PhD student at Princeton University. Previously a journalist in the Andhra heartland. Two-time winner of the Mumbai Press Club's RedInk Award. Former Merage Fellow. Writing a book on tribal youth and globalization in India. More at viveknemana.com
In the deepest recesses of Andhra Pradesh lives an illegal syndicate, a secret society that trains hundreds of merciless, blade-wielding killers and sets them loose in bouts of mortal combat. On the famed cockfights of Sankranti.
GQ / May 2016 / Longform
A rural dancer’s journey to South India movie stardom, in true Andhra ishtyle. With fantastic photographs from Abhishek Bali.
GQ / April 2016 / Longform
This month, the Health Ministry will unveil an ambitious new plan to eliminate malaria from the country by 2030. A malaria-free India does sound like a dream, had the country's record on malaria been any reason for optimism. Ankita Rao and I opine why.
The Hindu / February 2016 / Features
Why are college students across India in uproar after a student's suicide on January 17? My report on the protests shaking India and the politics of caste at its universities.
Quartz / January 2016 / Hard News
Last year, the Indian government reported 500 deaths from malaria. The real number is closer to 50,000. Our epic, two-year investigation into the data manipulation, supply shortages, and enduring dysfunction behind India's hidden malaria disaster.
Al Jazeera America / January 2016 / Investigative
I was held hostage for a night in the insurgent town of Chintapalle. And I learned something about power and poverty that no book could teach.
Scroll / November 2015 / Longform
The same fluid appeal that drew vast crowds in support of Narendra Modi, India's most popular politician, is shaping up to be his biggest challenge in office: towering expectations that are often fundamentally at odds with each other.
Al Jazeera America / September 2015 / Features
I write about the extremely worrying glorification of sexual harassment in South Indian film, and especially in India's most expensive movie ever.
The Ladies Finger / July 2015 / Features
Thanks to cultural taboos, Indian students struggling with mental health issues find it hard to get support. Now, a new app is helping some students manage anxiety without fear.
Scroll / June 2015 / Features
In one of the hottest cities in India, residents blame overcrowding, rapid urbanization, and pollution for record-breaking temperatures.
Foreign Policy / June 2015 / Features
I'm on TV! Discuss the heatwave of 2015 with CNN International.
CNN International / May 2015 / Hard News
More than 1,800 people die in the 2015 Indian heatwave, more than any other since 1980. Experts caution the real toll may be higher.
AFP / May 2015 / Hard News
With temperatures around 110 degrees Fahrenheit, sweepers continue to work on the Hyderabad streets. But what bothers them isn't the heat.
Scroll / May 2015 / Features
Death toll rises. Hospitals overwhelmed, water resources tested. Government refuses to declare an emergency. No end in sight.
AFP / May 2015 / Hard News
First in an AFP series covering the alarming death toll of the 2015 Indian heatwave.
AFP / May 2015 / Hard News
The government's own figures appear to contradict the narrative being pushed by Modi and his ministers
Quartz / May 2015 / Features
I delve into the sale of red sandalwood to the Chinese super rich, a multibillion dollar illegal industry that's leaving behind a trail of greed and blood in India.
Scroll / April 2015 / Longform
What lies behind India's scourge of false encounter killings? My feature for AFP.
AFP / April 2015 / Features
In a rare victory for rights activists, police were charged with murder and kidnapping in a suspected false encounter that left 20 dead.
AFP / April 2015 / Hard News
The Tirupati encounter was a tragedy of illegal smuggling, migrant labour and state violence. As the NHRC begins a probe into it, the village of Arasanattham is still struggling with the heartbreak.
Scroll / April 2015 / Features
India's biggest ever case of white collar crime finally reaches a resolution, though appeals are sure to follow.
AFP / April 2015 / Hard News
An initial hard news report on a dubious attack that left 20 migrant workers dead.
AFP / April 2015 / Hard News
For decades Vijayawada has set its sights elsewhere. But the new capital here will be a different escape: an ultramodern, ultraexpensive Shangri-La. Is this model of development a fever dream? Winner of the 2016 RedInk Award for Politics.
Yahoo Originals / March 2015 / Longform
India's collectively hold 22,000 tonnes of idle gold. Can you imagine its potential for the economy? My first story for Quartz.
Quartz / March 2015 / Features
The Hyderabad LGBTQ Pride parade attempted to tackle not just issues of sexuality, but also of class and identity.
Scroll / February 2015 / Features
India has a staggering sanitation problem, with over half the population defecating in the open. A headstrong tribal leader proves that change can happen -- but it'll take more than just building more toilets. Our report for the NYT Fixes column.
The New York Times / November 2014 / Features
Lede piece in The Caravan on the brave, brilliant child reporters of Odisha.
The Caravan / November 2014 / Features
Beneath the full moon at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival in Jodhpur, anything can happen. We follow two stereotypes - a music lover from Bandra, a Rajasthani folk singer - and are left surprised.
Yahoo Originals / October 2014 / Longform
How the Indian government began the huge process of Hudhud relief.
AFP / October 2014 / Hard News
Hard reporting on Hudhud, the cyclone that devastated Visakhapatnam this October.
AFP / October 2014 / Hard News
'In India's largest state, a misogynistic family-run political dynasty wants to pretend a rape epidemic doesn't exist.' Our profile of Akhilesh Yadav, and how the Samajwadi Party enables rape culture in Uttar Pradesh.
Foreign Policy / August 2014 / Longform
Hard news reporting on a tragedy.
AFP / July 2014 / Hard News
Once a rare Iftar treat that you’d find only in the Old City, now it’s everywhere, sometimes in startling new avatars. A story of ghee, machismo and big money.
Yahoo! Originals / July 2014 / Longform
Traditional textile artisans are suffering, some to the point of suicide, but new collectives offer hope.
Al Jazeera / May 2014 / Features
An obscure Indian law requires gun owners to surrender their weapons during election season. But India's gun lobby says it only encourages a spike in violence.
Foreign Policy / May 2014 / Features
Contributed to this print-edition Times story on how Muslims in India reacted to Modi's victory
The New York Times / May 2014 / Features
For about a decade Andhra Pradesh has seen politicians line their campaign trails thickly with cash. This year's spend already seems record-breaking. I examine the inglorious extravagance in the state and ask, is it paisa vasool?
Yahoo! Originals / April 2014 / Longform
Ever since Telangana become officially recognized as a state, politics in this heart-shaped region of India have been as muddled and dramatic as a soap opera, with failed alliances and accusations of broken promises and backstabbing between lawmakers.
India Ink - The New York Times / April 2014 / Features
How grassroots movements and other acts of defiance are making small but significant impacts for women participating in India's deeply patriarchal political system
Al Jazeera / April 2014 / Features
Contributed to this print-edition Times story on the creation of Telangana
The New York Times / February 2014 / Hard News
A #longread on how 984,000 people in 18,000 villages across Odisha were evacuated to safety as Cyclone Phailin lashed the coast. A story of courage and resilience and loss. Winner of the 2014 RedInk award for best human rights and environmental reporting.
Yahoo! Originals / November 2013 / Longform
Villagers in Srikakulam remembered the raging winds and the foaming sea, and asking themselves whether Gangamma Thalli would really hurt them. The government was desperate to get them out but to a fisherman, evacuation is not an easy choice.
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2013 / Features
Contributed reporting to this print-edition story.
The New York Times / October 2013 / Hard News
Contributed reporting to this print-edition New York Times story on Cyclone Phailin
The New York Times / October 2013 / Hard News
Officials in Orissa and the northern part of Andhra Pradesh scrambled to evacuate thousands of people.
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2013 / Hard News
On my flight from Sharjah, I sat next to a woman who worked as a maid for an Emirati family. They stole her belongings and sent her back to India without warning, without even letting her say goodbye to her husband. My essay on what it felt to share a sea
Cityscapes / January 2013 / Longform
Interviewing the scion of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the party of the Telangana State
India Ink - The New York Times / November 2012 / Features
I eat bacon and eggs and celebrate with other American expats at the U.S. Consulate's election-watching party in Hyderabad
India Ink - The New York Times / November 2012 / Features
Developing countries are increasingly forming alliances to help conserve their rich natural ecosystems, ending decades of reliance on the West
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2012 / Features
During the Biodiversity conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promises a groundbreaking, if modest, effort towards conserving the world's ecosystems and biodiversity.
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2012 / Features
Despite rosy claims, the genetically modified seed industry has left little option for India's cotton farmers but to buy their expensive seeds and fertilizers.
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2012 / Features
How a 100,000-strong protest for Telangana turned violent on the eve of India's first-ever United Nations conference
India Ink - The New York Times / October 2012 / Features
Some surrendered Maoists in Andhra Pradesh reminisce about their days in the People's War, their mistakes, and the harassment they continue to suffer at the hands of the state.
India Ink - The New York Times / July 2012 / Features
The man himself wrote the column...I wrote the little histories in blue.
The New York Times Syndicate / August 2011 / Features / [Pdf , 240 KB]
An initiative in Ghana is helping farmers get a fair deal by texting them the market prices of agricultural commodities.
Development Research Institute / November 2011 / Features
The American South's legacy of slavery and racism not only violated the basic dignity and rights of black people -- it also kept the whole region poor.
Aid Watchers / April 2011 / Features
"I'm nuts, I'm rich, and boy, do I love a fight. When I get through with these fucking captains of industry, they are going to wish they were in a Cuisinart -- at high speed." On Kenneth Langone.
NYU Local / October 2010 / Longform
Will a group of iconoclast researchers ever change the way we think about the economy? My 10,000-word journalism thesis at NYU. Runner up for the 2011 SAJA Journalism Award.
Shoe Leather / June 2010 / Longform
New software allows practically anyone to try forecasting the future.
NYU Livewire / December 2009 / Longform
Advocacy groups have registered thousands of homeless people to vote for the first time.
NYU Pavement Pieces / November 2008 / Features
First an oil painting of a shirtless business man with his penis hanging out of his fly, then flutes, mouth organs, synthesizers, operatic vocals. People will pay for anything in this town.
The Village Voice / November 2008 / Features
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