Kerala With Lakshadweep

Abu Abraham (1924-2002) was among this country’s greatest political cartoonists and journalists.  His career saw his work in Mumbai (The Blitz, Bombay Chronicle, Shankar’s Weekly), Delhi (The Indian Express) and London (The Tribune, Observer and Guardian), and publish three collections of his cartoons, Abu on Bangladesh, Arrivals and Departures and Games of Emergency.  He also served as an MP in the Upper House of Parliament from 1972-78.  abut retuned to his home state to spend the last years of his life, because he missed “the temple bells, festivals, and the scent of jasmine, all the senses and tastes”.

Ajit balakrishnan is the founder and CEO of rediff.com, a public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.  He serves on the Executive Committee of Nasscom and co-chairs the CII Task Force on eCommerce.  He also funds a football training school for teenagers in Kannur, his hometown in Kerala. 

Alexander frater is a British travel writer ho has won numerous awards for his work in journalism, television and radio.  He is the author of the best selling Chasing the monsoon: A Modern Pilgrimage through India (about to be reissued by Picador), Beyond the Blue Horizon and Tales from the Torrid Zone: Travels in the Deep Tropics: He lives with his family in London but has spend much of his life in the tropics, beginning in Vansuatu, where he was born.  India, particularly tropical Kerala, remains his favourite destination. 

Anil Nair, a journalist, has worked with rediff.com, The Sunday Observer and Gentleman magazine. As a writer pursuing large narratives he is still wrestling with an old question: Where a ‘Story’ can navigate thematically treacherous waters, indulge in tehillicit thrills of intellectual trespass and still survive the telling? He is currently based in Kochi.