Naina Bajekal

Bajekal is a British-Indian writer and editor based in New York. She was previously executive editor and international editor at TIME.

Recent Articles

My Week at the Buzzy Meditation Retreat That Promises Bliss on Demand

Can you hack your way to happiness? I tried to find out

By Naina Bajekal / Applegate, Calif.

How We Chose the 2024 Women of the Year

This year's list features 12 leaders who are working to build a more equal world.

By Naina Bajekal , Lucy Feldman and Cate Matthews

Sam Altman Is TIME's 2023 CEO of the Year

Altman emerged as one of the most powerful executives in the world, the public face and leading prophet of a technological revolution.

By Naina Bajekal/San Francisco and Billy Perrigo/San Francisco

Stella McCartney Is Changing Fashion From Within

The designer is fighting to make luxury fashion at LVMH sustainable.

By Naina Bajekal/London

How We Chose the 2023 Women of the Year

This year's list features 12 leaders who are working to build a more equal world

By Naina Bajekal and Lucy Feldman

Fighting for a Future Free of Nuclear Weapons

Beatrice Fihn, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, on why she's optimistic about the prospect of nuclear disarmament

By Naina Bajekal

Inside the Growing Movement to Do More Good

Effective altruists believe we should care about people thousands of miles away—and perhaps even millions of years in the future.

By Naina Bajekal/Oxford, U.K.

Inside the Mind of Ursula von der Leyen

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is determined to lead the E.U. through yet another crisis.

By Naina Bajekal/Davos, Switzerland

Exclusive: Chancellor Olaf Scholz on a New Era for Germany

After decades of embracing pacifism to atone for two world wars, Germany now stands to emerge as a true global power—with a military to match

By Lisa Abend and Naina Bajekal/Berlin

How We Chose the 2022 Women of the Year

The list highlights 12 extraordinary leaders working for a more equal world

By Naina Bajekal and Lucy Feldman

Journalists Reflect on Covering Stories About Their Communities

Longstanding journalistic maxims would have a reporter remain disengaged while gathering the facts. But pursuing the whole truth means considering the humanity of one’s subjects—and of oneself. Lived experience can help a reporter empathize and...

By Jasmine Aguilera , Jenna Caldwell , Josiah Bates , Nadia Suleman , Naina Bajekal , Paulina Cachero , Sanya Mansoor and Suyin Haynes

How India’s COVID-19 Crisis Spiraled Out of Control

The country is now facing the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, and a devastating humanitarian crisis

By Naina Bajekal

Women Are Transforming What Climate Leadership Looks Like

The COVID-19 pandemic, like the climate crisis, is amplifying existing racial and gender injustices in our society. TIME editors Naina Bajekal and Elijah Wolfson moderated a conversation with two women working to create a more...

By Naina Bajekal and Elijah Wolfson

A Reading List to Celebrate Asian Authors

See a curated reading list from members of TIME's Asian community that celebrates Asian authors

By Naina Bajekal , Paulina Cachero , Andrew R. Chow , Suyin Haynes , Cady Lang and Karena Phan

A Defiant New Take on Contemporary India

“Writers and politicians are natural rivals,” Salman Rushdie wrote in his 1982 essay “Imaginary Homelands.” “Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory. And the novel...

By Naina Bajekal

'Brits Are Notoriously Prudish.' On Set With the Cast of Netflix's Sex Education

Squeals and laughter ring out across the set of Sex Education. It’s Gillian Anderson’s last day of filming for Season 2, and Ncuti Gatwa–who plays the show’s ebullient teen Eric Effiong–has just discovered Anderson has...

By Naina Bajekal

Zora Neale Hurston's Short Stories Finally Get Their Due in a New Posthumous Collection

“Folklore,” Zora Neale Hurston wrote in an essay, “is the boiled-down juice of human living.” It was this deep interest in the lives and stories of the black community that led Hurston, who grew up...

By Naina Bajekal

She Was Misdiagnosed With Bipolar Disorder. Now She's Probing the Gaps in Our Understanding of Mental Illness

“If sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them?” So begins a landmark 1973 study by Stanford psychology professor David Rosenhan, who persuaded eight healthy people to feign hallucinations and commit themselves to mental...

By Naina Bajekal

India Is Starting to Lift Kashmir Restrictions. What Happens Next?

Over two months since the repeal of Kashmir's special status, citizens are bracing themselves for what's next

By Naina Bajekal

A Newly Translated Novel Charts the Dizzying Transformation of an Independent Oman

“When we are away from home, in new and strange places, we get to know ourselves better,” Abdallah, the son of a rich merchant, thinks as he gazes out an airplane window. It’s a sentiment...

By Naina Bajekal
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