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THIRD ANNUAL IAAC LITERARY FESTIVAL
NYU KIMMEL CENTER, 60 WASHINGTON SQUARE SOUTH, NYC
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| OCTOBER 7-9, 2016 |
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| Saturday Oct 8, 2016 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm |
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Session 3A
Young Adult Voyages - Spiritual and Historical |
Ram Sivasankaran, Rohit Gaur in conversation with Marina Budhos
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| Marina Budhos discusses historical fiction and mystical spiritual adventures with two dreamers - writers who transport young adults to other domains. |
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| Rohit Gaur |
 Rohit Gaur is a serial entrepreneur and author of the Temple Wars book series. He has built several brands including the Gaur Hotels, Gaur Spice Whiskey, and Cavalry Bourbon. He is the founder of Artisna.com - the artisan marketplace™, Perfumora.com – the scents marketplace™, and other tech startups. |
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| The Temple Wars |
 Temple Wars has been a five-year passion project for Rohit. Throughout the years, he has developed the business and storytelling techniques needed to make the Temple Wars series into a thrilling multimedia franchise.
The first book is Ganesha’s Temple, a young adult coming-of-age fantasy adventure. Fourteen-year-old Tarun goes on a spiritual adventure with Ganesha, the lord of obstacles, and mystical deity he has befriended; during this journey he learns about the importance of self-sacrifice, self-reliance and friendship. |
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| Ram Sivasankaran |
 Ram Sivasankaran was born in Madras, India, but has spent most of his life abroad, largely in the Middle East and the United States of America. He was brought up on stories from Indian legends and the great epics and classics of both India and the West. In addition to being a passionate student of history in school, Ram has built a keen interest in stories of valour, heroism, chivalry, beauty, and romance.
Ram holds a dual masters in Aeronautics & Astronautics from Stanford University, his day job is of a Product Manager at a financial technology company. A day - dreamer of sorts, Ram believes deeply in the power of imagination - the mind being the canvas on which even the seemingly talentless can create new universes, resurrect eras long gone, bring the gods to life and even revive heroes and damsels of yore. Ram makes his debut with a historical novel on one of the greatest and yet, to an extent, a less-known figure from Indian history - Bajirao Bhat, Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy, mighty warrior, hopeless romantic and one of the most dazzling examples of wartime courage, military leadership and battle strategy.' |
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| The Peshwa: The Lion and The Stallion |
 The Peshwa: The Lion and the Stallion gives an insight into the life and times of Marathi warrior Peshwa Bajirao and his rise to power.
"It is the 18th century and despite the dominant Mughal rule, the Maratha Confederacy has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the Indian Subcontinent. The fragile peace between the two powers is threatened when Balaji Vishvanath Bhat, Peshwa of the Confederacy, foils the plans of Nizam Ul Mulk of the Mughal Empire, and asserts the power of the Marathas. However, little does the Peshwa know that he has dealt the Nizam an unintended wound - one with roots in his mysterious past and one that he would seek to avenge till his last breath.
When the Peshwa surrenders his life to a terminal illness dark clouds gather over the Confederacy as it is threatened by a Mughal invasion as well as an internal rebellion.
All the while a passive spectator, the Peshwa’s son, Bajirao Bhat, now needs to rise beyond the grief of his father’s passing, his scant military and administrative experience, and his intense love for his wife and newborn son to rescue everything he holds dear. Will the young man be able to protect the Confederacy from internal strife and crush the armies of the Empire all while battling inner demons? Will he live up to his title of Peshwa?" |
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| Marina Budhos |
 Marina Budhos is the author of award-winning fiction, including The Professor of Light, House of Waiting, Tell Us We’re Home, and nonfiction books, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers, and two books she wrote with her husband, Marc Aronson, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom & Science and the forthcoming The Eyes of the World: Robert Capa & Gerda Taro & The Invention of Modern Photojournalism (Henry Holt). Watched is the follow-up to Ask Me No Questions, taking on surveillance in a post 9/11 era.
Budhos has received numerous honors, including ALA Best Books and Notable, winner of the first James Cook Teen Book Award, NY Public Library Books for the Teenage, Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best, an EMMA (Exceptional Merit Media Award), a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers, and has twice received a Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to India, given talks throughout the country and abroad, and is currently a professor of English at William Paterson University. |
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