Compendium

On 13th March, 2026, I had the opportunity to introduce StoryMaps JS to the students of HV Desai College, Pune. The session taken joinly by me, allowed me to refamiliarize myself with StoryMaps JS, and talk about its uses as a digital storytelling tool!

Other People Wear My Clothes was a storytelling performance I did at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Pune Lavasa. This performance was guided by a material- my Kutchi chaniya, and a nostalgic and memory-based narrative of various people who have worn it. This performance used both physical and digital materials for storytelling. 

The first thing that one notices in Lavasa is the (largely) unblemished greenery. What usually goes unnoticed are our little winged friends all around us!

Avian Allies - Christ University, Lavasa's birding club- contributed to Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Great Backyard Bird Count Initiative. During the birdcount, we were able to spot more than 50 varieties of birds, all in the span of about 2 hours. We were excited to spot some exciting species such as the Verditer flycatcher and the Puff-throated Babler.

While the birder in me was absolutely excited, what I also found interesting was the use of apps such as Merlin and eBird to accelerate and aid the birdcount. Amazing how the digital complements everyday life! 

Since November 2025, I had been engaged in the certificate program in Digital Humanities & Cultural Informatics from the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University. This February, 2026, I had the opportunity to present a mock-proposal for creating an archive. The theme given to us was The Scrapbook Archive of a Cricket Radio Commentator. With the help of teammates, I was able to contribute to create a proposal for the given theme. Through the proposal, I was able to refresh my learnings from the class on things like archving sound, images, TEI, etc. 

As a DH student, I have had multiple opportunities to learn from archivists and curators about how an archive is created. I first learnt about archival science from a 7 day certificate course I did online from Heritage Foundation. I learnt the theory behind archives from my University course in digital archiving, taken by Dr. Rimi Nandy. I was introduced to the material reality of it very recently as a part of the online certification course on Digital Humanities and Cultural Informatics at the School of Cultural Texts & Records, Jadavpur University.

Yesterday, I finally had the opportunity to witness the process of archiving, and the 'human' side of businesses at the Godrej Archives. It was absolutely amazing to see the mental and physical labour it takes to piece an archive together. It was interesting to note how something like a product that seems very unidimensional, had numerous human stories that pushed it into existence.  

During my BA in English, I had undertaken a digital cultural heritage project, wherein I had attempted to create a digital archive of four of Ahmedabad's ancient temples. For this, I found myself on temple premises, interviewing and having conversations with those who were connected with it. At the time, I knew very little, and had even limited knowledge regarding oral histories and their significance in narrative building.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity of attending the 11th Oral History Association India Conference on Desert Dialogues, held at Somaiya School of Civilisation Studies and the workshop on Understanding Environmental Shifts and Cultural Impact through Oral History at Godrej Archives. The conversations at this conference, and the deliberations that happened after, showed me how what I did for my project then had been a veritable attempt at collecting oral narratives surrounding the temples under study. The conference also showed me the possible ways I could improve on this work, and gave me ideas for future endeavours.

Recently I had the opportunity to go through the material on the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), and I was amazed to see the kind of archival data present there.

Something that caught my eye from the archive was an anonymous magazine article that talked about the 'heathen invasion' in America, referring to the introduction of numerous religions to the people of America. I was immediately reminded of the speeches given by Swami Vivekananda at the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, and the stark contrast between the two narratives.

I had the chance to write about this difference for one of our class activities!

January has been a month of going back to old pleasures! In the very first month of a new year and a new semester, I was fortunate to be offered a chance to emcee for two different events at Christ- the Alumni Meet and the roundtable conference organized by the Department of English & Cultural Studies, on the topic Reimagining English Studies in the Digital Age. It felt wonderful to be able to stand in front of a crowd and shape the flow of rich conversations!

I recently co-hosted a podcast where we interviewed Dr. Dibyadyuti Roy of the University of Leeds. 

Through our conversation, Dr. Roy talked about DH, AI and what it means to be a humanist in the digital era!

Listen to the podcast here !

Over the summer, I completed a 7 day online Certificate Course on Archives and Records Management from Heritage Foundation, Maharashtra. Delivered by Dr Bhujang Bobade, the course was a wonderful introduction to the world of archives and records.

Through the course, I learnt about the history of archives and record keeping, the way records and other materials of significance are managed, the current situation of many records and archives in the country, and the need for digitizing them all. The things I learnt turned out to be immensely useful for me to better understand my class on Digitizing Classical Texts! 

Over the last month, I had the opportunity to engage with a range of projects and activities at Vaidika Samshodhana Mandala, Pune!

Situated at the heart of Pune, VSM is a research institute founded around 100 years ago, to commemorate the patriot and scholar Bal Gangadhar Tilak. As a summer research intern at VSM, I got a chance to be a part of the everyday activities at the Vedic Research Institute. It houses the Dastur Pavri Library, which has around 16,000 books, a manuscript collection consisting of 15,000 manuscripts, and a museum exhibiting Yajna utensils.

My time at the internship was spent getting an introduction to manuscript conservation and doing some preliminary work for the digitisation of the library. In addition to this, I also had the opportunity to conduct a close analysis of the logic behind the selection of specific trees in Vedic sacrifices.

These experiences have deepened my interest in how archival practice and digital tools can work together to preserve and illuminate textual traditions.

Looking forward to opportunities and conversations related to archiving practices! 

As a student of English with Digital Humanities, I have always found myself working with texts and materials based in English. My internship at Vaidika Samshodhana Mandala, Pune has given me an excellent opportunity to explore digital tools for studies in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. I recently had the wonderful opportunity to talk about the same. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at NLP libraries designed for Indic languages, exploring vast Sanskrit corpora available online, and learning about the larger discussions happening in the field. Grateful for the opportunity!

I am happy to announce that I have cleared the UGC National Eligibility Test for English for admissions for PhD! 

Bhashini- a GoI initiative works for translation in Indian languages

Excited to share an article of mine published on the webpage of the Association for Children's Literature in South Asia! Written in the memoir style, the article talks about the magic of stories, and how children's literature holds greater truths! Check out the full article here!

Recently, I had the opportunity to present an ongoing project being done by Dr. Richa Srishti and me at the International Symposium on Digital Humanities in the Anthropocene conducted in collaboration with Amity University, Noida, CHRIST University, Pune - Lavasa and IIT Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Our work titled 'Dickinson vs. Machine: A Comparative Analysis of Emotional Depth in Poetry' examined the emotional depth in AI-generated poeatry and analysed it in the context of Dickinson's poems. I truly had a great time going through some of the many poems written by Dickinson, and thinking about the essence of poetry! 

I am pleased to share that I was selected to attend the one-day workshop on AI & Memory jointly conducted by the Centre for Memory Studies at IIT Madras and IIIT Kottayam. The session was a great space for conversations regarding the propagation of existing prejudices through AI, the question of security in these precarious times and many other ethical ideas.

Special thanks to speakers Mr. Jibu Elias, Dr. Ebin Deni Raj and Dr. Arun Cyril Jose for their valuable insights!

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the UGC-DEB sponsored 2-Day National Level Workshop and Symposium on NEP-based SLM & MOOC Development for the Undergraduate Programmer in English, organized by the Department of English, School of Humanities, Netaji Subhas Open University on the topic '21st-century Pedagogy: Integrating Digital Humanities in India'.

Thank you, Richa Srishti ma'am for allowing me the chance to assist you during this presentation. It was great to be involved in and contribute to discussions surrounding developing DH in higher education institutions in India. Through the session, we were able to have a fruitful conversation regarding the ways DH can be brought into curricula and possible ways to overcome the barriers of teaching DH through the distance learning model.

As a student of DH, it was an exciting learning experience to be a part of this. Looking forward to being a part of such initiatives! 

I am happy to share that I was a part of the Jean Monnet Summer School in Migration and Refugee Studies organized and hosted by the Migration and Refugees Research Network at Oxford Brookes University!

This 10-day summer school was an excellent introduction to the condition of refugees and migrants in this era of instability. The sessions were spread across disciplines and thus gave a holistic understanding of the refugee condition. The sessions were truly eye-opening; it was quite interesting to learn about the various hardships faced by displaced people at different points in their journey.

It was wonderful to interact with people from various nationalities and learn about their perspectives and the efforts they have taken to gain a first-hand account of the refugee experience. In the end, I also had the opportunity to present my understanding of the refugee crisis. Along with my group members, we had a fruitful discussion on the representation of refugees in different literary genres and how such representations can aid in developing empathy towards displaced people.

I'm thrilled to share that I've graduated with Distinction and First Rank from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature program!

My three years at Amrita have been incredibly rewarding, providing me with numerous chances for personal growth and exploration. I am grateful to the exceptional faculty at the Department of English for helping me nurture my interest in English literature and fueling my passion for research. In these three years, I have been introduced to the various avenues in the field and have been exposed to the work happening in it.

At the end of this amazing journey of learning and exploring, I would like to thank Amrita, my family and my friends for providing me with such a supportive environment. 

The Indian Knowledge Systems Cell at IIT Gandhinagar undertook the task of compiling all the lectures delivered as part of the IKS initiative in the form of a book. It was a great opportunity for me to be a part of the transcription team, and contribute by transcribing the lectures delivered. 

Ahmedabad Through the Senses is the project I undertook as a part of my internship at IIT Indore. It is a digital archive of four temples of Ahmedabad. You can find the project here.