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A.K. Bhagwat
Late Prof. A.K. Bhagwat was an eminent teacher of English Literature. He taught in Willingdon College, Sangli and later on in The Arts, Commerce and Science College at Wai, where he was the Principal. Prof. Bhagwat edited the writings of the Gandhian thinker Acharya S.J. Bhagwat for the National Book Trust, India. Prof. G.P. Pradhan is a freedom fighter, who suffered imprisonment in the Quit India Movement in 1942. He taught English in Ferguson College and later on worked in The Socialist Party. He was an active member of the Legislative Council for almost two decades and later became the honorary editor of Sadhana Weekly. Prof. Pradhan has written seven books in English and nineteen books in Marathi. He has written on Gandhiji, Dr. Ambedkar as well as on India’s Freedom Struggle.
Ajahn Brahm
Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to most as Ajahn Brahm), born Peter Betts in London in 1951, is a Theravada Buddhist monk. Ajahn Brahm grew up in London and earned a degree in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University. Disillusioned with the world of academe, he trained as a monk in the jungles of Thailand under Ajahn Chah. A monk for over thirty years, Ajahn Brahm is a revered spiritual guide and the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia-one of the largest monasteries in the southern hemisphere. He is also the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, and spiritual adviser and inspiration for Buddhist centers throughout Asia and Australia. His winning combination of wit and wisdom makes his books bestsellers in many languages, and on his teaching tours Brahm regularly draws multinational audiences of thousands.
Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat is the author of five blockbuster novels, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of life (2008), 2 States (2009) and Revolution 2020 (2011). All five books have remained bestsellers since their release and have inspired major Bollywood films. The New York Times called Chetan the the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history. Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.Chetan also writes for leading English and Hindi newspapers, focusing on youth and national development based issues. Chetan quit his international investment banking career in 2009, to devote his entire time to writing and make change happen in the country. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Anusha, an ex-classmate from IIMA and his twin boys Shyam and Ishaan.
Christopher W London
Christopher W London earned a doctorate from Oxford University in 1987 with a dissertation on British Architecture in Victorian Bombay. An art and architectural historian, he specializes in British architecture in India, and has won an award for his work in building preservation in New York. Affiliated to the Royal Institute of British Architects, he has lectured at Cambridge University, for the Victorian Society of Great Britain, and for the Society for South Asian Studies in London. He was guest editor and contributing author to Architecture in Victorian and Edwardian India (1994) and The Arts of Kutch (2000), and has contributed to Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives (1997), Lucknow: Then and Now (2003) and Banaras: The City Revealed (2005) all published by Marg, Mumbai. The Times of India and The Indian Architect & Builder, as well as several newspapers in London and Cambridge, have carried his articles. The author resides in London and New York.
Devdutt Pattanaik
DEVDUTT PATTANAIK writes, illustrates and lectures on relevance of mythology in modern times. He has since 1996, written over 30 books and 600 columns on how stories, symbols and rituals construct the subjective truth (myths) of ancient and modern cultures around the world. His books include Myth=Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology, The Book of Ram, The Pregnant King, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata, Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, Olympus: An Indian Retelling of the Greek Myths, 7 Secrets series, Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik series, The Business Sutra series, Devlok series for children, The Jaya Colouring Book, The Sita Colouring Book, Pashu: Animal Tales from Hindu Mythology, Shikhandi: And Other Queer Tales They Don’t Tell You, My Gita, Hanuman Chalisa, The Girl Who Chose and The Boys Who Fought. He consults corporations on leadership and governance, and TV channels on mythological serials. His TV shows include Business Sutra on CNBC-TV18 and Devlok on Epic TV. To know more, do visit www.devdutt.com
Edited by David Marcum
David Marcum plays The Game with deadly seriousness. He first discovered Sherlock Holmes in 1975 at the age of ten, and since that time, he has collected, read, and chronologicized literally thousands of traditional Holmes pastiches in the form of novels, short stories, radio and television episodes, movies and scripts, comics, fan-fiction, and unpublished manuscripts. He has edited over sixty books, most Sherlockian-related anthologies, and is the author of nearly 90 Sherlockian pastiches (so far), some published in anthologies and others collected in his own books, "The Papers of Sherlock Holmes", "Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt", and "Sherlock Holmes – Tangled Skeins". He has edited over 800 Holmes pastiches and over sixty books, including several dozen traditional Sherlockian anthologies, including the ongoing series "The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories", which he created in 2015. This collection is now up to 30 volumes, with several more in preparation. He was responsible for bringing back August Derleth’s Solar Pons for a new generation, first with his collection of authorized Pons stories, "The Papers of Solar Pons", and then by editing the reissued authorized versions of the original Pons books. He is now doing the same for the adventures of Dr. Thorndyke.
Gaur Gopal Das
Gaur Gopal Das studied electrical engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune. After a brief stint with Hewlett Packard, he decided to live life as a monk in an ashram in downtown Mumbai. He has remained there for twenty-two years, learning the antiquity of ancient philosophy and the modernity of contemporary psychology, to become a life coach to thousands in the city. Gaur Gopal Das has been traveling the world since 2005, sharing his wisdom with corporate executives, universities and charities. In 2016, his global popularity exploded as he took his message online. With millions of views on his videos on social media, he has now begun to lead a movement to help others achieve happiness and purpose in their lives. Now one of the most famous monks in the world, Gaur Gopal Das holds the title of 'The Ideal Young Spiritual Guru', conferred upon him by the Indian Student Parliament, MIT Pune.
Indra Nooyi
Indra K. Nooyi served as CEO and chairman of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2019. Her prescient strategic thinking, insight into consumer behaviour, and wisdom on managing a vast, global workforce make her one of the world's most sought-after advisors to entrepreneurs, executives, and governments. She is also revered as a role model for women and immigrants, and celebrated for her empowering messages on inclusivity. She is also the first female independent director of the International Cricket Council. Nooyi has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, and the U.S. State Department's award for Outstanding American by Choice, and has received 15 honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Yale University in 2019. She is married to Raj Nooyi and has two daughters, Preetha and Tara.
Julia A. B. Hegewald
JULIA A. B. HEGEWALD graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, from where she obtained a PhD, and is now Professor and Head of the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History at the University of Bonn. Between 2002 and 2014, she was Director of the Emmy Noether Research Project on Jainism in Karnataka. She is the author of Water Architecture in South Asia: A Study of Types, Developments and Meanings (Leiden 2002); Jaina Temple Architecture in India: The Development of a Distinct Language in Space and Ritual (Berlin 2009; Mumbai 2018); and the editor of The Jaina Heritage: Distinction, Decline and Resilience (New Delhi 2011). SURENDRA KUMAR is a photographer based in Hampi, Karnataka, specialising in topographic views and architectural documentation. His images have been published in Discovering the Deccan: A Panoramic Journey Through Historical Landscapes and Monuments (Mumbai 2011), Temple Architecture and Art of the Early Chalukyas (New Delhi 2014), and Lepakshi: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting (New Delhi 2019). He has provided images for many guidebooks in this series, including The Hoysala Legacy: Belur, Halebidu, Somanathapura (2019).
Khalid A-H Ansari & Edited by Clayton Murzello
Until his recent retirement, PADMA SHRI KHALID A-H ANSARI was the guiding force of MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd which publishes the newspaper (in two languages from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune), the Inquilab Daily and other publications. He was publisher of the magazine Sportsweek, which he started in 1968 to champion the cause of Indian sport and sportsmen until 1989, when he took up an assignment abroad. The author of three earlier books, he covered the Kargil war in 1999, the NAM conference in Harare and the CHOGM summit in the Bahamas. He was also a member of the Indian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and published the Earth Times, the official paper for the 1994 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He has the distinction of having covered nine Olympic Games going back to Munich ’72 and is a recipient of several honours and awards. CLAYTON MURZELLO is MiD DAY’s Group Sports Editor and has been a journalist since 1988. He is a recipient of two Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI) awards for excellence in journalism. He has co-authored a book on cricket anecdotes with former Test cricketer Sandeep Patil.
Manjiri Prabhu
Manjiri Prabhu is a Pune-based English Author, Film-maker and Founder/Director of the Pune International Literary Festival. 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 unpublished psychological thriller novel was adapted into a Hindi feature film by NFDC, titled Kuchh Dil Ne Kaha. 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. 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. And much recently, Prabhu has been acknowledged to be a 'match for Dan Brown' by Dr. Shashi Tharoor. She has been invited to reputed International Literature Festivals like the Agatha Christie Festival, UK and International Women Fiction Writers, Matera, Italy. Her novels 'The Cosmic Clues' was selected as a Killer Book, by Independent Mystery Booksellers of America and 'The Astral Alibi' was honoured as a 'Notable Book' in the Kiriyama Prize. She has recently been chosen as one of 50 Inspiring Women of Maharashtra and has been awarded for 'Excellence in Writing' by ERTC Global Herald, in Mumbai. As well been awarded the Rex Karmaveer Gold Medal Award. She is also an animal welfare activist promoting caring and adoption of stray dogs.
Mark Manuel
MARK MANUEL is a respected Mumbai editor, writer and columnist with over three decades of journalism in leading publications including the Free Press Journal, Bombay Times, Mid-Day, Afternoon and Dainik Bhaskar. He is widely known for his brilliantly penned interviews and contributes frequently to Hindustan Times Brunch and the Huffington Post. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his understanding of this beat, several top cops of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch have collaborated with him to make this book possible. Bollywood, the Hindi film industry in Mumbai, has also always been a source of inspiration for his writing. In a statement of admiration for his work, Amitabh Bachchan – India’s greatest actor – has written the foreword to this book.
Pandit Rajmani Tigunait
Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD, is a modern-day master and living link in the unbroken Himalayan Tradition. He is the successor to Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas, and the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute. As the author of numerous books, including his autobiography Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, Pandit Tigunait offers practical guidance on applying yogic and tantric wisdom to modern life. For over 50 years he has touched innumerable lives around the world as a teacher, humanitarian, and visionary spiritual leader. You can view more of his teachings online at the Himalayan Institute Wisdom Library. Pandit Tigunait holds two doctorates: one in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad in India, and another in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Family tradition gave Pandit Tigunait access to a vast range of spiritual wisdom preserved in both the written and oral traditions. Before meeting his master, Pandit Tigunait studied Sanskrit, the language of the ancient scriptures of India, as well as the languages of the Buddhist, Jaina, and Zoroastrian traditions. In 1976, Swami Rama ordained Pandit Tigunait into the 5,000-year-old lineage of the Himalayan Masters.
Phillip B. Wagoner
PHILLIP B. WAGONER is Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, where he has taught since 1987. His research has encompassed architectural history, cultural history, numismatics, and Telugu historiographical writing. His books include Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu (Honolulu, 1993); Power, Memory, Architecture: Contested Sites on India’s Deccan Plateau, 1300-1600 (with Richard Eaton, Delhi, 2014); and the co-edited volume Palimpsests: Buildings, Sites, Time (Turnhout, 2017). SURENDRA KUMAR is a photographer based in Hampi, Karnataka, specialising in topographic panoramas. His images have been published in Discovering the Deccan: A Panoramic Journey Through Historical Landscapes & Monuments (Mumbai 2011); Temple Architecture and Art of the Early Chalukyas (New Delhi 2014); and several of the Deccan Heritage Foundation guidebooks, most recently Buddhist Rock-Cut Monasteries of the Western Ghats (Mumbai 2017).
Premchand
Born Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava on 31 July 1880 in Lamhi village near Varanasi, India, Munshi Premchand began his writing career in 1901. His first short novel, Asrar e Ma’abid (Secrets of God’s Abode), written in Urdu was published in a weekly between 8 October 1903 to February 1905. He wrote on a variety of topics including prostitution, poverty, dowry, child widowhood, and feudal system, using his works as a vehicle for arousing public awareness. He was the first Hindi author whose works featured social realism. Premchand has penned down hundreds of short stories, more than a dozen novels, plays, and several critical essays. His most celebrated works include Vardaan (1912), Seva Sadan (1918), Premashram (1922), Rangbhoomi (1925), Nirmala (1927), Pratigya (1927), Gaban (1931), Karmabhoomi (1932), Godaan (1936). Premchand breathed his last on 8 October 1936. One of the most influential writers of Indian literature, his works continue to remain popular and are translated in various foreign languages across the world.
Richard Carlson
During his life, Richard Carlson, Ph.D, was considered one of the foremost experts in happiness and stress reduction in the United States and around the world and was a frequent featured guest on such shows as Oprah, The Today Show, The View, NNC, CNN, Fox, PBS and over 2000 other shows.Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff continued to be a publishing phenomenon with over 20 titles in the brand franchise, two of which were co-authored and authored with his beloved wife, Kris. He died of a pulmonary embolism in December 2006, at the age of forty-five. The words “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” have become a part of American Culture thanks to Richard Carlson’s book that became a runaway best-seller and made publishing history as the #1 best-selling book in the United States for two consecutive years. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller list and is still considered one of the fastest selling books of all time and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
Rukshana Eisa
RUKSHANA EISA has been a leading fashion model, an onboard leader with international airlines and an etiquette and grooming professional since the past 17 years. Her expertise in the field of etiquette training has seen her coach professionals, corporates, brides-to-be, youth on the cusp of a career and a wide array of management and hospitality executives. Given her vast experience, she has been the official grooming leader for participants of the Miss India pageants. She has also groomed Rohit Khandelwal, who made India proud by winning the prestigious Mister World 2016 title. With her exposure to travel and the fine arts, she continues to be the voice of a new generation looking for poise and purpose. She lives in Mumbai with her architect husband Mustafa and daughter Zara.
Sadhguru
Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. Absolute clarity of perception places him in a unique space, not only in matters spiritual but in business, environmental and international affairs, and opens a new door on all that he touches. Ranked amongst the fifty-most influential people in India, Sadhguru is known as a speaker and opinion maker of international renown. He has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan, India's highest annual civilian award, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service. Sadhguru has initiated large-scale ecological initiatives such as Rally for Rivers and Cauvery Calling, to revitalize India's severely depleted rivers. These projects have found phenomenal support among India's people and leadership. They are internationally accredited and recognized as game changers that can establish a blueprint for global economic development that is ecologically sustainable. Sadhguru has been a primary speaker at the United Nations General Assembly and several other UN forums. He has also been regularly invited to speak at establishments such as the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, the House of Lords, the University of Oxford, MIT, Google and Microsoft, to name a few. With a celebratory engagement with life on all levels, Sadhguru's areas of active involvement encompass fields as diverse as architecture and visual design, poetry and painting, aviation and driving, sports and music. He is the designer of several unique buildings and consecrated spaces at the Isha Yoga Center, which have received wide attention for their combination of intense sacred power and strikingly innovative aesthetics. Three decades ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Foundation, a non-profit human-service organization, with human well-being as its core commitment. Isha is supported by over nine million volunteers in more than 300 centres worldwide. app.sadhguru.org isha.sadhguru.org facebook.com/sadhguru twitter.com/SadhguruJV youtube.com/sadhguru"
Santosh Nair
Santosh Nair is the Chairman and Chief Mentor of smmart Training & Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd, one of India’s finest entrepreneurial transformation companies. An ace trainer, motivational speaker and coach, his expertise lies in sales, leadership, and entrepreneurship. He brings a lethal combination of life-transforming philosophies with contemporary examples in his larger than life, powerful style of delivery, which makes him the most preferred trainer across masses and classes. Santosh’s intense training programmes and high energy speeches have led to the skill and productivity enhancement of some of the finest national and international corporations such as Vodafone, Asian Paints, Proctor & Gamble, HDFC, ICICI, Coca Cola, Airtel, Blowplast, ITW India, Sodexo Pass, Mahindra & Mahindra, Saint Gobain Glass, Philips, Ion Exchange, Godrej, LIC, Tata Motors, Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd., New Holland Tractor, Hyundai Motors, etc. Having transformed the lives of over 2 million people and more than 1500 real-time entrepreneurs, Nair has dedicated his life to the cause of entrepreneurial excellence and acts as an entrepreneurial coach helping small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs envision and reach a greater future. He has to his credit over a hundred life transforming audios and videos on generic subjects — each aimed at awakening human talent to their present realities and unleashing their true potential. His mission in life is to inspire at least one human being every day.
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. His other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universe and The Universe in a Nutshell. In 1963, Hawking contracted motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. Since 1979 he has held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Science. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu is thought to have been a military general and adviser to the king of the southern Chinese state of Wu during the sixth century BCE. Although some modern scholars have called his authorship into doubt, the world's most influential and enduring treatise on military strategy, The Art of War, bears his name. Sun Tzu fue un general, estratega militar y filósofo de la antigua China. El nombre por el que lo conocemos es en realidad un título honorífico que significa «Maestro Sun». Su nombre de nacimiento era Sun Wu y fuera de su familia era conocido por su nombre de cortesía, Changqing. Tradicionalmente se le considera el autor de El arte de la guerra, un influyente tratado sobre estrategia militar. Sun Tzu ha tenido un impacto significativo en la historia y culturas china y asiática, tanto por escribir El arte de la guerra como por ser una figura histórica legendaria. Históricamente se le sitúa en el período de las Primaveras y Otoños de China (722-481 a. C.) como general militar al servicio del rey Helü de Wu, que vivió c. 544-496 a. C. Los estudiosos modernos aceptan su lugar histórico al situar la creación de El arte de la guerra en el período de los Reinos Combatientes (476-221 a. C.) con base en las descripciones militares del texto y a la similitud de su prosa con la de otros trabajos creados a comienzos de la etapa de los Reinos Combatientes. La Editorial Alvi Books le dedicó, como tributo y reconocimiento, este espacio en Amazon en 2017.
The Dalai Lama
HIS HOLINESS, TENZIN GYATSO, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1937 at the age of two and was enthroned in 1940 as its spiritual and temporal leader. In the midst of his religious education, China invaded Tibet in 1950, and since 1959 he has lived in Dharamsala, India, where he leads the Tibetan Government-in-exile. A scholar, a man of peace, and a spokesman for better understanding among people and religions, he has received honorary degrees from Benares Hindu University, India; Carroll College, Waukesha; the University of Oriental Studies, Los Angeles; Seattle University, Seattle; and the University of Paris, Nanterre. Among his awards are the Ramon Magsaysay, Manila, the Philippines; Peace Medal, Asian Buddhist Council for Peace, Ulan Bator, Mongolia; the Lincoln Award, Research Institute of America; the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Human Behavioral Foundation, New York City; the bi-annual award of the Foundation for Freedom and Human Rights, Bern, Switzerland; and the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize, the University of Tubingen, Germany. A few of his many books are My Land and My People; The Opening of the Wisdom Eye; Buddhism of Tibet and the Key to the Middle Way; Union of Emptiness and Place; and Kindness, Clarity and Insight, along with distinguished writings on Buddhist philosophy.
Yogrishi Vishvketu
YOGRISHI VISHVKETU (Vishva-ji) holds a PhD in yogic science from Gurukula Kangri, the Sanskrit University of Haridwar. Vishva-ji is committed to offering holistic yoga workshops internationally and incorporating diverse aspects of yoga into his practice: asana, pranayama, cleansing kriyas, Ayurveda, and Vedic mantra. He created the Akhanda Yoga system, meaning "whole and indivisible." He founded Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram in 2007 in Rishikesh, India, where he lives and teaches six months of the year. Through his life and work, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has inspired millions around the world with a vision of a stress-free, violence-free world. He has founded courses that provide techniques to live a deeper, more joyous life, and he has established nonprofit organizations that recognize a common human identity above the boundaries of race, nationality, and religion. He lives in India.