Some exciting news: I won two NATJA awards for my work in Condé Nast Traveler! My essay on traveling to Turkey with my mother earned silver in the category of…
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Recent Work
For this week’s T magazine T List, I wrote about a new gallery in the heart of New York City that’s showcasing contemporary South Asian design. Learn more about House…
For T magazine’s T List, I wrote a preview of one of the most exciting restaurant openings of the year: London import The Ambassadors Clubhouse. Read it here.
For Eater’s annual Where to Eat feature, I spotlighted Cape Town—and the diverse flavors that are making it an even more dynamic dining destination than ever before. Read it here.
This year I wrote my first book: a look at the history and cultural impact of the hookah called Mystic Mist: Rituals of Huqqa, out now from Assouline. It was a…
For Condé Nast Traveler, I wrote a piece about my new book from Assouline, Mystic Mist: The Rituals of Huqqa. I explored some of my fascinating discoveries from researching the book, from…
This is a fun project I worked on earlier this year: the tourism brochure for Orange County, a beautiful part of New York’s Hudson Valley. Read it here and start…
My Boston feature from Condé Nast Traveler appears in the month’s Middle East edition—read it here.
For the third year, I’ve edited the Africa section of Condé Nast Traveler’s ambitious Best Places to Go list. This year, we spotlighted new safari lodges in Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia,…
Awards & Books
Awards
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2021: Honorable mention for the Grand Award, Travel Journalist of the Year
- South Asian Journalists Association, 2021: Outstanding Arts and Culture Reporting for “Zanzibar in the Rain,” New York Times
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2020: Bronze in Short Work on Travel for “Raise the Roof,” Condé Nast Traveler
- South Asian Journalists Association, 2019: Outstanding Arts, Culture, and Lifestyle Reporting about South Asia for “Force of Nature,” Surface magazine
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2018: Gold award in US/Canada Travel for “A Muslim American’s Homecoming: Cowboys, Country Music, Chapatis,” New York Times
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2018: Bronze in Service-Oriented Consumer Work for “My Town,” Virtuoso Life
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2017: Gold in Culinary-Related Travel for “Eating Bunny Chow in Durban,” Saveur
- South Asian Journalists Association, 2017: Outstanding Arts and Culture Reporting for “Eating Bunny Chow in Durban,” Saveur
- North American Travel Journalists Association Awards, 2016: Two Silver awards in Destination Travel and Adventure Travel for “7 Days, 1500 Miles in Namibia,” New York Times
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2016: Gold in Foreign Travel for “7 Days, 1500 Miles in Namibia,” New York Times
- Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards, 2015: Gold in Personal Comment for “Returning to Hyderabad, Once a Land of Princes and Palaces,” New York Times
- Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing, 2013: Silver in Most Unforgettable Character for “Spitting Distance in Jodhpur,” Wall Street Journal
Books
- New York Times Cultured Traveler: Contributed a feature on Bosnia & Herzegovina to this upcoming anthology
- Best American Travel Writing 2021: “City of Saints” from Travel + Leisure was selected for the 2021 edition of this anthology, edited by Padma Lakshmi and Jason Wilson
- New York Times 36 Hours World: 150 Cities from Abu Dhabi to Zurich: Contributed 36 Hours guides to Johannesburg and Mumbai for this anthology
- My Life Abroad: A Selection of Expat Stories: Contributed to this compilation of expat stories from around the globe, recounting my experience as an American in South Africa, in the chapter “From New York City to Cape Town.”
- The Places We’ve Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35: Contributed my essay “When Coconuts Attack” to this travel anthology.