About

Kota Neelima is a political author and has been a journalist for over 20 years in New Delhi. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and was Senior Research Fellow, South Asia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC. She is also a former Political Editor for The Sunday Guardian newspaper and writes on politics, perception, farmer suicides, and issues concerning the rural poor in India. She is the author of four books of fiction that are based on her experience as a journalist as well as a researcher. Each book questions the accepted notions of politics and society, and seeks to demarcate the democratic deficit at the root of poverty and hopelessness in India. Her first novel, Riverstones (First print 2007. Reprint, Penguin Random House, 2016), explored the power play behind the policy shortfalls in New Delhi, which have neglected the rural poor that led to farmer suicides across the nation. Her second novel, Death of a Moneylender (First print 2009. Reprint 2016, Penguin Random House), reconstructed the tyranny of rural power structures and was set in an imaginary village in South-Central India. Both books also critiqued the ethics of journalists and priorities of contemporary mainstream reportage in India.

Her third novel, Shoes of the Dead (2013, Rupa), has been one of the popular political books in India. This work examined, on the one hand, the farm crisis in a hypothetical village and the circumstances that led a farmer to commit suicide, and, on the other, the workings of dynastic politics and the cost politicians paid to survive in Delhi’s power circles. The book tells the story of two young men, one from Delhi and another from a remote village, and contrasts the inheritance of power of a political heir with the inheritance of despair of a poor farmer. The book had been on the national bestseller charts in 2013 (HT-Nielsen Bookscan) and is being made into a motion picture in two languages. Her recent book, The Honest Season (2016, Penguin Random House), reveals the deals that take place behind the closed doors of a mythical parliament. The story is about six conversations that are secretly recorded inside the parliament premises on issues ranging from how corporate houses dictate appointment of ministers to how politicians wash off the taint of communal riots. The book has been well received by critics and readers, and was among the top 5 on airport charts across India (WH Smith).

Neelima is also an artist and her work is impressionist-abstract that seeks to deconstruct contemporary reality through spirituality. She has held several shows of her paintings across India, including five solo exhibitions. Her works are part of collections in India and aboard, including the Museum of Sacred Art, Belgium.

Kota Neelima has studied painting techniques at the Arpana Caur’s Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, New Delhi. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and was Senior Research Fellow, South Asia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC.

Her work for over a decade had deconstructed contemporary reality through spirituality, presented in five solo exhibitions in Delhi. Her fourth solo show, First Cause (2012), was based on the Upanishadic exploration of the cause of all Creation, the cause of all causes. Three works from this series can be seen on display at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Neelima’s fifth solo exhibition, What the Eyes Can See (2015), continued her inquiry into causation by contemporary and critical understanding of questions from Indian philosophy. The works articulated the questions of Nachiketa in Katha Upanishad, about that which is beyond the right and wrong, the cause and effect, and the questions of Kena Upanishad on what drives the eye, the mind, the speech, and highlight a force that is separate from choice or survival.

Neelima’s paintings are impressionist-abstract and the medium is oil on canvas. She follows an elaborate process of making the works, which begins with extensive research of texts, followed by charcoal drawings on paper before, finally converting them to oil paintings. The symbols used in the paintings are trees, sky, the moon and birds, which undergo multi-faceted and complex redefinition. The accessible symbols, each immersed in one or the other aspect of the concept, assist in elaborate exploration of each painting. Besides the solo exhibitions, her paintings have been featured in art shows in India and abroad. Her work is also a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Sacred Art, Belgium.

Neelima has been a journalist for 22 years and, is an author. Her book on devotion, Tirupati A Guide To Life (2012) has been translated into several languages. The book drew from Skanda Mahapurana to explore the temple of Tirupati in Southern India. She has also co-authored another book, Tirumala, Sacred Foods of God, which explains the traditions of Naivedyam and is scheduled to be published in 2017. Besides religion and spirituality, Neelima is the author of four bestselling novels on poverty and political corruption, of which one book, Shoes of the Dead (2013), is being made into a movie. She works from her studio, StudioAdda, and lives in New Delhi.