Gurcharan Das Biography and latest books by Gurcharan Das

Gurcharan Das is an Indian author who is a regular columnist for six newspapers in India. He is also an occasional periodic writer for the NewYork Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and Financial Times. One of his international bestseller was India Unbound. His other writing work includes, A Fine Family, The Elephant Paradigm, and Three English Plays.

Gurcharan Das was born on October 3, 1943 in Lyllapur, Punjab, (now Pakistan). He was born into a Punjabi Hindu family. His family had to flee as refugees to India after Independence. His early days were spent in Shimla and Delhi where his father worked as an engineer for the Government. In the mid 1950s, his father got posted to Washington D.C so he finished his high school from there. He graduated with Honors in Philosophy and Minors in Politics and Sanskritafter winning sholarships from Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Following this, he joined Harvard Business School where his three case studies were featured.

From the year 1985 till 1992 he worked for Procter and Gamble in India as CEO.  Following this he became the Managing Director for Procter and Gamble Worldwide. After working for 30 years in six countries he retired and decided to become a full time writer. Gradually he started writing columns for Times of India on Sundays and continued to do so for the following 15 years. He also started writing columns for Hindi, Marathi, Telegu and Malyalam daily papers.

Gurcharan Das started writing right after his college. He even wrote three plays in his twenties which were later published as an anthology. The play Lanins Sahib, about the English in India, went on to become a prize winning play. The other two plays were Mira, which won critical acclaims from critics from New York, and 9 Jakhoo Hill which has been performed in major cities across India.

Gurcharan Das is mostly known for his works in The Difficulty of Being Good, and India Unbound. Gurcharan spent seven years researching in University of Chicago for his book, The Difficulty of Being Good and Bad. His other book, The Elephant Paradigm is a collection of essays which covers topics on national competitiveness, panchayati raj, philosophies concerning average Indian citizens and their entry into the age of liberation.

Currently Gurcharan Das lives in New Delhi with his wife and his two children.

Submitted by Precious Pheirim.