Coordinators
Caferati runs “read-meets” in several cities, in India and abroad. These read-meets would not be possible without the enthusiasm and dedication of a group of special people, our city coordinators.
Rehana Ali, Lucknow
A Botanist, a cytogeneticist and now a school teacher by choice, Rehana teaches Biology and Biotechnology to senior students though she had dreamed of being a teacher of English Literature! She also heads a Nature Club called PALS (Protectors of Animal Life & Surroundings) in her school, La Martiniere Girls’ College, Lucknow, and has lead the girls to treks, adventure camps and hill tourism. She writes mostly about her experiences as a school teacher and one day hopes to wrte a book of stories for children.
Ravi Bagaria, Calcutta
Ravi joined Ryze in October, 2005. Today, he manages the Kolkata Network, his endeavour to give back to Ryzers what he has got from them. He started dabbling in English poetry and fiction/general interest topics after joining Ryze in 2005. Dribbles, doodles, dashes and dots he attempts sometimes. Pots, pans, poetry and problems, fiction and fully fundamental stuff he tries as well at other times! He is presently in the middle of a novel. He tries writing in Bengali, Hindi, Russian and French. He is also engaged in various pursuits like practising Reiki and Vaastu as hobbies.
Blog 1, Blog 2. Email: venucor at yahoo dot com / venucor at gmail dot com
Aurogeeta Das, London
Aurogeeta has written some poetry and short fiction in the past and is currently attempting to write a novel based on the life of the late Pardhan artist, Jangarh Singh Shyam. Her writing has been published in Vers L’Avenir, Pondicherry; NDTV.com; MSNBC.com; First City, Delhi; The Hindu, nationwide editions and New Quest, Mumbai. In early 2006, she was shortlisted for the Kala Ghoda Festival’s Flash Fiction Prize.
She is currently a CREAM Doctoral Scholar at University of Westminster, London, researching ritual floor-drawings made by women in south India. She is also Teaching Assistant on the BA Contemporary Media Practice and CMC Project Assistant on the Westminster Hearings in Parliament.
Email: auroville1976 at yahoo dot co dot uk
Peter Griffin, Bombay
See the Editors page.
Danish Husain, Delhi
Murtaza Danish Husain is a dastango, an actor and at times unsuccessfully attempts writing poetry. He lives in Delhi but thinks as if he is in Mumbai.
Email: dan dot husain at gmail dot com
Mathew Joseph, Bangalore
Mathew is a Computer Enginner by profession though his first love is Literature, who he says is a “jealous mistress.” He likes to read short stories and writes a few and hopes to get them published someday. In his spare time he also likes to cycle and welcomes anyone who has a similiar interest in cycling to get in touch with him. He has lived mostly in Bangalore except for short wasteful stints in Madras and Delhi.
Priyanka Joseph, Madras
Priyanka has been a student of Writing and English Literature for upwards of five years now, the effects of which are—praise be—finally beginning to wear off. Marquez, Calvino, Suskind, Barrico, Naslund, Erdrich, Vonnegut, Ondaatje and Carey are her gods, and she worships as often as she can, which is not often enough, due to her obsessions with theater and the graphic novel, not to mention the full length book, she is working on now. Priyanka is working for a brand new publishing company based in Chennai that’s looking for new irreverant work by Indians, for Indians. She loves well-sharpened pencils, and word collaboration. She is at present working on a performance festival of original work, in Madras. Priyanka is a recovering blog addict, but her blogspot space and its tributaries are still up and running, despite all her attempts to clean up. She doesn’t mind being contacted [ priyanka DOT joseph AT gmail DOT com]. In fact, the witch doctor has recommended tapping on her cell window every so often. Keeps her distracted.
Suniti Joshi, Bombay
Suniti is an artist by temperament, an interior design by profession and a poet by choice. Stepping out of the world of colour, form, and textures, she loves to explore the words. An avid reader all her life, she now enjoys writing both prose and poetry, though writing poetry appeals more to her.
Priyanka Kachhava, Jaipur
Journalist and writer based in Jaipur, Priyanka presently works with the Hindustan Times. Her first script, It’s All About Money, Honey, a romantic comedy, has been enacted in Jaipur, while another one is ready for production. Priyanka is among the founder members of the theatre society, ‘The Players,’ and has also acted in short plays. Her special interests include short stories and poetry. Future plans include play writing projects and a book on short stories.
Blog. Email: priyanka dot kachhava at gmail dot com
Mita Kapur, Jaipur
A freelance journalist writing for newspapers and magazines, mainly doing social and developmental issues, foraying into travel, food and lifestyle humour (for comic relief). Created and directed the Jaipur Literature Festival for 2006 and 2007. Director for Siyahi, a literary consultancy, doubling up as a literary agent and conceptualising and directing literary events.
Manisha Lakhe, Bombay
See the Editors page.
Anurag Mathur, Calcutta
For starters, this less famous namesake of the author of Inscrutable Americans did-not-write-the-book. He prefers to be known as “the poor man’s Anurag Mathur” since most of his works have yet to be published anywhere except Caferati. While managing to score passable marks in English at school, his writing began to evolve while in college where he wrote some 17 songs, one skit and three short stories. However his only printed piece (about how men are still romantic) was co-authored by a friend and published in The Times of India circa 1990. He credits his development of writing skills to the critiques exchanged at Caferati and a private writers club called Soulflash.
Email: anuragmathur at rediffmail dot com
Amitabha Mukerjee, Kanpur
Despite living a mongrel life in Thailand, Iraq, New Zealand, Indonesia, Switzerland and the United States, Amitabha Mukerjee somehow discovered a pucca Indian in himself. He is the author of the unsevered tongue, (2005) a collection of translated Bangla women’s poetry. His work has been anthologized in two other volumes of poetry translations: Kathamanabi (Mallika Sengupta, 2005), and Two Spaces of Poetry (2006). A short story has also been anthologized in Stories at the Coffee Table. When not writing, he can be found teaching Computer Science at IIT Kanpur.
Farrukh Naeem, Dubai
Farrukh Naeem is an advertising copywriter and journalist based in the United Arab Emirates. He has lent his words to advertising campaigns, business features, heartbroken poetry, text-book scribbles and graffiti. He also writes mushy emails, comments on threads and blogs he likes, and posts on his popular advertising, marketing and creativity blog and writing and spirituality blog. Emails are welcome at farrukh_copywriter at yahoo dot com. (Farrukh is high on Caferati, coffee and cartoons so be warned!)
Philip Nikolayev, Boston
Monika Pant, Lucknow
Monika is an English teacher, teaching senior students in La Martiniere Girls’ College, Lucknow, where she is also in charge of the college magazine and enjoys the challenging task of tapping, honing and channelising the creative talents of her students. Writing is a need for her; she mostly writes non-fiction pieces on relationships and current social issues, but, from time to time, she also writes poems and short stories. She loves travelling, painting and reading, and her other big passion is music. She is exploring the possibility of a full-time writing career, with several novels-in-progress on varying themes, which she hopes to get them published soon.
Rajendra Pradhan, Nagpur
Rajendra is civil engineer, real estate developer, IT company owner, photographer, sculptor, graphic artist and a wanderer. But before he became all these, he was a poet and still is. An anthology of his Marathi poems Swapnasawalya (meaning “shadows within dreams”) was published in 2003 and has been well received critically. His English writing has acquired vigour since his association with Caferati. Also loves Urdu shayari. He favours brevity in writing and believes in evolution rather than revolution. When not wandering, he lives happily in Nagpur with his wife, kids and dogs.
Site, Blog
Hema S Raman, Madras
Daughter, sister, wife, mother, factory manager, entrepreneur, management consultant, home maker are/were her roles. Through all this, writing has given her her identity. She is trying hard to finish her first novel. She also writes flash fiction and short stories. Drawing, swimming and travel are her other passions.
Aparna Singh, Bangalore
Aparna has been involved with Caferati for the last 18 months, and much enjoys her interaction with writers of all stripes. Her forte is short fiction, and some of her work is stored at her older blog, A Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ( http://apusworld.blogspot.com). She is currently focusing on her travel writing at A Long Way Ahead and on her two other interests - Feminism and Business Blogging, at Cubically Challenged. A book-hog, her favorite writers include Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro. She also has a day job as a consultant and market analyst.
Sridala Swami, Hyderabad
Sridala Swami, a film editor from FTII, Pune has edited documentaries, short features and commercials. She has worked with the publishing house, Katha, taught cinema and yoga and conducted film appreciation workshops. Her poetry has been published in the online journals, Nthposition and Museindia, and in Chandrabhaga and New Quest. Her first collection of poems, A Reluctant Survivor, has been published by the Sahitya Akademi (May 2007). Three books for very young children — Phani’s Funny Chappals, Kabadiwala and What Shall We Do For A Cradle? — have been published by Pratham in 2007. She lives in Hyderabad, writes poetry and fiction, and blogs at Spaniard in the Works.
Anita Vasudeva, Delhi
Anita Vasudeva is a nomad weaving her way back to her soul. English Lit. major from Delhi U, post-grad in Media from Sophia, Mumbai, a few years in the docu-ad film industry, too many good years in the travel and tourism business; runs a management consulting firm, moderates an exchange for freelance writers, counsels young adults, hand-holds authors, would act in anything, reads indiscriminately, is an editor by birth, has loved too much and still trusts the universe. Lives in Delhi, left some of her spirit in Mumbai, wears her heart on her sleeve and a zillion words in her head. Active in writers’ forums, some work in magazines, journals, blogs, websites. That one big book is emerging in strange fits and starts.
Company, Poetry Blog, Personal Blog Prose Blog-in-progress
Neha Viswanathan, London
Neha Viswanathan, (a.k.a nehavish) started writing because it was impossible to find another person to talk to at all odd hours. She has recently discovered punctuation, which makes a lot of work far more readable. She blogs at Within/Without and dabbles in poetry, photography and flash fiction. She is particularly fond of using photographs as reference points for writing. Currently she is freelancing as a researcher in London.
Alaka Yeravadekar, Pune
To Alaka, writing is as inevitable as breathing. A Cost Accountant, she decided to part ways with the corporate world and currently teaches at a Business School. That way she has better work life balance and can spend more time pursuing her passion for writing, travel and photography. Introduced to creative writing at school, she has been writing poetry since the age of 14. Some of her work has been published by various magazines. She also provides web content and writing services. She does her bit for literature by moderating the Caferati Pune chapter and organizing offline meets. Her favorite ditty? “I love to go a wandering along the mountain track… ”
Blog 1, Blog 2. Email: alakaa AT gmail DOT com
Annie Zaidi, Delhi
See the Editors page.