Mansi Choksi Email & Phone Number

A literary investigation into India as a society in transition through the lens of forbidden love, as three young couples reject arranged marriages and risk everything for true love in the midst of social and political upheaval. “A staggeringly good work of literary journalism... it does what all great writing should — it puts us into the world of someone else, so completely that days later I find myself missing the couples and wondering how their stories end.”—The Times London"Choksi observes them like an anthropologist, documents their courtships like the investigative journalist she is – and writes like a poet. The result is a meditation on love, and what we sacrifice for it."—NPR"I found The Newlyweds compelling, and sometimes heartbreaking, because Choksi followed the couples’ stories beyond happy endings."—The Financial Times

New York, Mumbai, Dubai, Kampala

Crime and social justice: Followed the trial of four Indians who were recruited online to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria; investigated the extent to which government handouts rehabilitated Muslim survivors years after communal riots tore through the western Indian state of Gujarat under Narendra Modi’s rule; reported on the youth unemployment crisis in Uganda; explored how heroin trafficking at the India-Pakistan border was crippling an entire generation; analyzed how Kuwait’s controversial DNA testing law inflamed the debate over surveillance and privacy; wrote about a civil disobedience movement that sprung from racial biases in the New York Police Department’s daily operations.Gender: Followed the investigation of a Mumbai journalist’s gang rape for over two years, reporting from interviews with families of the accused, police records and court proceedings; wrote a narrative feature about being gay and South Asian in America; investigated what inadequate sanitation in Kampala’s slums was doing to its women (after the story was published, an NGO funded waterless toilets in the neighborhoods). The politics of economy: Wrote a narrative piece about a Bollywood singing competition for Dubai’s migrant laborers with real stakes: an exit from the camps; wrote about how a Mumbai snack turned into a political hot potato that represented India’s failure to create jobs; documented how Indian businessmen started learning Mandarin to boost trade with China.Pop-culture: Deconstructed the socio-economic forces that propelled a Hindi stand-up comic to the status of India’s most-watched TV star; explored what a subculture of Hindi hip-hop artists in New York could say about immigrant identity; explored how Dubai’s obsession with becoming the ‘Manhattan of the Arab world’ manifested in pest control. Portfolio of clips: www.mansichoksi.com

Mumbai Area, India

Led a project exploring the institutional and conceptual framework for a free global press, which would eventually be executed in six other centers in Amman, Beijing, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago; mapped demographic and political trends across South Asia.

Mumbai

Reported and wrote roughly 1,500 stories for the world’s largest selling English daily and roughly 50 cover stories and narrative pieces capturing the spirit of India as a society in transition. Trainee Journalist: August 2007 to August 2008Followed shipping, environment and human rights. Broke a story about a hijacking in the Gulf of Aden which eventually resulted in a diplomatic intervention to bring back the Indian crew; travelled across rural India to report on villages that leapt past carbon emissions by going from no electricity to solar power. Correspondent: September 2008 to August 2009Promoted to the features section; reported on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks; wrote a long-form feature about Indian same-sex couples marrying with Hindu rituals under the radar of right-wing groups; broke a story about a rural district moderating population growth by offering cash carrots to delay pregnancies. Senior Correspondent: September 2009 to August 2010Launched the Times of India’s weekend edition, Times Crest, with a team of six; reported on a tribal community of bachelors who began building a road themselves to reclaim their right to education, health and marriage; reported on Jain religious fasts unto death. Principal Correspondent: September 2010 to August 2012Reported on President Obama’s speech on the Mumbai terror attacks; covered a women’s movement to demand toilets and a right to dignity in exchange for marriage; wrote a narrative piece about the identity impasse of being just an another Indian millionaire.

Master Of Science, Magazine Writing, Honors

Activities and Societies: Community Service Chair, Society of Professional Journalists Board Member, South Asia Journalists.

Bachelor Of Mass Media, Journalism, Honors

Coursework in regional journalism, public opinion, advertising and history.