Sushmita Pathak

telling stories through words and sounds

Writing

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.
WIRED •

India Plans to Change the Weather to Fight Back Against Deadly Smog

India’s capital, New Delhi, is preparing a new weapon in the fight against deadly air pollution: cloud seeding. The experiment, which could take place as early as next week, would introduce chemicals like silver iodide into a cloudy sky to create rain and, it’s hoped, wash away the fine particulate matter hovering over one of the world’s largest cities.

The need is desperate. Delhi has already tried traffic restriction measures, multimillion-dollar air filtration towers, and the use of fleets o
The Christian Science Monitor •

In Maldives presidential election, China and India are on the ballot

“Maldivians take a lot of pride in their sovereignty, even if it is a small country,” says Azim Zahir, an international relations lecturer at the University of Western Australia. An opposition victory would have “serious foreign relations implications,” including a “likely row between Malé and New Delhi,” but he notes that no government would attempt to completely sever ties with its neighbor.

As voters return for the Sept. 30 runoff, it’s clear that anti-India sentiment has bolstered the pro-C
New Lines Magazine •

India’s Family Planning Still Relies Mainly on Female Sterilization

On a cloudy April morning, a nervous Nisha Devi waited in the reception area of a family planning clinic run by the nonprofit Parivar Seva Sanstha in northwest Delhi. The staff called out numbers given to patients — women from nearby low-income neighborhoods — as they made their way inside to see the doctor, one by one. Devi, 34, was about to undergo a sterilization procedure. A mother of three children, she would have liked to have stopped at two but “the third was destined to come,” she said w
The Christian Science Monitor •

‘Pink parks’: Delhi’s bid to build safer city for women sparks debate

“Separate does not mean equal,” says Amita Sinha, a retired professor of landscape architecture. “This kind of fragmenting of the public space along gender lines means nobody is a winner.”

Parks like this are about to become more common in India’s capital. Delhi is planning to build around 250 women-only parks across the city, equipped with surveillance cameras, children’s play areas, and restrooms. Female security guards will only allow women and children under 10 to enter. Officials hope the
The Christian Science Monitor •

Why India lags behind in rail safety – and where it goes from here

Mr. Verma says those improvements can’t wait. For long journeys, the rail system is the only affordable option for millions of Indians, especially poor migrant workers like many of those who died in Friday’s accident. “It is the lifeline of the nation,” he says.

Many blame India’s poor track record on chronic overcrowding and congestion, as well as lax attitudes toward safety. The accident is also humbling for the government’s much-touted rail modernization drive, which has spent billions build
The Christian Science Monitor •

Gandhi’s expulsion: Bad for Indian democracy, good for opposition?

“If [Mr. Gandhi] wants to play the victim card, he needs to get the entire opposition to fan out in their respective states,” says Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation. “Otherwise, it has every chance to fizzle out.”

Political analysts say his disqualification could be a boon in disguise – a rallying point for India’s fractured opposition ahead of the 2024 elections. This week, leaders from more than a dozen different parties protested Mr. Gandhi’s removal, wh
The Juggernaut •

How Kailasa, a Fake Hindu Nation, Conned Millions

Surrounded by people in suits, the woman decked in an orange sari and tube-top blouse with her hair in a large bun stood out. As she sat behind a podium in City Hall in Newark, New Jersey, along with Mayor Ras J. Baraka and other city officials, her arm showed a large tattoo of a man’s smiling face. The woman, Vijayapriya Nithyananda, was there for the signing of a “sister city agreement” between Newark and her country, the United States of Kailasa.

If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s not b
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