Sasha Gordeeva was born in St. Petersburg, Russia’s northern capital. At the age of six her parents sent her to a school where Hindi was taught. This was not because they had any particular interest in India, they were attracted to this school simply because it offered a good standard of education. After finishing school Sasha decided to continue her studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Saint-Petersburg State University, as this seemed like an easy route to take. And it was then, in an academic setting, surrounded by lecturers who were passionate about their subject, that Sasha also fell in love with India. From this time on she became dedicated to her Indian studies. Sasha spent three years trying unsuccessfully to find a programme which would enable her to go to study to India, but at last luck came her way, and she got an ICCR scholarship to do an M.A. in Hindi at Hyderabad Central University. She spent some time working as a voluntary assistant to a Hindi and Sanskrit teacher at the Deepalaya School in New Delhi. In the past two years she has been working in Moscow for a bank. At the moment Sasha has got back to her studies, and she is majoring in Jainism at the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London.