Anita is a Bengaluru-based independent journalist and Mint contributor who writes mainly on travel and food. She has over 30 years of journalistic experience and began her career with daily reporting for The Times of India. For over 12 years, she handled the rough and tumble of civic and political beats, reporting on issues around Bengaluru’s rise as a tech city to state and national elections. This experience won her a fellowship in Oxford, UK to produce a short paper on citizen involvement in civic issues. She opted to go freelance in 2006 to write about travel and food and has written for Mint since 2008. Her master’s degree in English literature gave her the grounding to combine curiosity and fascination for new places and food with skill for evocative writing. Apart from contributing regularly to various national and international magazines, newspapers and websites such as the BBC and South China Morning Post, she has contributed and authored travel and food guides, and coffee table books. When not travelling or writing about her travels, she enjoys cooking and the kitchen is her bolthole. Reading and listening to music are her favourite downtime activities, while embroidery and jewellery-making are her therapeutic tools.