Mariam Karim Ahlawat studied at Jawarharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is a university teacher in French language and literature. She has been writing for children for over fourteen years, does creative writing workshops and scripts and designs multimedia for children. She writes and illustrates a regular page in the magazine, Parenting. Her two picture books with Tulika, Putul and the Dolphins and The King and the Kiang, enchantingly portray the tenuous but abiding relationship between man and nature.