My study of history is not a detached academic exercise — it's driven by a need to understand my own family and community.
The stories of my grandmother, and interviews I conducted with suburban women around Lucknow, made history feel alive and urgent. That personal connection gives my work its direction.
My research centres on the voices, agency, and self-fashioning of semi-literate and illiterate suburban women in India during the second half of the 20th century — shaped by the work of Tanika Sarkar, Radha Kumar, Urvashi Butalia, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty.
I'm committed to translating this knowledge for a public audience. History's insights are too important to remain only within the university — whether through writing, leading our department's magazine, or engaging in public debates. My goal is a dual career in academic research and educational reform: to change how history is taught in Indian schools and to work with policy organisations like NCERT, UNESCO, and the Observer Research Foundation.
The Orange Garden is my digital garden — part portfolio, part notebook, part library. It's where I grow ideas in the open: from early seeds of thought to fully bloomed essays.
When I'm not reading about the past, I'm usually reading fiction, looking for good coffee, listening to Taylor Swift on repeat, or being entirely unreasonable about cats.