BITSIAN Authors

Shashi Warrier: Night of the Krait, The Orphan, The Sniper, Hidden Continent, Suzy's Gift

Dilip D'Souza: Branded by Law, The Narmada Dammed

Sudhir Dixit

Ankur Gupta:  Exploring the Internet: Odyssey 2001

Anuradha Gupta: Memoirs of Army Days

Sanjaya Gupta: Inomy.com

RP Jain: Modern Digital Electronics

Karun Philip: Zen and the Art of Funk Capitalism

Ramjee Prasad: : Universal Wireless Personal Communications, CDMA for Wireless Personal Communications, IP/ATM Mobile Satellite Networks and OFDM for Wireless Multimedia Communications 

Utkarsh Rai: Reteela Safar (a sandy journey)

Ranga Raghunathan: Professional Windows Forms

Raj Sisodia: The Rule of Three

Shashi Warrier was born in Kerala in 1959. He studied Economics and did his MA from BITS, Pilani. He is the author of three thrillers - Night of the Krait, The Orphan and The Sniper, and has also written The Hangman’s Journal. He has also written also two books for children - The Hidden Continent and Suzy's Gift, and another book awaits publication. Shashi Warrier lives in Panamanna, Kerala. Shashi is a regular writer for Rediff.net 

Dilip D'Souza writes regularly on the conditions in which India's donwtrodden people live, both in the urban and rural parts of the country. He is a regular columnist with rediff.com. He is the author of two books Branded by Law: Looking at India's Denotified Tribes [Penguin 2001], and more recently, The Narmada Dammed: An Inquiry into the Politics of Development. Dilip D’Souza is a regular columnist.

Sudir Dixit is a senior R&D and site manager at Nokia Research Center in Burlington, Massachusetts. He received his B.E. from Maulana Azad College, Bhopal, India, his M.E. from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, and Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, all in electrical engineering. Dr. Dixit received his M.B.A. from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida.

Ankur Gupta wrote Exploring the Internet: Odyssey 2001.  Ankur did his schooling in St. George's College, Mussorie, followed by B.Pharm with an unbeaten academic record from BITS, Pilani. After his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1976 he worked with Johnson & Johnson and then with Cipla. Proman Associates Pvt. Ltd. was established in 1980, with a specific focus on pharmaceuticals, pioneering the use of digital technology in promotional art and marketing standardization.  Ankur has been involved with infusing and implementing appropriate technology for prominent companies for nearly 25 years. He was one of the very first users in India of Apple Macintosh, way back in 1989 and soon graduated from electronic art to creative exploration of the Macintosh. As a management thinker and digiartist, Ankur attempts to make art more understandable and uses the medium of words to support his visual communication.

Just like conventional artists use pencil, pen, brush, crayons etc. on paper or other media to give expression to their visual creations, Ankur uses the keyboard and mouse to generate works of art. He specializes in surrealistic landscapes, fractals and divine symbolism using mandals, yantras and tantras as source inspiration. His digital art adorns the walls of prominent personalities including ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, eminent flautist Padma Vibhushan Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Techno whiz-kid Sam Pitroda, Dr. J.L. Saha (Director Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad), Dr. A.F. Pinto (Ex-Sheriff of Mumbai) etc.

Anuradha Gupta studied MMS at BITS Pilani (86-90) followed by an MBA (International Business) at IIFT, Delhi (90-92). She worked for 10 years, the longest stint being 7 years at Hindustan Lever. She taught at SP Jain briefly and plans to get back to teaching eventually. Right now on a sabbatical, bringing up her child she is thoroughly relishing her hobby, writing. Her first book, "Memoirs of Army Days," deals with what being Army brat entailed. The second book, "The Green Dragon" is in the process of being published. The third book deals with getting rid of the stigma of mental illness which is still shrouded in myths and misconceptions. She also writes on issues related to the girl child, poetry and humorous articles etc. for a website, www.viewsunplugged.com.

Sanjaya Gupta has been pivotal in conceiving and publishing Inomy.com. He is the Co-Founder and CTO of 4Cplus.com. Sanjaya was instrumental in establishing Online India Capital, which owns properties like Indiacapital.com and Mutualfundsindia.com. A successful New Economy entrepreneur, he was awarded Gold Medal for M Sc in Computer Science, BITS, Pilani.

R P Jain is presently the Director, B M Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sonepat. He was the founder, Director-Principal of C R State College of Engineering, Murthal (Sonepat) Haryana, a Haryana Government Engineering College. Before taking up this assignment in 1987, he was the Head of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He obtained his Ph D from BITS, Pilani and has been teaching courses in Network Analysis and Synthesis, Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits and Systems, Electronic Measurements, Control Systems, Microprocessors, etc. for the last 40 years. His areas of interest include digital systems, microprocessors, optoelectronics and reliability engineering, planning and development of technical institutions. He is the co-author of Digital Electronics Practice Using ICs (TMH, 1983), author of Digital Electronics and Microprocessors—Problems and Solutions (TMH, 1987), Switching Theory and Logic Design (TMH, 2003) and Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology (CPH, 1994).

Ashwin Kamanna works as a software engineer at AINS India Pvt. Ltd., in Hyderabad, India. He spends most of his time designing and developing web applications with ASP, Java, XML, and COM. He has written for some ASP and C# online magazines including ASPToday.com and CSharpToday.com. His special fields of interest are XML and object-oriented design, and he enjoys delving deeper into them. He has a BE (Hons.) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India. In his leisure time, if Ashwin is not programming or reading, he can be found doing a painting or a sketch to add to his gallery.

Karun Philip is the Chairman & CEO and a co-founder of Tranquilmoney. Prior to this, Mr. Philip ran Imagine Technologies, Inc., a company focused on using proprietary imaging and workflow technologies to enable and outsource remote back office operations for the healthcare and financial services industries. Mr. Philip has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa, and B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India. He is also the author of a book on development economics called Zen and the Art of Funk Capitalism, which also talks about the macro-economic implications of structured finance.

Ramjee Prasad is wireless information and multimedia chair and co-director of the Center for PersonKommunikation at Aalborg University. He is the author of Universal Wireless Personal Communications (Artech House, 1998) and CDMA for Wireless Personal Communications (Artech House, 1996), co-author of IP/ATM Mobile Satellite Networks (Artech House, 2002) and OFDM for Wireless Multimedia Communications (Artech House, 2000), and co-editor of WCDMA: Towards IP Mobility and Mobile Internet (Artech House, 2001) and Third Generation Mobile Communication Systems (Artech House, 2000).

Utkarsh Rai: 

Utkarsh Rai (‘83 batch Maths & CS), Managing Director of Infinera India , Bangalore (100% subsidiary of Infinera US , an optical networking company) released a book of short stories in Hindi on NRIs last year. These stories, written while he was in the US during mid 90s are developed from his interactions with the Indian community. The stories are compiled into a book.  These stories touch the right cord. Written in a style that leaves one feeling that these stories were unfolding in one’s own house or in one’s neighborhood. The stories are very emotional and raw, conveying many bitter truths.

There is a story of a widow who has been invited to the US to take care of the daughter-in-law at the time of her maternity. She is exploited and discarded as her usefulness gets over with time. Another story deals with the dilemma of marrying a professional or a non-professional wife, and the attack on the male ego when the professional wife starts earning more than her fragile husband. A third story revolves around a dark complexioned girl who cannot find anyone to marry her, causing tremendous mental agony to her and her family. She eventually comes to the US where she regains her confidence. 

Reetela Safar is named after one of the stories. A beautiful if tragic story, it narrates the migration of the younger son of a farmer family to the US , the torture of his wife by his family when he is unable to send the expected dollars back home. The story of parents who went bankrupt to support their son’s studies in the US , and how they cope with his ungrateful attitude towards them. There are funny moments too. One hilarious story describes the attempts of Indian parents to get their pampered daughter to marry an Indian (or should I say, a FOB – fresh off the boat).  

Overall a very interesting must read. For a copy or if you are thinking about a mini-TV series (since many BITSIANS are in the media business) contact utkarshrai@yahoo.com for some outstanding plots.

Ranga Raghunathan is currently developing an ERP application for Trinity Industries, using Microsoft Technologies. He has a Bachelor's degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India and a Masters degree from Virginia Tech, USA.

Raj Sisodia: In their new book, "The Rule of Three: Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets," Marketing professors Rajendra Sisodia of Bentley College and Emory University's Jagdish Sheth show that in mature markets, three generalist companies will dominate most industries. In order for a smaller company to succeed, it must establish and defend a product or market niche. Any company not merging or specializing is likely to be destroyed. This new concept has powerful strategic implications for businesses large and small.  Raj Sisodia is Trustee Professor of Marketing and the founder of Bentley's Center for Marketing Technology. Raj's work has been featured in professional journals such as the Harvard Business Review and national media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and American Public Radio's Marketplace.

(c) Copyright 2003 BITSAA International Inc.

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