Ashok Chopra (born 26 February 1949) is a publisher, author, editor, and literary columnist. Author of ''Memories of Fire: A Novel,'' ''A Scrapbook of Memories: My Life with the Rich, the Famous and the Scandalous'' and ''Of Love and Other Sorrows'', he has co-authored ''Agnostic Khushwant: There Is No God'' with the Indian author-columnist

Khushwant Singh Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...

and ''A Grain of Sand in the Hourglass of Time' ''with Arjun Singh, which he completed after his death on March 4, 2011, in 2012. He was executive editor with Vikas Publishing House, vice-president

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

India, publishing director UBS Publishers, executive director and publisher of the India Today Book Club and Books Today, as well as chief executive and publisher of

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

Publishers India. Presently, he is the chief executive of Hay House Publishers in India.

Early life and journalistic career

Ashok Chopra was born in

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

, to a renowned painter, B. R. Chopra. He did his schooling from

St. Edward's School, Shimla , motto_translation = "Follow the Light" , established = , founders = Irish Christian Brothers , oversight = Simla Chandigarh Diocese , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , clos ...

and went on to do his undergraduate studies from S. D. Bhargava College later. He joined the diploma course in

Mass Communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

and Journalism in 1971, of the

Panjab University Panjab University (PU) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh, Punjab. Funded through both Punjab, India, State and Government of India, Union governments, it is considered a state university (Indi ...

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

, and further worked with theatre historian

Balwant Gargi Balwant Gargi (4 December 1916 – 22 April 2003) was an Indian Punjabi language dramatist, theatre director, novelist, and short story writer, and academic. Early life On 4 December 1916, in Canal House in Sehna, Barnala (Punjab), Balwant Garg ...

, for a year, at the Department of Indian Theatre in Chandigarh. From here he embarked to his career in

Journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

, in 1973, as a sub-editor with

The Tribune (Chandigarh) ''The Tribune'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Chandigarh and New Delhi. It was founded on 2 February 1881, in Lahore, Punjab (now in Pakistan), by Sardar Dyal Singh Majit ...

. Besides contributing articles and features regularly he also acted as the paper's film and theatre critic. In June 1975, he joined the

Indian Express Limited Indian Express Limited is an Indian news media publishing company. It publishes several widely circulated dailies, including ''The Indian Express'' and '' The Financial Express'' in English, the '' Loksatta'' in Marathi and the '' Jansatta'' i ...

as its Himachal Pradesh correspondent based in Shimla. He left journalism for book publishing in April 1978. Chopra also wrote book reviews, features and opinion pieces regularly for

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

. Presently he lives in

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

. He is also an avid painter.Paintaings by Ashok Chopra
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chopra, Ashok Indian autobiographers Indian publishers (people) 1949 births Indian editors Living people Indian male journalists