Vikram Paralkar's fondest childhood memory is of a visit to a book fair in Mumbai with his parents. After completing his medical schooling, he moved to the United States in 2005 and is now a hematologist and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. His writing has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and he is a recipient of the American Society of Hematology's Scholar Award. His first book 'The Afflictions,' a compendium of imaginary maladies, was published in 2014.