Bupinder Singh Bali

Writer, Editor. Memoir-book *Those who stayed: The Sikhs of Kashmir* out now with @AmaryllisManjul A.Ed Bylines: The Week, Wire, Outlook, etc.

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

Those who stayed; The sikhs of Kashmir is a riveting tale of love, identity and resilience. The story of a minorty people living in the conflicted state of #Kashmir
#book #WritingCommunity #writerslift
Now available for preorder.
https://t.co/esLHShAoAp

[The Wire @thewire_in]

How the War in West Asia Exposes the Geopolitical Limits of Indian Students

@Fidoic✍️
https://t.co/3RB9tO581b

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

5/5
I try to think through these questions not only through policy, but through the emotional and social worlds of students and families trying to build futures through education.

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

1/
My latest piece for The Wire looks at how the war in West Asia has exposed the fragile geopolitical foundations beneath the dreams of Indian students studying abroad.
https://t.co/NbQws0EO16

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

4/
The piece asks a larger question:
What happens when mobility itself becomes unstable in a world shaped by wars, border anxieties, and geopolitical competition?

[Kiran Manral @KiranManral]

This weekend. Sign up? Seats closing soon.

[Kiran Manral @KiranManral]

This May, The Story Company India brings you three focused, practice-led workshops designed for people who are serious about improving their craft.

1. The Editor’s Toolkit: Foundations of Editing
With Dr Pallavi Narayan

Most writing workshops teach how to generate writing. Far fewer teach how to revise it. But revision is where writing becomes clear, precise, and publishable.

Across two extended sessions, you will learn:
• the different stages of editing used in publishing
• how editors diagnose structural problems
• strategies for tightening sentences and improving clarity
• how to revise without losing voice

Dates: May 9 and May 10
Time: 11 AM IST
Duration: 2 sessions, 2 hours each
Fee: ₹9,500/-

2. Writing from Life: Listening, Observation, and Story
With Bupinder Singh Bali

Most people say they “write from life.” But life does not arrive as neat scenes. It comes as fragments, overheard conversations, gestures, and emotional residue.

This workshop focuses on the discipline of attention. On learning how to see, listen, and shape lived experience into meaningful narrative.

You will explore:
• how to listen for narrative, not just information
• how to observe without reducing people into stereotype
• how to shape lived experience into scenes
• how to work with voice, ethics, and representation

Participants will leave with a developed short piece grounded in real-world material.

Dates and Timings:
May 15, 8:30 PM
May 17, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
May 17, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

Duration: 3 sessions, 1.5 hours each
Fee: ₹4,500/-

3. Start Writing: A Creative Writing Workshop for Beginners
With Kiran Manral

No fluff. No motivational monologue.
You will write. Right there in the session.

This workshop is for beginners, first-time writers, students, and anyone who wants to stop thinking about writing and actually begin.

You will leave with words on the page, and the tools to keep going. Date: May 16
Time: 11 AM IST
Duration: 2 hours
Fee: ₹3,000/-
Limited seats. Because chaos is best managed in small groups.
How to Register
Make your payment at: kiranmanral@okicici
Email the screenshot to: [email protected] to reserve your seat

[Kiran Manral @KiranManral]

Most people say they “write from life.” It sounds simple, almost effortless, as if lived experience naturally turns itself into story.

But anyone who has tried knows it is not that straightforward.

Life is not arranged in scenes. It does not arrive with structure, narrative clarity, or thematic coherence. It arrives as noise, fragments, overheard sentences, half-seen gestures, and emotional residue. The work of writing is not simply to record life, but to learn how to see it, hear it, and shape it into meaning without flattening it in the process.

That is the starting point for a new workshop: Writing from Life: Listening, Observation, and Story, a focused, practice-led programme with writer and ethnographer Bupinder Singh Bali.

This is not a workshop about “getting inspired.” It is about learning the discipline of attention.

It is for writers who want to move beyond surface storytelling and engage more rigorously with real-world material. The kind of writing where detail is not decorative, voice is not accidental, and ethics is not an afterthought.

What this workshop explores

At its core, this workshop is about learning how to convert lived experience into narrative without losing its complexity or truth.

You will work through questions that most writers encounter but rarely pause to study:

How do you listen for narrative, not just information
How do you observe people, spaces, and everyday detail without reducing them into stereotype
How do you shape lived experience into scenes that carry emotional and narrative weight
How do you work with voice, ethics, and representation when the material comes from real lives

The emphasis here is not on speed or output, but on depth. On slowing down enough to notice what usually gets missed.

Participants will leave the workshop with a developed short piece grounded in real-world material. Not a draft generated from imagination alone, but writing that has been built from observation, listening, and structured reflection.

Format and details

3 sessions × 1.5 hours

Dates:

15 May (Friday), 8:30 PM
17 May (Sunday), 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
17 May (Sunday), 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

Fee: ₹4,500/-
Limited batch
This workshop is designed for writers of nonfiction, memoir, long-form journalism, and literary fiction. It is particularly suited to those who feel they already have material, but are looking for greater clarity, precision, and honesty in how they shape it.

About the facilitator:

Bupinder Singh Bali is a writer, ethnographer, and author of Those Who Stayed: The Sikhs of Kashmir. His work has appeared in publications such as The Wire, Columbia School of Journalism platforms, Outlook, The Week, The India Forum, and more. His practice sits at the intersection of reportage, lived experience, and careful field observation, with a focus on how stories emerge from real contexts rather than being imposed upon them.

To register:

Interested participants can DM or email [email protected]

This is a limited batch workshop.

For writers who are not just looking to write more, but to write better, with more attention to the world as it actually is.

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

9/ The question is not only what we remember, but what we fail to recognize as history at all.

New essay: Quiet Pluralism of Kashmir’s Sikhs

https://t.co/S4BkSq8yno

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

1/ Kashmir is told through two scripts: occupation or exodus. What happens to those who fit neither story?

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

8/ What survives instead: memory, testimony, registers, fragments of everyday life.

[The India Forum @TheIndiaForum]

Kashmiri Sikhs, less than 2% of the Valley’s population, sustain a quiet pluralism through shared language, ritual, and neighbourly proximity. This fragile coexistence is being hollowed out by violence, political invisibility, and a slow migration. @Fidoic
https://t.co/BwcF3dignD

[Bupinder Singh Bali @Fidoic]

I will be teaching how to use Oral History and Ethnography tools for writing fiction, non-fiction and journalism pieces.

DM for registration.