Kamla Bhatt has been fascinated for years by how life, people and ideas intersect and interact.
Her focus on many thing Indian is against the backdrop of India Rising - be it Bollywood remixed, IT czars, celebrity chefs, or a renewed national identity. The Indian diaspora, whether it is in the US or in Singapore, is no less engaging, and is just as rich a source for interesting subjects/material. Having spent a good portion of her life in the US, Kamla is just as intrigued by the American experience as by the west's growing interest in India.
Kamla grew up in Chennai (Madras), and when not attending school, was busy attending various film previews up and down Kodambakkam High Road and the Film Chamber on Mount Road. Madras was the centre for the Tamil and Telugu films on those days. Her family's involvement in the film world did not mean an automatic entry into the fascinating world of entertainment. For that she had to wait—and in fact continues to wait.
She spent a lot of time languishing in an ivory tower. She holds a BA in History from Women's Christian College, Madras (Chennai); MA in International Relations from Marquette University, Milwaukee; and an MPhil in International Politics and Economy from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Finally, Kamla took to heart the 19th century motto of the American pioneers, "Go west, young man," (or woman in her case) and landed up in the San Francisco Bay area. She worked in Silicon Valley for over a decade in various IT companies. She was an "innocent bystander" during the unfolding of the Web 1.0 revolution in the Valley. Her last stint was working in a networking start-up, where she had to learn about the OSI model, TCP/IP stack, VPN, and how layers 4-7 function. While holding down a day job, she regularly contributed to various Indian publications in the US and in India. Her writing has been published by Rediff, India Abroad, Outlook, Silicon India, Business Standard and The Telegraph.
Kamla is also an avid blogger, and writes regularly on her blog. She also contributes to Global Voices and Desicritics.
She had to wait until the Web 2.0 phenomenon to realize her dream of doing a radio show. While on a temporary assignment working in India, Kamla started India's first two podcasts from Bombay/Mumbai in 2005: News About India and Talk News India.
Kamla divides her time between New York, US, and Bangalore, India.
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