GAURA PANT 'SHIVANI' (1923-2003) was among the foremost Hindi writers of her time. Born in Rajkot, her childhood was spent in various places as her father moved from one princely state to another. As a young child, she was tutored by her scholar grandfather, Pandit Hariram Pande, a close associate of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and one of the founding faculty members of Banaras Hindu University. At the age of twelve, she was sent, along with her two siblings, to Shantiniketan, where she spent nine magical years. Throughout her life, Shivani lived by the teachings of her gurus at the Ashram and looked upon Bengal as her second home. Her literary output that spans some forty works bears the deep imprint of both Kumaon and Bengal. Best known for her short stories, novels and newspaper columns, Shivani also wrote several travelogues and a three-part autobiography. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1982.

IRA PANDE started her career as a lecturer in Panjab University, later switching to editing and publishing, and later worked with several prominent English-language publishing houses. Her last editorial stint was as chief editor of the India International Centre's (IIC) Publication Division. In 2005, she wrote a memoir of her mother titled Diddi: My Mother's Voice, documenting the life and times of Shivani. In 2010, she got the Sahitya Akademi Award for her translation of Manohar Shyam Joshi's T'ta Professor, which also won the Crossword Book Award for translation. She writes a regular column for the Tribune.