Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar democracy icon and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, talks to me a few days after she was released from 15 years of incarceration.
Music has no genre. Nor does it belong to any language. It is pure emotion that transcends the boundaries of mind and culture. Music is a pilgrimage to one’s truest self.
The world ceases to exist for me when I plug in. As I immerse myself in music, tears often well and fall, quietly
cleansing the soul.
Melancholy, perhaps, is music’s most enduring undercurrent. And when the final fermata dissolves
into a fading niente, what remains is an overwhelming
sense of loss.
The newsroom is my sanctuary. The neighbourhood coffee shop and waterhole are my creative lair. Welcome to the world of a journalist,
storyteller, and incurable dreamer.
I read The Old Man and the Sea at bedtime. It is my bible. Rest of the time, I’m a battle-hardened fighter like Hemingway’s fisherman. I embraced the revolution that swept through the media industry, progressing from Lino to computers; galley proofs to bromides; teletypes to online feeds; Print to television; Web to social media; and finally, from news to fake news. Even as I flirt with the Web, Print journalism stays at my heart. It’s a lifelong affair.
I’m a foot soldier of the Print who vehemently fights to safeguard the queen of the media. I would prefer a shower of ticker tapes on my last journey to the cemetery of Lino and Print veterans. I would want my students to read the psalms of articles and prepositions from Wren and Martin as my mortal remains are spooled for the last edition. I still wouldn’t forgive those who believed English is a smorgasbord of words arranged on a platter with a smattering of articles sprinkled randomly.
A veteran with more than 40 years of journalistic experience, I have been associated with various international newspapers, including in India, Singapore and the UAE. Born in India, I served as Executive Editor of Khaleej Times, one of the Middle East’s leading newspapers based in the UAE, and wrote the weekly column Life’s Like That, in addition to exclusive news reports. I have authored three books of essays and am presently attempting to write a period fiction.
Write Feelings brings out the emotion that I had bottled up during four decades of my journalistic existence. These are words that the heart refuses to say out loud but gush out in the comfort of solitude. A cathartic release.
Life’s Like That is a real-life anthology that digs deep into the mundane to create anecdotes that will resonate with the reader at deeper levels. It is an attempt to create a symphony on life, celebrating all its notes.
My third book, The Sum of Yesterdays, is a sequel to my second work, Life’s Like That. The nearly 100 essays chronicle my journey over the years as an author and my metamorphoses by persona.
The Moscow launch of my book Write Feelings by presenting a copy to Vladimir Grigoriev, Deputy Head of Russia's Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication. Vladimir insisted I autograph the book with date. He was keen to read the chapter about Soviet literature
Mohammed Galadari, Group Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of Galadari Brothers Group; and Ibrahim Galadari, Group Chief Investment Officer and Director of Galadari Brothers, release my book, Life's Like That, at V Hotel Dubai.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar democracy icon and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, talks to me a few days after she was released from 15 years of incarceration.
I break through terror barricades and lay a "hotline" to 46 Indian nurses held captive in 2014 by Islamic State militants at the Tikrit Teaching Hospital in Iraq. My reportage played a big role in securing their release.
I track down Lalith Prasanna Galappaththi, Sri Lanka’s middle distance runner with international gold and silver medals under his belt, who worked as a taxi driver in Sharjah; and DW Prasantha, another record holding athlete who worked as a security guard in Abu Dhabi.
Best Feature Writing award in 2013 for a critique on the need to reinvigorate the Dubai Shopping Festival and bring back the event's original spirit
Best Feature Writing award in 2014 for an article on the need for the Dubai Shopping festival to go sustainable
Being born into a family that ran a photography business is one thing; inheriting the craft, talent, and artistic sensibility from one’s elders is quite another. My uncle, Sreedhar Pattali — equally skilled in photography and charcoal drawing — was my guiding force. Driven by a desire to excel in both fields, I left no stone unturned in mastering the craft, eventually earning more than a dozen awards in these disciplines.
A natural transition from prose to poetry happens when the writer experiences extreme pain and the heart takes charge of rendering emotions. My poems are born from the death of prose at critical moments — when ordinary language collapses under the weight of experience, and only poetry can carry the burden of suffering, transforming pain into meaning and anguish into art.
A writer’s gallery of published PDFs serves as both an archive and a living testament to creative labour. More than a repository, it becomes a curated intellectual space — where writing is not merely consumed, but documented, revisited, and placed in dialogue with time, history, and readership.
Commentary, essays and reflections
A natural transition from prose to poetry happens when the writer experiences extreme pain and the heart takes charge of rendering emotions. My poems are born from the death of prose at critical moments — when ordinary language collapses under the weight of experience, and only poetry can carry the burden of suffering, transforming pain into meaning and anguish into art.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades…
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses
