Daily Archives: June 1, 2023

Ghazala Wahab

An executive editor, FORCE, where she writes on homeland security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, left-wing extremism, and religious extremism, and contributes a column, First Person. She is the author of Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China through Military Power with Pravin Sawhney. She contributed a chapter on the changing profile of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in the book Operation Parakram: The War Unfinished. A career journalist, Ghazala has worked with The Telegraph and Asian Age.

Chandachur Ghose

Chandrachur Ghose is an author, researcher and commentator on history, economics and environment.

Chandrachur has 24 years of experience in multi-disciplinary strategic research and advocacy, having worked with Centre for Science and Environment, one of the most well-known environmental organisations in India, University of Sussex, an academic institute of global excellence, and International Market Assessment Pvt Ltd, an economic research firm that is a trusted brand among Indian businesses. He is currently an independent author and columnist. Chandrachur has graduated from Visva Bharati and the University of Sussex and now lives in Hyderabad.

Chandrachur is one of the founders of the pressure group Mission Netaji that has been the moving force behind the declassification of secret documents related to Subhas Chandra Bose. The activism of Mission Netaji led to the declassification of over ten thousand pages in 2010 and subsequently declassification of over 300 files by the Central Government and the Government of West Bengal.

Anshul Chaturvedi

A journalist by profession, Chaturvedi is currently an Associate Editor at the Times of India in Delhi/Noida. He has been fascinated with the Second World War for most of his life – some of his earliest memories are of watching Battle of the Bulge in primary school and scattering toy soldiers of the British and German Armies across his room afterwards. Another subject of interest, right from his teenage years, is Subhas Chandra Bose. Chaturvedi has written about Bose for some years now – his political legacy, his affinity for Vivekananda etc. It was perhaps inevitable that these two fascinations were to converge in the shape of this novel after decades of running parallel.

Amarjit Singh Dulat

Amarjit Singh Dulat is a former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency. After retirement, he was appointed adviser on Kashmir in the Prime Minister’s Office and served there from January 2001 to May 2004. During this time, he accumulated a vast reservoir of goodwill with Kashmiris of all shades. As Jane’s Intelligence Digest put it in 2001, ‘Well known for his social skills, Dulat preferred dialogue to clandestine maneouvers’. In his heyday, Dulat was referred to as ‘Mr Kashmir’.
Dulat was born in Sialkot, Punjab, in December 1940. With India’s partition, his father Justice Shamsher Singh Dulat relocated his family to Delhi. After schooling in Delhi, Simla and Chandigarh, Dulat joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1965, and then the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1969, where he served for almost thirty years. At IB he headed the Kashmir Group during the turbulent 1990s till he joined and headed the R&AW.
Dulat’s first book, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, was published in 2015, followed by The Spy Chronicles: R&AW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace in 2018, which he co-authored with General Asad Durrani, former director-general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Abhay K

Abhay K. is author of nine poetry collections, most recently of The Alphabets of Latin America, and the editor of The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems, CAPITALS, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems and New Brazilian Poems. His poems have been published in several literary journals including Poetry Salzburg Review and Asian Literary Review. His ‘Earth Anthem’ has been translated into over 50 languages. He received SAARC Literary Award 2013 and was invited to record his poems at the Library of Congress, Washington DC in 2018.

Himanjali Sankar

Himanjali Sankar grew up in Kolkata. She studied English Literature at JNU, New Delhi, and taught English at the University of Indianapolis in the US. She has worked with various publishing houses and is currently an editor with Bloomsbury India. Two of her books, The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog and Talking of Muskaan, were shortlisted for the Crossword Award for Children’s Literature. Mrs C Remembers is her first novel for adults.

Isaque Bagwan

Isaque Ibrahim Bagwan retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in May 2009 after serving in Mumbai Police for over thirty-five years. He was awarded the prestigious President’s Police Medal for Gallantry thrice. As per Mumbai Police records, he is the first officer from the force to have killed a criminal in an encounter. He is also the first police officer to shoot at and apprehend a criminal during proceedings in a sessions court in Mumbai.
Bagwan was also praised for his quick thinking and valour, which saved hundreds of lives, by the Pradhan Committee Report that looked into the 26/11 terror attack. He had taken charge of Nariman House during the deadly attack and restricted the terrorists’ movements for over sixteen hours with just twelve men. He also assisted in ensuring the safety of people in the buildings around Nariman House until NSG commandos arrived.

Hindol Sengupta

Hindol Sengupta is a multiple award-winning author of nine books. He is Vice President and Head of Research at India’s national investment promotion agency, Invest India, under the Ministry of Commerce. He is the only Indian to have won the Wilbur Award given by the Religion Communicators Council of America for Being Hindu in 2017. His latest book The Man Who Saved India: Sardar Patel and his idea of India won the Valley of Words Award for Best. Non-fiction Book of the Year in 2019. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and a columnist for Aspen Italy. He has been a senior journalist for the Indian editions of Fortune, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV. He is co-founder of Grin Media network which focuses on telling the civilisational story of India for the world.

Dominic Franks

Dominic Franks graduated from Bangalore Medical College. His passion for sports led him to give up his career in medicine and join a premier sports channel. In September 2010, he decided to go on a cross-country bicycle journey from Bengaluru to New Delhi to witness the Commonwealth Games. It’s Not About the Cycle—winner of Best Adventure Film at the 2017 Toronto Beaches Film Festival—stars Nautanki, his bicycle, the central character of Nautanki Diaries. Currently, he is working on producing his first documentary feature about human-animal relationships. When not working to travel, or travelling for work, Franks holes up in Bengaluru where he lives, laughs and loves.

Devendra Prabhudesai

Devendra Prabhudesai is an Indian biographer and manager of media relations and corporate affairs for BCCI in Mumbai, India. His first book was An Umpire Remembers- the autobiography of Piloo Reporter. He also authored a 2007 book on the Cricket World Cup and wrote a biography of cricketer Rahul Dravid titled, The Nice Guy who finished first, and other biographies on Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.