.png)
​
PRABAL KUMAR BASU - Renowned Writer
Editor - SIGNPOSTS Bengali Poetry Since Independence
​
Prabal Kumar Basu is an important poet in the post-Independence Bengali Literature. He started writing poetry during the early eighties and so far has seventeen volumes of poetry books, besides a collection of verse drama, two collections of essays and two collections of short stories to his credit. His poems have been translated in various Indian and International languages. He also edits a noted Bengali magazine YAPANCHITRA on poetry, art, literature and culture. Apart from writing poetry Prabal has been associated in production of verse drama as well as performance poetry (poetry Ballet). He is a strong proponent of revival of verse drama in the recent times. Recipient of Gouri Bhattacharjee Memorial Award for his first book of poem ‘Tumeei Pratham’, he has also received the State Academy Award for poetry, for his poetry book ‘Jaimon kore gaiche akash’ in 2005. Prabal is a professional living and working out of New Delhi.
​
VIBHUTI NARAIN RAI
Author - Prem ki Bhoot Katha
Vibhuti Narain Rai (1950) is an Indian writer, novelist, activist, police officer and former Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya. He obtained Master of Arts in English Literature from Allahabad University, India, in 1971 and joined Indian Police Services in 1975 as a part of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He served Indian Police force for a period of 36 years and was awarded the President’s Police medal for distinguished services. During this time he also contributed immensely to Hindi Literature. Rai was awarded Ramesh Chandra Jha Smriti Samman for his contribution to Hindi Literature in 2016. Rai has written five Hindi novels viz. Ghar, Shahar Mein Curfew, Kissa Loktantra, Tabadla and Prem Ki Bhoot Katha. Most of his works have been translated into other languages spoken in India. Rai is the founder-editor of Vartman Sahitya, a Hindi literary magazine that has been published for over fifteen years. In his works, Rai voices his deepest thoughts and out speaks against fundamentalist, and obscurantist forces as well as communal biases of Indian Police. In 2016, Rai came up with Hashimpura 22 May: The Forgotten Story of India's Biggest Custodial Killing. The book is a blow-by-blow account of the massacre in Hashimpura on May 22, 1987, and its aftermath in independent India.
AMRITA BERA - Renowned Translator
​
Born in Kolkata, Amrita Bera is a writer and a translator. She writes and translates in three languages – Hindi, English and Bengali. She has published the following works of translations – (a) A collection of Poetry and ghazals of a contemporary Hindi writer, Vivek Mishra, translated from Hindi to English, by the name Light through a Labyrinth, which had been published from Writers Workshop, Kolkata, and (b) She has translated the latest, that is the 7th part of the autobiography of the exiled Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasrin’s Nirvasan from Bengali to Hindi, published by Vani Prakashan, Delhi. She is regularly translating articles of Taslima Nasrin for a reputed Hindi literary magazine Hans for over three years now. Her translated poems, articles, and short stories of various authors appear regularly in most of the noted Hindi, English, and Bengali magazines viz. Indian literature (Sahitya Akademi), Outlook, India Today, Indraprastha Bharti (Delhi Hindi Academy), Vagarth, Pratiman, Protidin (Bengali) etc. Currently an awarded Bengali novel Dozakhnama written by the renowned Bengali novelist, Rabishanker Bal, which she has translated in Hindi is in the process of getting published by Harper Collins. An anthology of Bengali poems of Subhashis Bhaduri, which has been translated in English by her, is also on its way to getting published. A lover of music, Amrita specializes in singing ghazals. She lives in Delhi.
​
.jpg)
SATYA CHAITANYA
Translator - LOVE : A Ghost Story
​
Prof. Satya Chaitanya, the corporate educator and consultant, has helped people become leader in their chosen fields of interest. He has a work experience of more than thirty years and specializes in Leadership Training, Mindfulness, Stress Management, Achievement Motivation, Performance Excellence, Emotional Intelligence, Interpersonal Relations, and Communication and so on.
Prof. Satya Chaitanya was selected by the leading international academic and professional publisher Sage Publications for its first issue on Indian Psychology. Chaitanya is a visiting professor, teaching courses in the Organizational Behaviour area at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur. Chaitanya has authored a large number of short stories and has translated books from Hindi, Sanskrit and Malayalam into English. His thoughts are deeply soaked in spirituality and India’s culture.
​
Author - LIFE AMAZES seems to be in excess
​
Born on 17th May 1970 in Kolkata, a post-graduate from Jadavpur University, Subhashis Bhaduri had been keenly interested in literature and arts from his childhood and no later started leaving mark of his own, in the arena of Bengali literature by his contribution in all genres of writing, appearing in various leading Bengali dailies & literary magazines. By his mid twenties, he became a noted Bengali poet for his unmatched style of expressing the journey of the inner self - the soul, the sacred eternal life with all its amazements and wisdom in a sublime manner, yet in a low-key voice. His poems have elements from Indian mythology, are metaphysical in nature and in their abstractness have a finer inheritance of legacy of Bengali literature. Whereas some of his poems carry the contents of social perspectives, political scenario, while quite a few bear supernatural, uncanny elements in them.
Till date the poet has 9 poetry collections to his credit and is recipient of West Bengal’s prestigious Birendra Chattopadhyay poetry award. He is actively involved in writing children’s literature, short stories, articles and essays and is also an editor of a socio-political journal named “Katha-barta”. Besides writing, Subhashis is also a painter and an ardent social activist.
​
Author - The Phantom Courtyard
​
Dr. Margaret Khalakdina had been an independent
consultant in the field of Human Development.
She was
* Executive Director, Indian Council for Child Development;
Head of Department of Rural Community Extension, Lady
Irwin College, New Delhi;
* Dean, College of Home Science, Haryana Agricultural
University, Hissar;
* Advisor to Vice-Chancellor, Himachal Pradesh Agricultural
University, Palampur.
She had also taught at Nirmala Niketan College, Mumbai and SNDT College of Home Science, Mumbai. She had been a consultant to WHO and FAO in Egypt and Uganda and had worked for UNICEF in African countries of Ethiopia and Somalia.
Dr. Khalakdina had authored and published a number of books on Early Child Care and Human Development in India. Some of her major publications are: Early Child Care (1997), Human Development in the Indian Context: A Socio-cultural Focus (two volumes, 2009 and 2011), The Development of Personality in the Indian Ecology (2012), The Power of Politics in the Governance of the Poor in India (2013), Indian Adolescents in the Modernizing World (2015) and Parenting styles in India (2017).
Dr. Khalakdina had left for her heavenly abode in December, 2018.
​