A member of the Indian Foreign Service, Pavan K. Varma has served in Moscow, in New York at the Indian Mission to the United Nations, in London, where he was director of the Nehru Centre, and as India’s high commissioner in Cyprus. Pavan K. Varma’s books include Ghalib: The Man, The Times, The Great Indian Middle Class, Being Indian and Becoming Indian, all published by Penguin. He has also translated Kaifi Azmi’s Selected Poems and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s poetry (21 Poems) into English for Penguin.
P. Govinda Pillai (1926–2012) was a member of the State Committee of the CPI(M) and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Kerala thrice. He was for many years the chief editor of Deshabhimani,