UPDATE--Dec. 5, 1998--Vijay, a former New Yorker, became the new editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Playboy magazine.

Vijai, who is 29, is a former physicist turned bond analyst on Wall Street turned Prague writer turned Moscow journalist. For the past three years, he was a freelance writer in Moscow, writing for a variety of publications--The New York Times, New York, Newsweek, Business Week, India Today Plus, Elle, et al.

He spoke at a SAJA meeting in March 1996 (along with writer Suketu Mehta) when he was visiting NYC from Moscow. He regaled--and scared--the audience with tales of being a journalist in that city (at that time, one of his main gigs was reporting for the Times of India).