I look for stories everywhere. And stories are all around. I see it in my mother’s home; on a very innocuous lunch bill; a fountain pen that hasn’t been used for a long while. Everywhere. And my experience has it that when you look at such things long enough, stories emerge.

I am trained to look for stories at the intersection of technology, power, institutions, and people. This is why I could co-author The Aadhaar Effect: Why the World’s Largest Identity Project Matters (Oxford University Press).

By way of background, I am Charles Assisi, a co-founder Founding Fuel. This is where I look for problems that keep entrepreneurs awake. One part of me describes their narratives. The other part works to solve their problems.

Through the week, I write two columns for the Hindustan Times. First Principles at the intersection of business and technology. Life Hacks on living the examined way.

Most of my working life has been spent in newsrooms. Indian Express, Editor at CHIP India. National Technology Editor and National Business Editor at The Times of India, and Managing Editor, Forbes India which I worked to launch.

More recently, I contributed to an anthology that will be published by Penguin India later this year. I’ve worked closely with a few people as well to shape their books.

Through all of this, I’ve learnt to ask some interesting questions: Which facts must survive? Which sentence performs? What story really matters?

Once a while, I teach writing at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

I take on three kinds of work.

A book that does not exist or rescue a manuscript in trouble.
Get into a closed room with a small group that needs to brainstorm.
Write columns that need a spine.

What I won’t do? Make you the hero of a story that isn’t true.