I'm an urbanist– a person who studies cities, its built fabric and how people interact with it. I first heard the word when I was studying in France. Urbaniste is common enough a word in France for most people to make vague guesses about what you do. The situation is not the same in India which is where I'm from. India is facing rapid urbanisation driven by politicians, real estate developers and industrialists whose vision for a ‘developed city’ is different from that of urbanists. This makes being an urbanist in India difficult but also very interesting.

When I moved back to India from France, I joined urbz, an urban action research collective which places itself at the crossroads of research and practice. At urbz, I found my place as an urbanist in India. Its focus on ‘user generated cities’ appealed to my inner urbanist and moreover, it was based in Mumbai amidst what is often considered the largest slum in Asia – Dharavi.

It was here that I truly became an urbanist. I lived on the border of Dharavi in a redeveloped chawl - a type of housing which was originally built to accommodate immigrant mill workers. I met amazing people, had ideas about slums busted, travelled the world and most importantly, fell in love with cities.

I studied urban planning in France where I fell in love with the french language, the people, learnt to look at cities in new ways and drank a lot of wine. France just happened to me; it was a series of fortunate events that took me there. Before that, I studied architecture where I fell in love with drawings, visualisation, buildings, material, light and shadow, Escher, travel and much more.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing was my gateway to meet people when I was living and travelling in Europe. It once saved me from spending a night on the streets and my kind host from Geneva and I remain friends to this date. Couchsurfing remains my go-to board for when I'm travelling and want to discover the city through the eyes of the locals. What better way is there to do that?

Interests

I have a mixed bag of interests. The nature of my job is one that takes me to many different places. My idea of travelling is to go to a new place for work and discover the place through my work.

I also love drawing. I'm a closet artist and always have ideas for many projects and find the time to do some of them.

I recently learnt to Lindy Hop in Mumbai and I fell in love with the dance form.

I'm a vegetarian but I LOVE my food. I've had the opportunity to meet people from many different places and learn about various cuisines and almost always they've been kind enough to teach me how to make a vegetarian adaptation of a signature dish. I recently visited Korea and fell in love with Korean food and am now on a mission to become a master in making Kimchi.

I love craft, I really like designing and making things - lamps, boxes, bags etc. I've recently started collecting leaves and pressing them onto bags and stencilling the pincodes of where they were collected.

I love hikes, being outside, learning to do new things. I learnt to kayak in France and it remains til date one of my favourite sports.

• arts
• books
• architecture
• design
• dining
• cooking
• indian food
• vegetarian
• fitness
• reading
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• languages
• tours

Music, Movies, and Books

I like indie cinema. I haven't watched too many movies, though. Mostly because I don't like watching them alone. I've been off the movies and TV radar for a while now but I hear there's some exciting stuff out there.

Music - I can go from being a pop trash queen to singing nostalgic songs at Kareokes to grooving to some hip-hop, r&b, dancing to jazz, being in the moshpit for some rock. It really just depends, I guess.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The Loire a Velo, a bike trip by the Loire river between Tours and Angers.

Teach, Learn, Share

As I study cities, it's possible that I'll know a bit about the history of the place I'm visiting so maybe you'd be surprised at the little things that you didn't know about your own city!

I can teach you to cook Indian food, watercolour paint, speak any of the languages that I do.

Mostly I'd love to share with you my experiences in the different places I've lived in.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm happy to share any of my interests. We can have an art party, a meal, an evening walk, a night out. I'm happy to share my experiences, swap stories and help in any way I can around the house. Most of all I'm grateful to any host for opening the doors of their homes to me and I'm happy to make my stay comfortable for them as well.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, India, South Korea, Switzerland