Prutha Goa

She describes herself as ‘nobody special’, saying, ‘I am simply me…Yasmeen.’ Yet Yasmeen Premji has achieved much in her life. This unassuming woman has rarely made herself known in the media though she is the wife of one of India’s leading businessmen, Azim Premji. Her husband may be chairman of the Wipro company and renowned for his philanthropy, but Ms. Premji holds her own as a woman of substance. Always a brilliant student, Ms. Premji managed to top St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, obtaining the highest marks in psychology at Bombay University. She then completed her Master of Arts degree from Smith College, U.S.A., on a scholarship. But her proficiency was not limited to academics. Ms. Premji has been an avid sportsperson. At her school, Queen Mary’s, she participated in basketball, athletics, table-tennis, chess and hockey, and was appointed games captain too. It is not surprising that hockey remains high on her list as she has represented her college and state in this sport. M

British Indian director, Waris Hussein was in attendance at Literati Book Shop in January, 2015, to speak about his experiences in the field of direction. Born in Lucknow, Hussein left for England when he was very young and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, from Queen’s College, Cambridge. He is the progeny of Attia Hosain, author of Sunlight on a Broken Column . He will eternally be introduced as the director of the first Dr Who series, but there is more that marks his career to credit him as a director of note. He has directed television serial Edward and Mrs Simpson for which he won a Bafta Award and Barry Manilow’s musical, Copacabana , for which he won an Emmy Award. Apart from these he has had a number successful series such as the BBC television version of A Passage to India in 1965 and feature films: Melody (1971) and Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1972). He has had the opportunity of directing stalwarts of cinema such as Bette Davis, Shirley Mc