He knows how to put two and two together. A New Delhi-born physicist turned writer and editor, Charu is a rare breed of journalist — one who does math. Unlike many of his colleagues, who run far and fast from equations, Charu’s been a mental math addict since age five. “The day I struggle to compute 599 times 65 in my head is the day I know my brain cells are dying,” he says. He has a similar love for geography and can find any country on a map.
But we figure our in-house Einstein is also tapped into the left side of his brain. Charu, after all, loves jazz and believes in karma. He even reckons he has a connection with the Empire State, where his parents met in the 1970s and where, despite being born and raised in India, he ventured for graduate school, studying journalism at Columbia University.
A bit like his hometown of New Delhi, where the food, clothes and architecture reflect Turkish, Mughal and British influences, Charu brings global-mindedness and a love for travel and culture — one day he hopes to visit Antarctica — to his award-winning work. “Over the past 12 years in journalism, I’ve developed a mix of cynicism and hope: cynicism about the powerful and hope from ordinary people across the world.”
