was not until 2006 that he got noticed in the comedy Khosla Ka Ghosla. e lm received much acclaim, and his role was praised by all. e same year, he played Nanoo in the comedy Pyaar Ke Side E e s and appeared in the successful Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. Subsequently he has acted with Madhuri Dixit; been in movies like Ugly Aur Pagli, the box o ce hit Singh Is Kinng, and Ek a Tiger along with Salman Khan, and many more.

Ravi Singh is the publishing director of Speaking Tiger Books. Before this, he was publisher and editor-in-chief, Penguin Books India and co-publisher, Aleph Book Company.

Rinki Roy Bhattacharya was born with cinema in her veins. Her journalistic journey began when she was in her twenties.

She led features on cinema, investigative reports about new wave directors, interviews with eminent lm makers and artists; Satyajit Ray, Costa Gavras, Carlo Ponti, Toshiro Mifune, Victor Bannerjee. She designed sets and costumes, subtitled lms by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen and Rituporno Ghosh. Her non- ction works include A Man of Silence, Behind Closed Doors, Janani, e Man Who Spoke in Pictures and Madhumati. In 1985 Rinki founded the HELP NGO to support women in distress and made a documentary Char Ddiwari on domestic violence. She is the founder chairperson of the Bimal Roy lm society.

Robin Gupta was a member of the Indian Administrative Service and retired as Financial Commissioner, Punjab. He is the author of And What Remains in the End.

Salman Khurshid is a lawyer and writer who has been elected to the Indian Parliament from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency. He became the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce in June 1991, and was Union Minister of State for External A airs from 1993 to 1996. He has authored several books, including At Home in India: A Restatement of Indian Muslims, If Winter Comes and Beyond Terrorism. He is president and chairman of numerous educational trusts such as Delhi Public School and Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust and College, and Member of the Governing Body, Mayo College.

Sanjeev Chopra is a civil servant with over thirty years’ experience at apex level positions in the state and central governments. Prior to joining the IAS, he worked for the
Times of India and e Economic Times. A recipient of the Hubert H Humphrey and McNamara Fellowships, he leads
the book readings at the Civil Services Institute, New Delhi. Very fond of reading and reviewing ooks, he writes regularly on development issues in leading Indian newspapers of the country.

Santosh Desai is an author, columnist and media critic. His rst book on contemporary India, Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India, is a collection of essays that traces the evolution of middle-class India over the last two decades. In his professional life, Santosh heads a brand and consumer consultancy company and has previously headed an advertising agency. His principal area of interest lies in examining the evolving nature of consumer culture in India. He writes regularly, with a weekly column for the Times of India.

Ambassador Satinder Kumar Lambah is Chairman, Ananta Aspen. He has held several positions in his illustrious career spanning almost ve decades. He has been Special Envoy to the Prime Minister, Co-Chairman of the Task Force on National Security, President of Association of Indian Diplomats, President of the Federation of Indo-German Societies in India, and Ambassador to Russia, FRG, Hungary, as well as High Commissioner of India to Pakistan. He was Deputy Secretary General of the 7th Non Aligned Summit held in Delhi in 1983 and later Coordinator of the Commonwealth Heads of Governments meeting in India. During his tenure as Consul General of India in San Francisco (1989-91) he was He is married to Nilima Lambah, author of A Life Across ree Continents – Recollections of a Diplomat’s Wife. ey have two children.

Simone Singh is a film and television actor and has won numerous awards for her roles in lms such as Sur andBeing Cyrus and television shows like Heena and Ek Hasina i. She has hosted her own chat shows on Star Plus, MSNBC and ET NOW and is the rst Indian television personality invited to present at the International Emmy Awards in New York. In addition to anchoring live events, Simone writes for various publications like Vogue andElle on food, travel, health and holistic well-being. She has also been a brand consultant for Hindustan Unilever Limited. Simone lives in Mumbai with her husband Fahad Samar.

Sohaila Kapur is a reputed New Delhi-based journalist, playwright, TV anchor and producer, theatre producer,
actor and director. She has authored a sociological study of esoteric rites titled Witchcra in We ern India. As a journalist she has wri en some 100 articles for mainstream papers. As an actor she has worked in several theatrical productions, an award-winning National Geographic Channel documentary, three feature lms (one of them a National Award winning production) and as a director, her plays have travelled to three continents. Sohaila has been part of the expert commi ee for the Ministry of Culture’s production grants and is also a judge for the National Television Awards. She has been awarded the Nat Samrat Best Actor Award and the Art Karat Women of Substance Award for 2013.

Sudeep Sen Is a major new generation voice in world literature and ‘one of the nest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene’ (BBC Radio). His prize- winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems (HarperCollins India), Rain, Aria (A K Ramanujan Translation Award), Ladakh. He is also the editor of the HarperCollins Book of English Poetry. Blue Nude: New Poems
( Jorge Zalamea International Poetry Prize) and EroText (Penguin Random House) are forthcoming in 2016. His poetry has been translated into over 25 languages and his words have appeared in the TLS, Newsweek, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Herald, Harvard Review, Hindu, Times of India, Outlook, India Today, and broadcast on bbc, pbs, cnn ibn and ndtv. He is the editorial director of aark arts and the editor of Atlas. Sen is the rst Asian honoured to participate at the Nobel Laureate Week, where he delivered the Derek Walco Lecture and read from a commemorative edition of his work,Fractals: New & Selected Poems| Translations 1980-2015. In 2013, the Government of India awarded him the senior fellowship for ‘outstanding persons in the eld of culture/literature’.

Sudha Shah was schooled in Mumbai and got her degree from Smith College, USA. Married and se led in Mumbai, she has one son. e King in Exile: e Fall of the Royal Family of Burma was published by HarperCollins India in 2012 and reprinted in 2014. e ai translation was released in October 2014 (it has reprinted four times since), the Burmese translation (currently being reprinted) in May 2015, and the Marathi translation will be released this October. e book was shortlisted for the Shakti Bha First Book Prize 2012 and the Tata Literature Live First Book Award 2012.

Sudhir Kakar is a distinguished psychoanalyst and writer. He has wri en seventeen highly acclaimed books of non- ction, which include, among others, e Inner World (now in its sixteenth printing since its rst publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors, Intimate Relations, e Colours of Violence and Young Tagore: e Makings of a Genius. He has wri en six works of ction, including e Devil Take Love (published in 2015) and his books have been translated into twenty-one languages around the world. Kakar has taught at leading institutions around the world and has won numerous accolades for his work. In February 2012, he was conferred the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country’s highest civilian honour.

Syeda Abida Hussain was born in Lahore. Her father, Syed Abid Hussain Shah, was a member of the Legislative Assembly of undivided India and member of the rst Constituent Assembly of Pakistan a er August 1947. In 1972 Abida was elected Member Punjab Assembly and served a ve-year term. In 1979 she was elected Chair of the Jhang District Council, then re-elected to the same position in 1984. In 1985 she became the rst woman in the country’s history to be elected by popular mandate as Member National Assembly of Pakistan. In 1988 she was re-elected Member National Assembly. In 1990 Abida was appointed Minister for Information in the Government of Pakistan. From 1991 to 1993 she served as Ambassador of Pakistan to the US. In 1997 she took over as Minister for Population Welfare and Science and Technology. Abida endowed the Abid Hussain Memorial hospital at Jhang, a 50-bed health care facility for rural women. She is also sponsor of the Lahore Grammar School System which provides quality education to nearly 50,000 boys and girls all over Pakistan.

Syeda Saiyidain Hameed has wri en ction and non- ction on women’s issues, modern Indian history, South Asia and Urdu poetry. She is chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad and founder member of several organizations including Muslim Women’s Forum, Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia, South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), and Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation. She was a member of the Planning Commission, Government of India, the National Commission for Women, Government of India, and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007. She co-authored Beautiful Country: Stories om Another India with Gunjan Veda and is the author of ey Hang: 12 Women in My Portrait Gallery and My Voice Shall be Heard: Status of Muslim Women, among other books.

Vijai Vardhan A er graduating in History from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Vijai Vardhan joined the Haryana Cadre of the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) in 1985. As a voice-over artiste, he lends his voice regularly to documentary lms, theatre, social causes and poetry festivals. He gives occasional public recitals of ecstatic poetry from the world’s greatest romantic, radical and Su traditions in Hindi, English and Urdu. Deeply interested in mysticism and history, he has authored four books till now. His collection of Su haiku in English titled Beyond the Great Beyond and Ibadat: e Breath of My Soul have been greatly appreciated by critics and readers alike. His latest book Kurukshetra: Timeless Sanctity published by Wisdom Tree is a result of six years of intense research.