Vidya Vencatesan is the Head, Department of French and Director, Centre for European Studies, at the University of Mumbai. She has translated Javed Akhtar’s poetic oeuvre from Urdu into French and Raphael Confiant’s novel from French into English. She is editor of India’s only peer reviewed international francophone research journal Synergies-Inde. She has received Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France, and the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia from the Republic of Italy.