Before doing this full-time, I've been a lifestyle journalist for 11 years with publications across several leading national newspapers and international digital media companies. I am a 3rd-generation resident of Chandigarh, a city that is itself only three generations old.

I went to a High School designed by Pierre Jeanneret, lived through the university designed by him, and grew up in public socialist housing designed by him in the 1950s. The first date of my life was in a building designed by Corbusier, the first beer of my life in a Corbusier cafe and both my parents worked inside Corbusier-designed buildings. Through my experiences growing up here with my family history, I live, breathe and exist as Chandigarh’s spirit.

With a master’s degree in communications and my journalism experience, I started conducting these tours as I witnessed tourism and travel guides here run a monotonous self-glorifying script. The industry lacked a real human touch, a base of secular objective facts - not coated in nationalism and battered in rabid religious fervor.

I have explored my city's architecture, urban planning & modern heritage through my work and personal experiences. I have participated in significant Googleable activism for my city - against its deforestation, for preserving its heritage, and fighting against its gentrification. I am loud about my political and social commentary about the changing landscapes of the city - from its classism, to its delicate balance between a metropolitan futuristic city vs a retirement playground for the ones with generational wealth. I've also traveled extensively personally, and with half a decade conducting these tours gives me a unique perspective on tourism and being a travel guide.

Rusty tours is an attempt to change the way you percieve travel in India.

Safe. Secure.

Hilariously unfiltered.
Real and raw- but no glorifying poverty tourism.

No performative dancing, no garlands, no exaggerated traditionalism, no dances - but the real modern India.