First - I want to say thank you. 

Whether you’re here to donate or just learn more, the fact that you landed on this page here means a lot. 

I'm running the NYC Marathon on Nov 2, 2025. 

It'll be my first full marathon - so yes, it's about to be my entire personality until November. What makes it more meaningful is that I'm running to raise money for the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) - an organization advocating for diversity in newsrooms and creating life-changing educational opportunities for emerging AAPI journalists. 

Why did I choose AAJA? 

As many of you may know, I started a newsletter called It's all desi a few years ago where I cover stories about South Asian pop culture and entrepreneurs. It's helped me discover and amplify the amazing AAPI voices that surround me. 

What you may not know though is that I've always gravitated towards the world of journalism and storytelling. My first paid gig was writing a tech column for Namaste Newsline, a local Indian newspaper back in 2016. For my first internship, I worked on sponsored ads that showed up on the front pages of sites like TechCrunch and HuffPost. And I've actually even designed and published short story books for 826NYC, a creative writing non-profit for youth. That's why I'm running for AAJA - their mission feels so aligned to mine. 

Where your donation will go

You'll be directly supporting programs like JCamp and Voices — where high school and college students get the tools, mentors, and real-world experience they need to become the next generation of world-class journalists. It's an investment in more inclusive, accurate, and diverse future of news and journalism. 

Now let's go run a marathon. Thank you again for being part of the journey. 

Pictured below: The first ever AI tech column I wrote in 2016 (yes I was ahead of the curve), some book covers I designed for 826 NYC, my "It's all desi" newsletter, and of course some fun running content from around the world.