Dilip D'Souza

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Pic of D'Souza with wife Vibha Kamat from 2006 BITS alumni reunion dinner

Dilip D'Souza (b 1960) is a Mumbai based writer and journalist. He writes about social and political causes (with a left-centrist perspective) as well as some travel and current affairs articles. His columns have appeared in The Sunday Observer, Rediff.com, Outlook and Mid-Day. A column by him has provided the inspiration for a key segment of the 2004 movie Swades directed by Ashutosh Gowariker^{[citation needed]}. He has a BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BITS Pilani (1976-81) and an MS in Computer Science from Brown University (1984)[1]. D'Souza has won several awards for his writing, including the Statesman Rural Reporting Award, the Times of India/Red Cross prize, the Outlook/Picador nonfiction prize (for which he was also, earlier, runner up), the Sanctuary Magazine prize and more.[2] He is married to French language teacher Vibha Kamat (in 1993), and they have two children, son Sahir (b 1999) and adopted daughter Surabhi (b 2003).[3] He worked as a software engineer in US from 1984-1992 when he returned to India to write full time.[4]. He still works part-time as a software consultant in SPA Software, a Portland, OR based firm, for Autocad applications to support his writing.

As an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, he's dedicated to alumni activities and has come over many times to his alma mater. He is currently the editor of the BITS Alumni magazine 'Sandpaper'.[5]

D'Souza also maintains a blog "Death Ends Fun" [6] where he has had some debates with right wing bloggers.

Dilip D'Souza's father was former Maharashtra Chief Secretary and activist Mr. J.B. D'Souza [7] (died September 2007 [8]).

D'Souza won the Outlook/Picador prize in 2004 for his essay "Ride Across The River" [9]. It was about an Army officer killed in action in Kashmir, examining patriotism through his example.

D'Souza wrote an account for salon.com, "Rain, Blood and Sirens" [10], about the July 2006 train bomb blasts in Mumbai.

[edit] Affiliations

D'Souza is a member of the Managing Committee of Citizens for Peace (CfP) in Mumbai.

D'Souza has worked with the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the Narmada Bachao Andolan and Ekta.

D'Souza was a member of the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD). The PIPFPD pursues "Track II diplomacy", meaning increased contact between ordinary people in both countries, towards peace between India and Pakistan.

He was also a member of the India Progressive Action Group (IPAG) in Austin, Texas, that funded and worked closely with various rural development projects in India.

He was on the editorial board of the Consumer Guidance Society of India (CGSI) and the Foundation for Humanization.

D'Souza was an invited speaker/panelist to the Austin conference of the Association for India's Development (AID[11]) and witnessed first-hand their relief and rehabilitation work in Tamil Nadu after the tsunami in December 2004.