Participants in the Words on Water discourse
Hari Kunzru lives in New York City and is a Dorothy and Lewis B Cullman fellow with the New York Public Library. He is the author of three novels: The Impressionist, which won the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, Transmission and My Revolutions. His short fiction and journalism have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Guardian, Times of India and many other publications around the world.
Ramchandra Guha has taught at the Universities of Oslo, Stanford and Yale, and at the Indian Institute of Science. He has been a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and also served as Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His books cover a wide range of themes, including a global history of environmentalism, a biography of an anthropologist- activist, and a social history of Indian cricket.
Javed Akhtar is an Urdu and Hindi poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed. Akhtar continues to be prominent in Bollywood and is a sought-after lyricist for films including Veer Zara, Swades, Jodha Akbar, Kal Ho Na Ho and Dil Chahta Hai.
Shobha De is an eminent Indian novelist, who is often known as India's Jackie Collins. She founded and edited three magazines namely Stardust, Society, and Celebrity. At present, she writes for a magazine The Week. She has been held responsible for accelerating the pace and bringing about a sexual revolution through her writings. Her notable works include Second Thoughts & Spouse.
Amit Chaudhuri has written four novels, A Strange and Sublime Address, Afternoon Raag and Freedom Song,A New World. His writing has been translated into several languages. He is the editor of the Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature, which was also published in the US by Vintage in September 2004. His book of short stories, Real Time, was published in 2002.
