Our Team
PK DAS
Founder, Question of Cities
An urban planner, architect and activist with a stupendous body of work and a list of national and international awards behind him, PK Das has sought to establish a close relationship between his discipline, urban ecology and people through a participatory planning process. His wide spectrum of work includes organising slum dwellers for better living, evolving affordable housing models, engaging in policy framework for mass housing, reclaiming public space in Mumbai by developing the waterfronts, re-envisioning the city and open spaces of Mumbai, urban renewal and conservation projects along with an architectural practice involving urban planning, urban design, architecture and interior design assignments across the country. He has demonstrated change by implementing more than 25 public interest projects through voluntary and collaborative endeavours involving local people and agencies. He hopes to integrate architecture and democracy for social change.
SMRUTI KOPPIKAR
Founder Editor, Question of Cities
Mumbai-based journalist, chronicler and media educator, Smruti has more than 30 years of reporting, writing and editing experience across national and international publications on a range of subjects from the post-Babri Masjid communal riots to election campaigns, development and gender issues, cities and the media which fetched her a number of awards. She focussed on urban affairs writing in the last decade, documenting cities in transformation with Mumbai as her focus through her column MumbaiNama/MumbaiNaama and deep reporting projects. She is a well-regarded columnist and television panellist on urban issues and politics, and has authored chapters on cities in books and journals. She was a member of the core group which worked to include gender in Mumbai’s Development Plan 2034. She teaches journalism and media theory to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and most recently conducted a series of lectures on cities and pandemics.
SHOBHA SURIN
Associate Editor, Question of Cities
Shobha has spent more than two decades in newsrooms of India’s well-known newspapers. She led teams on news desks and coordinated city news, mainly in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with a focus on bringing the less-told stories about urban peripheral areas into the mainstream media. When not poring over copy, she loves exploring new places and trekking. She nurtures a keen interest in the interface of urban issues and lives of people.
NIKEITA SARAF
Visualiser-Illustrator, Question of Cities
Nikeita is a Thane-based architect, illustrator and urban practitioner. Through her academic years at School of Environment and Architecture, she tried to explore, in various forms, the web of relationships which create space and form the essence of storytelling. Her interests in storytelling and narrative mapping stem from how people map their worlds and she explores this through her everyday practice of illustrating and archiving.
ANKITA DHAR KARMAKAR
Multimedia Journalist and Social Media in-charge in Question of Cities
Ankita Dhar Karmakar, Multimedia Journalist and Social Media in-charge in Question of Cities, has reported and written at the intersection of gender, cities, and human rights, among other themes. Her work has been featured in several digital publications, national and international. Ankita enjoys experimenting with different storytelling formats to bring urban and gendered realities to life. She is the recipient of the 4th South Asia Laadli Media & Advertising Award For Gender Sensitivity and the 14th Laadli Media & Advertising Award For Gender Sensitivity for a story that explored whether segregated parks for women could challenge Delhi’s male-dominated leisure spaces by walking through the city’s historical Purdah Bagh to find out. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Ambedkar University, New Delhi. An avid birder, when she’s not chasing stories, she’s usually chasing birds – her more elusive sources.
PK DAS
Founder, Question of Cities
An urban planner, architect and activist with a stupendous body of work and a list of national and international awards behind him, PK Das has sought to establish a close relationship between his discipline, urban ecology and people through a participatory planning process. His wide spectrum of work includes organising slum dwellers for better living, evolving affordable housing models, engaging in policy framework for mass housing, reclaiming public space in Mumbai by developing the waterfronts, re-envisioning the city and open spaces of Mumbai, urban renewal and conservation projects along with an architectural practice involving urban planning, urban design, architecture and interior design assignments across the country. He has demonstrated change by implementing more than 25 public interest projects through voluntary and collaborative endeavours involving local people and agencies. He hopes to integrate architecture and democracy for social change.
SMRUTI KOPPIKAR
Founder Editor,
Question of Cities
Mumbai-based journalist, chronicler and media educator, Smruti has more than 30 years of reporting, writing and editing experience across national and international publications on a range of subjects from the post-Babri Masjid communal riots to election campaigns, development and gender issues, cities and the media which fetched her a number of awards. She focussed on urban affairs writing in the last decade, documenting cities in transformation with Mumbai as her focus through her column MumbaiNama/MumbaiNaama and deep reporting projects. She is a well-regarded columnist and television panellist on urban issues and politics, and has authored chapters on cities in books and journals. She was a member of the core group which worked to include gender in Mumbai’s Development Plan 2034. She teaches journalism and media theory to undergraduate and postgraduate students, and most recently conducted a series of lectures on cities and pandemics.
SHOBHA SURIN
Associate Editor,
Question of Cities
Shobha has spent more than two decades in newsrooms of India’s well-known newspapers. She led teams on news desks and coordinated city news, mainly in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with a focus on bringing the less-told stories about urban peripheral areas into the mainstream media. When not poring over copy, she loves exploring new places and trekking. She nurtures a keen interest in the interface of urban issues and lives of people.
NIKEITA SARAF
Visualiser-Illustrator, Question of Cities
Nikeita is a Thane-based architect, illustrator and urban practitioner. Through her academic years at School of Environment and Architecture, she tried to explore, in various forms, the web of relationships which create space and form the essence of storytelling. Her interests in storytelling and narrative mapping stem from how people map their worlds and she explores this through her everyday practice of illustrating and archiving. ANKITA DHAR KARMAKAR
Multimedia Journalist and Social Media in-charge in Question of Cities
Ankita Dhar Karmakar, Multimedia Journalist and Social Media in-charge in Question of Cities, has reported and written at the intersection of gender, cities, and human rights, among other themes. Her work has been featured in several digital publications, national and international. Ankita enjoys experimenting with different storytelling formats to bring urban and gendered realities to life. She is the recipient of the 4th South Asia Laadli Media & Advertising Award For Gender Sensitivity and the 14th Laadli Media & Advertising Award For Gender Sensitivity for a story that explored whether segregated parks for women could challenge Delhi’s male-dominated leisure spaces by walking through the city’s historical Purdah Bagh to find out. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Ambedkar University, New Delhi. An avid birder, when she’s not chasing stories, she’s usually chasing birds – her more elusive sources.