Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages | Penguin Books on Indian History & Evolution | Non-fiction Hardcover – 5 April 2021

I was born in Trinidad, West Indies. My father was an Indian from Trinidad, my mother was from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. I studied linguistics at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad, and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I wrote my PhD dissertation on Trinidad Bhojpuri, the ancestral language of most Trinidad Indians, based on my recordings of the speech of old Indo-Trinidadians during the 1970s. In 1979 I moved on to India, following my husband, first to teach linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, then to teach Mass Communications, then to produce a television series in Hindi for pre-school children, after which I did cartoon animation, oil painting, served as an expert witness assessing confessions in terrorism trials, trained as a (soprano) opera singer, to end up spending my days teaching Western music in Vasant Valley School (voice and orchestra). My first book, JAHAJIN, is the result of a story brewing in my head for 30 years, evolving and growing as I lived in India. My second book is complete, and has been accepted by HarperCollins-India, and my third is itching to get started on its journey.