My Story

Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Mumbai | Chevening SAJP Fellow | Formerly with The Telegraph, Calcutta

Couldn’t believe what the newspapers said and so I became a journalist! It's been 16 years since and what a life-coach it's been as I wake up to it’s power and value, every morning. A good story isn't always about the president or popstar but everyday people and places with compelling tales. Those are the stories I hope to tell... and find the extraordinary in the ordinary!



Tote bags, T-shirts & trinkets: Queer-run businesses move beyond rainbow cliches

As June rolls in, so does an influx of rainbow-themed goodies everywhere. While the queer community could do with visible support, it is also the first to remind you that Pride Month isn't just about the all-colour spectrum. A new wave of queer entrepreneurs are trying to redefine rainbow capitalism with ventures that reflect their identities beyond rainbow cliches.Last weekend a two-day showcase at BKC called 'Queer Made' amplified businesses and products owned and created by India's queer community.

The Mindhunters: How brain mapping detects memories of crime

In the shadowy realm of crime, the human brain isn’t merely a cunning accomplice. It can also be the ultimate snitch. Over the last two decades, ‘ Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) profiling’ — also referred to as ‘brain-mapping’ or ‘brain fingerprinting’— has emerged as a forensic tool meant to unlock criminal secrets within the grey matter and crack open a case when traditional investigative methods hit a wall.

How Chhattisgarh's 'live-in' tradition is taking a toll on Adivasi kids

In the lush forests of Surguja district in northern Chhattisgarh where the Mahabharata still resonates, live two primitive tribes — the Pando claiming lineage to the Pandavas and the Korwa to the Kauravas. However, despite their unique cultural heritage, children from these tribes have been bearing the weight of a time-honoured tradition. More and more couples are embracing the tradition of dhuku to save expense of a lavish wedding but for the children they neglect or abandon, there is a heavy price to pay

Why Indian screenwriters are watching Hollywood writers strike

While streaming has changed the way we consume content, screenwriters say some things haven’t changed — their compensation, lack of credits or the lopsided contracts. A battle is raging in America’s Tinseltown. For the first time in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America (WGA ) launched an industry-wide strike demanding fair pay and benefits rather than being treated like gig workers. In a spillover effect, writers guilds across the world united to fight back, including India’s Screenwriters Association.

Can India’s grandest cultural centre become its finest?

Amid the grey, glassand-steel skyscrapers of Mumbai’s BKC, there is now a jolt of colour. The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre ( NMACC ), an arts and culture hub that opened last month, is a kaleidoscope of buildings with three overarching gold leaves and a lotus motif running through it. Just as its building has injected colour into the sterile landscape many hope Mumbai’s newest cultural playground will spark a new sense and standard of patronage for the arts.

Decoding the fictional country of Kailasa that catfished 30 US cities

It was a usual scene at the annual meetings hosted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in the UN Office headquarters at Geneva, last month. Conference-goers — NGOs, permanent missions, academic institutions from different countries — filed into a room inside the historic Palais Wilson building to discuss their rights.What was unusual was a delegation of about a dozen women — decked in gold jewel

Gen Zer from genre town bagged Grammy with an old soul

It's an impersonal setting - rooftop of a five-star hotel in the heart of Mumbai's business district - but Christone ' Kingfish ' Ingram doesn't seem to mind when you try and tease the 'personal' out of him.The 24-year-old is being hailed as 'the heir to the Delta blues crown'. But blues, they say, is a dialogue, songs of the soul in pain. Ingram was only 20 when he released his first album in 2019. How did he channel those emotional depths and social insights at such a young age, we press on.

Listened a lot to Zakir Hussain: Imagine Dragons bassist

Expect the unexpected from Imagine Dragons, the American pop-rock sensation that emerged on the global stage with its 2012 smash hit ‘Radioactive’. Looking past the cliches of dabbawala, rickshaw or the seminal vada-pav, their bassist Ben McKee says he’d like a serving of Indian vegetables when the four-piece band comes stomping Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Racecourse as headliners for Lollapalooza on January 28. Ahead of their maiden trip to India, TOI chatted with McKee about hitting the road again, a giant album in the time of singles, teaming up with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the mystery behind their name.

Would you stay in a murder house? | India News - Times of India

Would you rent Aftab’s flat or the Burari ‘house of horror’? Sunday Times tracks properties with an unsavoury history to find out if there are takers

Setting up a good quality path lab in Delhi was a dream for Mohan Singh Kashyap. He managed to set up one in 2014 in Sant Nagar but five years on, it was time for him to vacate. Crestfallen at first, he lucked out soon after on a “nice and spacious” three-storey bungalow that came with an empty ground floor to set up his lab again, a five-bedroom

India asked to tackle FGM at UNHRC meet

Just when efforts to end FGM — also called khatna/khafz and involves partial or total removal of the clitoris as part of a well-guarded religious practise among Bohra Muslims in India — was hitting a stalemate, the issue garnered global attention earlier this month when Costa Rica asked India to tackle the issue at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva when 14 UN member states, including India were having their human rights records examined.

Why so many Shraddhas get stuck with abusive partners

Rather than pointing fingers at the victim, experts say it’s important to understand the complexities of intimate partner violence

The news cycle this past week has been dominated by the gruesome killing of 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala, 28, who strangled her, cut her up into 35 pieces, stored them in a refrigerator and went on with life until he fessed up over drinks with a friend.

While the killing has sparked a debate about the impact of true crime show
Load More