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Who me?

Senior Editor & Feature Writer 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 19 years since and quite the life-coach as I wake up to its power and purpose every day. A good story is as much about everyday people and places as it is about the president or popstar. Those are the stories I hope to tell, make them relevant  through compassionate, informed narratives that's cliche-free. And, given the age of scrolling and snap judgments, we live in today I still believe in sitting with a story. There is no substitute for a thoughtfully researched piece. That’s the kind of journalism I try to practice. And protect.




The Times of India •

'Then bus conductors listened to our poems. City of Mumbai has changed, but so have I'

At 91, Gulzar has outlived at least two versions of the city, the one that destiny “deposited” him into in 1950, and the one he continues to observe and absorb. ‘Aamchi Mumbai’, his new collection of 36 poems and 25 stories, is not an attempt to explain Mumbai in 2026 but to preserve the city that lives inside him, populated by migrants and mill workers, eccentrics and survivors.
The Times of India •

Moonshine and blues are tied together in my memory: Morgan Freeman

Before the interview begins, Morgan Freeman starts talking about Ravi Shankar. ‘He played with The Beatles, and The Beatles were greatly influenced by the blues. Look at how it ties up,’ he says. It’s an apt prelude. For the Oscar-winning actor and lifelong son of Mississippi, the blues is a living history carried through cultures, an idea at the heart of Symphonic Blues Experience, which blends the genre’s 100-year journey with the grandeur of a symphony orchestra and collaborators from Memphis to Mumbai.
The Times of India •

Study reveals FGM ritual among Sunni Muslims in Kerala

A first-of-its-kind exploratory study by survivor-led anti-FGM organisation WeSpeakOut, based on interviews with nine Sunni Muslim women aged 33 to 65 from Nedumangad in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district, documents survivor accounts suggesting FGM may also exist among sections of the state's Sunni Muslim community, where it is commonly referred to as sunnath or pen sunnath (female circumcision in Malayalam), and sometimes as markkam.
The Times of India •

'No place for FGM in a modern society, and now it’s not just a Bohra issue'

More than a decade ago, when Masooma Ranalvi first spoke publicly about being subjected to khatna (the local term for female genital mutilation or FGM) at age seven, she helped push the practice within the Dawoodi Bohra community in India into the national spotlight. As the SC resumes hearings in the long-pending case in which she is a petitioner, fresh evidence from Kerala is also widening the debate beyond the Bohra community.
The Times of India •

Trauma of displacement will always remain, especially for Manipur’s kids

Lakshmipriya Devi wears her BAFTA win lightly, speaking with the same disarming simplicity that runs through Boong, her debut feature that won the award recently. The film, about a schoolboy’s search for his missing father, wrapped just weeks before ethnic clashes erupted in Manipur. Devi talks about writing the story like her ten-year-old self and the joy of finally doing something for her state
The Times of India •

'I wanted to celebrate curves. We should thank Kim Kardashian for their return'

Easy’ isn’t a word one associates with Indian couture. Yet it’s at the centre of everything Tarun Tahiliani. That’s the way he wants his clothes to feel, and why he celebrates the sari. The designer, who just marked three decades of his label at a showcase in Hyderabad, talks to Mohua Das about the underbelly of fashion, and the fixation with Bollywood-inspired bridal wear
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