Dr. Himanshu Rai
Professor Himanshu Rai is an educationist – an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), he currently heads the India campus of SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy, as Dean, MSB Bocconi. Prior to this, he taught PG and Doctoral students at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML). His core area is Human Resource Management, wherein he focuses on Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration, Strategic HRM, and Leadership.
He frequently conducts training programmes and workshops for executives as well as bureaucrats. He has earlier taught in the HR area at XLRI Jamshedpur. He indulges western philosophy, and prides himself on his Indian roots. He is well-versed in Sanskrit and takes great pleasure in delving into Vedic texts and other Indian scriptures – particularly the Mahabharata, in order to gather philosophical insights.
Mahmood Farooqui
Mahmood Farooqui is a writer, artist and director. He specializes in a type of story-telling known as Dastangoi. Dastangoi spread from Pre-Islamic Arabia to Iran and then to Delhi in India. From Delhi, dastangoi made its way to Lucknow in the 18th century, aided by the Indian Rebellion of 1857, during which several artists, writers and dastangos moved from Delhi to Lucknow.
In Lucknow, dastangoi was popular across all classes, and was regularly performed at diverse locations including chowks (city squares), private households, and afeem khana (public opium houses). "It became so popular among opium addicts that they made listening to stories an important element of their gatherings." The prolonged intoxication and prolonged stories narrated by professional story-tellers was mostly combined. Each afeem khana had its own story-teller to entertain the clients; whereas, among the rich, every household used to appoint a dastango as a member of its staff.
Shalini Khanna
Shalini Khanna is a Rehabilitation and Research professional in Gender and Disabilities with specialization in visual impairment. She set up a rehabilitation center for visually Impaired women, started a research center in the field of disability and has worked for administrative reforms for visually impaired children. Her work has touched the life of nearly 1500 visually impaired students till today.
Shalini has also served as consultant and a panelist on sexual harassment prevention committees. She has conducted workshops, investigations and instituted policies for corporates and the Government.
She has worked to ensure that people with disabilities can enjoy work in a healthy and safe environment and stand on equal footing with any other person.
She has also consulted on implementation and monitoring for rehabilitation and vocational training centers for the disabled. She monitored over 100 schools for different disabilities across the country