Anita Rao Kashi is a travel writer based in Bangalore (India) with an enduring passion for new places and experiences, and a deep affection for old haunts. After completing her master’s in English literature, she began her career as a journalist in 1994 with The Times of India, the country’s largest selling newspaper, at the paper’s Bangalore edition. She specialised initially in civic journalism, reporting exclusively on civic activism, urban development, policy and planning.
In 2000, she won the prestigious Charles Wallace Trust / Iqbal Bahadur Sarin Scholarship for a Young Indian Journalist administered by the British Council, for a short term research project under the aegis of the Reuters Foundation at Oxford University, UK. At the end of the term, she produced the well-received thesis The role of media in changing times: Do newspapers have to change focus in order to be relevant, drawing heavily from her experience in civic journalism.
On return, Anita decided to change her reporting specialisation in keeping with the change in responsibilities at the newspaper. Having shifted from civic to political reporting, she realised that it was also the right time to focus on travel. While travel was always a fascinating activity for her, the paper itself had no focussed travel and tourism coverage. She began writing about travel news in terms of planning and policy, trends and destinations. Coincidentally, this was also the time that the travel industry in India began to look up and zoom. For more than five years, she wrote consistently, highlighting what’s good and bad with the Indian travel and tourism industry, touching on related aspects such as aviation, hospitality, food and other service sectors.
In late 2005, Anita quit her regular job at The Times of India, Bangalore to become a freelance travel writer. Since then she has written for newspapers, travel magazines, online magazines, journals and a handful of travel guides. She also wrote a weekly destination-based column for The Times of India, Bangalore called Wanderlust for a year.
Anita’s area of specialisation is her local area – Bangalore, Karnataka and South India. However, she has travelled and written about places all over India. She has also travelled in the UK, USA, France, Germany, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and Italy.
Academic Background: To backtrack a bit, Anita did her schooling in Visakhapatnam, Bangalore and Tumkur, her graduation in Tumkur and her Master's (Eng Lit) from Bangalore University. She taught English at the udergraduate level in Tumkur for a few months before joining The Times of India.
Interests: In addition to travelling, Anita loves to cook (and eat), try new cuisines and collect cookbooks. She is a voracious reader and enjoys all kinds of books, though she goes through distinct phases. Biographies and travel humour are the current flavours. She listens intermittently to music, dabbles in terracotta pottery and jewellery, embroidery, craft work and has been 'planning' to learn salsa!
Family: Anita is married to noted Indian artist Ravi Kashi. Their daughter, Manasa, was born in 2003.