Lila Patel, born in Gujarat, grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka and then in Delhi where she graduated from Lady Irwin College. Lila was a competitive golfer and an entrepreneur. She founded the Flora International, later Flora Enterprise, which supplied live plants and flower arrangements to the corporate world in Calcutta till about 2007.

Soumitra Das is a journalist born and based in Calcutta who began his career with The Statesman and is now with The Telegraph. He is deeply involved with the visual arts and heritage issues and writes regularly on these topics. He has a popular column titled ‘Flashback’ on Calcutta’s history and the city’s rapidly changing face. In October 2007, he brought out a book on the streets of Calcutta titled A Jaywalker’s Guide to Calcutta which became a bestseller. He has contributed to the Tramjatra book on Calcutta trams published by an Australian university.