Sep 01 2025 to Sep 01 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

What happens when history, imagination, and storytelling come together?

Bestselling author Amish Tripathi returns with his new book, The Chola Tigers, and will explore it in conversation with Manish Sabharwal. The session will also open out into the broader terrain of historical fiction and its power to engage with memory, identity, and culture.

Set in 1025 CE, in the aftermath of Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid on Somnath, The Chola Tigers follows five characters, a Tamil warrior, a Gujarati merchant, a devotee of Lord Ayyappa, a scholar-emperor from Malwa, and Emperor Rajendra Chola, who unite to undertake a journey of retribution. Moving between the grandeur of the Chola Empire and the court of Ghazni, the book explores themes of resilience, honour, and duty.

The discussion will reflect on the narrative of the novel as well as the role of historical fiction in reimagining the past and engaging with questions of identity, culture, and collective memory. In conversation with Amish is Manish Sabharwal, entrepreneur and public intellectual, whose wide-ranging interests in nation-building, institutions, and India’s place in the world bring a complementary lens to the themes explored in the book.

In collaboration with:

Speakers

Amish
Author
Amish is an author, former diplomat & broadcaster. He published his first book in 2010 and has written 12 books (both fiction and non-fiction) till date. His books have sold over 8 million copies and been translated into 21 Indian & international languages. He is the fastest-selling author in Indian publishing history.

Forbes India has regularly ranked Amish among the top 100 most influential celebrities in India. Amish was also selected as an Eisenhower Fellow, a celebrated American programme for outstanding leaders from around the world, in 2014. Among his recent awards are the 21st Century Icon Award in the UK in 2021, the Golden Book award for his novel Suheldev in 2022, and the prestigious Dwarka Prasad Agarwal award at the Jaipur Litfest 2024.

As a broadcaster, he has hosted 3 documentaries with Warner Bros Discovery; the award-winning Legends of the Ramayan with Amish (2022), Journey of India (2022) & Legends of Shiva with Amish (2025). He also hosted MahaKumbh Tales with Amish (2025) on NDTV.

In his diplomatic role, Amish worked as the Minister (Culture & Education) at the Indian High Commission to the UK (equivalent to Embassy) and the Director of The Nehru Centre in London from 2019 to 2023. This role was within the Ministry of External Affairs in the Indian Government (equivalent to the US State Department).

Amish is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta; He received the Eminent Alumnus Award from IIM-Calcutta in 2017. He worked for 14 years in senior roles in the financial services industry before turning to full-time writing.

Manish Sabharwal
Chairman & Co-Founder, Teamlease Services
Manish is Chairman and co-founder of Teamlease Services, India’s largest staffing and human capital firm. Teamlease has over 140,000 employees in 5000 cities and is implementing India’s first vocational university and national PPP apprenticeship program. The company has hired 16 lac employees over the last 14 years.

In 1996 he co-founded India Life, an HR outsourcing company that was acquired in 2002 by a listed US company called Hewitt Associates. Consequently, he was CEO of Hewitt Outsourcing (Asia) based in Singapore for two years.

Manish is a member of the National Skill Mission, Central Advisory Board of Education and has served on various policy committees for education, employment and employability. He serves as a Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India, is a trustee of the New India Foundation that offers fellowships for writing books about post-1947 India, and is a columnist for Indian Express. He got his MBA from The Wharton School and is an alumnus of Shriram College, Delhi and Mayo College, Ajmer.