MPhil Social Anthropology, 1994
What is your current role?
I am a co-founder of Urbz, a collective of urban researchers and practitioners. Since 2008, it has grown to have four centres around the world, including in Mumbai, Paris – which I set up and where I am now based – Geneva and Bogota.
Urbz emphasises the importance of people-centred design, the value of co-creation at the neighbourhood level, the significance of civic participation in planning processes and the idea that a range of different skills are part of the urban processes beyond architecture and planning. This includes social anthropology, engineering, studies of local economies, mobility and creative practices.
I am also a writer, filmmaker and business owner. In early 2026, my new book, The Homegrown City: Reclaiming the Metropolis For Those Who Use It – co-written with Matias Echanove – will be published with Verso, London. It is about how cities develop and evolve through the actions of those who use it.
I have also published a novel for young adults: What Happened to Regina that Night (Scholastic 2012, 2019). My co-written short film, The Feast, won the International Jury Award at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in 2024. And I co-created MAH in 2019, a company in France that makes and sells Mahua spirit in Europe.
What has been your career pathway since graduating?
I was introduced to anthropology in India, first by Jesuit missionaries and then within a Sociology master’s degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Before coming to Cambridge, I worked on a research project exploring the impact of urbanisation on tribal villages outside Mumbai.
Cambridge was a fascinating place to study, giving a completely different exposure to the discipline than I had so far experienced. My MPhil thesis was on the organic food industry in rural England. My research started at the Arjuna Wholefoods shop on Cambridge’s Mill Road, where I had seen pamphlets about organic food. I carried out my fieldwork with veteran organic farmers in Cambridgeshire.
After Cambridge, I returned to India where I taught for seven years at Wilson College, University of Mumbai. I became the co-director of Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research (PUKAR), a research collective based in Mumbai founded by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai. Through this, I understood the need to work more closely with practitioners and this led to the foundation of Urbz.
How has anthropology influenced your work?
Anthropology has influenced all aspects of my work.
At Urbz, I continue to apply anthropology in the area of participatory urban planning. Whenever there’s a need to reach out to communities or to understand the importance of cultural difference, that’s where I naturally have something to contribute. Important anthropological skills – like listening to and respecting local voices – have been crucial and became part and parcel of my practice.
My fictional writing, which includes narratives about tribal communities, environmentalism and ecology, is informed by my anthropological studies. And my company, MAH, is a tribute to Mahua, India’s oldest indigenous drink.
Across urban planning, as a fiction writer, a filmmaker, and a business owner, anthropology gives me the confidence to deal with the nuances of human behaviour.
What’s your advice for current and future anthropology students?
Today, the whole world is dealing with questions of cultural difference. If there’s any time of relevance for anthropologists, it’s now.
But we have to make the most of it. There’s a problem of cultural translation everywhere and I think anthropologists should be assertive and claim space in the conversation. Whatever field you choose to work in, there is definitely scope for anthropology to inform what you do. I’m confident about that.
