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Mishra or Misra (Hindi: "मिश्र" "मिश्रा") is a Hindu Brahmin surname found mostly in the northern and central parts of India. It is one of the most widespread Brahmin surnames in the fertile Gangetic plain region and in the Indian states of Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam and West Bengal. It is also found in countries such as Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago under the anglicized version of Misir, due to migration owing to agricultural/plantation employment. The surname is also found in Nepal, Fiji and Mauritius, as well as in other Indian diaspora communities.

In Hinduism, Brahmin refers to the class of educators and preachers. It is the highest class in the caste system. There are many references in the Ramayana and Mahabharata about the importance of a Brahmin. In the Vedic period, the Brahmins preferred isolation and solely dedicated their life to propagating knowledge and Dharma. However Misras have historically been martial Brahmins and in earlier years, many were drafted into the army.

Notable People[link]

• Akhilendra Mishra - Indian film and television character actor.
• Pradip Mishra - Gujarat IT Engineer.
• Amit Mishra - Indian cricketer.
• Anupam Mishra - Environmentalist & water conservationist
• Birju Maharaj - Kathak dancer
• Brijesh Mishra - National Security Advisor
• Chaitanya Maha Prabhu - Poet
• Chhannulal Mishra - Hindustani classical music singer
• Chaturanan Mishra - Former Indian Agriculture Minister
• Jagannath Mishra - Politician
• Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra- Judge of the Supreme Court of India.
• Justice Ranganath Misra - Former Chief Justice of India, Famous for Mishra Commission
• Kalraj Mishra- BJP Leader Uttar Pradesh
• Lalit Narayan Mishra- Former Indian Rail Minister.
• Mandana Mishra - Philosopher of Ancient India
• Nitish Mishra- JDU Leader Bihar And state Cabinet minister of bihar
• Pooja Misrra- Model, vj
• Leela Mishra, film actor
• Piyush Mishra - Indian film actor, music director, lyricist, and writer
• Rajan and Sajan Mishra - Contemporary North Indian Musician
• Roopa Mishra - IAS topper 2005 from Orissa
• Sameer Mishra - 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee champion (USA)
• Sanjay Mishra - World famous American guitarist and composer.
• Sanjay Mishra (actor) - comedian known from Office Office.
• Satish Chandra Mishra- BSP Leader Uttar Pradesh India
• Smriti Mishra - Indian film actress famous for her roles in parallel cinema.
• Sourav Mishra - Reuters journalist, one of the first witnesses of 2008 Mumbai Attacks
• Sudhir Mishra - Indian film director and screenwriter
• Vanya Mishra - Femina Miss India 2012

References[link]

This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (February 2012)

Piyush Mishra (born 1963) is an Indian film and theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer, scriptwriter.

Early life and education[link]

He spent his early life in Gwalior, where he received his education. Thereafter he moved to Delhi, and joined National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, graduating in 1986.

Career[link]

Theater and television[link]

After his graduation from NSD in 1986, Piyush Mishra started his career as a theatre actor in Delhi, and in 1990, helped start the theatre group Act One, with founder-director NK Sharma and stage actors like Manoj Bajpai, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi. In the following years he wrote and directed several plays as a part of Act-1 Group, including the acclaimed play, Gagan Damama Bajiyo (The Sky Resounds with the Call to Arms), based on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, which was first performed in 1994,^[1][2] and upon publishing, sold its first edition in just seven days.^[3] In 1996 he joined Asmita Theatre Group, and performed his Popular one man shows An Evening with Piyush Mishra. He wrote the lyrics for Asmita's popular plays. Piyush acted as Maniac in operation three star (an adaptation of Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist). Piyush is also known for his performance in Swadesh Deepak's Court Martial as Surat Singh, first with Ranjeet Kapoor (1991) and later under the direction of Arvind Gaur (1996).^[4]

By then, he had established himself as a theatre director and directed Comedy of Terror play for Shriram Centre Repertory Company.,^[5] and also presented his solo act play at the National School of Drama's Annual Theatre Festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999.^[6] Mishra has also acted in a television series, Rajdhani, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia for Star TV.

Films[link]

While Mishra was at the NSD, 1986, he was considered for a role in the Sooraj Barjatya film Maine Pyar Kiya which would go on to become a blockbuster, "presumably" that of Prem which was played by Salman Khan. But for some reason, he did not make an effort.^[7]

Mishra made his debut as a film actor with Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.. in 1998,he portrayed as C.B.I Investigation Officer. though he continued to stay in Delhi to pursue theatre. His transition from playwright to screen writer happened when he wrote the dialogues for Rajkumar Santoshi's 2001 film The Legend of Bhagat Singh, which was inspired in part by Mishra's critically acclaimed play on Bhagat Singh - Gagan Damama Bajyo.^[3][8] It won him the Zee Cine Award for Best Dialogue (2003).^[9] Meanwhile he moved to Mumbai in November 2002,^[1] where he went on to establish a career as a film lyricist, screenwriter and as an actor. He started writing lyrics with the film, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar in 2002, and subsequently wrote for Black Friday, Aaja Nachle and Tashan.

Mishra won accolades for his performance as Kaka in Vishal Bhardwaj's 2003 film Maqbool, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[10][11] He wrote his own dialogues for his performance as Hafeez (Huffy) Bhai in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), and delivered them in poetry style.^[12]

Mishra again appeared in Anurag Kashyap's 2009 movie Gulaal, a movie based on Indian youth, politics, caste-prejudice, and other such social topics. He played Prithvi, the poet brother of Dukey Bana (played by Kay Kay Menon), in the movie. He also wrote the lyrics for the songs in the movie, and sung few of them as well and was also the music director of the film.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Presently he lives in Mumbai with his wife and two young sons Josh and Jai.

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

• Bharat Ek Khoj (TV Series) (1988)(Sepoy)
• Sardar (film) (1993)(Guest Appearance)
• Dil Se.. (1998)
• Samurai (Tamil) (2002)
• Maqbool (2003)
• Butterfly (2003)
• Sala Bandar! (2003)
• Ek Din 24 Ghante (2003)
• Matrubhoomi (2003)
• Deewaar (2004)
• Super (Telugu) (2005)
• 1971 (2007)
• Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Lahore (2010)
• Tere Bin Laden (2010)
• Lafangey Parindey (2010)
• Bhindi Baazaar (2011) as Pandey
• That Girl In Yellow Boots (2011) as Auto Rickshaw Driver
• Rockstar (2011) as Dhingra

Lyrics[link]

• Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000)
• Black Friday (2004)
• Aaja Nachle (2007)
• Tashan (2008)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

Screenplay and dialogues[link]

• The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) - Dialogues
• Yahaan (2005) - Screenplay and dialogues
• 1971 (2007) - Screenplay
• Ghajini (2008) - Dialogues
• Lahore (2010) - Screenplay
• Chittagong (2011) - Dialogues
• Agneepath (2012) - Dialogues

Singer[link]

• Aarambh hai prachand (Gulaal-2009)
• Duniya (Gulaal-2009)
• Jab Sheher hamara (Gulaal-2009)
• Chhaliya (Tashan)
• Ik Bagal (Gangs of Wasseypur - 2012)

Composer[link]

• Gulaal (2009)
• Lahore (2010) (for the song Oh Re Bande)

Awards[link]

• Zee Cine Awards
  • 2003: Best Dialogue: The Legend of Bhagat Singh (with Ranjit Kapoor and Rajkumar Santoshi) ^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Piyush Mishra at the Internet Movie Database
• An Interview with Piyush Mishra

[[File:Piyush Mishra]]

Pankaj Mishra ( पंकज मिश्रा ) born 1969 in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh (North India), is an Indian essayist and novelist. He is particularly notable for his book Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, a sociological study of small-town India, and his writing for the New York Review of Books.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce from Allahabad University before earning his Master of Arts degree in English literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.^[1] He was the Visiting Fellow for 2007-2008 at the Department of English, University College London, UK.

Writing career[link]

In 1992, he moved to Mashobra, a Himalayan village, where he began to contribute literary essays and reviews to The Indian Review of Books, The India Magazine, and the newspaper The Pioneer. His first book was Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (1995), a travelogue that described the social and cultural changes in India in the new context of globalization. His novel The Romantics (2000), an ironic tale of people longing for fulfillment in cultures other than their own, was published in eleven European languages and won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum award for first fiction. His recent book An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World (2004) mixes memoir, history, and philosophy while attempting to explore the Buddha's relevance to contemporary times. Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond (2006), describes Mishra's travels through Kashmir, Bollywood, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, and other parts of South and Central Asia.

In 2005, Mishra published an anthology of writing on India, India in Mind (Vintage). His writings have been anthologized in The Picador Book of Journeys (2000), The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature (2004), and Away: The Indian Writer as Expatriate (Penguin), among other titles. He has introduced new editions of Rudyard Kipling's Kim (Modern Library), E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (Penguin Classics), and J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur (NYRB Classics). He has also introduced two volumes of V. S. Naipaul's essays: The Writer and the World and Literary Occasions.

Mishra writes literary and political essays for the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian, and the New Statesman, among other American, British, and Indian publications. His work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Common Knowledge, the Financial Times, Granta, The Independent, the London Review of Books, n+1, The Nation, Outlook, Poetry, Time, the Times Literary Supplement, Travel + Leisure, and The Washington Post. He divides his time between London and India, and is presently working on a novel.^[2]

His book Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond was reviewed by The Economist (1–7 July 2006 issue).

In 2008 he was one of the first authors to take part in the Palestine Festival of Literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.^[3]

• He also Honored with “Proud Past Alumni" in the list of 42 members, from "Allahabad University Alumni Association", NCR, Ghaziabad (Greater Noida) Chapter 2007-2008 registered under society act 1860 with registration no. 407/2000^[4].

Criticisms[link]

In a lecture Prof Jagdish Bhagwati had this to say in reference to Mishra's op-ed pieces in the New York Times: "Perhaps the most articulate critics are the ‘progressive’ novelists of India, chief among them Pankaj Mishra whom the op-ed page editors of the New York Times regularly and almost exclusively invite to write about the Indian economy, a privilege they do not seem to extend symmetrically to American novelists to give us their profound thoughts on the US economy!" He then said of Mishra's economic analysis "While economic analysis can often produce a yawning indifference, and Mishra’s narrative is by contrast eloquent and captivating, the latter is really fiction masquerading as non-fiction." ^[5]

Patrick French in response to Mishra's review ^[6] of French's book India: A Portrait(2010), suggested that his writing is aimed to please his readers in his new home, Britain: "Pankaj has obviously been on a long journey from his self-described origins—in what he calls a 'new, very poor and relatively inchoate Asian society'—to his present position at the heart of the British establishment, married to a cousin of the prime minister David Cameron. But he seems oddly resentful of the idea of social mobility for other Indians."^[7]

Personal life[link]

He is married to Mary Mount, a second cousin of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and he divides his time between Delhi, Shimla and London.^[8] His father-in-law is Ferdinand Mount, former head of Margaret Thatcher's policy unit. He has one daughter.

Bibliography[link]

Book reviews[link]

• "Impasse in India" The New York Review of Books 54/11 (28 June 2007) : 48-51 [reviews Martha C. Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future]
• "Watch this man" London Review of Books, Vol.33 No. 21 (3 November 2011) [reviews Niall Ferguson, Civilisation: The West and the Rest]

Books[link]

• Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
• India in Mind, edited by Pankaj Mishra (Vintage Departures Original, 2005)
• A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster, edited by Pankaj Mishra (Penguin Classics, 2005)
• An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004)
• The Siege of Krishnapur, by J. G. Farrell; introduction by Pankaj Mishra (NYRB Books, 2004)
• Kim, by Rudyard Kipling; introduction by Pankaj Mishra (Random House Modern Library, 2004)
• The Romantics (UK Picador 1999; Anchor Books, 2001)
• Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (Viking Penguin, 1995)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pankaj Mishra, resource website at Columbia University
• Philosopher King by Adam Goodheart—book review in New York Times
• "Pankaj Mishra, Intellectual and Spiritual Vagrant". An interview by Wendy Cheng at Loggernaut.
• Interview with Pankaj Mishra by Sarah Fay for "The Believer" 2007.
• [1]. Report by Pankaj Mishra regarding Kashmir on July 22, 2002 in the UK Guardian newspaper.
• of Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy discussing "India in the World" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival

Reviews & articles

• Pankaj Mishra at The New York Review of Books
• Pankaj Mishra at The Guardian
• Pankaj Mishra at The New Yorker
• Pankaj Mishra at Outlook (magazine)
• Pankaj Mishra at Bloomberg L.P.

Ian Buruma
Ian Buruma talks with an attendee at the 2006 Texas Book Festival.
Born	(1951-12-28) December 28, 1951 (age 60) The Hague, Netherlands
Occupation	Writer, Lecturer
Nationality	Dutch
Genres	Non-fiction
Subjects	Japan, Occidentalism, Orientalism

Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a British-Dutch writer and academic. Much of his work focuses on the culture of Asia, particularly that of 20th-century Japan.

He was born in The Hague, the Netherlands, to a Dutch father and British mother. He studied Chinese literature at Leiden University, and then Japanese film at Nihon University in Tokyo. He has held a number of editorial and academic positions, and has contributed numerous articles to The New York Review of Books. He has been noted as a "well-regarded European intellectual."^[1]

In 2000 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture – Neoromanticism of writers in exile – in the Pieterskerk in Leiden, The Netherlands. He has held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C and St Antony's College, Oxford. In 2003 he became Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard College, New York.

Since 2005 he has resided in New York, USA.

In 2008 Buruma was awarded the Erasmus Prize, which is awarded to an individual who has made "an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe."^[2]

He is among the 100 top global thinkers of 2010, as selected by the Foreign Policy magazine.^[3] His contribution as a public intellectual, according to the magazine, is as follows:

Many liberals these days seem at pains to establish their bona fides as tough-minded hawks when it comes to global threats, but the Dutch man of letters has made a career out of affirming the classic liberalism of the open-door variety. His writing in recent years has attracted the ire of critics who think he equivocates on the dangers of radical Islam, but Ian Buruma made his response this year with a typically judicious and politically relevant book, Taming the Gods, that reflects on the Western capacity for religious pluralism. According to Buruma, Western society is robust enough to embrace even illiberal practices, so long as these are not violent. "Living with values that one does not share," he wrote in a recent column on France's burqa ban, "is a price to be paid for living in a pluralist society."

Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, a series of interviews with whom he published in book form.^[4]

Works[link]

• The Japanese Tattoo (1980) with Donald Richie ISBN 978-0-8348-0228-5
• Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, Drifters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes (1983) ISBN 978-0-452-00738-3
• Tokyo: Form and Spirit (1986) with James Brandon, Kenneth Frampton, Martin Friedman, Donald Richie ISBN 978-0-8109-1690-6
• God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey (1989) ISBN 978-0-7538-1089-7
• Great Cities of the World: Hong Kong (1991)
• Playing the Game (1991) novel ISBN 978-0-374-52633-7
• The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and in Japan (1994) ISBN 978-0-452-01156-4
• Introduction for Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art (1998) by Jodi Cobb ISBN 978-0-375-70180-1
• Voltaire's Coconuts, or Anglomania in Europe (UK title) (1998) or Anglomania: a European Love Affair (US title) (1999) ISBN 978-0-7538-0954-9
• The Missionary and the Libertine: Love and War in East and West (2000) compilation ISBN 978-0-571-21414-3
• De neo-romantiek van schrijvers in exil (Neoromanticism of writers in exile) (2000) ISBN 90-446-0028-1
• Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing (2001) ISBN 978-0-679-78136-3
• Inventing Japan: From Empire to Economic Miracle 1853–1964 (2003) ISBN 978-0-679-64085-1
• Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (2004) with Avishai Margalit ISBN 978-0-14-303487-2
• Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006) ISBN 978-1-59420-108-0 winner of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the Best Current Interest Book.
• Conversations with John Schlesinger (2006) ISBN 0-375-75763-5
• Commentary on the History of China for the time period of The Last Emperor, The Criterion Collection 2008 DVDs (ASIN: B000ZM1MIW, ISBN 978-1-60465-014-3).
• The China Lover (2008) novel ISBN 978-1-59420-194-3
• Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents (2010) ISBN 978-0-691-13489-5, with some historical examples of the value the separation of religion and national governance with the separation of church and state as one example.
• Grenzen aan de vrijheid: van De Sade tot Wilders (Limits to Freedom: From De Sade to Wilders) (2010) – Essay for the Month of Philosophy in the Netherlands.

Essays[link]

• China's class ceiling, published in the Los Angeles Times

See also[link]

• Religious pluralism

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ian Buruma

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ian Buruma

• Official Website, with curriculum vitae
• Column archive at Project Syndicate
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Column archive at The New York Review of Books
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Ian Buruma at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Ian Buruma in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Ian Buruma collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Article archive at Journalisted

Interviews

• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Ian Buruma from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Ian Buruma discusses A Murder in Amsterdam [Video]

Sudhir Mishra is an Indian film director and screenwriter most renowned for directing critically acclaimed films like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Dharavi and Chameli.^[2][3]

Early life and education[link]

He was born and brought up in Lucknow. He is grandson of former madhya pradesh chief minister Dwarka Prasad Mishra .His father, DN Mishra, was the founder member of Lucknow Film Society.^[4] He graduated from Delhi University, where, he met Badal Sircar and formed a theatre group called Workshop Theatre, and worked on several plays with him.

After one and half year with Badal Sarkar, Sudhir Mishra left for Pune. In Pune, he spent time at FTII, (Film and Television Institute of India), Pune, where his younger brother, Sudhanshu Mishra (to whom he credits to have learnt much of his cinema) was a student. Sudhir never studied at the institute himself.^[5]

Career[link]

He moved to Mumbai in 1980, and started his career as assistant director and scriptwriter in Kundan Shah's comedy classic Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983) and later worked with Saeed Akhtar Mirza in Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984) and with Vidhu Vinod Chopra in Khamosh (1985).

He made his directorial debut with the film, Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin in 1987 which won the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director.

He went on to make acclaimed films like "Dharavi"(1991), Main Zinda Hoon (1988), Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996) and Chameli (2003), and his most acclaimed film to date, the 2005 film, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. This was followed by Khoya Khoya Chand in December 2007.

Awards[link]

• 1987 Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director: Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin (1987)
• 1989 National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues: Main Zinda Hoon (1988)
• 1992 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi: Dharavi (1991)
• 2006 Filmfare Best Story Award: Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005)
• 2010: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (French Government)^[6] France's knighthood - equivalent to the "Sir" title of the British

Filmography[link]

• Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983) - Sceenwriter
• Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1984) - Screenwriter
• Khamosh (1985) - Screenwriter, Actor
• Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin (1987) - Director, Screenwriter
• Main Zinda Hoon (1988) - Director, Screenwriter
• Dharavi (1992) - Director, Screenwriter
• Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996) – Director, Screenwriter
• Calcutta Mail (2003) - Director, Screenwriter
• Chameli (2003) – Director, Screenwriter
• Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005) - Director, Screenwriter
• Traffic Signal (2007) - Actor
• Khoya Khoya Chand (2007) -Director, Screenwriter
• Tera Kya Hoga Johnny (release indefinitely postponed) - Director, Screenwriter
• Raat Gayi Baat Gayi (2010) - Actor
• Yeh Saali Zindagi (2011) - Director, Screenwriter
• Dhruv (film) (In Production) - Director

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sudhir Mishra at the Internet Movie Database
• Moon And Sixpence, Nisha Susan on the shambling creativity of Sudhir Mishra
• Interview with Sudhir Mishra on his film Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
• Sudhir's Blog at PassionforCinema
• Sudhir Mishra comments on his films