Roopa Pai

Bio

Roopa Pai is one of India’s best-known writers for children. This computer engineer-turned-author has written over 35 books, ranging from picture books to chapter books and fiction to non-fiction, on themes as varied as sci-fi fantasy, popular science, maths, history, economics, Indian philosophy, life skills, medicine and memoir. Many of her books are bestsellers and are enjoyed as much by adults as by children.
Her best-known books include the 8-part Taranauts, India’s first fantasy-adventure series for children in English, Ready! 99 Must-Have Skills For The World-Conquering Teenager (And Almost-Teenager), the award-winning national bestseller The Gita For Children, listed by Amazon India as one of ‘100 Indian Books To Read In A Lifetime’, and So You Want To Know About Economics, a fun introduction to the subject for the young. Her most recent books are The Yoga Sutras for Children, Let’s Talk About Trees, published by WWF India, and Krishna Deva Raya, King of Kings.
Roopa is also a popular speaker – she has spoken at a variety of corporate forums, premier literary events like the Jaipur Literature Festival, international cultural organisations like the Asia Society in New York (at the invitation of the Consul General of India), and international Gita conferences. Her TEDx talk ‘Decoding The Gita, India’s Book Of Answers’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaEwJj2A1U – has received over 2 million views to date. She runs short courses online, on the Gita and other ancient Indian texts, for children and adults in India, the UK, and the USA.
Among her books for adults are an award-winning memoir, Made in India, with Indian fitness evangelist and supermodel Milind Soman, and two books on her hometown – Cubbon Park: The Green Heart of Bengaluru, the first-ever history of the city’s iconic 154-year-old park, and Becoming Bangalore: Stories that shaped a hometown, published in January 2025. She has also translated 100 poems of the celebrated Kannada poet, Padma Shri K S Nisar Ahmed, into English. The collection – Every Day A Celebration – will be published in early 2026.
When she is not writing, Roopa leads groups of children and young people on history and heritage walks across her beloved Bangalore and Karnataka, as part of her job as director of a company she co-founded, BangaloreWalks (www.bangalorewalks.com). She also curates Bangalore-specific public talks and events at the community space she manages, The Bangalore Room.