After a Masters in Biochemistry from Karnataka University, Dharwad, he moved to Bombay in 1976 and worked there as a production chemist with companies like Procter & Gamble and Hoechst. He worked and wrote in Bombay for 23 years, before shifting to Bangalore in 2000, as an adviser to a television channel. He then edited a literary monthly, Bhavana for 2 years. Currently, he is also into film-writing and hosting television talk shows.

He is a passionate poet, a deft storyteller, and now an acknowledged script writer for films. He has so far published six anthologies of short stories, four anthologies of poetry, three plays and a collection of essays.

Jayant Kaikini received the Karnatak Sahitya Academy award for his first poetry collection at the age of nineteen in 1974. He received the same award again in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections. He has been awarded the Dinakar Desai award for poetry, B. H. Sridhar award for fiction, Katha National award and Rujuwathu trust fellowship for his writings. At present, he is working on his next collection of stories and a couple of film scripts.

He lives in Bangalore with wife Smita, daughter Srajana and son Ritwik.

Vishvanath Hulikal did his B.Sc. from Mysore University, B.E. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is a software engineer by profession.

He is the Founder and President of Sahitya Goshti. He has been instrumental in arranging two Kannada literary lectures every month in the Silicon Valley since November 2001. His publications include Sourabha, a short story collection, Manthana, a collection of essays translated into Kannada from English, and Hridya, a short story collection. He brought out a literary magazine called Vishu in 2000. He co-wrote the story for the award-winning film, America, America. He has also translated two of the stories in this collection.

He has been felicitated by The Karnataka Cultural Association of Southern California and the Kannada Koota of Northern California for his literary works and for promoting Kannada literature in U.S.A.

He lives in Cupertino, U.S.A. with his wife Annapoorna and children Meghana and Manisha.

Praise for Dots and Lines

Jayant's best stories are about little riddles and mysteries of life, which do not remain abstractions but translate into palpable experiences. Jayant's vision is that of a compassionate liberal humanist. He is, in fact, the master of a rare brand of lyricism which does not underplay or soften urban angst, but accentuates it.

S. Bageshree, The Hindu

At work in the depth of Jayant's stories is a consciousness full of love – one that is aware of all the trivialities of life, but is constantly and quietly trying to make life at least a wee bit livable.

C.N. Ramachandran

Jayant Kaikini is a skilled observer and etches characters and situations with a sure touch. His stories bring out the loneliness and suffocation of a big city and celebrate the silent heroism which survives in simple folk.