Leena Nandan, Lucknow

CATEGORY: Write Choice Award Joint Secretary at Ministry of Road Transport & Highways author Leena Nandan, completed her ICSE from Loreto Convent Asansol and graduated with English Honours from Patna Women’s College. Her love of the language was the reason that she chose English Literature as one of the two optional subjects in the UPSC Examination despite not being a post-graduate. She was selected for the IAS in her very first attempt and owes her success to her nuanced portrayal of Shakespearean characters, their hubris, and angst, and her ability to capture with fine strokes of her pen, the depths of emotion in Victorian poetry. Having keen interest in reading and nurturing a passion for writing, Leena proceeded to capture the multi-faceted dimensions and experiences of her career with a book that she and Jiwesh (her husband) coauthored-‘How to placate an Angry Naga: Finding one’s feet in the IAS’, which was published by Penguin in 2007. Her latest book, Ten Days-a thriller in the crime-suspense genre was published by Wisdom Tree in 2014. Leena joined the IAS in 1987 and was assigned UP cadre. She married her batch-mate, Jiwesh Nandan in 1989, and on completion of their training, both got down to the task of administration. The next one and a half decades were a whirlwind of postings and family commitments; in between, their two little girls started school and began the tryst with homework! All administrative work was in Hindi, right down to the speeches, and English seemed to be, at times, a thing of the past, something that was used a lifetime ago. But love for the writing prevailed over everything else, and hectic schedules notwithstanding, Leena started to write and contribute articles to the IAS Association magazine as well as leading newspapers.

SELF NOMINATED