I am usually on the other side of the story, being the one to conduct interviews and write on various topics like fashion, food, design, etc. Hence writing about my own journey seems a little daunting. Even as I navigate through the question — “How did I get to where I am today?” — I can most certainly say that I always wanted to be a writer.
How the world of writing would bring me to where I am today, as a luxury lifestyle journalist and editor, is the culmination of my interest and love of culture, music, fashion, and art, and my upbringing as the child of a diplomat (my father was in the Indian Foreign Service), that allowed me to appreciate what was around me, and my deep interest in people, their stories, and the creativity of the human mind.
Born in Switzerland, I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of growing up in places like Beijing, Algiers, Prague, Nairobi, San Francisco, Mauritius, Bonn, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, and finally New Delhi, attending a multitude of schools — French, Indian, International, American, and finally receiving my BA in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, California, and my MA in English and French from the University of Strasbourg, France. I also studied and mastered German at Heidelberg University.
Cinema was a passion. I remember growing up watching Hindi movies, like all Indian children, and when Dharmendra once came home to visit us in Algiers, the excitement my brother and I felt knew no bounds. When I studied cinema at Berkeley and in Strasbourg, I found the narrative thread that tied the written word with the visual, and this opened my mind to new possibilities. From the dark German Expressionist cinema of the 20s like Nosferatu, to the crisp, ironical world of 1960s Jean-Luc Godard, I realised that imagery and editing was everything. My interest in art would lead me to pore over museums in France and Germany — the Expressionists at the Musée d’Orsay and the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden topping my list, with its priceless ‘Orientalist’ artefacts.
My parents would take us to ballets and operas — from the Nutcracker Suite to Swan Lake, from Beethoven, to Mozart, Chopin, and Bach, concerts were special. Prague with its incredible styles of architecture and historic castles left a great impact of the richness of this region and how aristocrats and gentry once lived, before the Iron Curtain. Prague was also where late Sangeet Martand Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasraj came to perform, for the very first time abroad, at my father’s behest. (He was a dear family friend until the very end, who visited us in every country my father was posted in, and I have fond memories of his concerts, often in front of an audience which had never heard Hindustani Classical music in their lives.)
I remember taking part in my first ‘Costumes of India’ show organised by my mother in Algiers, wearing a Sikkimese bakhu at the age of eight. She would put up these shows of Indian costumes and textiles in every country my father was posted in, and I would proudly wear colourful sarees, and Rajasthani poshak (my mother comes from the Rohet thikana in Jodhpur, while my father comes from a landed Rajput family in Kathiawar; his father was the late Diwan of erstwhile Porbander State). Often, I would accompany my parents on their official functions — and I would always be wearing a salwar kameez or churidar from Benzer in Mumbai or boutiques in Connaught Place or GK1.
My love of Indian clothes never left me during those early years, although I like to think that I always wore the most current fashion of the times — think 1980s miniskirts, boots, leather jackets, and spiky bangs! After I returned to India in the late 1990s, I worked in corporate communications for a luxury carmaker, but not finding any creative freedom, moved into the world of publishing, where I went on to edit a number of books — some of which authored by the late Girish Karnad and Javed Akhtar, and some that went on to win awards. I finally applied to India Today, where I became executive editor of a lifestyle magazine, and then an international fashion magazine, which brought me into the world of fashion weeks, Indian couture, haute horlogerie, star interviews, and luxury brands. It was an exciting time to be in magazine publishing, as the world was at our feet.
I then had an opportunity to work with a luxury magazine based in Spain and even though the venture did not last, it gave me the experience to head and create the content for another luxury magazine — which was part of India’s second largest media group. From shooting covers with Bollywood stars and international sports icons to directing fashion shoots featuring top Indian and international labels, I gathered talented teams and made friends in the process! Interviewing icons such as US superstar John Travolta, who was brand ambassador for Breitling, at the Reno Air Races in Nevada, speaking with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for a Longines launch at the Chantilly races, meeting young Australian designers for a story on Virgin Australian Fashion Week, travelling to Cognac, France to meet the creator of Grey Goose vodka, watching herds of elephants in Amboseli in Kenya, are just some of the international highlights. But every day, would be a day of discovery — whether it was a beauty brand being launched in India, or a technology brand, or a luxury car launchc — so much was happening in India.
India continues to inspire brands and remains the preference of most major brands for new launches. I’ve started my latest project, LifestyleInsider.co, a luxury portal that celebrates some of my favourite things — from fashion, food, travel, spirits, jewellery, watches, cars, royalty, and more, as the culmination of all the years of being witness to the beauty and artistry around me.
My love for writing continues, this time in the form of stories from around the world, of people, brands, places that are creating or are home to beautiful things, and that are making a difference. There is much work ahead, as the world recovers slowly from our current climes, we walk into an exciting world of possibilities. And I want to share that with you.
The writer is a seasoned observer of luxury and lifestyle.