Sudha Murthy

Sudha Murthy is one of those individuals with a thirst for excellence and this is very evident in the various spheres of interests in which she is involved. She was born on August 19, 1950 in Shiggaon in Karnataka. She was raised by her parents and maternal grandparents and her childhood memories and experiences proved to be the inspiration of her first book, How I Taught my Grandmother and Other Stories. She is an alumnus of B.V.B College of Engineering & Technology, Hubli. She studied Electrical Engineering. She topped in Engineering in the State of Karnataka and she was also awarded a Gold Medal by the Chief Minister of Karnataka. She pursued her Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Science.

Further Sudha Murthy went on to work with the former TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company or TELCO (now called Tata Motors). In fact she was the first female engineer to be hired at Tata Motors! She has always lived life by her own rules. She had written a postcard to the former chairman of TELCO, JRD Tata about the ‘gender bias’ prevalent in the firm and she was called for a special interview and hired by the organization. She lived in Pune from 1974 – 1981 until she moved to Mumbai. She went on to financially support her husband, N.R. Narayana Murthy to start Infosys.

Sudha Murthy is also a known philanthropist; she is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She is on a drive to provide all government schools in Karnataka with computer and library facilities. She teaches Computer Science. Currently, she also heads Catamaran Ventures, which is the seed investor firm for Infosys. She has also been highlighted as one of the most successful investment managers in the world. She is famous for her simple middle-class lifestyle. She has authored How I Taught My Grandmother To Read & Other Stories, Wise & Otherwise: A Salute to Life, The Bird with Golden Wings, Gently Falls the Bakula, Dollar Bahu, Mahashweta, Old Man and HisGod, Magic Drum & other Favourite Stories, Fasal Cut, A Wedding in Russia, and Sweet Hospitality. Her books have been translated into 15 languages. Her stories are a reflection of her beliefs and thoughts on donations, hospitality and understanding.

Sudha Murthy has also been a recipient of several awards. In 2004, the Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation in Chennai awarded her with the Raja-Lakshmi Award. It was an acknowledgment for her ‘outstanding contribution to social work’. In 2006, the Government of India awarded her with the Padma Shri for her philanthropic initiatives. She has also earned an LL.D (Doctor of Laws) degree for her contribution to working towards legal education and scholarship in India.

Manjula Padmanabhan

Manjula Padmanabhan has worked as a playwright, journalist and a children’s book author. She was born in 1953 and went to a boarding school. She was born in Delhi and grew up in Sweden, Pakistan and Thailand. After passing out university, she began to further her interests in writing in the publishing and media industry. At the moment she lives in Delhi.

She has written Kleptomania which is a short-story collection. She is the creator of the iconic Suki, a character for a comic strip that has been turned into a comic series for the Sunday Observer. She has worked as a cartoonist for leading newspaper, The Pioneer. She has also writer plays such as Lights Out!, Hidden Fires, The Artist’s Model, Harvest and Sextet. She has written books such as Escape, Getting There, Hot Death, Cold Soup and Kleptomania.

Manjula Padmanabhan’s most famous play is Harvest. It focuses on body organ-selling in India. It is a futuristic play that throws light on the desperation and the survival of a man and his family to sell organs via an agency to someone in the first world for a paltry amount of money. In the process, Om’s (the man who has been selling organs from India) life is turned upside-down and monitored by the agency. The agency is obsessive with controlling the health of Om’s family which includes his mother, wife and he; while the recipient from the first world watches them on a video-conferencing mode and treats them like human dross. The play is heart-wrenching and Manjula Padmanabhan won the Onassis Prize in 1997 after it was declared the Best New International Play.  Govind Nihalani is working on a project to film this play.

Manjula Padmanabhan’s latest book is Getting There; it is a partial-autobiography. She has described it as loosely based on her life between 1977 and 1978. Her short-story collection, Kleptomania is based on extremely versatile and has a host of speculative fiction themes ranging from mystery to science. It also centers on a post-apocalyptic world which is bleak, as-a-matter-of-fact and wry. It has story of love deceptions, rude awakenings and sexual realization. Further these stories are timeless in their themes and universal in their appeal.  Manjula Padmanabhan’s humor is stark and real and makes a reader step out of a reverie. Escape is a harsh sketch of a dystopian world that reveals the life of the only girl in the world where the rest of the women folk have been wiped out.

Manjula Padmanabhan’s favorite authors are RR Tolkien, Edgar Rice-Burroughs, ArthurC. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein and KurtVonnegut.

Amish Tripathi

Amish Tripathi is synonymous with his first book, The Immortals of Meluha. It became a best seller within a week of its release making its way to the best-seller lists. It is the first of the ShivaTrilogy which centers on Lord Shiva; it is a biographical account of the Hindu deity who in Tripathis’ words was – “just a man, 4000 years ago but is today remembered as the Mahadev (the God of Gods).”

The ShivaTrilogy is set in 1900 BC at the backdrop of Meluha and begins with the arrival of Neelkanth who drinks Somraas and his neck turns blue. Neelkanth is Shiva and he saves the people of Meluha from further wars. The trilogy also describes how gods were human beings ages ago until they achieved immortality as a result of their deeds and actions. Indians refer to those times as the Indus Valley Civilization. In the book, Meluha is referred to as the ‘near-perfect’ empire that was created by Ram many centuries ago. Several publishers declined to publish the first volume of the trilogy - The Immortals of Meluha until it was finally published in 2010 and it went on to become a huge success. It sold more than 125,000 copies and it became one of the best-selling novels of 2010.

Amish Tripathi had initially wanted to write a book on philosophy; however he changed course and turned to mythology. He is an aficionado on history, philosophy and mythology. Literary stalwarts such as Shashi Tharoor, Anil Dharker and Rashmi Bansal have praised his writing style which is reflective of a ‘compelling narrative style’.

Amish Tripathi was born in 1974 and studied at the Cathedral & John Cannon School and St Xavier’s College in Mumbai. He studied at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Preeti and son, Neel. He has worked in the financial services industry. He is currently working on the third volume of the trilogy - The Oath of the Vayuputras. It is scheduled for release at the end of 2012.

Further, adding to the accolades, The Immortals of Meluha will be made into a film by Karan Johar and the grapevine says that Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra will star in the film. The second volume – The Secret of the Nagas will be launched on August 12, 2012. The Hindiversion of the Immortals of Meluha has also come out; it is titled Meluha Ke Mritunjay.

Paulo Coelho

 Paulo Coelho was born in Rio De Janiero, Brazil. He understood his calling as a writer; however his parents disagreed. He was growing up as a non-conformist and a maverick when his parents decided to have him confined to a mental institution. It was that age when non-conformists were provided with clinical healthcare and it was considered to be the best thing to do to cure them and put them back on track. He managed to escape the institution three times before he was finally released at the age of twenty. He recollected his parents view on non-conformity saying, “It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do. They did not do that to destroy me; they did that to save me.”

At the behest and insistence of Paulo Coelho’s parents, he decided to study law. For a while, he dropped the idea of being a writer. However, the writing bug bit him again; he abandoned his studies and traveled as a hippie across South America, North America, Central America and Europe for a year. He returned to Brazil and worked as a songwriter for Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, Rita Lee and Raul Santos Seixas. He went on to work as a journalist, theater director and actor before he turned to fulltime writing. He says he has a spiritual awakening down Road of Santiago de Compostela in Spain which he recollected in The Pilgrimage.

Paulo Coelho began his writing career with the Hell Archives and there was a lukewarm response. Then he wrote The Pilgrimage. Then other books followed such as: The Alchemist, Brida, By the River Piedra ISat Down and Wept, The FifthMountain, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, Like the Flowing River, TheValkyries and The Witch of Portobello. By the time he wrote Brida, The Alchemist became a best seller. Three of his books are autobiographical: The Pilgrimage, The Valkyries and Aleph. He has written collections of essays and other writings in Maktub and The Manual of the Warrior of Light. He has sold over 100 million copies of his writings in more than 150 countries and his writings have been translated in 71 languages. He also continues to be the best-selling Portuguese-language author.

Paulo Coelho is married to Christina Oiticica who is a Brazilian artist. They shuttle between Brazil and Europe. He began the Paulo Coelho Institute that aids the elderly and children who live on the financial brink of human society. In 2006, he was awarded the ‘Honorable Award of the President of the Republic’.

Judy Balan

Judy Balan has authored an outright comedy titled TwoFates: The Story Of My Divorce. Her story parodies the bestseller 2 States by Chetan Bhagat. Along with being a novelist this chirpy author writes reviews, interviews, short plays and is also an ardent blogger. Besides this she mentions that she loves penning stories for her five-year-old daughter.

At a book launch Judy Balan had once stated: “Yes, I’m divorced but the book does not say my story at all. The story of my divorce would turn out like one of Stephen King’s novels! She further adds that the only thing common between me and the protagonist Deepika is the job profile (copywriter). “Oh and the aunties of course! The ones who keep coming up to me or my parents enquiring about my age, and they seem to be obsessing about my marriage and my divorce more than my folks. It’s hilarious (now) but it is so true,” she mentions.

Judy Balan before taking to write full-time worked for five and a half years as a copywriter in advertising agencies. However she mentions that she was not happy and yearned for more in life. Despite being apprehensive about quitting her job she took the plunge as she wanted to spend time with her daughter after her divorce came through. She realized that the separation process had taken a toll on their lives and so she took up freelance writing. This is when she started blogging passionately.

Judy Balan’s favourite book is Erich Segal’s LoveStory. She also loves admires NicholasSparks, Jodi Picoult, Candace Bushnell, Marian Keyes and ElizabethGilbert. She also mentions that humour is a very essential ingredient when it comes to writing and picking up a book from the book shelves. On her blog she mentions: What comes naturally to her, is the kind of writing that women love. And men don’t admit to reading (but read anyway).  No, don’t think Mills and Boons or Danielle Steele. Or the Twilightseries. She's revolted by vampire love. But what she can promise is to write honestly– no matter how seemingly shallow the subject may be. 

Judy Balan lives with her daughter in Chennai, India. Currently she is working on her next novel that is going to be published by Westland Publications.

Tarla Dalal

Padma Shri Winner and Televisions show presenter, food writer, and master chef, Tarla Dalal is an individual with absolute talent. Born in 1935 in Pune, she married Naveen Dalal and went to live in Mumbai and has lived there ever since. She began conducting cooking classes from home in 1966.

Tarla Dalal has authored more than 100 books some of which are Know your Flours, Italian Cookbook, Healthy Breakfast, Sandwiches, Curries & Kadhis, Chips & Dips, Baked Dishes, Punjabi Khana, Delicious Diabetic Recipes: Low Calorie Cooking: Total Health Series, The Complete Gujarati Cookbook, and The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking. The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking is her first book.

Did you know?

-          In 2000, International Bestfoods Ltd (IBL) acquired Tarla Dalal’s ‘ready-to-cook’ mixes - 'Tarla DalalMixes.

-          She hosts the ‘Tarla Dalal show’ and ‘Cook It up with Tarla Dalal’ on Sony TV.

-          She has sold more than 3 million books and these have been translated into English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Dutch, and Russian.

-          Her shows have been broadcast all across the Indian Sub-continent, the Gulf, the UK, and the U.S.

-          She has the largest Indian food website.

-          Her fortnightly magazine is titled Cooking & More.

-          She focuses on healthy cooking and she has also focused on diet meant for diabetics. She strongly believes and says, “We have a book on iron, calcium content of food. Food shall be the answer for health not the tablets.”

-          Her cuisines are diversified ranging from Indian regional food to international.

-          She still continues to conduct cookery classes upon invitation. The proceeds go to charity.

-          Her precept of cooking is as crystal-clear as her shows. She said in an interview that ‘To be a success in this industry one must take care of three things first being the easy availability of ingredients second being the ease with which one can cook and last but not the least the taste’.

-          Her book ‘One Tablespoon of Oil’ shows how to cook with just one tablespoon of oil! It’s a remarkable read and a book to adhere to by everyone especially cynics who believe that appetizing and delectable food is always cooked in excess of oil. It lambasts all such myths.

Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond was born in colonial India on May 19, 1934 at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. His parents were Edith Clerke and Aubrey Bond. He spent his childhood in Jamnagar, Dehradun and Shimla. His parents separated ways when he was a child and he went to live with his mother who remarried. He went to study at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. He spent a quiet and solitary childhood; however he spent a lot of time reading and his father egged him on to write on nature. He understood his calling as a writer really early in life and once he passed out school, he decided to pursue his career as a writer. The Indian Council for Child Education awarded him the Sahitya Academy Award for his role in the growth of children’s literature in India for his story, Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. His story, The Flight of Pigeons was made into a Merchant Ivory film, Junoon. He has also won the Padma Shri.

Ruskin Bond left for London after school. He lived there for four years doing odd jobs and he was homesick. He was 17 when his first book The Room on theRoof was published and it gained instant popularity and recognition. He won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and returned to India and has lived in the hills here ever since. This book was also made into a BBC television series. Soon after, other writings followed such as: Vagrantsin the Valley, Rain in the Mountains, Delhi Is Not Far, The Best of Ruskin Bond, Ghost Stories from the Raj, A Season of Ghosts, A Face in the Dark, and others. His stories reveal and define his love for the Himalayas; his stories revolve around Indians with their idiosyncrasies and warmth. He has dabbled in paranormal writings too as he has always been interested in the paranormal stories from the days of the Raj.

Ruskin Bond’sstories have also been into the school syllabi of different boards. Most of his popular short stories include The Night Train at Deoli, Time Stops at Shamli, The Eyes Have it and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. His novels include: Room on the Roof, Scenes from a Writer's Life, A Flight ofPigeons, Landour Days - A writers Journal, The Sensualist, The Road To TheBazar, The Panther's Moon, Once Upon A Monsoon Time and The India I Love. Recently, his short story, Susanna's SevenHusbands was made into a Vishal Bharadwaj film titled 7 Khoon Maaf starring Priyamka Chopra. He made a cameo appearance in the film.

Rujuta Diwekar

RujutaDiwekar is the famous Mumbai-based nutritionistand celebrity, and the bestsellingauthor of the book ‘Don't lose your mind, lose your weight.’ The book garnered a lot of attention and has sold more than ‘2 lakh copies in four languages’, as Diwekar’s website proclaims. The book was in the national bestsellers list more than 100 weeks after it made its debut. She followed it up with a book called ‘Women and Weight Loss Tamasha’; the book has sold 1 lakh copies since its 2011 release. 

We call Diwekara celebrity as her clientele includes the businessman Anil Ambani and Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor. The daughter of chemistry Prof. Rekha Diwekar, Rituja's first book was published by Random House. She is also an avid trekker and undertakes marathon training programs. But primarily she is a nutrition consultant who offers a particular eating pattern that you are never off your diet. RujutaDiwekaralso operates a gym and has one by the name of Urja, a fitness studio.

RujutaDiwekar believes that exercise goes beyond what a person does within the confines of the gymnasium. It is for this reason that the country’s first ever marathon training program has been initiated by her. The training program is a 14-week long program and is a tedious exercise in outdoor sports. Presently no other agency or sports institute offers an exclusive course on marathon, so Diwekar is again making a mark in the Indian health sector. Those who have been part of RujutaDiwekar’s marathon program have talked about finding their positive energy again. There are others who have totally turned into running, they are now converts. One of them has stated that he has rediscovered the love for the outdoors. One of the participants of the marathon program is quoted on Diwekar’s site, “Joined up for Marathon training but landed up in a great & fun-loving group of Marathoners led by the redoubtable Rujuta! Was already doing HMs (half marathons) earlier. Have become better runner, more diet conscious (although need to follow the same more rigidly) and more appreciative of other aspects of marathon training (cross-training, strength-training, balancing & stretching). More confident and keen on doing full Marathon next year.”

RujutaDiwekar has also conducted workshops for corporate houses, NGO’s, fund-raisers, clubs, for the police force and at other platforms all over India and abroad. Some of her recent workshops have been in Surat and Hyderabad.  

R K Narayan

R K Narayan is an Indian Author best-known for Swami and Friends was born on October 10, 1906. He was born in former Madras and modern-day Chennai.  His father was a school headmaster and moved about a lot; therefore he was raised by his grandmother Parvathi. She nicknamed him Kunjappa and he was popularly addressed by this nickname by the members of his family. He went to study in several schools and spent most of his time reading Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, PG Wodehouse, and ThomasHardy. He got into trouble when he participated in a pro-independence march; his family was neutral about politics and India’s independence.

RK Narayan moved to Mysore to join his parents where began to write. He studied at the Maharaja College of Mysore and took a job as a school teacher. He left it to realize that he would turn to writing for the rest of his life. His first piece of published writing was titled ‘Developmentof Maritime Laws of 17th-Century England’. He wrote for English newspapers and magazines. Although he lived on a paltry income, his friends and family respected him and he published his first novel: Swami and Friends. Thus the fictitious town of Malgudi came into being. This book was rejected by several publishers until Narayan sent it to his friend and popular author Graham Greene. Other books such as The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher, The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma, and The Guide were published. The Financial Expert was acknowledged as one of the most original works in 1951 while he won the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Guide. The Guide was also made into a movie and presented on Broadway. He was compared to William Faulkner for his depiction of real-life characters in everyday life while also being compared to Guyde Maupassant with regard to his narrative style in presenting short stories. He was conferred the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma Vibhushan. He was also nominated as Member to the Rajya Sabha.

R K Narayan fell in love with Rajam and went ahead to marry her despite financial and zodiac hurdles. Shortly after the marriage, he worked for a newspaper titled The Justice.  He wrote about the shame involved in being caned in the class, the emotional drain in brides and grooms with horoscope matching, and the subjugation of women in marriages. The death of his wife immensely aggrieved him and his daughter became the center of his attention. The grief served the inspiration for his book, The English Teacher. He also worked on a journal, Indian Thought. Then he started his own publishing venture, Indian Thought Publications which earned him a voracious readership from New York to Moscow. His writings were published for the first time in the States by the Michigan State University Press.

In 1961, TheMan Eater of Malgudi was published. It earned him a lot of accolade and he traveled across Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne. After the publication of The Vendor of Sweets, he earned his first honorary doctorate from the University of Leeds. He lived the last of his days being involved in agriculture and interacting with people. He wrote The World of Nagraj and Grandmother’s Tale, the last of his books. He breathed his last on May 13, 2001 at Chennai.

Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh an Indian Author was born on February 2, 1915 in Hadali in Khushab District in modern-day Pakistan. His father, Sir Sobha Singh was one of the most famous builders from Lutyens’ Delhi and was the renowned builder of the South Block and India Gate. He also constructed the Connaught Place Market Complex, All India Radio Building, Modern School, St. Columba’s School, The National Museum, Dyal Singh College, T.B Hospital, Baroda House, Government Medical College in Nagpur, and Pasteur Institute at Kasauli.

Khushwant Singh studied at the Modern School, New Delhi, Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and King’s College, London. Further he read for the Bar at the Inner Temple. He has been the editor of the Yojana, the Illustrated Weekly of India, The National Herald, and the Hindustan Times. He has authored several books such as: Not a Nice Man to Know: TheBest of Khushwant Singh, Uncertain Liaisons: Sex, Strife and Togetherness in Urban India, The Mark of Vishnuand other Stories, The History of Sikhs, Train to Pakistan, I Shall Not Hearthe Nightingale, The Sikhs Today, The Fall of the Kingdom of Punjab, Delhi: A Novel, Sex, Scotch and Scholarship, We Indians, Women and Men in My Life, The Company of Women, Burial at the Sea, Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles, The Sunset Club, With Malice Towards One and All, The End of India, Black Jasmine, Ranjit Singh: The Maharajah of the Punjab, Ghadar 1915: India's first Armed Revolution, Truth, Love, and a Little Malice and A Bride for the Sahib and Other Stories. He co-authored Declaring Love in Four Languages with Sharda Kaushik. He has mentioned earlier that he wakes up at 4 AM every morning to write and he writes his columns by hand. He has personally known some of the avant-garde writers in Urdu and Punjabi from yester years.

Khushwant Singh is known for his penchant of poetry and his secularism beliefs. He has also been a Member of the Rajya Sabha: from 1980 – 1986. In 1974, he was conferred the Padma Bhushan; however he returned it in protest against the siege of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Indian Army. In 2007, he was conferred the Padma Vibhushan. He has also been vocal about his stance and cruelty of the anti-Sikh riots following Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination. He has been optimistic about the democracy in India and has been active via the Citizen's Justice Committee.

Javed Akhtar

Synonymous with some of the most mellifluous and melodious lyrics and poetry in Hindi and Urdu, Javed Akhtar was born on January 17, 1945 in the erstwhile Gwalior State of Colonial India. His father was the legendary Bollywood lyricist and Urdu poet Jan Nisar Akhtar who was also a member of the Progressive Writers' Movement. His mother, Safia Akhtar was a singer, teacher, and writer. Javed Akhtar was named Jadoo Akhtar at birth; however he was officially named Javed Akhtar. He also inherits a familial legacy of seven generations in which there were prominent writers and poets. It is no wonder that the young Jadoo Akhtar turned into a multi-faceted personality as a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter. His maternal uncle was the famous Urdu poet Asrar ul Haq Majaz while his grandfather was Iftikhar Hussain Muztar Khairabadi, most famous for his poem ‘Main kis ke dil ka ghubar hun’. He is also related to the philosopher and poet, Maulana Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi who participated in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.

Javed Akhtar grew up in Lucknow and Aligarh. He lost his mother while he was a child and he was sent to study in Colvin Taluqdar’s College in Lucknow. Then he moved to live with his maternal aunt, Hamida Salim in Aligarh. He studied at the Minto Circle in Aligarh and matriculated from the Aligarh Muslim University and he graduated from Saifiya College in Bhopal.

In 1964, Javed Akhtar moved to Mumbai and his tryst with Bollywood began. He was the scriptwriter for Yakeen which did not amount to any success. He formed a partnership with Salim Khan to work on the makings of Adhikar. G. P. Sippy's Sippy Films hired Salim-Javed to write the scripts for films such as: Andaz, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Don. He has also written a lot of poetry in Urdu outside the realms of Bollywood and a chunk of it has been published in Tarkash. He worked with his son Farhan Akhtar in movies such as Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya, Rock On! He worked with his daughter Zoya Akhtar in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

In 1999, he was conferred the Padma Shri by the Government of India and in 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He has won 14 Filmfare Awards: seven times for Best Script and eight times for Best Lyrics! He has also been a recipient of the National Award, Videocon Screen Award, Zee Award and Lux Zee Cine Award. He won the National Integration Award from the All India Anti-Terrorist Association and the Avadh Ratan from the Government of U.P. and the Hakim Khan Sur Sammaan Award from the Maharana Mewar Foundation, Udaipur. He is member of the advisory board of the Asian Academy of Film & Television.

Javed Akhtar is an atheist. He is married to film personality, Shabana Azmi.