: About Me

I like to say I'm thirty something - which could imply I'm vain and don't like to reveal my age. The truth of the matter is, I'm incorrigibly lazy and don't want to have to update this profile for the next few years. I may be lazy, but I'm also finicky about spelling and grammar and punctuation; a bit of a perfectionist; passionate about travelling, birdwatching, history, old Hindi films, and reading.

A bit more about me: I live in New Delhi, India. In fact, have lived here since 1985. Have a diploma in Hotel Management and worked in a hospitality company for 4 years before chucking it all up and moving to advertising. Between Client Servicing and Media Buying, I also found time to moonlight in Creative, first in Art and then in Copywriting. The copywriting bit finally drew me on to take to writing full time: my next job was as an Assistant Editor with a travel portal. Next in line was another writing job, with a large training company where I learnt instructional design.

I've been dabbling in writing all along - mainly short stories in a variety of genres, from humour and horror to romance and crime. I've won a fair number of awards, from the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 2003 to the Readers Digest-Oxford Bookstore e-author Competition in 2006. Also plenty of travel writing, most prominently as part of IgoUgo's community, where I masquerade as the guide phileasfogg. I also write travel articles off and on for Lounge, the Saturday edition of The Mint, India's Wall Street partner. Am right now in the process of finishing my first novel (a Mughal detective story set in 17th century Delhi), and keeping my fingers crossed for a good publisher...

My passion is ...

history!

I know too much about ...

Hindi films of the 1950's and 60's - much more than is considered fashionable.

My parents always told me ...

to be considerate.

My childhood ambition ...

to travel the world.

My favorite memory ...

collecting `raw' garnets from Garnet Hill, overlooking the blue-purple-azure striped Pangong Lake, in Ladakh. Unforgettable!

Why I write ...

to tell, to share, to learn a little bit more.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Portuguese Irregular Verbs, by Alexander McCall Smith

My first job ...

Assistant Manager, Food and Beverage Controls

My best moment ...

Winning the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 2003

My inspiration ...

the world.

Travel > Travel Diaries & Adventures (Other) Why do you like where you currently live?

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On one of the walls in the Diwan-e-Khaas (The Hall of Private Audience) in the Red Fort at Delhi is inscribed a Persian couplet: Agar Firdaus bar rue zamin ast, Hamin ast o hamin ast o hamin ast Which, translated, means `If there is a paradise on Earth, it is here'. Although the poet, Amir Khusro, wrote the couplet in praise of India, a lot of people fondly interpret the paradise on Earth to refer to Delhi itself. I'm not as besotted, but yes, I have to agree: I do like Delhi. I've lived in Delhi for the past 22 years, and almost everyday, I'm discovering new things about this city. The ot...

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