THE JOY OF LEARNING - JUDGES

Jyotsna Mohan is the author of the best selling book ‘Stoned, Shamed, Depressed’- an investigation into the secret lives of India’s teens. She is a columnist for Gulf News and the host of the interview based show ‘Table Talk with Jo’ on Instagram/ YouTube. She has also worked with NDTV for 15 years, rising to the positions of senior anchor and senior news editor
Rahul Singh has been a writer, journalist and editor of Readers Digest, Indian Express, Sunday Observer.

He has penned, among other books, an engaging biography of his father Khushwant Singh, In The Name of the Father, which was launched by Amitabh Bachchan.
 
He is a Life Member of the Delhi Public School Society. He was President of the media awards committee at the Population Institute Washington.
 
Rahul studied in 11 schools as his father was posted all over during his years in the foreign service. It was here, at an Elysee in Paris that he picked up his French. He graduated in History from Kings College, Cambridge.

Mahabanoo was chosen by Femina Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in India in 2007. Human rights activist and author Zerbanoo Gifford, in her book Secrets of the World’s Inspirational Women, has featured Mahabanoo as one of the 200 Most Inspirational Women from around the World. She has just been awarded the
Karmaveer Puruskar Maharatna Award (a Rex and UN initiative) for her work in
women’s and girl’s empowerment and social justice. Mahabanoo is trained as a microbiologist and geologist, but in her adult life took up
her first passion – performance. She is an actor, director and producer in film,
television, theatre and radio with over 60 credits to her name in India and abroad. She
is also a social justice advocate working diligently in the arenas of women’s
empowerment and trying to end violence against women globally. In 2018 she
received the inaugural H.E.R. Award for her commitment to women’s empowerment.
In the same year she also was honored with the inaugural W.O.W. (Women of Wonder) Award for exemplary women achievers in various fields. In 2011 she received the prestigious Karmaveer Puraskar (a part of an U.N. initiative) for her work towards social justice and ending violence for women and children. Mahabanoo is also the cofounder of The Make-A –Difference Foundation which raises funds and awareness to
combat violence against women and children. The foundation has worked hard to end
violence against women and girls with a variety of projects and programmes in urban school and colleges alongside economically disenfranchised women in the “bastis” of Mumbai.
Recently she was selected for a prestigious Summer Directing Course at Yale University (USA). She has worked with Indian and international luminaries such as
Amitabh Bachchan, Prunella Scales, Richard Johnson, Sanjay Leela Bhansali,
Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Shabana Azmi, and the late Om Puri amongst many others. Some of her best known films are: Black, The Sixth
Happiness, Buddha Mar Gaya, Afterglow, Vintage Rusi, amongst many others. As the
owner of Poor-Box Productions, one of India’s premiere theatre companies
Mahabanoo has produced, directed and starred in some of India’s most critically acclaimed works and longest-running shows in English and Hindi including Shirley
Valentine, Art, (W)Hole In The Head! and now in its seventeenth year in India, The Vagina Monologues (in Hindi and English).
In 2008, Mahabanoo founded The Make-A-Difference Foundation, created to use the
arts to raise awareness and funds for issues related to social justice and women’s
empowerment. Much of the work done by the foundation has been to raise awareness for and funds towards ending violence against women and children all over India.
Through this foundation she has collaborated with luminaries like Eve Ensler, Oscarwinning actors – Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei, and Bollywood luminaries Farhan
Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Imran Khan & Loveleen Tandan, Chitrangada Singh, Mansi
Scott, Suchitra Pillai, Usha Uthup and others. The foundation works at every strata of society from the “bastis” to the elite schools/colleges.

Dolly Thakore is a veteran stage actor who has spent over six decades traipsing the boards. She has worked with directors like Adi Murzban, Alyque Padamsee, Geoffrey Kendal, Janak Toprani, Vickram Kapadia, Kaizad Navroze Kotwal, Arghya Lahiri, and many others. Her most notable roles include Linda Loman in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Stella in The Glass Menagerie, Meg in The Birthday Party, and of course as part of the ensemble in the ground-breaking Vagina Monologues. She has also spent some time on television as a newscaster, and later in Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka. Her acting film credits include Page 3, Mittal Vs Mittal, and White Noise. But she was also casting director for Gandhi, The Far Pavilions, Kim, Miss Beaty’s Children, Dance Like a Man, Deham and many others. Her first love has always remained theatre, and she even served as a theatre critic for numerous publications including Sunday Times, Indian Express, The Daily, Afternoon, Mid-day, etc. Most recently she has just completed her memoir, Regrets, None, with collaborator Arghya Lahiri, which was released in September 2021.
Ashima Bath is the Head of Faculty, English and coordinator for Training and Development, staff and students, at The Lawrence School, Sanawar. She has co-authored three books on English Language.

Minakshi Chaudhry, a masters in Journalism, Mass Communication and Law , Minakshi worked with the Indian Express where she wrote a fortnightly column, ‘Shimla Roundup’. She is a keen observer of people, culture and lifestyle and is fond of trekking and travelling. Her books include More Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills,
Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills, Whispering Devdars, Destination Himachal and Sunshine.

Bachi Karkaria is a game changer in India’s journalism, having
helped elevate local issues to Page 1 and creating path-breaking brands for the Times of India Group. She is also a popular columnist, best-selling author, litfest curator and international media trainer. She was the first Indian board member of the Paris-based World Editor’s Forum, a Jefferson Fellow from Hawaii’s East West Center, and recipient of the Mary Morgan Hewitt Award for Lifetime Achievement.


Karkaria’s books include the critically acclaimed In Hot Blood: The Nanavati Case That Shook India; the bestseller biography of M.S. Oberoi, Dare To Dream; Mills, Molls And Moola; Behind The Times; Mumbai Masti; The Cake That Walked; and collections of her columns. Her biography of Capt CP Krishnan Nair will be published in February 2022.

Shobhaa De has written countless bestselling books and is a widely read columnist in leading publications. She is known for her outspoken, irreverent views, making her one of India’s most respected opinion shapers. Her writings have consistently chronicled her deeply felt socio-political-cultural concerns. De’s work is determinedly full of optimism, hope, oomph and flair, and she continues to be a trailblazer for women’s writing in India.
Bulbul Sharma is a painter and writer. Her works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lalit Kala Akademi and Chandigarh Museum as well as in private collections in India, UK, U.S.A, Japan,Canada and France.She has held solo exhibitions of her paintings in Mumbai, London, Delhi, as well as participated in group shows in India and abroad from 1987 till 2013. She has published several books which include “My Sainted Aunts ( Penguin) The Perfect Woman( UBS) Anger of Aubergines (Kali for Women) “Banana Flower Dreams(Penguin).ShayaTales (Penguin) and Devi (Penguin) , Eating Women;Telling Tales (Zubaan), Now that I am Fifty(Women Unlimited ) and Tailor of Giripul (Harper Collins).Her books have been translated into Italian, French, German,Chinese ,Spanish and Finnish. Her books for children are “Fabled Book of Gods and Demons” (Puffin) and “The Children’s Ramayana” (Puffin) . She conducts ‘Storypainting’ workshops for special needs children and is a founder –member of Sannidhi – a NGO that works in village schools.
Lila Kutty is a teacher by profession and has taught in five top schools viz: Loreto convent and La Martiniere Lucknow,Mount St Mary’s,St Columba’s and Delhi Public School all three in New Delhi.Lila was a state level champion swimmer in her schooldays and was also chosen to be trained for Nationals.Lila was good at elocution and dramatics and has put up plays and held elocution contests at intersection and interschool level.Lila now runs a homestay called Santila in Kasauli Himachal Pradesh and has now realised that she is truly cut out for hospitality as she enjoys interacting with her guests.
Deepa Raghavan Sethi is the Associate Director of the Delhi Public World Foundation. She is an alumnus of Women’s Christian College, Madras and is an educationist with over four decades of experience. She did her post – graduation in English from the Banaras Hindu University subsequent to which she joined the teaching fraternity. Deepa spent most of her teaching years with the Delhi Public Schools from where she eventually retired as the Vice Principal of Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, New Delhi. Presently settled in Dagshai, she along with her husband, Dr. Anand Sethi has been actively involved in the conservation and preservation some well – known and little known aspects of the history of the quaint Dagshai Cantonment.
Vrindavan Solanki is a prolific Indian master artist recognized internationally. He has well over 200 exhibitions behind him, over 40 of which were solo – including in London and New York. He has won several prestigious prizes throughout his career, including the Gold Medal & First Prize of the Bombay Art Society in 1970, the Takhman 28 Print award for Etching in Udaipur in 1984, and the Drawing Prize of All India Art Exhibition, LKA, in Lucknow (UP) in 1996 – to name a few.
BN-Goswamy-120x170

B.N.Goswamy, distinguished art historian, is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Panjab University, Chandigarh. His work covers a wide range and is regarded, especially in the area of Indian painting, as having influenced much thinking. He has been the recipient of many honours, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the Rietberg Award for Outstanding Research in Art History, the Padma Shri (1998) and the Padma Bhushan (2008) from the President of India. Professor Goswamy has taught, as Visiting Professor, at several universities across the world, among them the Universities of Pennsylvania, Heidelberg, California (at Berkeley and Los Angeles), Texas (at Austin), Zurich, and the ETH (Federal University) at Zurich. He has also been responsible for major exhibitions of Indian art at Paris, San Francisco, Zurich, San Diego, New York, Frankfurt, and New Delhi.

Among his many publications are: Pahari Painting: The Family as the Basis of Style (Marg, Bombay, 1968); Painters at the Sikh Court (Wiesbaden, 1975), Essence of Indian Art (San Francisco, 1986); Wonders of a Golden Age: Painting at the Court of the Great Mughals (with E. Fischer, Zurich, 1987); Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (with E. Fischer; Zurich, 1992); Indian Costumes in the Collection of the Calico Museum of Textiles (Ahmedabad, 1993); Painted Visions: The Goenka Collection of Indian Paintings (New Delhi, 1999); Piety and Splendour: Sikh Heritage in Art (New Delhi, 2000); Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting from the Edwin Binney Collection (with Caron Smith; San Diego, 2005); I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion (with Caron Smith; New York, 2006); The Word is Sacred; Sacred is The Word: The Indian Manuscript Tradition (New Delhi, 2006), and Indian Paintings in the Sarabhai Foundation (Ahmedabad, 2010). Professor Goswamy’s most recent works include The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works, published by Penguin/Allen Lane, 2014; Manaku of Guler: Another great Painter from a small Hill State (Zurich and Delhi, 2017), and The Great Mysore Bhagavata (San Diego and Delhi, 2019).

Jatin Das studied art at Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai. He has held 68 one-man shows and participated in group exhibitions in India and overseas. He participated in Paris Biennale, 1971, Venice Biennale, 1978 and India Triennale, 1971, 1976 and 1978. He has executed many murals and sculptures and set up the JD Centre of Art in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 1997. His large collection of hand fans (pankha) will be donated to the proposed National Pankha Museum in Delhi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2012.

Minakshi Chaudhry, a masters in Journalism, Mass Communication and Law , Minakshi worked with the Indian Express where she wrote a fortnightly column, ‘Shimla Roundup’. She is a keen observer of people, culture and lifestyle and is fond of trekking and travelling. Her books include More Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills,
Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills, Whispering Devdars, Destination Himachal and Sunshine.

Vikram Seth Acrostic