Bill Aitken is Scottish by birth, a naturalized Indian by choice. He studied compartive religion at Leeds University and then hitchhiked to India in 1959. He has lived in Himalayan ashrams, worked as a secretary to a Maharani, freelanced under his middle name (Liam McKay) and undertaken miscellaneous excursions – from Nanda Devi to Sabarimala – on an old motorbike and by vintage steam railway.
Aitken has written on travel and tourism for newspapers and magazines in India for several years. His earlier books include Seven Sacred Rivers The Nanda Devi Affair, Travels by a Lesser Line, Exploring Indian Railways and Literary Trails.