Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) was an artist and writer from the illustrious Tagore family, and a nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. The principal innovator of the Bengal school of art, he created a distinctive Swadeshi style of art at a time when only western models were being imitated and practised in contemporary India. He revitalised Rajput and Mughal art into ethereal watercolours, and his later works incorporated Chinese and Japanese influences as well. He was appointed by Calcutta University as the Bageswari Professor of Oriental Art, and his writings and lectures on art remain relevant and important to art theory and practice to this day. His literary works, of delight to children and adults alike – Buro Angla, Khirer Putul, Bhoot-Potrir Deshe, Nalak and Raj Kahini – are marked by the delightful whimsy of his imagination and brought alive by his singular ability to paint pictures with words.

Urbi Bhaduri has been bewitched by the magic of words for as long as she can remember. She is grateful to stories for teaching her almost everything she knows of life today.

After completing her Masters in English from Jadavpur University, she has been exploring her strengths in different capacities—as a writer, editor and translator freelancing with publishing houses, newspapers and other organisations, and as a facilitator in the developmental sector, holding experiential workshops on poetry, memoir, self-discovery, deep listening, gender and entrepreneurship with young people who inhabit the urban margins, mostly in the streets and slums of Kolkata. She moves home frequently, and has lived all over India with her husband, her four dogs and more recently, with a baby girl.