Only imagination can get us out of the bind of the eternal present, inventing hypothesizing, or pretending or discovering a way that reason can then follow into the infinity of options, a clue through the labyrinths of choice, a golden string, the story, leading us to freedom that is properly human, the freedom open to those  whose minds can accept unreality. (Ursula K. Le Guin, Some Thoughts on Narrative)

How does one enter this imagination? This question guides my approach to communications and storytelling for those doing the daily, hard work of uprooting and transforming ‘the bind of the eternal present’. I think and build creative material and strategies for individuals, collectives, unions, and organisations engaged in life-affirming labour.

I have over six years of professional experience in building communications strategies for diverse sectors. From agrarian research institutions, labour research centres, gig workers’ unions, and criminal justice centers, I have learned from and provided my expertise and skills to radical movements.

For my Masters' dissertation, I researched the topography of sound in 19th century British South Asia with a specific focus on the intimate lives of labouring women, the colonial medical apparatus, and anti-war mobilizations in the subcontinent.

In 2022, Geetanjali Shree awarded me the Rama Mehta Trust's
2022 English Fiction Writing Grant. My piece on Black Warrant, a Netflix show focusing on Tihar Jail, has been published by The Wire. The Square Circle Criminal Law Blog has published a small portion of my Masters thesis focusing on the criminalisation of housing for single women early 20th century India. My research on migrant gig workers in Bengaluru has been published by The Centre for Internet & Society. You can find my published writings in: International Journalists' Network, and South Asian
Avant Garde, Newsclick, Firstpost, Gaon Connection, Citizen  Matters- the Mumbai and the Bengaluru chapters. I also have bylines in: Hazine Archive's Music in Research Series, the Museum of Art and Photography India, the LSE's Religion and Global Society Blog, and ANMLY Press.

During my time at Akademi Magazine, I commissioned and edited various pieces including on ASHA workers, and Sri Lankan police repression of Muslim activists. I produced Friday Talks a video series interviewing those engaged in radical work across India, like Hate Speech Beda. I also penned essays on sex work in colonial Bengal and violence against Dalit communities. I have also written for The Revolver Club, including bytes on Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Allauddin Khan, rural women‘s music, time and emotion in Hindustani music, and the Punjabi tappa.

Artist featured: Gogi Saroj Pal (1945-2024)