I have worked as an independent, roving journalist, covering life and politics in South and Southeast Asia, for more than 20 years. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Diplomat, Nikkei Asian Review, Bangkok Post, World Politics Review, and many more media outlets.

I have worked full-time with two media organisations – as a features and political editor at The Caravan magazine in India, and as an editor at Indo-Asian News Service, also in India.

My stint as a journalist began in January 2002, after six years of volunteerism with non-governmental organisations and teaching of the French language.

I have taught video journalism, as a guest faculty, at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi University, Indraprastha University and Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi; Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi; Bennett University in Noida; and G.D. Goenka University in Gurgaon. I have also led video journalism training programmes in Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and Uganda.

I have also taught at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida, United States and spoken at international conferences on press freedom in the United Kingdom.

My conversion from hardcore old-school reporter to doing “new journalism” took place after I stumbled upon some books written by script writers from Hollywood. Storytelling, I realised, was meant for journalists as we have access to stories of real people. Reality can be wilder than fiction.

I’ve launched a new genre in journalism, which can loosely be called “cinematic journalism” and can be described as a marriage between journalism and filmmaking.

I live in Delhi and can be contacted at Vishal@Newsreel.Asia.