Aanchal Malhotra is a multimedia artist whose works explore the written word, photographic imagery and traditional printmaking. It reflects on issues like cultural diaspora and displacement, notions of withdrawing from or belonging to a certain place, the forgotten fragments of collective experiences, and family history and genealogy.

She is currently working on a project entitled, 'Remnants of a Separation' - a study of the material remains of the Partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947. Her primary research is based on the objects that individuals took with them when they left their homes on either side of the border - the belongings that became a part of their journey - whatever shape it was to take- and those which are now a part of their histories.

Third generation of the Bahrisons Bookseller family, she has grown up surrounded by books and works as a literary agent at Red Ink Literary Agency, is actively involved with Tara-India Research Press, and can also be found at www.thehiatusproject.com

Abha Iyengar is an internationally published author, poet and British Council certified creative writing facilitator. Her work has appeared in The Four Quarters Magazine, Kritya, Muse India, The Asian Writer, Pure Slush, and others. Her story, "The High Stool", was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Award. Her poem-film "Parwaaz" won a special jury prize at Patras, Greece and screened to acclaim at international film festivals. She won the Mariner Award 2010, and the Lavanya Sankaran fellowship 2009-10. She was a finalist in the FlashMob 2013 Flash Fiction contest. Her poems have appeared in the Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poets and her fiction in The Indo-Australian Anthology of Short Fiction. Her published works are Yearnings (poetry), Flash Bites (flash fiction), Shrayan and Many Fish to Fry (novels). A short story collection, "The Gourd Seller and Other Stories" is her latest work, published in 2015.

Chef Aditya Bal grew up in a family which ran a hotel in idyllic Kashmir, watching his maternal grandmother rustle up delicious meals and bake most passionately. After an extremely successful modeling career spanning 8 years and a short stint in Bollywood, Aditya decided to head to Goa to pursue what he did best: cooking. A chance meeting with NDTV Good Times gave his culinary skills a new direction and today he is one of the most celebrated anchor-chefs on Chakh Le India, the most popular food show on the channel.

He hosted a slew of very successful cookery shows for NDTV Goodtimes, and during this process has learned the nuances of proper regional and sub- regional Indian cuisine. He has worked alongside some of the well-known names in the F&B industry both in India and South East Asia. He also enjoys writing cookbooks and published his first book last year. He continues to host new shows with TV channels and has just completed work on a show for the Epic channel, 'Lost Recipes', which focuses on discovering and preserving lost recipes and techniques of various communities in India.

Advaita Kala is the celebrated literary brain behind Sujoy Ghosh's Vidya Balan starrer film Kahaani, author of best seller Almost Single and the script writer for Ranbir Kapoor - Priyanka Chopra starrer Anjaana - Anjaani. Hotelier by profession, Advaita quit her job as a hotel executive to pen the sequel to Almost Single. Advaita has lived in six cities before choosing to stay in Delhi for over two years. However, she still travels extensively.

Ajay Jain describes himself as a traveller, Road Tripper to be more precise. He is the owner of Kunzum Café, a one of its kind Travel café located in Hauz Khas Village. Its a quaint and cozy destination where travellers from all across can sit and discuss myriad travel experiences over a cup of coffee and cookies. With a business model that many might turn down as unfeasible, Jain with his passion has managed to make it sail.

He started out as an Engineer and worked in IT Hardware, but along the way meandered his course and took travelling full time. Kumzum was named after a Pass in the Himalayas, a perfect metaphor of crossing from ordinary and mundane to unexpected and unexplored.

He has written along the way, Postcards From Laddakh and Peep Peep Don't Sleep are primarily visual, whereas Delhi 101, is a quirky travel guide to city. His Don't Feel Stupid at Sixty, is an interesting attempt to sum up his travel philosophy and mantra for life.

Ajay Rawat is a much respected ecological crusader and highly acclaimed international authority on forests history and ecology. He was Chairman of the International Union of Forestry Research Organization,Vienna, from 1995 to 2005, the first Asian to be nominated to this position, It is the biggest and oldest forest research organization in the world. He has written many books chief among them being, Man and Forests, Forests on Fire, Forest History of the Mountain Regions of the World, Indian Forestry a Perspective, and Indian Forestry through the Ages.

As an activist he successfully saved the famous Naini Tal Lake and nine other lakes in the Nainital Lake Region from ecological degradation owing to pollution through Public Interest Litigation .For his relentless work, erudition and passion he has been awarded with many accolades including the International Award, Order of the Golden Ark in Netherlands, Best RTI Citizen of India, Godfrey Phillips Bravery Gold Medal, Vijay Shree and First Narain Dutt Aushadhalaya Trust Award by the Vice President of India.

Author of Sahir Ludhianvi: The People's Poet, Akshay Manwani graduated from St. Xavier's College in 2000, and subsequently followed the crowd to business school. Having subjected himself to the monotony of corporate life for six years, Akshay turned to freelance writing in 2009 where he combined his twin interests of cinema and sports. Since then, his writings have appeared in Business Standard, The Caravan, Mumbai Mirror, Scroll.in, DailyO, Mint, NBA.com/India and The Big Indian Picture.

Sahir Ludhianvi: The People's Poet, was published in December 2013 by HarperCollins India. In 2014, Akshay won the RedInk award for Best Lifestyle and Entertainment Story for his detailed feature on B.R. Chopra's Mahabharata television series given out by the Press Club Mumbai. Akshay is currently working on his second book, which is about the cinema of renowned writer-filmmaker, Nasir Husain. Akshay lives with his daughter and wife in Mumbai.

Dr. Pande is currently a Consultant, Arts Advisor and Curator of the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. She has been passionately involved with the world of art for nearly three decades. Responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad, Dr. Pande has curated the latest international exhibition at the Pinacothèque de Paris titled The Kama-Sutra: Spirituality and Eroticism in Indian Art. In 2006, she was made - Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres – Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters – an award bequeathed by the French government to recognise significant contributions in the fields of art and literature. In 2009, she received the Australian Asia Council Special Award. She has authored several well-acclaimed books, with a strong focus on Indian arts and ancient Indian erotic literature and aesthetics.

Ameena Saiyid is the managing director of Oxford University Press in Pakistan and the founder of Karachi Literature Festival and Islamabad Literature Festival. She is the holder of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for her services to promote Anglo-Pakistan relations, women's rights, education and intellectual property rights in Pakistan. She was awarded the French Knighthood, Chevalier des Arts etLettres, (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) by the Government of France in 2013.

Ameena became the head of Oxford University Press (OUP) Pakistan in 1988, becoming the first woman to ever head a multinational company in Pakistan. In 2010, she became the first woman to be elected president of the 150-year-old Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI).

In 2010 she founded and organized the Karachi Literature Festival, the first such literary festival of its kind in Pakistan.

Amit Shankar has authored 4 national best sellers; Flight of the Hilsa, Chapter 11, Love is Vodka-A Shot Ain't Enough and Café Latte. He has over a decade of advertising, marketing and management experience. As a Creative Director he has bagged some of the biggest advertising awards. During his tenure with some of the world's largest advertising agencies, he has spear headed communication for global brands like Nestle, UNICEF, Cisco, HP, GM, Pedigree, Microsoft, Honda and Canon. Currently he is the CEO of Sparrow-south East Asia's largest animation studio.

His maiden venture, Flight of the Hilsa, explores and demystifies happiness. Chapter 11, his second title, explores the muck and sleaze behind the glistening corporate façade. Love is Vodka, A Shot Ain't Enough explores the confusion around the word love and his latest offering; Café Latte surveys various hues of death.

A coffee addict, an avid music buff and a great exponent of guitar, his genre includes rock, blues and jazz.

She is often described as 'the best writer of the Indian commercial fiction genre". As a writer, she is best known for her best-selling, contemporary '"rom-com" novels, The Zoya Factor, Battle For Bittora, Those Pricey Thakur Girls and The House That BJ Built.

Anuja worked in advertising agency, JWT India, for over 17 years, eventually becoming the Vice President before resigning in 2010 to pursue a full-time literary career. Over the years she worked with brands like Pepsi, Kurkure, Mountain Dew and Nokia, creating Pepsi's 'Nothing official about it' campaign and ad slogans like, Pepsi's 'Yeh Dil Maange More' and 'Oye Bubbly'.

Arvind passey began his professional life marching up and down the drill square of the Indian Military Academy as a gentleman cadet and ended his job-era playing hide-&-seek with media teams as the head of corporate communications.

A few of the 1800+ poems written by him are published in journals in India & UK but the rest still in notebooks, loose sheets, penned on napkins, and in computer files.

His short-stories have been published in various anthologies and his articles published in the like of Education Post, Huffington Post, Business Insider, & Marketing Bazzar. He dreams of travelling to every country in the world, and of finally completing his first novel.

Asif Noorani is a former editor, senior columnist, author, book and music reviewer and a prominent Pakistani television personality. He is the author of Tales of Two Cities in which Kuldip Nayar narrates the migration of his family from Sialkot to Delhi, while Asif Noorani, who was only five at the time of Partition writes about his family's migration from Mumbai to Pakistan, when he was only eight. His second book, on the flamboyant Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, was also a bestseller. His book on Mehdi Hasan, with two CDs, one of rare renditions of ghazals, and the other a medley of folk, film and semi-classical numbers will go into production for the third time. In 2012, he rewrote and updated the quick selling coffee-table book Journey Through Pakistan.

Asif Noorani contributes to leading Pakistani Dawn Group of Newspapers and occasionally Indian publications. His articles are on art, literature and music. He reviews books and music recordings. He is particularly known for his humorous writings and travelogues. He writes in English and Urdu.

An ardent crusader of the need for close contacts between Pakistanis and Indians, as also warm cultural relationship between their two countries, Asif Noorani was born in Mumbai, India in 1942 and belongs to a secular Urdu speaking family. His family migrated to Pakistan from Bombay. He obtained his Masters in English Literature in 1965 from the University of Karachi.

Avirook Sen is an independent journalist based in Gurgaon. He has been a reporter and editor for 25 years, working in print, online and broadcast media. Sen launched the Hindustan Times' Mumbai edition as resident editor, edited Mid-Day, and was executive editor of the news channel NewsX. He has written on a wide range of subjects, from cricket to terrorism and, most recently, crime. His work has appeared in India Today, Hindustan Times, The Express Tribune (Pakistan), New Scientist, NDTV, DNA, Firstpost, Mumbai Mirror and a number of other prominent publications.

His first book, 'Looking for America' (Harper Collins, 2010) was described by Vogue magazine as a 'Kerouac-like' travelogue, and enthusiastically reviewed.

His bestselling second book, 'Aarushi', (Penguin, 2015) has reignited a national debate on the criminal justice system, on media ethics, and Indian middle class attitudes. Sen is an ardent admirer of Capote and Hitchens, and even more so of Hunter Thompson.

Barkha Dutt is Consulting Editor with NDTV, India's premier news network. She is one of India's best-known journalists and the youngest to receive 'Padma Shri', one of India's highest State honours. She emerged as a household name with her frontline war reporting on the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999. In her twenty-year career, she has reported from several conflict zones, including Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq cementing her reputation as a fearless journalist who reports from some of the most dangerous places in the world. In the last one year, Barkha Dutt has interviewed Nobel laureates Al Gore, KailashSatyarthi and MalalaYousafzai, and many renowned global personalities.

Barkha is the host of the weekly, award-winning talk-show We The People as well as the daily prime-time show The Buck Stops Here. She has just turned entrepreneur with her own multimedia content company

She has won over forty national and international awards for journalism including the Global Leader for Tomorrow award at the World Economic Forum, Commonwealth Broadcasters' Award for 'Journalist of the Year' and the Asian Television Award for 'Best Talk Show'. In 2012, she won 'International TV Personality of the Year' at the Association for International Broadcasting Awards in London and 'Best Current Affairs Presenter' at Asian Television Awards in Singapore. In 2014, her interview with MalalaYousafzai won the Asian Television Award for 'Best Talk Show' and Barkha was “highly commended" in 'Best Current Affairs Presenter' category. Last year, she also won News Television Award for Best TV News Anchor (English) for a second year in a row. She has also bagged Indian Television Academy award for Best Talk Show for five consecutive years. This year, her weekly show We The People won the ENBA Award for 'Best Talk Show'.

Barkha is active on Twitter (@BDUTT) where she is followed by over 2 million people.

Basanta Rajkumar is an officer of Indian Forest Services. He is presently the Managing Director of Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board, Government of Punjab.

Padam Shri Dr. Bibek Debroy is a permanent member of NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog), the replacement of Planning Commission and a think-tank to the Government of India.

Dr. Debroy is the former Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs of Finance Ministry (Government of India), Secretary General of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Director of the project LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalising the Economy), set up by the Finance Ministry and UNDP for examining legal reforms in India. Between December 2006 and July 2007, he was the rapporteur for implementation in the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Debroy has authored several books, papers and popular articles, has been the Consulting Editor of Indian financial and other newspapers. He has been a member of the National Manufacturing Competitive Council from November 2004 to December 2009. Since 2013, he has been a Member of the Chief Minister's Economic Advisory Council in Rajasthan. Since September 2014, he has been the Chairman of the High Powered Committee set up by the Ministry of Railways to restructure Indian Railways.

In 2010, he started authoring a ten-volume unabridged English translation of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata. This concluded in 2014.

Dadi Pudumjee is a leading puppeteer in India, he is the founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre and is the recipient of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992. He founded the Sutradhar Puppet Theatre within the puppetry division at the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts in New Delhi and was its artistic director until 1986, after which he set up his own puppet company, The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust.

Over the year he has worked extensively with children, especially street children, including his 2007 project with street children, Salaam Baalak Trust, for UNESCO Paris and the EU. Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust organises the annual Ishara International puppet festival each year.

Ishara is known as one of India's leading modern puppet companies, it creates puppet events, conducts workshops, and performances on social awareness themes.

Dr. Debasis Panigrahi has published nine collections of short stories, three collections of novellas and one novel in Odia. He is a popular and critically acclaimed writer of short stories, novel and novellas from Odisha.

Many of his stories figure in the anthologies of best Odia stories brought out by 'Kendriya Sahitya Akademi' and 'Odisha Sahitya Academy'.

He has bagged a host of literary awards; the most notable amongst them being 'OdishaSahitya Academy Award' for short stories.

His work have been translated and published in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Kannada.

He is also the Honorary Advisor of Utkal Literature Festival (ULF), an English language festival held annually at Bhubaneswar.

He has also participated in prestigious literary festivals and eventslike, 'New Delhi World Book Fair', 'Delhi Literature Festival', 'Think Literature Festival', 'Sarjana Literary Festival' etc.

He is a member of Indian Police Service and is currently posted as an Inspector General of Police at State Police Headquarters, Cuttack.

Author, poet, translator and storyteller, Deepa Agarwal was born and grew up in Almora, Uttarakhand. She writes for both children and adults and has over 50 books published. A frequent contributor to magazines and journals in India and abroad, she has edited and compiled several anthologies. Among other awards, she has received the N.C.E.R.T. National Award for Children's Literature in 1993 for her picture book Ashok's New Friends, while her historical fiction Caravan to Tibetwas is on the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Honour List 2008.

Her work has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages. She has also received fellowships to research children's literature. Recent titles include Rajula and the Web of Danger (Hachette India), Chanakya, the Master of Statecraft (Penguin India) in the Puffin Lives series and The Wish-fulfilling Cow and Other Classic Indian Tales (Scholastic India). Deepa lives in Delhi with her businessman husband and has three daughters and five grandchildren.

Born and bought up in Mussoorie, Deepak did his schooling from Hampton Court and St. George's Mussoorie. He graduated with honours in History from Hans Raj College, Delhi University and went on to do Masters and M.Phil. from JNU. His M.Phil. theses was titled "Representing masculinity in the Mahabharata" and explored the gender equations within the epic.

Deepak joined IRS in 2005 and was selected as an IAS in 2007. He has held various key positions before being posted as District Magistrate of Nainital. He shares special bond with Kumaon as the former MD of Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN), the Tourism authority of the region.

An ardent lover of history and literature he loves trekking and bird-watching being a quintessential mountain person.

Deepti Pant is a creative artist and storyteller, for the last decade, she has been exploring the esoteric world of storytelling by diving deep into various styles and mediums, be it films, transmedia, Dastangoi, Theyam or Kathak.

She is passionately involved in exploring the lost storytelling styles of India and wants to revive the interest of youth in Hindi, Urdu & Sanskrit stories.

Her selection is from mythology, literature or history, her style, aptly named Ras Gatha, is an assimilation of myth and fiction, translated to suit the taste of youth and wider audience.

As An NID and FTII alumni, she has been creatively involved with various training & advertising films. She has two regional films to her credit and as a professional in the field of storytelling & design, she has worked with brands like Samsung, LG, GSK, Procter & Gamble etc.

She is founder of TRUTH foundation which focuses on revival and mainstreaming of storytelling.

Devapriya Roy began her career with The Vague Woman's Handbook, a quirky novel that was published by HarperCollins in March 2011 and subsequently appeared on the India Today Bestseller List.

She has also authored The Weight Loss Club: The Curious Experiments of Nancy Housing Cooperative, yet another quirky novel that was published by Rupa & Co. in July 2013.

Currently she is working on the second book of the Vague Women series, tentatively titled The Vague Woman's Guide to Paris, as well as a travelogue, The Heat and Dust Project (along with husband Saurav Jha), that chronicles the story of travelling through India on local buses "on a very very tight budget". The Heat and Dust Project is also a first-of-its-kind dynamic book as the couple used Facebook to document their journey even as it was underway.

Illustrious and articulate, Dinesh Trivedi is an Indian politician from the All India Trinamool Congress and current Member of Parliament in the Lower House representing Barrackpore, West Bengal.

A former Union Railway Minister, Dinesh studied in an elite boarding school in Shimla and Solan in Himachal Pradesh. He graduated from Kolkata's St Xavier's College and then went on to get an MBA from Austin, Texas in US.

Trivedi is the founder member and first general secretary of the Trinamool.

Dolly is the founder of Poets Corner and Delhi Poetry Festival. A poet herself, her association with poetic causes brings out the truest of her abilities to fore. Her work is published in several national and international anthologies. Dolly is also the founder of New Leaf Poets Club that encourages young wordsmiths at school level and beyond. The group aspires to inculcate the love for poetry amongst young minds and offer them opportunities & exposure on a larger platform. Besides being a sensitive poet, Dolly is also an accomplished fashion designer. Her fashion line - Final Impressions by Dolly Singh has been in existence for over a decade. Her efforts and accomplishments were recently lauded by the Rex Foundation that awarded her with Karamveer Chakra and the REX Global Fellowship.

Emuna Elon was born in Jerusalem to a family of rabbis and scholars, and was raised in Jerusalem and New York. She teaches Judaism, Hassidism and Hebrew literature, and has served as advisor to the Prime Minister on the status of Israeli women. She also wrote a weekly political column in the mass circulation daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, and later in Israel Hayom. Elon has published essays, short stories, popular children's books and a number of bestselling novels. Her novel If You Awaken Love was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (2007). Elon received the Book Publishers Association's Gold Book Prize (2010) for her novel Inscribe My Name and the Prime Minister's Prize (2015).

Ezekiel Isaac Malekar is the head of the Jewish community in New Delhi, India and is the Honorary Secretary of the Judah Hyam Synagogue, which in addition to serving the Jewish community of New Delhi, caters to the Jewish diplomats from foreign missions. It has hosted former Israeli Prime Ministers like Shimon Peres and felicitated David Danieli, the present Israeli Ambassador to India.

Mr. Malekar, in addition to being a scholar of Judaism, is a noted human rights activist and a Deputy Registrar (Law) with the National Human Rights Commission in India. He was a key participant in the 15th International Conference on Human Integration, 2006.

He is actively involved in inter-faith activities between the Jewish community and the Hindu majority in India, as well as the Sikh community. He has praised the multicultural nature of Indian Society where Judaism had existed for 2,000 years without ever experiencing anti-Semitism.

Fahad Samar is a director, film critic, author and columnist. Fahad is the best selling author of Scandal Point and Flash Point, the first two novels in his Mumbai trilogy published by Harper Collins in 2014 and 2015.

A pioneer in youth culture programming in India, Fahad has directed cult TV shows like BPL OYE!,Superhit Muqabla and The Poppadum Show. Fahad is a well-known social commentator and has contributed columns regularly to the Mumbai Mirror, DNA and the Indian Express over the past ten years. He also writes on food, wine and travel for Upper Crust magazine. Fahad’s articles and essays have appeared in Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Conde Nast Traveller among other publications. He is also a film critic and presents a weekly TV show, Friday Double Bill on NDTV Prime and Filmology with Fahad Samar on Radio One 94.3FM.

In 1993, Fahad established his company, Bombay Talkie and has since written, directed and produced scores of commercials, documentaries, corporate films and TV shows.

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 filmmaker with Merchant-Ivory Productions in 1987.

Fahad lives in Mumbai with his wife, Simone Singh.

Gautam Chintamani is a born cinephile and the author of Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna (HarperCollins, 2014). Gautam's book is the first full-length biography of the original superstar of Hindi cinema and garnered rave reviews besides going into the second edition within 8 weeks of its release.

His writing has appeared in India Today, Outlook, The Indian Quarterly, The Pioneer, The Tribune, The Asian Age, The Times of India, Deccan Chronicle, Scroll and Daily O amongst others. He's also had a weekly film based columns in The Hindustan Times Brunch and Dawn, Pakistan's most read English daily.

Gautam's documentary film S.R.I. - Challenging Traditions, Transforming Lives explored the positive impact of System of Rice Intensification, an alternate method of rice cultivation, on Indian farmers. The film has travelled to over 20 film festivals across the globe and won the Best Documentary Award at the maiden Asia Pacific Rice Film Festival, Malaysia. His trilogy Janam-Aagazh-Parvaaz – on the journey of children with special needs and their parents was screened at the 2011's International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Having worked extensively in television, Siddhanth, a law series, which garnered an Emmy Nomination in the International Drama category, a first for an Indian TV show, and Rihaee (Sony) are some of his notable credits. He also regularly makes social advocacy films as well. Gautam's second book that explores the cultural impact of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak on popular Hindi cinema is almost ready to go to press.

Gayatri Chatterjee is an independent film scholar and lives in Pune. She has written widely on cinema. Her two books are Awara (published by Wiley in 1992 reprinted by Penguin in 2003) and Mother India (2002) for the BFI film classics. Her articles feature in several Indian and International volumes. She has taught widely in many Universities in India and the USA; and has been a faculty in the direction department of the Film & Television Institute of India. She has made a film Homes for Gods and Mortals (68 mins, 2013) and is in pre-production for a film, Two Rivers and a City. At present she has developed and teaches a full course of Film Studies at the Symbiosis School for the Liberal Arts in Pune.Her forthcoming books are 'Love and Cinema...in India' and 'Sant Tukaram.'

Geet is a Hindi poet and novelist. He has authored five books till now. In 2010, he published three of his books, two collections of novellas - Savant Aunty Ki Ladkiyan (Aunt Savant and Her Daughters) and Pink Slip Daddy, and a collection of poetry, Aalaap Mein Girah (The Knotted Preludes). He was awarded the Bharat Bhushan Agrawal Award for poetry in 2007. He is regarded as one of the major poets in contemporary literature by critics as well as by various periodicals and newspapers. He was termed one of the 'Ten Best Writers' of India by the English Daily Indian Express in 2011. His poems have been translated into eight languages. He has translated into Hindi the poems of Pablo Neruda, Lorca, Adunis, Czeslaw Milosz, Mahmoud Darwish, Adam Zagajewski, Bei Dao, Dunya Mikhail, Iman Mersal and Eduardo Chirinos.

He is currently working on his first full-length novel Ranikhet Xpress. He lives in Bhopal, India.

Harish Chandra Singh Rawat is an Indian political leader and Chief Minister of state of Uttarakhand. He is a member of the Indian National Congress.

He has been elected four times to the Lok Sabha (Lower House) and once to the Rajya Sabha (Upper House). He has held the portfolio of Ministry of Water Resources and has been the Minister of State for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and the Ministry of Agriculture.

He has held a number of different positions such as Member of the Consultative Committee of Law and Company Affairs, Member of the Public Account Committee, Member of the House Committee, Member of the Official Language Committee and Member of the Communications and Power within the Congress ranks. He also held the post of the Chief of Congress Seva Dal and the volunteer wing of the party.

Rawat's alma mater is University of Lucknow from where he obtained Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. He is married to his fellow Congress member and politician Renuka Rawat, who also obtained Bachelor of Law from Lucknow University.

James Champion is a passionate wildlife enthusiast with a long and distinguished pedigree. His grandfather Frederick W Champion OBE IFS started campaigning vigorously for the protection of wildlife in the 1920s. FWC was also the pioneer of tripwire photography in India, now known as camera-trapping. His astonishing images graced the pages of publications including the Illustrated London News and Indian State Railways Magazine.

James has always been fascinated by wildlife, and is the guardian of much of his forefather's legacy. Conscious of the contribution that can still be made by FWC to wildlife conservation, with his astonishingly modern views of the importance of forests and nature, James' aim is to keep the legacy of his grandfather in India alive, and to inspire current and future generations of conservationists through his FWC's evocative writings and astonishing wildlife images.

Jane Gill was born in England in 1964. She worked as a graphic designer for many years before finding her love of writing. She went on to publish her debut novel, Dance with Fireflies, in 2015. The novel was extensively researched, including the reading of hundreds of letters, stowed away in a trunk for many years by her Anglo-Indian grandmother who was a prolific letter writer.

Jane is currently working on the sequel to Dance with Fireflies, which is set in India at the turbulent time of partition. Early on, the book will reveal a scandalous family secret.

When Jane is not writing, she loves to read great books, camp by the sea and cook delicious food in the Cotswold home she shares with her husband, son and dog.

She writes an on-going blog about the writing and publishing of her novel.

You can reach Jane via Twitter at Jane Gill. Author or visit her blog at www.janespentopaper.wordpress.com

Janhavi began her journalism career in 1998 with the Pioneer, a leading newspaper daily in India. She has produced and anchored TV programmes aired in India for Doordarshan and abroad for UK Sony TV, US Channel 57. Sixteen years into the field of television and involved with a number of media houses like ANI (Reuters), B.A.G Films in India to HTV, Wales and BBC World Service, London, she produced and anchored news and current affairs programmes in both TV and radio formats. Her company, Srijan Media produces quality digital content and ideation of 360 degrees integrated media campaigns. Janhavi is the founder of "Youth 4 Gandhi Foundation", an NGO that has the credit of running the first of its kind online multimedia campaign on "Gandhi & Sport" for school children and is one of the most extensive artwork archive on Gandhi in the 21st century in all formats (print, audio, digital) under one platform.

Janhavi is writing a graphic novel on Mahatma Gandhi based on his autobiography – " The Story of My Experiments With Truth" to be published later this year by Harper Collins. She will be illustrating parts of the book as well. She is a mountain buff and nurtures her 145-year-old ancestral hill house as a boutique countryside homestay – Abbotsford. It is here that she gets most of her inspiration that is reflected in her works.

Her schooling was at Mayo College, Ajmer. She is an alumnus of St Stephens' College, New Delhi and Cardiff School of Journalism, Wales, United Kingdom.

Jerry is affectionately called "the moJOshInspirator" and "Karma Guru" by several people who have benefited from his leadership training/ coaching or THE HERO IN ME inspirational oratory programs and get dollops of moJOsh for rediscovering their junoon

A mystic by nature, Jerry's self learning and introspection of life, society and humanity as a free thinker, practical philosopher, futurist, spiritualist and a free-spirited teacher, helps him to excel in his vocation as a motivational speaker, internationally certified leadership subject matter expert & trainer.

As a social and political scientist, Jerry has led several campaigns which have become huge movements now. He created and promoted global movements like The Joy of Giving, Right every Wrong, Laadli- Save the girl child, Karmaveer, Karmayuga, Restaurants against Hunger, One Billion Hungry with the UN, One Billion Rising and other social campaigns.

In 2008, Jerry ignited the spark for the anti corruption mission with the UN globally, NO CRIMINALS in government movement and electoral reforms campaign which have now inspired other huge public initiatives across India.

Jerry Pinto is the author of A bear for Felicia (Puffin) and Mowgli and the Bear (Disney) and co-author with Garima Gupta of When Crows are White (Scholastic) which was shortlisted for a Crossword Award for Children's Literature. He works in the sphere of child rights with MelJol; is a trustee of the People's Free Reading Room and Circulating Library and an advisor to the Jehangir Sabavala Foundation.

Jerry teaches journalism at the SCM Sophia department of the Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai, ranked by Outlook as one of the ten best post-graduate media programmes in the country.

Kanza Javed's manuscript, "Ashes, Wine and Dust" was short listed for Tibor Jones South Asia Prize 2013, making her at the age of twenty-one, the youngest and the only Pakistani writer nominated for the prize that year. The book looks at the life of a young, Pakistani woman, rejecting traditional society and carving her own path. More than anything, it narrates the double-life she feels she leads when she leaves Pakistan and ventures into America, where she feels conflicted between her Pakistani self and American self.

Kanza was a keynote speaker in the 'Aspiring Writers' panel at the Lahore Literary Festival 2013. Her narrative, 'Passing Morning' has won third prize in British Council's 'Charles Dickens Writing Competition'. Her short story, 'The Intruders' is to be published in Earthern Lamp Journal (January 2014 issue).

In India, she is being published by Tara Research Press.

An experienced sociologist, qualitative consumer insight researcher, author and citizen activist, Kiran is sociologist by training, and a Gold medallist from Delhi University. She is the founder of Write & Beyond, a creative writing facilitation workshop based out of Gurgaon. She has experience of 14 years in Qualitative Consumer Research, most of it with RI, Mumbai (now TNS Global). During a 2 year hiatus from her job as a Market Researcher, she took her first entrepreneurial step with launching a pioneering Day Care cum Play School In Mumbai, Shining Beacon, as she found no suitable options in the market for her then 4 year old son.

Kiran Manral was a journalist with the leading newspapers in India before she moved out to set up a content supply company during the first dot com boom. An erstwhile blogger, both her blogs were considered amongst India's top blogs and she was a Tehelka blogger columnist on gender issues. She was India Cultural Lead and Trend Spotter with an US based Consumer Insights Firm and is currently a senior consultant with a qualitative market research company.

Her books include The Reluctant Detective (Westland, 2011), Once Upon A Crush (Leadstart, 2014), (All Aboard, Penguin, 2015) and Karmic Kids: The Story of Parenting Nobody Told You (Hay House, 2015) and The Face at the Window (Amaryllis, Feb 2016).

She is on the planning board of the Kumaon Literary Festival, a mentor with Sheroes and is an advisor on the Board of Literature Studio, Delhi. She lives in Mumbai.

Twitter: @kiranmanral

HE Dr. Krishan Kant Paul is the 6th and current Governor of Uttarakhand. He had previously served as Governor of Meghalaya for over one year with additional charge of Mizoram and Nagaland for the same post.As a former officer of Indian Police Service he had previously served as Commissioner of Police, Delhi from February 2004 till retiring from service in July 2007.

Paul is credited with having cracked the first ever cricket betting racket in which South African captain Hansie Cronje was indicted. Paul has experience working in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

While posted in Delhi, he had wide ranging experience of urban policing and was involved in handling some mega events like the 1982 Asian Games, followed by NAM and CHOGM in 1983.

Paul after retirement from police service, became a member of Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi on July 26, 2007. He served there till July 2013.

He did his post-graduation in Chemistry from Punjab University, Chandigarh, followed by Ph.D thesis in Fluorine chemistry, which was highly commended and resulted in 15 research publications, of a technical nature, in international scientific journals of repute. In the context of his research work in Chemistry, he has over 20 papers published in international scientific journals of repute.

Married to Omita Paul, a former Indian Information Service officer, who is currently posted as Secretary to the Hon'ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Paul is an avid cricket lover. He was amongst the first Ph.D holders in Police Service, he has maintained his touch with the academics and continued to write on various matters of topical interest. One of his Columns "Brass Tacks" appeared regularly in "The Tribune".

Kulpreet Yadav is a bestselling author, motivational speaker, and Founder-Editor of Open Road Review, an international literary magazine. Shortlisted in various writing contests, his short stories and essays have appeared in over 30 publications. Kulpreet is represented by Red Ink Literary Agency, and his forthcoming novel, 'The Girl who loved a Pirate', is India's first thriller based on marine piracy and hijacking.

Passionate about Creative Writing, Kulpreet also mentors aspiring writers at schools and colleges and has spoken at many literary festivals in India and abroad. He lives in New Delhi. More at www.kulpreetyadav.com

Kusum Budhwar's book "Where Gods Dwell", Central Himalayan Folktales and Legends was published in 2010 and has seen many reprints since then. Prior to this she has written " Romance of the Mango: The Complete Book of the King of Fruits". Both are Penguin publications. She also contributed a chapter titled "Golu Dev and other deities of Kumaon", in the book "Gods Beyond Temples" compiled and authored by Dr. Harsha Dehejia in 2004. Apart from this there are numerous articles by her covering travel, religion, folklore and cookery published in various magazines.

The wife of an Indian Foreign Service Officer, she has lived in several countries and is widely travelled. Her bond with the Himalayas began early, having studied and taught in the hill stations of Dalhousie, Simla and Mussoorie.

She now spends a better part of the year in Mukteshwar, in Kumaon together with her husband who equally shares this love for the hills.

Green Oscar Entrant for acclaimed documentary film "Discovery of Rhododendron Forest - where highest rhododendron grows", filmmaker, artiste and poet Lovita J R Morang is a versatile artist.

Lovita has pioneered the fashion industry in NE-India since 1993 and acted in a number of movies and TV serials. As an actress, she casted as a princess in a docu-drama on massacre of royal dynasty of Nepal produced by BBC. She acted as a protagonist for Sundance Award winner short celluloid cinema "Doremifa" and "Echo-Rongkuchak" the winner of national film award produced by FTII and Satyajit Ray Film Institute. As a poet she has fifteen books and anthologies that she has shared with renowned poets. Her book "Rhododendron Forest of Eastern Himalayas - an encyclopaedia" is a prestigious book first of it's kind.

She started filmmaking early at the age of twenty and made more than twenty documentaries, travelogue and tele-films. Her film "virgin rhododendron burnt alive" is recorded as the first film on climate indicator wildflower rhododendron.

Lovita is presently in research and study of climate indicator wildflowers from Eastern Himalayas and feels the urgent need to conserve hundreds of rhododendrons and new recorded species and trying best to keep her passion for writing.

Maharaj Krishna Raina, popularly known as M.K. Raina, is one of India's best-known theatre actors and directors. He graduated from National School of Drama in 1970 with Best actor award. Since 1972 he has been freelance theatre worker and film person, working all over India in many languages and with many traditional forms. He has produced over 130 plays in 13 languages. His association with the rural and urban theatre across the country has developed into a unique style, where both forms blend together and yet are rich with contemporary meaning and significance.

He has received the Sanskriti Samman in 1980, the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award in 1981, Best Director of the year by West Bengal Government 1982, the Best Director's award of Punjabi Akademi, Delhi in 1987. He also received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1995 and the Swarna Padak from Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir in 1996 for his contribution to Indian Theatre. He was also awarded one of India's highest theatre awards, the B.V. Karanth award for lifetime achievement in 2007.

Madhuja Mukherjee is an artist, writer, and filmmaker. She teaches Film Studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Madhuja has done formative research on the 'Indian film industry' (including its contemporary phase, and regional sectors), and has published extensively. More recently, she has written on the 'soundscape' of Indian films. She is the author of New Theatres Ltd., The Emblem of Art, The Picture of Success (2009), and has edited Aural Films, Oral Cultures (2012).

Madhuja has done several academic and artistic presentations across the globe, and her first feature-film Carnival (2012), had its 'World Premiere' at the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam. Qissa (2013) written by her (with Anup Singh, director), won many awards including Inalco Jury Award for "beautiful script, …" at the 20th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema, Vesoul, France, 2014. She has presented her media-installations internationally, and her first-graphic novel, KangalMalsat (2013), became a best-seller.

Mahesh Rao was born and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. His short fiction has been shortlisted for various awards, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Baffler, Prairie Schooner and Elle. His debut novel, 'The Smoke Is Rising', won the Tata First Book Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the Crossword Prize. 'One Point Two Billion', his collection of short stories, is due to be published in October 2015.

Maitreyee B Chowdhury is a Bangalore based poet and writer. She has two books to her credit- 'Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen: Bengali Cinema's First Couple' and 'Where Even the Present is Ancient: Benaras'. In the year 2013, 'Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen: Bengali Cinema's First Couple' was nominated for the Crossword Book Awards, 2013 (Non Fiction category). Maitreyee writes for journals both national and international.

Her 'Where Even the Present Is Ancient: Benaras', is a book of poems set in Benaras. The book tells through poems, little stories that make us who we are. Maitreyee believes that Benaras resides in all of us Indians, in some beautiful often unknown way.

Manjiri Prabhu is a Pune-based English Author, Film-maker and Lit Fest Founder/Director. Labelled 'Desi Agatha Christie', Dr. Manjiri Prabhu has published 8 books till date, two of which have been published by Bantam/Dell USA. The Cosmic Clues, The Cavansite Conspiracy, In the Shadow of Inheritance, The Astral Alibi, all have been critically acclaimed and acknowledged.

Dr. Prabhu holds a Doctorate in Communication Science and is an independent film-maker for Television and a writer. She has directed over 200 children's TV programmes and more than 50 short fiction and travel films.

Her thesis, converted into a book, titled Roles: Reel and Real, has become a rare reference book for students of Hindi cinema. Prabhu has been acknowledged as a pioneer in India among women writers of mystery fiction, and she has a diverse global fan following. She is also the first female mystery author to be published outside India.

Maya Mirchandani is Senior Editor, Foreign Affairs Editor and a Senior Anchor at NDTV.

Maya is among the first generation of broadcast news journalists in the country. In a career spanning two decades she has reported on a range of issues-from environment to crime, from national politics to human rights and conflict to her real forte, world affairs. She returned to India in 2007 after 4 years in the USA as NDTV's correspondent based in New York.

She has an academic background mix of History, Mass Communications and International Relations from Delhi University, Sofia Polytechnic and the London School of Economics, respectively.

For Maya, the doors of diplomatic reporting haven't always opened up peacefully. She survived a suicide bomb attack at President Chandrika Kumaratunga's election rally in 1999, reported on 9/11 as the planes hit the World Trade Center in New York and survived pro government mobs attacking the media during the Anti Mubarak protests in Cairo, Egypt. From Moscow to Washington DC, Cairo to Islamabad, Freetown, Sierra Leone to Rangoon, and several places in between, Maya has travelled extensively, always in search of a good story to tell.

Maya has received several awards and accolades , including most recently the RamnathGoenka award for Excellence in Journalism. (for reporting on Politics and Government in 2010, and for reporting from the North East in 2012), the Exchange for Media award for best International News Reporting (Broadcast) in 2010, and earlier awards and commendations for her work on children affected by conflict in Kashmir, as well as a best documentary commendation for a special on the 20th anniversary of the Air India Kanishka bombing.

Outside of journalism, Maya’s interests lie in the arts, especially painting, design and photography. To pursue those, Maya is currently curating an exhibition of photographs taken on the field during years of reporting for NDTV, and is also involved in a design project that involves craftsmen from Kashmir.

Menka Shivdasani is the author of three collections of poetry, Nirvana at Ten Rupees, Stet, and Safe House. She is co-translator of Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry (Sahitya Akademi). She has edited an online anthology of contemporary Indian writing for www.bigbridge.org, a literary e-zine in the United States and a second online anthology will be released soon. She is also editor of SPARROW'S If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak, a volume of writing by Indian women, launched in Singapore in July 2014. Menka's work is widely anthologised, both in India, and elsewhere; a poem by her is in the SYBA textbook of the University of Mumbai.

Menka is the Mumbai coordinator of the global movement 100 Thousand Poets for Change and a founder member of Asia-Pacific Writers and Translators Association. In 1986, she had played a key role in setting up the Poetry Circle in Mumbai.

Her thirty-year career as a journalist includes a stint with South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and nine books that she co-authored/ edited, three of which were released by the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Meraj is a Senior Project Officer in WWF-India. He has a Master's degree in wildlife science from department of wildlife sciences of Aligarh Muslim University in 2006. He joined Wildlife Institute of India and completed M. Phil. in wildlife science in 2009 while working on assessment of wildlife corridors with reference to tigers in Terai Arc Landscape, India. After completion of post graduate diploma in Remote sensing and GIS, joined WWF-India in 2010 and since then has been researching on tigers in Terai Arc Landscape. He is an avid naturalist and conservationist.

Mihir Vatsa's first book of poetry, Painting That Red Circle White, was termed a "must read of 2014" by The Sunday Guardian. He grew up in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, and studied English Literature at University of Delhi. Since 2010, Mihir has worked in the field of heritage archiving and conservation as the founder of the local collective Tales of Hazaribagh, and has spoken about his hometown at various places, in India and in the UK.

Winner of the 2013 Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize and the 2014 Toto Funds the Arts writing award, he was the 2015 Charles Wallace Poetry Fellow at University of Stirling, Scotland. He is the poetry editor of Vayavya, a journal of contemporary poetry and art, and his poems appear in Rattle, SOFTBLOW, Word Riot, Eclectica Magazine, Aainanagar, and elsewhere.

Mona Verma is a writer based in Hardwar, Uttarakhand. She did her Philosophy Honours from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. She was born in Hardwar and brought up by her grandparents.

At a very early age, Mona turned to books and rediscovered a world that accepted her as its own. As the years passed the book reader turned into a book writer.

She has published three books. Her first book "A Bridge to Nowhere was released by Sir Ruskin Bond in 2009 at Dehradun.

Dr. Mrinal Pande is the daughter of the well-known Hindi writer Shivani. She was born in 1946 in Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh. She studied in Nainital and at Allahabad University, and has studied English and Sanskrit literature, ancient Indian history, archeology, classical music and the visual arts (at the Corcoran in Washington DC).

Her first story was published in the Hindi weekly Dharmyug, at the age of 21. She has continued to write since then, from short stories to novels and drama. She has also been a columnist, broadcaster and television presenter. She was the editor of the popular women's magazine Vama from 1984-87. She is the executive editor of the Hindi daily Hindustan. She writes in both Hindi and English.

She has spent several years on the National Commission for Self-Employed Women, inquiring into the conditions for rag-pickers, vegetable sellers and domestic help.

Namita has written six novels, a collection of short stories, and several works of non fiction, all in English. She conceptualised the International Festival of Indian Literature, Neemrana 2002, and also The Africa Asia Literary Conference, 2006. She has worked on Translating Bharat, and Textile Narratives with the literary consultancy Siyahi.

She is a founder-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival along with the author, William Dalrymple, which started in 2006. She is also festival adviser to Mountain Echoes: A Literary Festival in Bhutan and the Kathmandu Literary Jatra, a first of its kind literature festival in Nepal.

She is currently the member-secretary of Indian Literature Abroad (ILA), an initiative by Ministry of Culture, Government of India, to translate and promote contemporary literature from the Indian languages into the major international languages, particularly the six UNESCO languages (English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian and Chinese).

Neelam is a Civil Servant, currently head of the Directorate of Field Publicity which is responsible for rural interpersonal communication campaigns. She is an alumni of Lady Shri Ram College and has taught English Literature for about one year in St. Stephens College.

She has held various positions in the Government of India dealing with communication and press relations. She developed and implemented the communication strategies for the National AIDS Control Programme in the Ministry of Health and was the Director of the International Film Festival of India for three years.

She has also held the positions of Press Registrar and Director General of the Dte of Advertising and Visual Publicity. She was the Principal Director General (Media and Communication) as head of the Press Information Bureau and functioned as the principal official spokesperson for the Govt of India from 2009 to 2014.

Neeta Gupta is the publisher of Yatra Books. She is also a Joint Secretary with the Bharatiya Anuvad Parishad and edits their quarterly journal, Anuvad. She has been working towards creating publishing connectivities across different languages and cultures.

Neha Prasada is the author of the book `Dining With The Maharajas’ which is a social history of the food traditions and lifestyles of royal India. It has been published by Roli Books in Dec 2012. She has also contributed an essay on the cuisine of the Punjab princely states for the forthcoming Punjab MARG volume.

Neha is an author and journalist based in New Delhi. She is a contributing editor with Architectural Digest (Conde Nast, India). Neha has worked for the Times of India, The India Today Group and Network 18’s CNN IBN, writing and reporting on health, politics, governance, environment and social issues.

She has also worked as a media consultant on diverse projects, which include a political campaign and assisting the Handlooms and Handicrafts Exports Corporation (HHEC), set up the museum shop at the National Museum, New Delhi.

Olivier Lafont is a multi talented and versatile personality who writes fiction, feature film screenplays, and editorial pieces, but also acts in feature films, endorses some of India's most popular brands on television, and lends his voice to many media in many languages. A French polyglot, Lafont pursues his eclectic interests at the highest standards having worked with some of India's most acclaimed directors on films like 3 IDIOTS, Guzaarish and two HOLLYWOOD films, and continuing in the same vein with his new novel 'Warrior' out with Penguin India. He is a familiar face due to his work in over 80 adverts on television.

Osama Jalali is a seasoned food critic, Festival curator, consultant & an authority on Mughalia cuisine. He has contributed immensely for the food section of The Hindu along with other publications and has travelled the length and breadth of the country and explored more than 2000 restaurants. His contribution to document and revive the lost & dying food heritage of India is worth a notice. His social media group Lost Recipes of India is one of the most popular groups on the subject. He has been the jury for the prestigious Indian Culinary Forum (ICF), Gurgaon Food Awards and various other seminars on Food as heritage across the country. Osama also consulted Oberoi group of hotels for their Rivaayat initiative to revive the traditional recipes of Mughal era. He has been a part of various food shows on television; his episode on Epic Channel on Lost Recipes of Delhi went viral and was appreciated throughout. He was the guest of Master Chef India's Kunal Kapoor for his show My Yellow Table on NDTV Goodtimes.

Osama is one of the few writers who have not restrained himself to just writing but loves to work on the other side of the kitchen as he cooks and curates community/Khandaan (Awadhi, Rampuri, Shahjahani, Nizami) - based menus with her mother Nazish Jalali & wife Nazia Khan for hotels and theme based Daawat's. Rivaayat E Rampur food festival at Oberoi's and Shahjanabaad ki Saair are amongst the most successful food festivals of the year.

Professor & Dean at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ApeejayStya University, Pervaiz Alam is a renowned Broadcast Journalist. Working as a Senior Producer, he spent more than 15 years with the BBC in London. Recently, he directed and produced Life Gulmohar Style for BBC - a series of 156 radio plays broadcast by about 20 FM Radio Stations in India.

At BBC World Television, he was the Executive Producer of the Programmes such as India Business Report, Question Time India, HARD talk India, Question Time Pakistan, Bollywood Bosses, Face to Face and Mastermind India.

Prof. Alam started his broadcasting career in India with the All India Radio as Programme Executive in New Delhi, where he won two top awards for producing radio documentaries. Later, he went on to join the BBC Hindi Service in London where he produced programmes of current affairs, literature and culture.

Director of more than 20 radio plays at the BBC Hindi Service, Prof. Alam has written two stage plays that were staged in several major cities of the UK, including London, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

Philippa Kaye is an Indophile, traveller, budding author, lover of dogs rider of horses, entrepreneur and eternal optimist. She enjoys getting off the beaten track both personally and professionally and has dedicated her life to sharing her stories and helping others find their own off-road path. She currently lives in Delhi though has previously lived in Kanha, Madhya Pradesh and Jaipur, Rajasthan. Her blog https://memsahibinindia.wordpress.com contains diaries from life in India as well as slightly more unusual travel pieces. Conventional is not the name of her game.

Piyush Jha is an acclaimed film director, ad filmmaker and the author of bestselling crime-fiction novels. Politically savvy at University he later pursued a career in advertising management after acquiring an MBA degree. Eventually he switched tracks, first to make commercials for some of the country's largest brands, and then to write and direct feature films.

Piyush's films are noted for unconventionality of the subject matter and for their relevance to contemporary society. Chalo America, King of Bollywood, Sikandar, all explore the unexplored and hidden.

Piyush's novels Mumbaistan, Compass Box Killer and the recently released Anti Social are page-turners that explore the gritty, noir landscape of crime fiction in Mumbai. Discussions are on to turn Mumbaistan into a 1-hour drama length TV show of 26 episodes.

Piyush lives in his beloved Mumbai where he can be often found trotting the same streets that inspire his stories!

Pragnya Wakhlu is an award winning singer, song writer and guitarist from India. Her passion for music led her to quit her successful career as an I.T. engineer in America & return to India to make music. Her songs are about inner reflection, thoughts, feelings and issues she feels strongly about. She is also the front woman of the Pune-based band "Soul Strings".

Pragnya was nominated for the 'Bite my Music' Global Music awards as the only Indian in the 'Best Female Vocalist Category'. She bagged the 3rd place at the 'Indiego Music Awards (South East Asia 2011) for the Best Female Vocalist & is a two time nominee for 'Best female Vocalist' at the Jack Daniel's Rock Awards(2010,2011).She was selected by The Rolling Stone Magazine to perform for the 'Divas of Rock concert' showcasing women in the rock circuit in India.

Pratap Somvanshi is an eminent and celebrated Journalist of Hindi print known for his incisive editorials and dry wit. He served on the Curriculum Board of Non-Formal Education, Government of India for ten years. He is also the Visiting Faculty for Media and Communication in Allahabad University.

He has written more than a hundred poems, stories for children and books for non-formal and adult education. His poems are translated in English, Kannada, Bengali, Urdu and Oriya and are available on Rekhta.org and Kavitakosh.org.

He directed one award winning documentary based on historical and religious aspect of Chitrakoot. Two of his short plays were broadcast by All India Radio. His Mine Series of reports on ground realities of Bundelkhand were put up in the Parliament of India as base and reference.

He is a regular speaker at National TV channels and won the South Asia Media Fellowship in 1999 for his work A Tale of woe on earth and women - A study based on mining workers.

Priya began her career in journalism with The Indian Express. During this time she wrote a weekly column on Delhi called Delhi Upclose which was published the city section of the paper, Delhi Newsline. She worked at the academic publisher Routledge in London for two years before joining Roli Books ten years ago. In her time at Roli Books she has commissioned and edited both mass market successes such as Dongri to Dubai by Hussain Zaidi as well as award winning books such as Taj Mahal Foxtrot by Naresh Fernandes. Being a history student she enjoys digging around archives and would probably be working in a museum if the publishing bug had not caught her first. Her formative years were spent in the beautiful Garhwal hills in Mussoorie and perhaps this is why she prefers mountains to just about anywhere else.

Priya was educated at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, Royal Holloway, University of London and has a MSc from London School of Economics.

She started as a correspondent at Citadel (a city magazine), The Asian Age (a national daily) and Intelligent Investor / Outlook Money (a personal finance magazine). She then began her stint as an editor at 26, with Society magazine (a national celebrity magazine) and followed it up with the editorship of HT Style (a daily lifestyle supplement) and HT Saturday (the Saturday edition of Hindustan Times).

In a career spanning over 15 years, she has written on varied subjects such as entertainment, art, business, crime, trends and of course, celebrities and their lifestyles. Known for her insightful interviews with top Indian celebrities, she has written popular columns such as Rough Cut (Screen), Hear & Now (HT Style) and Point of View (Society), in addition to contributing to publications such as Outlook, Tehelka and, The Week magazine.

More recently she penned Supertraits of Superstars, a motivational book with Bollywood's leading superstars at the heart of it.

A true blue hill girl by birth and at heart, Purabi Shridhar (nee Thapa) is becoming an expert at dual living – physically at New Delhi but mentally tuned to the hill stations especially Shillong besides Himachal Pradesh and Darjeeling. A Journalist for over two decades, she has worked with Indian Express, Sunday Mail and Femina, reporting and researching on a variety of subjects from crime, development stories, politics, secessionist movements to women related issues. The most constant and passionate factor in her life, apart from her husband and daughter of course, is food and everything to do with it. Exasperated at trying to explain North-East cuisine, she decided to document it in a book, The Seven Sisters, Kitchen Tales from the North East. A travel addict, journeys to her are about people, places and what they eat and how. She also writes a blog on food and travel - footlooseandfoodist.blogspot.com

R S Bedi is a distinguished and decorated Army Personnel with a renowned family lineage. His father was a recipient of both Padam Shri and Padam Bhuhan. Kanwar Mohinder Singh Bedi "Sahar" the popular Urdu poet was his uncle, and was responsible for shaping and inspiring his creative and linguistic skills . Coming from such illustrious background it's not hard to imagine his passion for poetry especially Urdu.

R S Bedi, retired from the Indian Government as Secretary and Founding Chairman of NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation). Prior to which he was a commissioned officer of the Indian Army. Bedi served the country proudly in both 1965 & 1971 war's with Pakistan. For his bravery the nation conferred on him the VIR CHAKRA . Post retirement in 2006 he has been pursuing his many passions with equal vigour. Billy as he is known to friends spends time between New Delhi his farm in U.P and a mountain top home in Dhanachuli.

Rajat Kapoor is an Indian actor and director born in 1961. He has acted in many successful films like Dil Chahta Hai, Monsoon Wedding, Corporate and Bheja Fry. He was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor for Siddharth: The Prisoner at the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In the year 2010, he has also starred in a Bengali movie Iti Mrinalini opposite Konkona Sen directed by acclaimed Bengali film writer Aparna Sen. Kapoor frequently collaborates with actors Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey. He is also a three time National Award winner, first for his 26-minute non-feature documentary, Tarana, then for his short, Hypnothesis, and after that for Raghu Romeo in Best Feature Film in Hindi section. His latest directorial venture "Aankhon Dekhi", garnered much critical acclaim.

One of India's most respected journalists, Rajdeep Sardesai has nearly three decades of journalistic experience in print and tv. He has been the founder- editor of chief of IBN 18 network, which included CNN IBN. Prior to setting up the IBN network, he was the managing editor of NDTV 24 x 7 and NDTV India. Rajdeep has won more than 100 national and international awards for journalism, including the Padma Shri in 2008. He is currently consulting editor at the India Today group.

Rajdeep is the author of best seller: The election that changed India.

Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil is a writer, critic, translator and literary historian. She has published over 15 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays on a range of subjects: culture, society, faith and literature. She writes Op-eds for the Indian Express on a regular basis. Her book on the lesser-known monuments of Delhi, Invisible City, continues to be a bestseller.

Her recent works include: Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movement in Urdu (OUO, 2014); a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan A Rebel and her Cause (Women Unlimited, 2014; and a translation of 15 short stories by Intizar Husain entitled The Death of Sheherzad (HarperCollins, 2014). She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture. Her debut collection of fiction, Release & Other Stories, was published by Harper Collins in 2011, and received critical acclaim. At present, she is writing a biography of the Urdu poet, Shahryrar, for Penguin.

Randeep Surjewala is an Indian politician and a member of Indian National Congress party. He is an MLA in the Haryana state legislature and a former minister.In 2005, he was given the responsibility of Transport and Parliamentary Affairs and thus became the youngest minister in Haryana. He was the Spokesperson for the Congress party and was seen regularly on the prime time Debates during the last General Election. Eloquent and reasonable he is known for his incisive remarks and his grasp on the legal and constitutional framework.

New Delhi based Ravi Dhingra is a Canon Photo Mentor and also a visiting faculty for photography at various Institutes including National Institute of Fashion Technology. He is also a Co-Founder of a photography based organisation called "CAMERAUNLIMITED FOUNDATION", which spreading knowledge and information related to photography through Workshops, Photo Walks and Tours. He has also curated a number of Photography exhibitions under the banner of "CAMERAUNLIMITED" involving upcoming and established photographers.

Ravi pursued photography as a hobby till he joined Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi in 1998 to learn the finer nuances of the craft.

With his photographs he tries to bring out the emotions attached with every subject- the state of happiness, feelings of being sad, neglect and plight. He wants the viewer to get involved with the photographs and feel the emotions. A chance assignment with a publication led to switching over from the hobby into a full fledged job. Since then he has been involved in Lifestyle photography which includes Interiors, Food, People and Product. He has been associated with leading publications, advertisement agencies and corporate clients and his work has been widely published in various books, magazines, brochures and on Web.

More about him can be found on www.ravidhingra.in

Ravikant is a bilingual historian, writer, and translator based in CSDS, Delhi. He read, researched, and taught modern Indian and world history in various colleges of Delhi University before joining the Sarai programme at CSDS at its inception in 2000. Ravikant's collaboratively edited books include Translating Partition: Stories, Essays, Criticism (Katha, 2001); Deewan e Sarai 01: Media Vimarsh: Hindi Janpad (2002), Deewan e Sarai 02: Shaharnama (Vani, 2005); His collaborative filmography includes Andaz Production's Kali Shalwar (2001), an adaptation of Saadat Hasan Manto's eponymous story, and Jo Dooba So Paar (2011).

Ravikant's ongoing social history project, 'Words in Motion Pictures', navigates inter-media sites such as print, broadcasting, and web in an effort to offer creative connections between these media forms and their diverse publics. The Hinglish Project, in collaboration with SOAS, London, tries to make sense of contemporary bilingualism in North India. He also works for the Indian Languages programme at CSDS and its peer-reviewed journal Pratiman. His recently published essays can be found on the web at Academia.edu, Kafila, Rachnakar, Gadyakosh, Janaki Pul, and the Deewan mailing list, which he manages.

Rishi Suri is a senior editor covering international affairs at The Daily Milap, India's oldest and largest circulated Urdu daily newspaper. He is an internationally recognised journalist known for his strong views and opinions on global politics and diplomacy. His interviews with various international personalities and heads of states and his articles on different subjects in the Middle East have been widely acclaimed and appreciated.

Rishi is one of the select few certified diplomatic correspondents by the Ministry of External Affairs in India and has been a part of various international delegations and programs. He is a distinguished alumni of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) run by the State Department of the United States of America. Along with playing an active role on the Steering Committee of the Australia India Youth Dialogue he is also a Media Fellow with the Australia India Council since 2012 and has also been a Chevening Scholar (UK) since 2013.

Rishi also plays an administrative role in the publication as he is part of the fourth generation of the family running the newspaper, started by Mahashay Khusal Chand Ji, later known as Mahatma Anand Swami Saraswati in Lahore (now in Pakistan) on the 13th of April, 1923. The Daily Milap was a social reformist newspaper and an instrument of social change while fighting tooth and nail for the freedom of the country. Gradually through the love of the people, Milap grew and prospered and, even in its current functioning carries with it many values which it has stood for over the years. It is this lineage which has greatly contributed to Rishi's knowledge, personality and development of his thought process.

Rosemary was born in Lansdowne, Garhwal, the daughter of Gerrard Wilkinson, an officer in the Royal Garhwal Rifles until his retirement in 1947, when the family moved to England. The Wilkinsons were friends of the renowned and pioneer conservationist FW Champion and his wife Judy, and used to stay with them in the jungles of the Himalayan foothills. These experiences helped forge in Rosemary a lifelong interest in wild places and wildlife, which she later shared with her husband, Irving Fox.

Rosemary has for many years worked as a volunteer in the Canadian conservation movement, serving on the Boards of Nature Canada, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Mining Council of BC, the Bulkley Valley Research Centre, Bulkley Valley Community Resources Board and Babine Watershed Monitoring Trust. She is currently the chairperson of the Conservation Committee of BC Nature (the Federation of BC Naturalists).

Rudy Singh is passionate a filmmaker and photographer from Kumaon, with a keen interest in poetry and literature.

After working in a bank in Delhi he chucked away the city life and choose to be a horticulturist and a middle school teacher in Nanital, inspiring young minds to blossom both literally and figuratively.

He has worked on films for a wide variety of clients including HCL, Snapdeal, WorldOne, etc. He has also done a lengthy project with CSMVS - The Museum in Mumbai.

A student of history, he has also made a documentary film on a historical tradition in Uttarakhand. He is currently working on a film in the local Kumauni dialect a first of its kind project and is President of the Film and Arts Guild of Uttarakhand.

Rutu Modan is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist. She is co-founder of the Israeli comics group Actus Tragicus and published the critically acclaimed graphic novels Exit Wounds (2007) and The Property (2013). Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007, ranking it at #8. It also won the 2008 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel.

After graduating with distinction from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, she edited the Hebrew edition of MAD magazine with YirmiPinkus. Together they founded the Actus Tragicus comics group in 1995. Modan received the Young Artist of the Year award in 1997 and the Best Illustrated Children's Book award from the Youth Department of the Israel Museum in 1998. In 2005, she was chosen as an outstanding artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.

Modan lives in Tel-Aviv with her husband, Ofer Bergman and their two children.

Saif Mahmood is a New Delhi based literary personality, Urdu poetry, literature and culture enthusiast, commentator, critic, translator and rights activist An Advocate of the Supreme Court of India, holding a doctorate in Comparative Constitutional Law in South Asia, Saif frequently appears before Superior Courts in India as well as in international and domestic tribunals.

He speaks and writes on diverse issues, ranging from law to literature and is associated with a number of academic, legal, professional, and literary organizations around the world. Founder of South Asian Alliance for Literature, Art & Culture (SAALARC), he recalls most of Ghalib, lqbal, and Faiz by heart His translations of Urdu works into English have appeared in a number of prestigious publications and his passionate recitations on varied platforms, especially of such progressive poets as Faiz, Majaz, Sahir and Jaun Elia, have enthralled many. He has authored a series of pieces on Urdu poets of Delhi titled "Dilli jo ek sheher tha" on his blog. His column with the same name appeared in First City till the magazine ceased publication. Among others, he currently sits on the Board of the Taj Colloquium- one of the most prestigious literary events of India - where he is spearheading various literary projects.

Samir Sinha (IFS) is the Chief Conservator of Forests & Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand, India's most celebrated Wildlife Reserve and a setting of many a fictional work and tales.

Samir has over twenty years of hands on experience in the Wildlife Management sector at the local, national, regional and international levels. He was the Fulbright Nehru Fellow 2013-14 and holds a P.G. Diploma (Hons) in Wildlife Management from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

He helped establish and operationalise the South Asian Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) with eight member countries for strengthening regional cooperation for wildlife enforcement. His special interest is the amelioration of human-wildlife conflict situations, having personally captured, sometimes at great personal risk, several elephants, leopards and tigers.

He is also the author of "Handbook on Wildlife Law Enforcement in India" published 
by Traffic India and Natraj Publishers, and co-author of "Uttarakhand- a Celebration" published by the Uttarakhand Forest Department in 2008.

MD & CEO of Futurebrands India Limited, Santosh is one of India's best-known social commentators. He is author of 'City City Bang Bang', a weekly column in The Times of India that looks at contemporary Indian society from an everyday vantage point. It covers issues big and small, tends where possible to avoid judgmental positions, and tries instead to understand what makes things the way they are.

He is the author of Mother Pious Lady - Making sense of Everyday India. The book is about a new India that is visibly emerging from within the folds of its many pasts. An IIM Ahmedabad post-graduate with 21 years of experience, he is former President of McCann-Erickson, India. He conducts workshops and seminars on a broad range of subjects in marketing for companies and educational institutions in India and abroad. He has addressed the global management boards of several multinationals including Hershey's, Microsoft, Philip's, Unilever, Coke and Reckitt Benckiser.

Sarah Blau is a Jewish writer and a theatre artist based in Israel. She was born in 1973 and raised in the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, near Tel-Aviv.

She holds a BA in history and psychology from Bar-Ilan University. Blau has edited and presented several TV programs dealing with contemporary views on religion and feminism in the Orthodox community, and writes reviews for the Hebrew press. She worked as an instructor at the Holocaust Studies Institute in Haifa. In 1999, Blau began holding an alternative Holocaust memorial service which ignited both great interest and controversy in Israel and abroad.

Blau, who writes about female Jewish myths, is one of the most prominent new voices in Orthodox literature in Israel, and was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize (2015). She has written two critically acclaimed books, The Book of Creation (2007), Those Well-Raised Girls (2012).

Sathya Saran is a senior journalist and author of biography on Guru Dutt and his association with screen writer, filmmaker and actor Abrar Alvi Titled, 10 Years With Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi's Journey. The book was on the nomination list for the National Film Awards.

Till recently editor of ME, a monthly magazine, Sathya has set out on her own in new directions, yet to be made public. In the past, Sathya has edited Femina and been on the Board of governors of the NIFT. She is currently also Adjutant Professor at NIFT, Bombay where she teaches Fashion Journalism. She has authored a book of short stories, Night Train and other Stories.

Satyarth is an author & script-writer based in New Delhi. Holding a Masters in English Literature from St. Stephen's college, he was felicitated with SAARC Honour for Health Reporting in 2008 during his tenure as Correspondent with CNN-IBN, Delhi. His short story Eve won the British Council Writers Circle Prize in 2006 while in 2011, two of his stories were featured in Westland's Chicken Soup for the Soul series. His debut novel The Emperor's Riddles released by Amaryllis in 2014 became a bestselling mystery thriller and is earning him comparisons with Dan Brown. Called 'a gripping tale of intrigue' by Hindustan Times, 'a heady mix of history and mystery' by The Hindu and 'a different avenue for budding writers' by New Indian Express, the thriller has been praised by writers like Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi.

Satyarth's latest short story Elixir has been selected and published in Penguin's latest anthology Something Happened On The Way To Heaven - 20 Inspiring Real Life Stories.

A writer by passion and profession, Saumya is a Poet, Blogger, Editor and Translator. English, Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit literature are her active sites of engagement. She runs a poetry club in the city called Poets' Collective, which has become popular as an informal platform to share heartfelt words. She is a part of the founding team of Kaafiya - Delhi's own poetry festival. Saumya conducts poetry and creative writing workshops in NGOs, schools and colleges. She is also a guest teacher at IIIT Delhi for the purpose of teaching poetry. Her own blog - Nascent Emissions - has attracted more than 4 million hits. Other than poetry, heritage and mythology are subjects which interest her. Besides, she is a social media strategist who consults for individuals, organizations, start ups and various projects of the government. Her day job comprises of putting together the best communication strategies for Shiv Nadar School.

Saurav Jha is a commentator on energy and security. His first book, The Upside Down Book of Nuclear Power, was published by HarperCollins in March 2010 to favourable reviews, and is currently being translated into several Indian languages. Jha has written for publications such as Le Monde Diplomatique, World Politics Review, The Diplomat, as well as national dailies such as The Daily Telegraph, Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald.

Currently Jha is writing a techno-thriller Ayni as well as a quirky travelogue, The Heat and Dust Project (along with wife Devapriya Roy) that chronicles the story of travelling through India on local buses "on a very very tight budget". Both books are for HarperCollins India. The Heat and Dust Project is also a first-of-its-kind dynamic book as the couple used Facebook to document their journey even as it was underway.

Dr. Shekhar Pathak is a historian from Uttarakhand, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007 and was Professor of History at Kumaun University in Nainital for the two decades. Once every decade, in 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004, he has undertaken a padayatra, better known as Askot-Aarakot Abhiyan (AAA). Now he is a Nehru Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Nehru Memorial, Teen Murti, New Delhi. He has worked on many aspects of Himalayan history, which includes his work on the "coolie begar" system, freedom struggle and local movements, culture and personalities. He is the co-author of the book Asia ki Peeth Per, devoted to the life, explorations and writings of Pundit Nain Singh Rawat. Currently he is working on the idea of opening of the Himalaya. Shekhar Pathak is a Himalayan traveller and has been to different parts of the Himalaya. Shekhar Pathak was also a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, where he worked on the Chipko movement and the tradition of peasant protest in Uttarakhand.

Shiv Shankar is the author of The Brahmin Butcher. School years saw Shiv active on stage and National Television and by 12th Grade, he had directed 6 short films dealing with social issues plaguing the 80's India. His interests in theatre, films and television continued through his early working years. Later, as a marketing & communications specialist he worked with several Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, and Siemens in their brand building days.

During his travels in India and abroad, food began to play an important part in Shiv's life. Taking out time to understand varying palates and local food habits, Shiv realized that cuisines had a deep past. He was intrigued by culinary developments that connected with a region's historical growth or decline. Studying scriptures, manuscripts, paintings, bas reliefs, etc. he began to understand how and what people cooked in ancient societies. Reviewing research papers on ancient civilizations from universities and networking with academicians and chefs from across the globe gave an insight into the evolution of cuisines. Shiv then reconstructed forgotten or lost recipes and searched for lost spices such as Andrani salt, Morah leaves, Mastica, etc. All his efforts were collated into a book that became an endeavour in providing a window to the cuisines and cooking methodologies of the ancient civilizations [3500BCE – 1700CE] of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Israel, Greek, Persia, Rome, Maya, Japan and of course India.

His other interests are to photograph food for restaurants, evangelise ancient recipes on various informal forums and propagate authentic recipes to fine dining specialty restaurants through collaborations with Chefs of Michelin starred restaurants from around the world.

Siddhartha Gigoo studied English Literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is the author of two books of fiction, The Garden of Solitude (2011) and A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories (2015), which was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award 2015. His short story 'The Umbrella Man' won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2015 for Asia. He has also written and directed two short films, The Last Day and Goodbye, Mayfly, which were selected for several international film festivals. Two books of his poems, Fall and Other Poems and Reflections – written as a student – were published by Writer's Workshop, Kolkata. His writings have appeared in several literary journals.

An editor at Scholastic India, the leading publisher of children's literature in the country, Sonali Misra is one of the youngest members of the KLF team. She has always been fascinated with the power of language, and has been an avid reader ever since she could read.

Sonali pursued her passion for literature at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, from where she graduated in 2013 with a first division in English Honours. There, she found new avenues to express herself. She was the editor of the department and college magazines and also wrote for them. Alongside, she headed the creative writing society of the college. She won many creative writing competitions for her short stories, and was awarded the prestigious Anubha Dhar Prize for Creative Writing in English by her college in 2013. In the same year, two of her short stories were published in the Women's Educational Worldwide (WEW) student journal, Voices and Visions (an international joint project of seven different WEW institutions from five different countries), that focuses on women's voices and concerns.

Sonali formally started her career in 2013 at Macmillan Publishing Services, and previously interned at Penguin Books India and Comic Con India. Presently, she is working on her first novel.

Sonia Verma Singh is the Editorial Director of the news channel NDTV. Sonia is an NDTV veteran and has been with the company since 1992. As an anchor of the award winning programme for the Best Presented Show India Decides @9 at the Indiantelevision.com News Television Awards and the Best Talk Show winner Your Call at the ENBA Awards, she has got both critical and viewer acclaim for her work. Conferred by FICCI with the 'Young Leader Award', Sonia has interviewed the country's top politicians, bureaucrats and stars.

Sonia Verma Singh has successfully anchored and editorially managed news ranging from numerous governments at the Centre, to the Kandahar hijack, Sonia Gandhi appointing Manmohan Singh as India's Prime Minister, the Gujarat riots and many other pivotal stories. She currently anchors the new weekly series, The NDTV Dialogues.

She is married to R. P. N. Singh, a congress politician and former minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs

Dr. Malik teaches PG and UG Classes in English Department in Post Graduate Government College, Chandigarh. Having graduated from Lady Sri Ram College for Women and completed her Masters in English from University of Delhi, she took up her Diploma in Journalism from Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan. A keen academic, Suchita chose her doctoral thesis in the genre of 'Faction' and was awarded the PhD degree in 1995 by Panjab University, Chandigarh. She taught two courses on 'Creative Writing' in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in 1996.

She has been writing middles, features-articles and travelogues, of which about 70 have been published in the Tribune, Indian Express, Hindustan Times and the Pioneer. 'Indian Memsahib', published in 2008 by Rupa & Co., was her debut novel, which has been through three reprints. It was followed by her second novel, a sequel titled 'Memsahib's Chronicles' in 2011. It was in February 2014 only that her third novel titled "Women Extraordinaire" was released. All the three novels have been published by Rupa & Co.

Sudeep Sen is widely recognised as a major new generation voice in world literature and 'one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene' (BBC Radio), 'fascinated not just by language but the possibilities of language' (Scotland on Sunday). He received a Pleiades Honour (at the Struga Poetry Festival, Macedonia) for having made" a significant contribution to contemporary world poetry".

Sen's prize-winning books include: Postmarked India: New & Selected Poems (HarperCollins), Distracted Geographies, Rain, Aria (A K Ramanujan Translation Award), Ladakh, The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (editor), and Fractals: New & Selected Poems|Translations 1980-2015. A new book, Blue Nude: New Selected Poems (Jorge Zalamea International Poetry Prize) is forthcoming.

His poems, translated into twenty-five languages, have featured in major international anthologies. Sen's newer work appears in New Writing 15 (Granta), Language for a New Century (Norton), Leela (Collins), Indian Love Poems (Knopf/Random House/Everyman), Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe), and Initiate: Oxford New Writing (Blackwell). He is the editorial director of AARK ARTS and its editor.

Suhail Mathur is an editor, literary agent and the author of the bestselling historical-mythological fiction, THE BHAIRAV PUTRAS. An alumnus of DPS NOIDA and NLU, Delhi, Suhail currently works in one of India's leading law firms. An avid debater, filmmaker and quiz enthusiast, he has won more than hundred such competitions. Suhail has won more than a dozen national literary competitions and has been awarded with Tales Pensieve's Best Book Reviewer Award, 2013.

A finalist on ZEE Cinema's reality show, Klub MJ Hunt, and an English cricket commentator with Star Sports & Airtel's mobile application, Suhail has featured in all leading newspapers and been interviewed by various news channels on matters of sports, films and literature.

He is also a part of the literary agency, THE BOOK BAKERS, and has been listed as one of the ‘Top 51 Indian Writers To Follow' by EBooksIndia.

Sujata is a novelist, poet, short story writer and activist. Her debut novel, In pursuit of infidelity (2009) explored the man – woman relationship outside the institution of marriage from a modern woman's perspective. It was a bestseller. The second in the series, In Pursuit of Ecstasy (2011) studied the youth - parent relationship in modern times and made an attempt to portray how the seeds of dissension between the two impact the society at large. The book was long listed for the Economist Crossword Book Award 2012. Her latest novel, the third in the "pursuit" series, In Pursuit of a Lesser Offence, was released in 2014 and explores the relevance of institution of marriage in current times. Her first short fiction Wake me only when the Sun is high (2011), and her first book of poems (2012) in the series "Poetry Out and Loud" have won awards.

She holds a Masters in Human Rights and is a certified professional in the field of Travel and Tourism management. She also has a rich and diverse professional portfolio: She has worked for a European airline, a business hotel in India and a sea- side resort in Singapore before joining the social sector as a social worker. She began her journey in the social development sector in 2001 with a national - level grass root NGO, Prerana, (N. Delhi), where she worked on projects related to the marginalized women, children and adolescents in the areas of health and education. She has worked on and completed several prestigious assignments in this field including working for ACORD, a Delhi based social research and consulting firm on projects related to Good governance, editing a manual for caregivers and relevant health professionals on psychosocial support for Person with Hemophilia (PwH), writing a formative research report on 'Linkages between Youth and HIV/AIDS' for National Aids Control Society (NACO), and carrying out a research on child rights issues of the marginalised and excluded children for an international organization.

She is currently on the executive board of Empowering Minds; a national level NGO located in Delhi. Sujata loves to travel and unwinds by watching a period drama or film.

Sumant is a corporate and policy lawyer of global eminence; writer, poet, museum curator and a creative entrepreneur. He is the founder of Kumaon Literary Festival. He has founded a number of initiatives to promote art, culture, literature and music. He is founder of a boutique hotel (Te Aroha), a museum (Chitrashala) and a production house (The Speaking Hats).

He is senior international consultant to IMF, World Bank Group and OECD, has worked extensively on policy matters in Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East and South Asia. Rated as India's No. 1 insolvency lawyer by Legal 500, his contributions to reforms in Indian insolvency system are well-recognised. Sumant has held leadership positions in prestigious multi-lateral, global and national organisations.

He is a frequent speaker at various international and domestic conferences.

Sumant lives in New Delhi with his wife, Asha and two children.

To know more about Sumant, please click on

Author of Urnabhih - A Mauryan tale of espionage, adventures and seduction, Sumedha was born on the shores of the River Ganges in modern Patna; ancient Pataliputra, which was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of the Mauryans, and has appropriately gone back to her roots for her first book.

She graduated with honours in Economics from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College, and has a Gold Medal in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. After a stint as a bureaucrat in the Government of India, she now lives on the shores of Lac Léman in Switzerland with her husband and two children pursuing her long-cherished dream of writing to bring the beauty and nuances of ancient India before the world.

Ancient Indian history and classical Sanskrit literature have been her lifelong passions. She is working on her second book on the Mauryans, researching a long term project for a series of books on the kingdoms of Ancient India, and doing her best to learn French and Sanskrit!

Sumit is an wordsmith with a literary experience spanning eleven years with twenty-nine e-books in tow. He is the author of 'My Chameleon Soul'. A multi-talented person, Sumit’s varied experience in the project design and management and strategic development lead him to meet many different people and face myriad circumstances, some good and some with takeaways for life, which have sourced his creative endeavors and inspired him to write. He has been a successful ghostwriter and currently heads Butterfly & The Bee … your literary angles, an erudite hub for India’s literati. Having been involved in theatre work, he also has expertise in different writing styles and poetry with a twist. Sumit has been nominated for Rex Global Fellowship and Karamveer Chakra Award 2016 for his contribution to the Indian Literary World.

Surabhi Modi Sahai is an education entrepreneur leading the most successful law test preperation brand in the country, Clat Possible.

She is a also film scholar and a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in 2009.

An avid reader, Shakespeare enthusiast, a poet and most importantly a much admired English teacher to more than 5000 students, she innovates constantly and makes learning an enjoyable experience.

He is an author of Hindi-language crime fiction with nearly 300 novels to his credit. His writing career began in late 1950s. His first short story, 57 Saal Purana Aadmi (The Man That Existed 57 Years Ago), was published by Manohar Kahaniya, a popular Hindi magazine, in 1959, and his first full length novel, Purane Gunah Naye Gunahgar, was published in 1963.

Most of his work can be broadly categorised in Five different series. Majority of his work is based on certain characters, heroes, who are thrown into different, though often familiar, circumstances. His major work falls under what is called the "Sunil Series" which consists of 121 novels. The series is based on a central character Sunil, who is an investigative journalist.

However, the most popular series of Pathak is Vimal Series. The hero of the series is a wanted criminal. The fact that despite being a wanted criminal, he has won the hearts of his readers can easily be credited to Surender Mohan Pathak's crisp and involving style.

Ha has also written a number of novels in which the central characters do not reappear. These novels are called "Thrillers".

Surender Mohan Pathak is also an ardent creator and collector of jokes. He has got these jokes published in Joke Books, 26 in total.

Susy is the author af historical saga - In a Bubble of Time - spans from 14 BC - 28 AD (published, 2012). Her second book, Elijah… Among the Shades of Time, also a historical novel, is set in 9th century B.C, in the Iron Age. (Published, January 2015).

A trained architect, Susy has constructed layered fiction set in antiquity. Her imagination has found expression through a trained eye of an architect thus bringing vivid characters from a lost age and history books to wonderfully crafted fiction.

Besides writing, Susy is a trained musician and has taught Western Classical music, she has painted murals and is busy with her third novel, while pottering in the garden!

Syed Ali Hamid was born and brought up amidst the decadent Avadh aristocracy in Lucknow, a city known for refined manners and extreme politeness in conversation. He has published four books of poems: Autumn Rainbow (1993), No Man’s Land (2003), Desire, Ultimately (2013) and The Ontology of Desire: New and Selected Poems (2015). His other publications include, in addition to research articles, a book on the short fiction of Ernest Hemingway, and translation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea into Urdu which was awarded by the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy in 1990. His translations of Urdu poetry into English and English poetry into Urdu/Hindi have appeared in various journals. He is 61 years old and lives in Almora, the spiritual and cultural capital of Kumaun, where he is Professor of English at the Almora Campus of Kumaun University in Uttarakhand, India.

With a background and career in Hospitality and a collector of vintage & classic vehicles, Tarun founded Heritage Transportation Trust (HTT) in 1996, to preserve the rich transport heritage of India. In 2013, HTT opened India's first comprehensive transport museum: Heritage Transport Museum which is an endeavor to showcase and interpret the multiple narratives of transport movement.

The museum brings alive the history and evolution of transport heritage in India through a rich and diverse collection of vehicles and associated memorabilia. The collection is representative of not just the objects directly related to transport but also of the socio-cultural life and art associated with it.

Built on a 3 acre complex, Heritage Transport Museum is spread over four air conditioned floors that offer over 100,000 square feet of exhibition space, library and reference centre, mini auditorium, souvenir shop, seminar rooms and refreshment area. The museum is located in Gurgaon, Haryana.

Tisca Chopra is a contemporary actor in the Indian film industry, theatre personality and author, best known for her role in Taare Zameen Par and Firaaq and recent TV show 24 by Anil Kapoor will be speaking at KLF. Tisca is also known for her role in Dinner with Friends, an extremely popular play, which won the Pulitzer. She has trained for theatre under Feroz Abbas Khan and Naseeruddin Shah. Tisca won the People's Choice: Best Supporting Actress Award for Taare Zameen Par. She was nominated for Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for the same film and for Stardust Awards – Best Actress in a Supporting role (female) for Firaaq.

Tisca debuted on the stage when she was 3 years old. Her film debut, Platform of 1993, saw her co-starring with Ajay Devgan. Tisca continued working on her stage acting skills and was seen in productions like Mahatma vs. Gandhi, All the Best, Salesman Ramlal, Inshah Allah and so on. She has also made her presence felt on the Indian Television circuit. Ek Shaam Ki Mulaquat and Hum Saath Saath Hain Kya?were among the first of her works on Television. She also had a leading role in Balaji Telefilms' popular Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii. This was followed by Love Marriage of Zee TV productions and Sarrkkar: Risshton Ki Ankahi Kahani of the same channel. Tisca also played the role of Menaka in Nagesh Kukunoor's Hyderabad Blues 2. She also acted in Madhur Bhandarkar's Dil To Baccha Hai Ji.

She was born in Kasauli, a town in Himachal Pradesh. Her schooling and college years were spent in Delhi where she ended up topping Hindu College (Delhi University) in English Literature. Tisca was also involved in literary activities and was an active participant in college fests and the like.

Tripti Nainwal is a writer and editor who loves writing for children. She has long been associated with Tinkle Comics and Amar Chitra Katha. Her script for Amar Chitra Katha's 'Jim Corbett, Friend of the Wild' was nominated for 'Best Writer' and 'Best Graphic Novel' at the Comic Con Awards 2012. She has also scripted the graphic biographies of Babu Jagjivan Ram and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for Amar Chitra Katha.

Tripti has written three children's books titled, 'Wind – The Air in a Hurry', 'Space – The Great Beyond' and 'Earth - The Blue Marvel' published by TERI Press.

Among the many coffee table books that she has authored, a special one is 'Women of Bhagirathi Valley' which was a journey down the valley, taking a look at the lives of the women living along the holy river. Some of her other books include, 'Arunachal Pradesh, an ode' and 'Nagaland - Arts, Crafts and People'.

Tuhin A. Sinha is among the best-selling authors in India, a columnist and a screenwriter.

Tuhin is acknowledged among the most prolific Indian writers with a maverick knack to experiment with new genres. While his first book, That Thing Called Love (2006) was an offbeat romance, The Captain (2008) was a cricket thriller that explored the underbelly of modern cricket. Of Love And Politics (2010) was a political thriller. His fourth and fifth books The Edge Of Desire (2012) and its sequel, The Edge of Power (2013) can be called socio-political thrillers with a strong feminist skew.

Daddy(2014) ​ was Tuhin's sixth book and his first non-fiction narrative.

Daddy is India's first parenting book from a Dad's perspective and celebrates new age fatherhood. Let the Reason Be Love is Tuhin's latest book.

Other than his novels, Tuhin has co-authored the book India Aspires with ​Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping​, Nitin Gadkari.

Tuhin is also a screenwriter of several popular TV shows, a columnist and blogger. At present, is a consultant with Reliance Broadcast, in- charge of new programming initiatives for their TV channel, Big Magic.

Udaya Shankar Pant is a Senior Civil Servant, currently Principal Chief Controller of Accounts of the Ministries of External Affairs; and Ministry of Overseas India Affairs; and holding addition charge of PrCCA in Central Ministries of HRD, Culture, Social Justice & Empowerment, Women & Child development, Youth Affairs & Sports, Tribal Affairs, Minority Affairs; and Disability.

He has been associated with the development and reforms in public systems. Writing, academic activities, voluntary and social work are his key interests. In addition to serious writings, he is also a poet philosopher and Happiness Guru. His important published titles are "Payment and Accounting System in India" (1996), Budgeting and Public Financial Management in India, Open Secrets of Happiness (2005). Besides he has 12 more books on poetry in English and Hindi.

He studied at Kumaon University and later at Jawaharlal Nehru University he also did his Master of Science from, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK.

Vandana Bist is an Illustrator, writer and children's author too. After graduating from the Delhi College of Art, she started working as an illustrator with publishers like Katha, Penguin, Rupa, Harper Collins, Living Media, Srijan, Ratnasagar, Frank Brothers, Frank Educational Aids, Paljor (press of H.H.The Dalai Lama), Pakhi Prakashan, Children's Book Trust, besides others.

As an illustrator she has worked for magazines, poetry collections, brochures and related commercial literature.

She has been writing since 1989 and her specific areas of expression are, adult fiction, poetry, children's fiction, poems for children and workshop outlines in schools. She has received many awards including Katha Prize for the best short story in English(adult fiction) Katha Prize for the best short story in English, of the decade 1990-2000 and Katha Chitrakala Award-best Illustrator of the year.

In 2014 she began a venture called Akka Bakka, with two colleagues, one from the art world and one from the publishing world. Akka Bakka is an effort to combine concepts in art, writing, storytelling, music and theatre to create modules that can be conducted in workshops of varying duration with children.

Vani is the founder of EasyLib, the first online library in India (started in 2001). EasyLib now has spread to three different branches. Through EasyLib Vani has hosted more than a hundred literary events that span from storytelling sessions to creative writing workshops, to author meets.

Vani has a deep rooted interest in the Puranas (Hindu mythology) and has studied some of them in their unabridged forms. She believes that stories from the Puranas are as entertaining as the modern day fiction and she hopes to compile a corpus of little known stories from them for children.

Vani is a consultant writer with Amar Chitra Katha and a literary reviewer with Deccan Herald and other magazines. She has contributed articles to Chicken Soup for the Indian soul and Life Stories - an anthology by the magazine Life Positive.

Vani is a software engineer by training and a visiting professor at the computer science department of the PES institute of technology, Bangalore.

Bangalore based historian and author, Vikram is a visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the Founder of the country's first online digital repository for vintage gramophone records of the country called Archive of Indian Music (AIM) and is the Director of the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF). He serves on several Government Committees like the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, Karnataka Tourism Vision Group and the Prasar Bharati Archives Core group. Vikram was among the 4 Artists and Writers selected by the President of India for an In-Residence Programme at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in March 2015. He served the Government of India's Ministry of Culture as Executive Director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Southern Regional Centre and is currently the Director of Symbiosis School of Media and Communication (SSMC)- Bangalore.

A trained Carnatic vocalist under several eminent Gurus, he writes regularly for newspapers and magazines on a wide variety of subjects.

Vikram is the author of three acclaimed works of non-fiction "Splendours of Royal Mysore: the untold story of the Wodeyars", "My name is Gauhar Jaan! - the life and times of a musician' and "Voice of the Veena: S Balachander, a biography". His book on Gauhar Jaan won him several laurels including the Sahitya Akademi's first Yuva Puraskar for English Literature and the ARSC International Award for Excellence in Historical Research in New York.

An IT Consultant by career and a Heritage Activist by passion, Vikramjit is the founder of Youth for Heritage Foundation and Delhi Heritage Photography Club. He completed his graduation and post-graduation while serving as the Director of Research and Innovation at one of the top 5 Digital Marketing companies of the world. In final years of the first decade of the 21st century, he decided to turn into a Heritage Activist.

Vikramjit divides his time between IT Consultancy and Heritage Activism. His contribution in the field of heritage education and conservation is well-recognised. He has been making invaluable contribution in documenting the Indian heritage such as through his website Monuments of Delhi.

Vinita Dawra Nangia is a Columnist, Author, Senior Editor, The Times of India and a Motivational Speaker. She is the Director of Write India, a Times of India initiative to give 11 budding writers an opportunity to get a book published in their name under the mentorship of India's leading writers.

She is the Editor of Times Life, a supplement with the Times of India. Vinita is a well-known name in the lifestyle and fashion journalism. She is the author of It's Your Life: Reflections on Contemporary Living & Relationships, which is based on her columns O-Zone.

Vipin Choudhary,is a poet, writer and translator. Vipin has translated story books of Ruskin bond, Emily Bronte( Biography), Mary Wollstonecraft ( Biography) and SardarAjit Singh ( Autobiography) Uncle of Shaeed Bhagat Singh.

She is continuously active in writing for radio drama, theatre, and films. Her publication include Nai Sadi Ke Has kashtra (2002), Andhere Ke Madhya Se (2008), Ek Baar Phir (2008) and Grey Shade (short story collection) is under Publication. She penned down Biography of Black writer Maya Angelo.

She has been honoured with many awards including Prerna Puraskaar by Haryana Sahitya Acadamy & Prerna Parivar, Hisar (2006), Viragangana Savitribai Phule Felowship Award (2007) by Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, Prerana Puraskar Awarded (2008) by Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad, Kolkata, appreciation for contribution in literary work (2008) by Kaavya Sandhya Sawaal Ukalana Mandi, Haryana.

Currently, she is vice-president of Manav Adhikhaar Sangh, an NGO working for preservation of Human Rights. She is also the Member of Mahila Surksha Samiti, Haryana. She lives in New Delhi.

Yaseen Anwer is a polyglot Indian poet. He founded 'Kaafiya: The Poetry Festival' in the year 2015, and is Festival Director for the same. He is the Founder of Poets Corner Group, conceptualized in the year 2011, and Co-founder of Delhi Poetry Festival, in the year 2013.

He is an engineering drop out by choice. Felicitated with "Young Poet Award 2012" by the Indian Poetry Society, his translated work can be found and read in Chinese, Portuguese, Hindi, and a few other languages. As a literary benefactor, he has chaired several sessions as a speaker / feature poet / moderator / guest speaker / guest poet at premier educational institutions and literary festivals.

His work has been published in more than 70 national and international Magazines & Journals. Besides writing, photography and digital imaging are the other two fields of his interest.

Yasser Usman is a television journalist and film critic. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award and the NT (News Television) Awards thrice over. He has worked for over a decade in leading news organizations is currently with ABP News (formerly Star News). He is the author of Rajesh Khanna- The Untold Story of India's First Superstar (English and Hindi, Penguin India).

He lives in Delhi and is ever available on www.yasserusman.com

Daleep began his career as a writer and editor with Reuters in New York City and now spends time developing experiential boutique properties in the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. He also devotes his time to writing about the jungle and its unique wildlife, acts with a traveling theater company and manages a jungle lodge called Jim's Jungle Retreat at Corbett Tiger Reserve.

Having spent an entire childhood amid jungle air and river sound, it was a natural homecoming for Daleep to the Kumaon foothills of Corbett. He is now developing new programs that aid in educating guests and children about the wonders of the Indian jungles, the importance of all of its living beings and our dependence on it.