Binti is an Author and a Professor who feels that many people quit right before the miracle was going to happen and miss their opportunity. She feels that we should be patient and consistent in life.

Dr. Binti Singh is an Author, Urban Sociologist, and Academic Researcher on cities and urban issues. Binti has authored four books namely, ‘The Divided City: Policy and Ideological Contestations in Contemporary Urban India’, ‘Lucknow: Culture, Place, Branding, and Activism’, ‘Smart City in India: Urban Laboratory, Paradigm or Trajectory?’ and ‘How Will India Fix Her Urban Future?’

Binti says that her fifth book is on Resilience and Southern Urbanism and is currently under production in Routledge publications. She is also a book series editor in Routledge and her focus is on motivating people to write more quality content. Binti is also working as a Professor and teaching a master’s program on Urban Design and Urban Conservation. She is also an Associate Editor with Oxford Urbanists Digital which is a digital magazine of the Oxford University. Binti also writes regularly for Business World Smart City and Domus India magazines.

Binti shares that she has always been a good student and was always inclined towards studies. She was also good at writing. She adds that it was always meant for her to be in the field of Literature and Writing. After topping her 11th and 12th standards she got admission to the Presidency College in Kolkata and even excelled in its entrance test which had just twenty-one seats. She took Sociology as her subject and graduated in 1999. She was again a university topper and says that her good results motivated her to study further in life.

In 2003, she qualified for the entrance examination for M.Phil. and went to pursue the same in IIT Mumbai. After that, she continued in IIT Mumbai itself as a Junior Research Fellow for her Doctorate and got a UGC fellowship as well. In the last leg of her Doctorate, Binti started her professional life and joined the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

Binti feels that during her M.Phil., she was exposed to fields like Rural Development and Urban Societies. She visited many villages near Mumbai, had conversations with people there, and developed a sense of how the rural ecosystem works. For her dissertation, she picked up the topic related to the Slum Rehabilitation Program and visited slums in Mumbai. She says that she has always been a person who goes to the ground for research and makes her work practical and connected to the masses. All this groundwork also pushed her towards Urban Sociology and related fields.

Binti shares that the turning point in her life was the Mumbai floods of 2005. Everything was submerged and everyone had only one question in their minds, why did it happen? She shares that after the devastating floods, an NGO Council was set up of sixty-nine NGOs which started consultations with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai on ways to avert any such incidents in future. Binti attended their consultation meetings, learned from the discussions, and was very much connected to the whole process. This also pushed Binti towards the field she is in now.

Binti feels that writing is like jogging where the main task is getting up from the bed and wearing your jogging shoes. She says that in writing also you just have to start jotting down points once and the process will automatically start. She says that your writing should be as crisp as possible because we are living in an era of decreasing attention spans. Also, she paraphrases what Jhumpa Lahiri says that to be a good writer, you have to be an avid reader first. Binti also adds that she became an author by chance as she had no job and her best skill was writing.

Binti feels that there are going to be many points in life that will make you feel like quitting and that is where you have to show your strength. Be consistent in your work and follow your heart. Binti says that she has always followed her heart and reached where she is today.

In her free time, Binti tries to be more productive and listens to Podcasts and Audiobooks. She also loves listening to music as it unwinds her thoughts.