R. GOPALAKRISHNAN (Gopal) has observed and done business in India and several countries over the last fifty years through his service with Unilever and in Tata. He has also had a ringside seat while businesses got designed and built up. He has witnessed how business brought people and societies closer. Hence, he believes that travel, trade and thoughts unite people despite their seeming differences. Societies that have enjoyed longstanding associations have a better chance of building closeness through business. In this book, this idea is advocated through the history of trade and exchange of thoughts between India and China. This is Gopal’s twenty-first book. He welcomes readers’ feedback at: gopal.mindworks@gmail.com 

NIRMALA ISAAC is a seasoned human resource professional with over a decade of hands-on experience shaping people and organizational practices. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in Organizational  Behaviour at SPJIMR, Mumbai, an institution she fondly calls her second home, having been a part of its professional community for several years. Having collaborated with her co-author on earlier projects, Nirmala concurs with his belief that exchange through travel, trade and thought forms the foundation of meaningful human connection. She shares his vision that the lessons of the past must illuminate the path to building future relationships between the two great civilizations, India and China. 

Nirmala lives in Mumbai with her husband and two children, whose love and support, along with that of her parents, remain her greatest source of strength and inspiration in bringing to life this, her very first book. 

She can be contacted at: nirmala8@gmail.com