Editorial Board
Dr. Navaratna Srinivasa Rajaram
A mathematician, scientist and linguist lives between Houston, Texas and Bangalore, India. He has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering (1965) from the BMS College in Bangalore, and a PhD in mathematics (1976) from Indianana University, in Bloomington USA. He was also Principal Scientist at Lokheed Corporation in charge of artificial intelligence research. He has been an advisor to the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA).His technical works have been supported by several organizations including the National Science Foundation, NASA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the AMOCO Foundation.
After his stint with the technology he turned his eyes on History where he made his, what one can call, the greatest life time contribution on deciphering Indus Scripts. He has written several authoritative works in this regard and has been optimally successful in debunking the ‘Aryan Invasion’ idea.
Dr. David Frawley
David Frawley, aka Pt. Vamadeva Shastry, was born in 1950 into a Catholic family in La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States. He attended a Catholic school until he was about ten years old. After that he and his family moved to Denver, Colorado.
As an American Hindu, Frawley is one of the few Westerners to be recognized by a major Hindu sect in India as a Vedacharya or teacher of the ancient wisdom. Frawley is the founder director of the American Institute for Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Through his institute, he offers courses in Yogic Philosophy, Hindu Astrology (Jyotishya), and Ayurveda. In addition, he conducts lecture tours in India every year, delivering talks at universities, Hindu conferences, and to the general public.
U Mahesh Prabhu
Mahesh’ career as a journalist began as Editor-in-chief of a political monthly called ASEEMAA: Journal for National Resurgence, where he had the privilege of bringing in some of the finest journalists from the world-over including USA, UK, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai as regular contributors/columnists.
Some of the major contributors to the magazine during my reign there include: Arun Shourie (Formerly Editor of The Indian Express and Union Minister for Disinvestment under NDA regime), Chandan Mitra (Editor, The Pioneer), MJ Akbar (Formerly Editor of Deccan Chronicle, The Asian Age, Sunday and The Telegraph), Rahul Singh (Formerly Editor of Readers Digest and Khaleej Times), Tarun Vijay (Former Editor of Panchajanya), Caroline Glick (Executive Editor, The Jerusalem Post), David Horovitz (Editor, The Jerusalem Post), Daniel Pipes (Columnist, Washington Post, The Times and The Jerusalem Post), William Darlymple (Writer), Aijaz Zaka Syed (Sr. Editor, Khaleej Times), Sir Adam Clapham (Formerly Producer with BBC), MV Kamath (Formerly Editor of Sunday Times, Free Press Journal and The Illustrated Weekly of India), BG Verghese (Formerly Editor of Hindustan Times and The Indian Express), S Gurumurthy (Eminent Chartered Accountant) and so on. For his editorials in ASEEMAA he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Asiatic Society, UK, and later Membership of the International Federation of Journalists, USA.
He has also contributed articles and columns to The Times of India, Indian Express, Organiser Weekly, The Verdict, Front Page Magazine (US), Hindu Voice, National Spirit, The Verdict, The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Morien Institute Journal and Vijay Karnataka.
He is also the founder Editor-in-chief Folks Magazine which today has readers from over four continents and contributors from five countries. Some of our distinguished contributors include Dr. NS Rajaram, David Frawley, Koenraad Elst, Stephen Knapp, MV Kamath, and several others.
Mahesh has also delivered over fifty guest lectures at various prestigious management and journalism schools. He has his Bachelors in Business Administration degree from Bangalore Open University and Masters in Business Administration (Marketing) from Indira Gandhi National Open University.
Dr. Ashish Chopra
Dr. Chopra is presently the Executive Director of the Institute for Environmental Management and Social Development. He was also the former Advisor to the Governor of Mizoram. His directorship of the Institute seems to have taken a backseat though to pursue his passion for food and travel. As a result he is now dedicating his quality time as a CULINARY HISTORIAN/FOOD CRITIC/TRAVEL WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER.
A PhD in Conflict Managemnt, he has been working in the field of environment , social development, culture and cuisine especially in the North East India for over a decade now. His latest book being “ A travel guide to North East India“. He is also the author of NE Belly-A book on the cuisines of the eight North Eastern states. He calls North East India as his obsession which has taught and given him much.He is now documenting the traditional tribal foods of India and writing a cookbook–TRIBAL CUISINES OF INDIA and one on STREET FOODS OF INDIA.
Apart from that he has interest in regional cuisine, folk music, tribal art, indegenous knowledge and film making. Amongst his forthcoming projects is a coffee table book on the NE. He is also a keen documentary filmmaker and has been working on documentraies on the Chins of Mizoram, the Nocte tribe of Arunachal, the Konyaks of Nagaland, and a television series on the migrant cuisines of India. He has published various papers on development, conflict management and culture.
He has anchored a talk show called-” To the Point” on one of the prominent satellite news channels.A foodie at heart and not by profession but by passion- He has been a food critic with various magazines and has also been a food consultant with ITC Welcom Heritage group of hotels having documented the Royal cuisines of the erstwhile Maharajas. Amongst his latest projects are, conceptualisation of the first cross Cultural Heritage Cuisine Restaurant in India for the Carlson’s Country Inns and Suites Group at Jaipur and a traditional Punjabi Heritage cuisine Resturant with Sufi as its theme at Ludhiana. Also coming up in Goa is the World’s first North East Indian Cuisine Resturant serving cuisines from the eight states of North East India based out of his book. He has been invited to co-author a book on the Royal cuisines of Bhagel with H.H Pushpraj Sinh-the erstwhile Maharaja of Rewa and subsequently GAJRAJ SINGH the Thakur of Diggi State in Rajasthan has also commissioned him to do a coffee table book on the erstwhile secret recipes and food traditions of the Diggi State.
He has also consulted for the television series by BBC channel Four.Gorden Ramseys Great Escapes on North east Indian Cuisine
He believes that food, music and culture transcends all boundaries of caste, conflict, creed and religion. To respect food, tradition and culture is the best way to respect humanity.
Ashwin Kini
An IT Professional from Mumbai, Ashwin is passionate about Networking technologies. He is currently working as Technical Consultant CNC on JD Edwards / PeopleSoft ERP with Systime Computer Systems Ltd., Mumbai; a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Ltd. He holds Masters in Computer Applications, Bachelors in Computer Applications, and Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
He has, also, been recipient of 2008 Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Windows Server Customer Experience: Networking and “The Best IT Professional Community Contributor” in India for year 2010 by Microsoft India.
He is also Vice Chairman cum Chairman elect (Global Board) for Global IT Community Association (GITCA), an international not-for-profit organization devoted to the development and growth of the IT communities world-wide. Prior to taking up the role of Vice Chairman (Global Board), Ashwin served as the Regional Chairman APAC (Asia-Pacific) for GITCA since 2008, President of Mumbai IT Professionals User Group (MumbaiITPro) in Mumbai, Panel member of Microsoft Online User Group Advisors, and Microsoft User Group Support Services steering committee.
Nitin Rao Kumblekar
When at school, Nitin drew a caricature of his class teacher. But he wasn’t punished for it, and the teacher, impressed with his talent, became the first person to promote him. Nitin’s drawing was shown in all the classes with pride.
From then on, there was no looking back. After his schooling, Nitin joined CKP Fine Arts College in 2000 where he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts and joined Triton Communications as a visualizer, from where he moved on to O&M.
