VIKRAM SETH
Vikram Seth is one of India’s most celebrated modern polymaths of literature. Born in Kolkata in 1952, Seth trained as an economist at Stanford and Oxford before pivoting fully to creative writing. He refuses to be pinned down by genre, moving effortlessly between massive prose novels, travelogues, and intricate poetry. His magnum opus, A Suitable Boy (1993), is famous for being one of the longest single-volume novels ever published in the English language.

Set in post-independence, post-partition India, the book tracks four sprawling families and offers a panoramic view of a nation forging its new identity. What makes Seth truly unique is his mastery of classical form; his early novel The Golden Gate (1986) was remarkably written entirely in 594 Onegin stanzas (a strict iambic tetrameter rhyming format borrowed from Russian poetry). Whether tracing a romantic courtship in India or writing children’s fables in verse, Seth’s voice is characterized by its warmth, linguistic precision, sharp wit, and a deep, empathetic interest in the domestic joys and emotional textures of human relationships.

GEORGE ORWELL

George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, 1903–1950) was an English novelist, essayist, and fierce political critic whose work remains the gold standard for anti-authoritarian literature. Born in India during the British Raj and educated at Eton, Orwell’s early experiences as an imperial policeman in Burma and a struggling writer in Paris bred a lifelong hatred of social injustice and tyranny. He didn’t just write about systemic oppression—he lived it, fighting on the front lines against fascism during the Spanish Civil War, where he survived a bullet to the throat.

Orwell is best remembered for his terrifyingly prophetic dystopian novel 1984 and his biting political allegory Animal Farm. Through these works, he introduced vocabulary that still shapes how we talk about power today, including “Big Brother,” “Thoughtcrime,” and “Doublethink.” His writing style was deliberately stripped of ornament, operating on the belief that political language should be as clear as a windowpane to prevent leaders from masking lies. Orwell’s grim, unyielding focus on the dark mechanics of state control made him one of the twentieth century’s most essential moral voices.