Lavanya Shanbhogue-Arvind is an Indian fiction writer and social worker from Mumbai. Her story, ‘The Crystal Snuff Box and the Pappadum,’ won the Commonwealth Short Story Special Prize (2011) for the Commonwealth theme, ‘Women as Agents of Change’. She holds a MFA (Fiction) degree from the City University of Hong Kong. Her debut novel, set in India under British colonial rule, will be published by Roli Books later this year.