Five days a week, Rakesh Krishnan Simha is a full time reporter based in Auckland, New Zealand. On weekends, he does what he likes best: write on topics that the media distorts, misses or ignores. According to him the only inspiration he needs is outrage -- the kind you get when you see propaganda masquerading as journalism.

Rakesh started his career in 1995 with New Delhi-based Business World magazine, and later worked in a string of positions at other leading media houses such as India Today, Hindustan Times, Business Standard and the Financial Express, where he was the news editor. He has also written for Oped News, a United States-based portal; OneWorld South Asia, a development agency; eSamskriti.com, a Mumbai-based cultural portal; India Empire, a magazine for the Indian diaspora; and the Indian Weekender, a community newspaper published from Auckland. His articles have been used as reference at the Centre for Research on Globalization, Canada; and the School of Communication, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Also, as part of the curriculum at the Anthropology Department of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Coming from a multicultural milieu, his family members include Zoroastrians, Germans, Tibetans and of course Indians from six states. Which perhaps explains his love of languages. In 1996 he topped his Russian language course at the Russian Institute of Art, Science and Culture, New Delhi.

For Rakesh being away from India feels like exile. But there's an upside too: living in one of the most pristine countries in the world is extremely conducive to writing. From the corner of the planet you get a better view of what's going on, he claims. Stranger than fiction!
He can be contacted on rakeshmail@gmail.com