Adittya Nath Mubayi

As a child, Adittya would drive people nuts, asking questions all the time. Today, he does it for a living through his enterprise Quizcraft Global, and has executed over 5000 quiz shows across the world! Adittya has written quiz books titled India Unlimited, school textbooks titled Knowledge Quest, and Mythonama, an interactive book with stories about India’s mythologies. He loves to read, listen, and quiz! Adittya became a knowledge entrepreneur in the 21st century, and his mission is for the United Federation of Planets to have Quizcraft Global as its knowledge partner in the 23rd century. He wants to quiz Starfleet cadets, to boldly go where no man has gone before!

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 10 am
How many creatures can you spot in 'Navagunjara'? - Meet the authors of Mythonama - Mudita Chauhan-Mubayi and Adittya Nath Mubayi - to discover fantastic beasts and where to find them!

January 25, 2023 ● 11 am
The Girls Who Fought for Netaji 's Army - Gayathri Ponvannan and Subhashini Ali in conversation with Adittya Nath Mubayi and Mudita Chauhan Mubayi about the INA (Indian National Army)

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta and grew up in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria and is the author of The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, and The Ibis Trilogy, consisting of Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire. His most recent book, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, appeared in 2016.

Amitav Ghosh’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and he has served on the juries of the Locarno and Venice film festivals. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Times. They have been anthologized under the titles The Imam and the Indian (Penguin Random House India) and Incendiary Circumstances (Houghton Mifflin, USA). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2016 and was given the inaugural Utah Award for the Environmental Humanities in 2018.

Attending Session

Annu Jalais

Born and educated in Kolkata, Annu Jalais was fascinated with the largest natural habitat of the Bengal tigers – the Sundarbans. This fascination ultimately led her to study Anthropology and was awarded a PhD in Anthropology at the London School of Economics in 2004. Currently an Assistant Professor at Krea University, Annu Jalais has authored a book – Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans (2010) and co-authored The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim Migration (with Claire Alexander and Joya Chatterji) in 2015. She teaches a course called “Beasts, People, Wild Environments: South Asia” and is an Associate Editor of the journal – Conservation and Society.She has helped numerous media houses and journalists, which include The Independent, NPR, The Telegraph, Daily Star, to understand the Sundarbans or the Bengal Delta.

Her most recent work is the project, ‘Nonhumans and Zoonoses: What Do They Tell Us about Ourselves?’.

Attending Session

Anushka Ravishankar

Anushka Ravishankar has written over 40 books for children – from picture books in verse and chapter books, to retellings of folk tales and books on science and craft.

Not all of them make sense. Her latest books are Ogd, which is utter nonsense, A Rooster for a Pet, which seems like nonsense but is actually based on a true story and the Science for Smartypants series which is serious science as explained to a very nonsensical cat.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 10 am
Ogd! Ki Abol Tabol! - Sampurna Chattarji in conversation with Anushka Ravishankar about their books, OGD and Wordygurdyboom!

Devika Rangachari

Dr. Devika Rangachari is an award-winning writer whose book, Queen of Ice (Duckbill), was on the White Raven list, won the Neev Young Adult Book Award, was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar, has been optioned to be made into a movie/ television series and is now part of the Penguin Classics series. Her other books include The Mauryas, Queen of Fire (Parag Honour List 2022), Queen of Earth (Parag Honour List 2021; shortlisted for the Neev YA and the JK Women AutHer awards), The Train to Tanjore, 10 Indian Monarchs Whose Amazing Stories You May Not Know, Tales of Love and Adventure, Swami Vivekananda—A Man with a Vision, Harsha Vardhana, The Merry Mischief of Gopal Bhand, The Wit of Tenali Raman and Growing Up (IBBY Honour List 2002). She also received a prestigious national fellowship of the ministry of culture in India to research aspects of gender and historical fiction in Indian children’s literature.

Devika has completed her post-doctoral research on gender in Indian history. Her academic works include From Obscurity to Light: Women in Early Medieval Orissa (Seventh to Twelfth Centuries AD) and Invisible Women, Visible Histories: Gender, Society and Polity in North India (Seventh to Twelfth Century AD). She has also published widely in academic journals and been the recipient of several distinguished academic fellowships from the University Grants Commission, as well as the Charles Wallace India Trust.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 11 am
Songs of Freedom - Lubaina Bandukwala, Lesley D Biswas and Devika Rangachari on looking at the freedom movement from the perspective of children

January 24, 2023 ● 12 pm
Time Travel with Authors Nikhil Gulati and Devika Rangachari - The People of the Indus and Queen of Ice, Queen of Fire and Queen of Earth (Queen Series)

Gayathri Ponvannan

Gayathri Ponvannan is a network engineer and author of several fiction and nonfiction books for children, including the Time Racers, Unstoppable: 75 Stories of Trailblazing Indian Women, 100 Great Chronicles of Indian History and the Vanguards of Azad Hind. Her works have also appeared in several leading newspapers, magazines and anthologies. She especially enjoys introducing children to the wonderful worlds of science, history, stories and mysteries. Gayathri lives in Dubai with her husband and two sons, who provide much of the inspiration for her literary characters!

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 11 am
The Girls Who Fought for Netaji 's Army - Gayathri Ponvannan and Subhashini Ali in conversation with Adittya Nath Mubayi and Mudita Chauhan Mubayi about the INA (Indian National Army)

Lesley D. Biswas

Lesley D. Biswas is a children’s author and freelance writer. Nature and cricket are close to her heart. She enjoys gardening, photographing birds and watercolour painting. Her latest book, A Conspiracy in Calcutta is part of Duckbill’s Songs of Freedom series.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 11 am
Songs of Freedom - Lubaina Bandukwala, Lesley D Biswas and Devika Rangachari on looking at the freedom movement from the perspective of children

Lubaina Bandukwala

Lubaina Bandukwala was a former media person, now a children’s writer, editor and founder of Peek A Book Literature Festival for Kids. Her latest books include Chowpatty Cooking Club, Coral Woman and Who’s Afraid of Z, not Me!

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 11 am
Songs of Freedom - Lubaina Bandukwala, Lesley D Biswas and Devika Rangachari on looking at the freedom movement from the perspective of children

Madhurima Vidyarthi

In her day job, Madhurima Vidyarthi is an endocrinologist; trained in Kolkata and London and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). She has always been a passionately committed writer, Over the years she has written in many formats – articles for The Statesman (Kolkata), scripts for educational documentaries (EMMRC, St Xavier’s College, Kolkata) and for a CD-ROM created by Price Waterhouse Coopers on Satyajit Ray (narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough). But her enduring love has always been fiction. ‘Munni Monster’ Duckbill (Penguin Random House India) is her second book for young readers.  Her first book, My Grandmother’s Masterpiece, was published by the same imprint in February 2022. She is also part of the Italian Consulate initiative ‘Bridge of Stories’ – an anthology of short fiction by Indian and Italian writers. She has written for The Woman Inc. and Saaranga Magazine, among others.

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Munni Monster - Launch of Munni Monster, followed by conversation between author Madhurima Vidyarthi and Dr Sudha Kaul (Founder, trustee and Vice Chairman , IICP)

Mudita Chauhan-Mubayi

Mudita manages Quizcraft Global, a knowledge enterprise that has executed over 5000 quiz shows around the world. She loves to quiz young people but she also loves language and all its possibilities. For 25 years, she has been immersed in the publishing world in her various roles with Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Times Of India, Penguin Random House India, etc. One of her favourite projects is Our Feathered Friends, a book on birds with poems and illustrations by schoolchildren. She has co-authored Mythonama: The Big Book of Indian Mythologies (Puffin Books) and Knowledge Quest textbooks for schools (S. Chand Publishers), and edited India Unlimited quiz books (Scholastic India). 

Attending Sessions

January 25, 2023 ● 10 am
How many creatures can you spot in 'Navagunjara'? - Meet the authors of Mythonama - Mudita Chauhan-Mubayi and Adittya Nath Mubayi - to discover fantastic beasts and where to find them!

January 25, 2023 ● 11 am
The Girls Who Fought for Netaji 's Army - Gayathri Ponvannan and Subhashini Ali in conversation with Adittya Nath Mubayi and Mudita Chauhan Mubayi about the INA (Indian National Army)

Nikhil Gulati

Nikhil is a writer and illustrator of comic books and graphic novels. He enjoys telling engaging, entertaining and soulful stories on a variety of themes. He has published graphic works with Pratham Books, Puffin and Penguin Random House. His most recent work, The People of the Indus, is a graphic novel that tells the history of the Indus Valley Civilization. It was published by Penguin India in October 2022.

Attending Sessions

January 24, 2023 ● 12 pm
Time Travel with Authors Nikhil Gulati and Devika Rangachari - The People of the Indus and Queen of Ice, Queen of Fire and Queen of Earth (Queen Series)

January 24, 2023 ● 4 pm
Workshop - Author Nikhil Gulati (Comic Making Workshop) - Age group 9 years +

Sampurna Chattarji

Sampurna Chattarji is a writer, translator, editor and teacher. Of her twenty-one books, nine are for young people. These include The Bhyabachyaka and Other Wild Poems (Scholastic, 2019), co-authored with Welsh poet, Eurig Salisbury; her YA novel, Ela: The Girl Who Entered the Unknown (Scholastic, 2013); The Fried Frog and other Funny Freaky Foodie Feisty Poems(Scholastic, 2009); and her creative retelling, The Greatest Stories Ever Told(Penguin, 2004).  Her books for adults include the short story collection about Bombay/Mumbai, Dirty Love (Penguin, 2013) and ten poetry titles—the latest being Unmappable Moves (Poetrywala, 2023). Sampurna’s translation of Sukumar Ray’s poetry and prose – Wordygurdyboom! – is a Puffin Classic; and her translation of Joy Goswami’s prose poems After Death Comes Water (HarperCollins, 2021) has been lauded as a recreation of the Bangla originals in “a living voice, as inventive and vivid as the English of Joyce”. She teaches writing to design students at IIT, Bombay and can occasionally be spotted on Instagram as @ShampooChats.

Attending Sessions

January 23, 2023 ● 10 am
Ogd! Ki Abol Tabol! - Sampurna Chattarji in conversation with Anushka Ravishankar about their books, OGD and Wordygurdyboom!

January 23, 2023 ● 11 am
Twisted Tales of Terror from the India of Today - Venita Coelho in conversation with Sampurna Chattarji about her book Dark Tales

Smaranjit Chakraborty

Smaranjit Chakraborty has written a few novels for children and numerous short stories in Anandamela. He has published four children/young adult books from Ananda Publishers, in Bengali. The books are titled Atol Jol er Bondhu, Warren Dadu r Dhadha Box, Sada Sena r Desh e and Nrishongsho Prohori. 

His latest work is in the pipeline and will be published soon. 

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 3 pm
Workshop - Adda O Golpor Ashor: With Author Smaranjit Chakraborty (Age group 9 years +)

Subhashini Ali

Subhashini Ali is an Indian politician and a member of the Communist Party of India. She is a trade Unionist and  leader of the all Democratic Women’s Association. She is currently a member of the Central committee of the Communist Party of India and was inducted to the polit bureau (PB) of Communist Party of India in 20015, becoming the 2nd women member in the PB after Brinda Karat. She has dabbled in the AIDWA.

Attending Session

January 25, 2023 ● 11 am
The Girls Who Fought for Netaji 's Army - Gayathri Ponvannan and Subhashini Ali in conversation with Adittya Nath Mubayi and Mudita Chauhan Mubayi about the INA (Indian National Army)

Sudha Kaul

Dr. Sudha Kaul is Founder, Trustee and Vice Chairperson of the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP), Kolkata.

 In 1974, there were no schools for children with cerebral palsy and special needs in Eastern India. Dr. Sudha Kaul set up the first school, then known as the West Bengal Spastics Society (WBSS), in Kolkata. She had the staunch support of her husband, Om, since both had an intrinsic belief in all children’s ability to learn, including their own son Arjun who was diagnosed as a child with “CP with multiple disabilities.”

 The WBSS was founded in April 1974 to provide services for children with cerebral palsy. This organisation has grown from a small school to a major training institute in India. Moreover, it has been a catalyst agency, having initiated services for cerebral palsy in twenty major cities in India and in each of the districts of West Bengal. And in 2004, IICP (as it was now called), won the National Award from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, for the Best Disability NGO.

 Dr. Kaul has a PhD in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has authored several books on AAC and presented papers on it at several national and international conferences. From January 2007 to December 2009, she was appointed President of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC), an international society for persons with complex communication needs. ISAAC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Dr Kaul is a Fellow of ISAAC, and a recipient of several national and international awards.  In April 2010, Dr Kaul received the Padmashree award from the President of India.

Dr. Kaul retired as executive director of IICP in April 2010. However, she continues to mentor the work of IICP and of ROSHNI (IICP’s assistive technology unit).

She has worked on various government committees, and on 30th April, 2010  was appointed Chairperson by the GOI Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, to formulate a new Disability Rights Bill based on the UNCRPD. The draft bill was submitted to the GOI on 30th June 2011. In December 2016, the Parliament passed this bill as “The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.”

Attending Session

January 24, 2023 ● 10 am
Munni Monster - Launch of Munni Monster, followed by conversation between author Madhurima Vidyarthi and Dr Sudha Kaul (Founder, trustee and Vice Chairman , IICP)

Swati Sarawagi

Swati Sarawagi is the Founder Director of Swarnim International School, Kolkata, a K-12 CBSE curriculum school in Kolkata catering to 2500 students.

Her love for teaching started when she would visit the NGO behind her house to teach the underprivileged children on weekends and holidays as a student herself. The way their eyes lit up when they wrote their names for the first time, made her want to do this for the rest of her life.

Swati is a passionate educator – 20 years’ experience spanning from teaching in an NGO, to teaching in an International School in Singapore, to now successfully running a K-12 school.

Alumnus of Harvard Graduate School of Education, she is the Territory Head, Kolkata of the Early Childhood Association (India) and on the Association for Early Childhood Educators (Singapore). She is on the Executive Committee of Icanflyy, an institute for Special Needs, Kolkata. She is a member of the School Managing Committee of The Heritage School, Kolkata. She is on the Board of Swapnopuran, an NGO involved in the education of the marginalized children in Sundarbans area, firmly believing that education is the best leveling field for the inequalities in society.

Swarnim International School was the first school to have won the prestigious International Dimension Award from the British Council in the first year of existence.

She is an author who has written ‘Shivi Visits’ – a story about a child’s experience of traveling to four different cities of the country.  

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 4 pm
Workshop - Learn and Travel with Shivi with Author, Swati Sarawagi with Early Readers (Ages 5-7 years old with their Parents)

Venita Coelho

Venita Coelho works with words, images and paints. She is a screenwriter and artist as well as a director. As a writer for children, she has won the Sahitya Akademi award, The Hindu Goodreads award, the Neev award and the Peek-a-book award. She has twelve published books to her credit that range from a handbook on how to write television, to a collection of feminist ghost stories. She lives in Goa with her daughter and travels India in her Caravan.

Attending Session

January 23, 2023 ● 11 am
Twisted Tales of Terror from the India of Today - Venita Coelho in conversation with Sampurna Chattarji about her book Dark Tales