I live and work in New Delhi, India. I come from an “Air Force family” which means every two years or so we had to up and leave wherever we were to move to another city or town. When I was around seven, the two years turned into six and a half in Egypt, where my dad was posted.
My work life so far covers three big chunks:
Psychology at the hospital
First, I worked for about six years at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at the psychiatry department. I had studied psychology and was passionate about the subject. Although it was exciting at first, I soon became rather disenchanted with the fact that my research jobs didn’t allow me much face time with patients and all I seemed to be doing is a whole lot of psychological testing. I sat at the “Walk-In Clinic” and so ended up learning a huge amount about mental disorders. However, unless I was to further my education in this field, growth was at a screeching halt. And the only way to do that was to get a diploma from NIMHANS, which wouldn’t have me because they felt I would be a “Liability to the profession” thanks to my weak eyesight. Thank you very much, NIMHANS! After six years of trying to stick with something I loved, I said an absolute goodbye.
Being the editor
It took a while but then I found something I really love doing. Being the editor! I say “the” because that’s what it felt like – special. I was persuaded to join CyberMedia, a company that taught me just about everything I know about working with teams, being a manager, and developing other peoples’ talents.
I loved every minute of the nine years I was there. I had been called in to start India’s first home computing (now called personal technology) magazine. I hadn’t the faintest clue how to do that, but my MD assured me he knew nothing about it either. But, in this sheltered and warm organization, I quickly blossomed and created a magazine that everyone began to love. Most of my writers were, in fact, from among my reader audience. The magazine, Living Digital now has another editor and is in online form.
About five years ago, I joined a startup firm called Mindworks. A small group of journalists had the exciting idea of offering editorial services to newspapers and magazines across the world. I joined in and instantly was in charge of training, seeing as I had experience with it. I also became involved in the initial projects and in several departments, as is bound to happen with a start-up. I’m still with Mindworks.
Other stuff
Meanwhile, I’m also on the faculty of 9.9 Media to teach at their journalism school. And for a long long time I’ve been writing a technology and social media column in a leading business weekly in India, Businessworld. Very recently, I’ve begun a psychology blog with the Times of India. Aptly called Pscyhobabble.
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