Addresses and telephone numbers of authors are never displayed in newspaper and magazine articles and columns. The reasons could be one of many. To maintain a barrier between the authors and their readers, to prevent unnecessary feedback, to protect the author from being subjected to a barrage of unnecessary questions and comments and to protect the authors' privacy. It is possible though, that they are very busy or are swamped by email or that most of the emails are such that they are not worth writing back to. In either case, the effect on the readers is the same - one of tremendous letdown.
Email is a very powerful tool, offering instantaneous communication and immediate gratification.
Authors the world over, use it to keep in touch with their readers. There are thousands of journallers who write and publish their work on the net, bypassing traditional publishers so that they can reach out to their readers directly. To such authors, interaction with their readers is the lifeline of their work. To ignore email and reader responses would mean death. The Mumbai Times authors are probably ignorant of the readers' psychology.