Novelist & Journalism Professor Dr. Sonora Jah

Name: Dr. Sonora Jha

Occupation: Journalism Professor and Author

Hometown: Mumbai, India

Why did you become a journalist?

My professors made me gravitate towards Journalism. I actually did my undergrad in business management, and then I wasn’t really enjoying it. I ended up taking a post-graduate course in communications…I thought I was going to go into advertising but my professors said that I had the heart of a journalist. I got an internship as a reporter and the rest is history.

Where do you find your primary motivation in journalism?

I like stories of human beings, real life stories. I have questions about those stories. I know I don’t get tired about human beings, their choices, their struggles. So, that is what motivates me when researching or writing a story on anything.

If you could give any advice to your twenty-year-old self what would it be?

I don’t think I would change anything. I would tell my twenty-year-old self to do whatever I did because I think everything I did brought me to where I am today. I’m glad I struggled when I was a twenty-one-year-old journalist; I’m glad I went through that. I mean, it really made me try harder. I wouldn’t tell myself to take it easier; I would tell myself do exactly what you are meant to do the time you are meant to do it.

Read more about Dr. Jah’s work and her novel, Foreign, on her website.