Shreekumar Varma is a columnist and a lecturer in Creative English. His plays include Platform and the award-winning works, The Dark Lord and Bow Of Rama. His children's books include The Royal Rebel (1997) and Devil's Garden (2006). His debut novel, Lament Of Mohini (2000), was in the Crossword long list. He was awarded the Charles Wallace fellowship in 2004, and was Writer-in-Residence at Stirling University, UK. He is the grandson of Regent Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the last ruling Maharani of the erstwhile Travancore state. (www.shreevarma.com)