Behind the lens of naked selfies
Why events like the Fappening won't stop women from photographing themselves in the nude.
Medium / Scroll / Wire / July 2015
New India Foundation Fellow and freelance journalist
Why events like the Fappening won't stop women from photographing themselves in the nude.
Medium / Scroll / Wire / July 2015
In India’s restrictive caste system, women still bear the brunt of tradition, their oppression aided by the men of their families, police and the state
NYT Live / August 2015
Students from the developing world come to the educational hub near Delhi seeking a 'premium international experience'. What they find is sometimes different.
Scroll.in / March 2017
“These are the rules of combat – if the men are bigger, if they outnumber you, the best solution is to run,”
Scroll.in / June 2017
The apex court dismissed a case after questioning the victim's behaviour. But accounts of rape survivors show there is no normal response to such an assault.
Scroll.in / October 2016
50-year-old Salman, arguably the most popular of the three ageing Khans, has spent nearly 28 years playing slightly altered versions of the same person – an easily angered, brooding, sensitive man child tormented by the intensity of his likes and dislikes
The Wire / June 2016
Don't come for Beyoncé.
The Wire / January 2016
On May 8, television cameras were trained on Bilkis Bano and her five-year-old daughter.
Scroll.in / May 2017
Life in a refugee camp: “I’m worried about my daughter, sharing three bathrooms between 300 people is hard… she is still very young, you know?”
Scroll.in / October 2016
‘If border is risky, why is CM Badal flying here in a chopper?’ ask residents of evacuated villages
Scroll.in / October 2016
An evacuation without any seeming plan has left lakhs of people stranded in relief camps with crops ripening in faraway fields.
Scroll.in / October 2016
A large section of women in India are out of the banking system, and the currency withdrawal has hit them hard.
Scroll.in / November 2016
The access to healthcare and contraceptives for women and transgendered people in sex work is linked to their financially stability.
Scroll.in / December 2016
On the persistence of dowry in India.
The Daily Beast / August 2014
Supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, journalists who had foreseen war before anyone else and fans of the Indian Army felt vindicated. The crowing was not unlike the virtual chest-thumping post an India-Pakistan cricket match, or any time we do bett
Scroll.in / September 2016
By the time the boys saw the white gypsy, with the words Nirbhaya Patrol emblazoned on its side, it was already too late. “Slap him,” Sub Inspector Namita Sahu ordered the boy with spiky hair. The group of dishevelled teens blinked at her, catatonic with
The Wire / May 2015
When Malik and I first met four years ago, she was training to participate in a different event from the shot put that won her a medal at Rio this year – the javelin throw. Since then, she has been biding her time, quietly practising how to become a champ
Scroll.in / September 2016
The family whose daughter was allegedly raped by the self-styled godman lives in a state of siege, under perennial threat. But they have decided to fight on.
Scroll.in / July 2015
Instead of the intersection of technology and sexual violence, and the need to investigate it, the detail that has gripped the tinderbox region is the religion of the alleged rapists.
Scroll.in / January 2016
Have you tried putting new notes in the washing machine?
Scroll.in / November 2016
The videos were of low quality: grainy, shaky, shot by an excited hand trying to hold a cellphone steady. Forwarded and shared over and over again until they appeared on the evening news, the images answered a question that had been hanging in the air sin
Women in the World / NYT Live / April 2015
Conspiracy theories about the double rape and murders in Badaun.
Scroll.in / June 2014
In December, Pooja and Aarti Kumar became the first complainants of a sexual harassment case in the country to be subjected to a lie detector test.
Scroll.in / March 2015
"Why do we always ask have to ask our sons to protect daughters?” 82-year-old Sarita asked me. “Ladkiyan bhi toh gussewaali ho sakti hai. Our daughters can get angry too."
Scroll.in / December 2014
The injuries show that two unarmed boys were shot at close range, by guns most frequently carried by inspectors and head constables of the Delhi Police. This undermines the narrative that Muslim men had shot Hindu boys.
Scroll.in / November 2014
The women are leaving, and Sultana Begum says, they are always the first ones to leave. “Why didn’t you go then?” I asked her. She said, “Somebody needs to look after those who have nowhere to go.”
Scroll.in / November 2014
"Caged and uneasy, hundreds of chickens sat huddled in Trilokpuri’s abandoned butcher shops on Sunday."
Scroll.in / October 2014
"As the day grew warmer, things were starting to look up. Katara received its first helipad (freshly built and paid for, on a farmer's languishing mint crop), and then witnessed the glorious sight of Dalit leader Mayawati alighting from her chopper."
Scroll.in / June 2014
Three political parties say they support LGBTQ rights, leaving the community with the obvious choice – to not vote for the one that opposes them.
Scroll.in / March 2014
India’s archaic sex laws have the LGBT community more determined than ever to stake claim to their identity. But what about those who just aren’t ready to be out yet? (Part 1)
Elle / February 2014 / [Pdf , 51.2 KB]
India’s archaic sex laws have the LGBT community more determined than ever to stake claim to their identity. But what about those who just aren’t ready to be out yet? (Part 2)
Elle / February 2014 / [Pdf , 48.2 KB]
Op-ed on the official age of consent in India, winner of the 2012-2013 Laadli-Population First Award
Tehelka / May 2012 / [Pdf , 182 KB]
"Libra 77 is screaming down the highway at 85 kilometres per hour. The night is warm and sticky, and the wrath of god has just felled a temple priest in Sultanpuri." Dispatches from Delhi's PCR vans.
Tehelka / September 2013
Does CCTV surveillance keep us safe?
Tehelka / November 2013
"Unfortunately, the only member of the house who would have understood this English word, ‘encounter’, was lying dead in the photograph in the strange woman’s hand." The story of Ishrat Jahan's family, nine years after her death.
Tehelka / July 2013
"On 2 May, as she disembarked from the train, Preeti Rathi saw a Mumbai morning for the first time."
Tehelka / July 2013
“Just like businessmen kill rivals, jilted lovers maim,” offers Dr Sunil Keswani, taking off his scrubs. Over the past 30 years, he has helped set up four skin banks in the country — two in Mumbai, one in Indore and another in Pune. "
Tehelka / November 2013
How does the state compensate rape?
Tehelka / August 2013
On the epidemic of child sexual abuse. (written with the fantastic Revati Laul)
Tehelka / May 2013
Heart of gold, feet of clay: the story of 'Sanju Baba' and the Dutt family.
Tehelka / April 2013
“I knew that if my back was against the wall, I could make enough to survive. That freed me.” - Being Homi Adajania
Tehelka / August 2012
Mahesh, Mukesh and Pooja : Meet the Bhatt Family Franchise
Tehelka / September 2012
An audience with Kareena Kapoor Khan
Tehelka / November 2012
Meeting Milkha Singh
Tehelka / April 2012
Hanging out on the Jhalak Dikhla Jaa sets is a refresher course of the Madhuri Dixit charm. And a jolting reminder that television can make even a golden girl anodyne.
Tehelka / February 2012
How does a criminal reinvent himself when pop culture won’t accept him as anything else? The travails of Bunty Superchor.
Tehelka / October 2010
Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishan
Tehelka / May 2010
He’s got the cars, the women and the money, but Honey Singh might just be an old-school misogynist peddling new beats.
Tehelka / October 2012
"The gathering, which had begun with two elephants, an old couple and three mahouts, had now swelled to hundreds. Even at this moment devoid of all dignity, Bijli, with her sheer heft, had consumed the crowd’s imagination."
Tehelka / August 2013
Children born with this rare genetic disease are unlikely to live beyond 25. The government has neither data nor a plan.
Tehelka / March 2013
In the grip of stultifying superstition, Punjab needs these fearless five to conjure forth an age of reason.
Tehelka / April 2012
A bizarre quest for beauty.
Tehelka / March 2011
Four of television’s top stars are under 15 and make as much as Rs 40,000 a day. A glimpse into their surreal lives.
Tehelka / May 2011
Sulky, insecure, humourless. Bollywood stars fail to impress their ‘haters’.
Tehelka / January 2012
The reality television track is playing on loop. What do we gain from the pains of constant confession?
Tehelka / April 2012
After eight years, Roadies is a totally different beast from the simple adventure show it once was. Is its current avatar ‘badass’ or just bad?
Tehelka / July 2011
Can Gauhar and Nigar keep up with the Kardashians?
Tehelka / January 2012
From fighting over kitchen knives to hurling abuse, she kept us riveted to the reality show Bigg Boss. Unravelling the phenomenon that is Dolly Bindra
Tehelka / December 2010
In the ‘mitti’ of the Chhatrasal Stadium, Virender Singh’s muscular body speaks a language of its own. He has the balletic grace of a predator on the hunt. It is difficult to imagine this man anywhere else, especially as a clerk in the corridors of the Ha
Tehelka / September 2013
Sharath Gayakwad - India's First Swimmer at the 2012 Paralympics
Tehelka / June 2012
Shortly after a speeding truck hit his car, Amit Kumar Saroha remembers lying under the night sky. (Paralympics 2)
Tehelka / June 2012
Sharad Kumar's batchmates felt their girlfriends paid Sharad a little too much attention. (Paralympics 3)
Tehelka / June 2012
Paralysed from the waist down, Deepa Malik went on to set records for biking and swimming. Now she wants to drive her point home with a javelin at the 2012 Paralympics. (Part 4)
Tehelka / July 2012
When I contracted polio at the age of two, my mother would tell me, ‘This is Allah’s way of testing our faith. We must not disappoint him.’” (Paralympics 5)
Tehelka / August 2012
When top officials of the Paralympics Committee vacationed in London, at the expense of Paralympians geared for the defining event of their lives.
Tehelka / September 2012
Personal Histories
Tehelka / August 2010
Here are some of the other writers who are using porterfolio right now.