Dr Sudha Mahadevan is a gynecologist, poet and author from Kerala, India. After nearly three decades in medical practice, she turned increasingly towards writing, a passion that had accompanied her throughout her life.

Writing both under her own name and the pen name Samudra, she moves across genres—poetry, fiction, mythology, reflections on women and society, humour, food writing and personal philosophy.

Her books include Impressions: A Small Book of Poetry, An August Awakening, Not All Who Stay, Belong, Ashwathama and the Story of the Breeds, Women Through the Centuries and Beyond, The Demetor’s Table, and Letters to a Friend’s Daughter.

Songs of the Small is her eighth book.

Nearly three decades in medicine have given her an intimate view of people at their strongest, most vulnerable and most contradictory. Her writing draws from that observation—with curiosity, compassion, humour and an enduring willingness to question the obvious.