Arunima Joshua

About Me

I am an Editor who specialises in music and culture coverage.

How I Work

I tell stories capturing a moment or movement within India's music and culture landscape. With over a decade of association with India's independent music industry, I have covered the scene and contributed extensively to communications (PR) efforts in the same.

Get in Touch

arunima.joshua@gmail.com

Selected Bylines

Splainer • 31st October 2026

Shop ’til you drop: Mumbai edition

Editor’s note: We asked Arunima Joshua, journalist and Mumbai shopping expert, to cut through the clutter and compile this no-nonsense shopping guide to Mumbai, with a special focus on counter culture and indie finds. After all, no place does hustle with a side of cool better than the maximum city.

(Check out our shopping guides to Bengaluru and Goa. You can also head to our sister site, Souk, for the best shopping recommendations.)

*****

Fluxus Chapel (map), Bandra

This is run by o...

Time Out India • 14th September 2026

I went to Ladakh's first edition of Akasa Gathering and danced to techno beats

Read Time Out's trip report of the Akasa Gathering, a brand new destination music and wellness festival in Karu, LadakhAn expanse of arid Himalayan splendour unfurls beneath me as my rickety plane descends over Leh airport – the highest commercial airport in India, no less. I feel a twinge of nervousness grasp my chest as the pilot announces the temperature outside. Mumbai girls like me don't quite understand the concept of 3°C until the draught bites their noses off.
But what I'm here for is e...

Billboard India • 19th August 2026

Taba Chake Takes His Music to Europe | Billboard India

The finger-style guitarist and indie-folk performer behind the albums Bombay Dreams and Khud Ko Miloon is set to take his Nyishi dialect, Hindi, Assamese, and English tracks to five cities across the U.K. and Europe in October 2026. He sat down with Billboard India to answer our On The Road questionnaire.

Where are you taking your tour and how many stops are there?

Between October 7 to 11, I’ll be travelling from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Birmingham, London, Manchester and Cologne (German...

mint • 6th August 2026

Diaspora electronic artists look to the past for inspiration | Mint

The New York-based duo of Mihir Chauhan and Jaiveer Singh , who make music as Baalti, say it’s one of the most fun samples on their new record. It’s a small example of their unique source material—Carnatic beats, club sounds, chopped Indian classical scatting. In the 1970s, rumours swirled that the ‘Skylab’ satellite would crash in the Kashmir valley. It never did crash, but became a legendary anecdote. In Baalti & Lapgan’s music video for Lime Tikka, a village girl named “Satellite” is seen try...

Billboard India • 5th August 2026

How Peter Cat Recording Co. Became India’s Biggest Indie Export | Billboard India

Frontman Suryakant Sawhney’s (better known to fans as Lifafa) swinging serenade of “So move over darling…”, the opening lyric of “Memory Box”, soars over views of the San Francisco runway and planes across the glass. Low-lit lamps are placed between the swaying crowd of airport attendees. In June, the Delhi-based indie veterans Peter Cat Recording Co. took a 17-hour flight to the Californian city, landed at the airport, and played a pop-up concert at Terminal 1’s Gate B4 to a swarm of music enth...

Billboard India • 27th July 2026

Prateek Kuhad’s New Era Is ‘Loose And Free’

It’s a rainy afternoon in Mumbai’s Khar West suburb. We take the elevator to the seventh floor to meet Prateek Kuhad, fresh off the release of his third studio album, Full Moon Chamber. In a pristine white space, bathed in natural light, Kuhad is seated in a flowing cotton shirt and pants. The singer-songwriter, who has consolidated his status as an indie fixture over the past decade, has spent the last few years living partially in Los Angeles, where the new album was written and recorded. In I...

Billboard India • 23rd July 2026

On The Road: Rashmeet Kaur

Rashmeet Kaur took her Punjabi and Bollywood tunes to six cities across North America for her ‘Rashmeet Kaur Live’ tour over the last month. She sat down with Billboard India to answer our On The Road questionnaire.

1. Where did you tour and how many stops were there?

This was my first North American tour. ‘Rashmeet Kaur Live’ hit up New York, Toronto, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Oakland, Vancouver with six stops over the last month. Now I’m set to play two shows in Delhi and Mumbai in Aug...

Billboard India • 18th July 2026

On The Road: When Chai Met Toast

Kochi-based band When Chai Met Toast are set to perform in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Dubai and Vancouver – to name a few cities – for their ‘Joy Rooms’ tour from August – November 2026.

The four-piece act comprises vocalist Ashwin Gopakumar, guitarist Achyuth Jaigopal, keyboardist Palee Francis, and drummer Pai Sailesh. They sat down with Billboard India to answer our On The Road questionnaire.

1. Where are you touring and...

Time Out Mumbai • 18th July 2026

Beyond The Food Crawl: Mumbai's New Wave Of Indigenous Food Walks

Ambi bai is dancing. She's surrounded by the other adivasi women of the Thakkar tribal community, and for a moment, nobody in the group is thinking about the donna baskets or foraged shevdi stalks in front of them.
A city like Mumbai has no dearth of compelling cultural walks. The usual ones'll take you to hotspots to savour street food and fine dining alike. The pub crawls will get you day-drunk. But there's a newer kind of walk that isn't chasing either high. This is for the tourist sick of...

Billboard India • 11th July 2026

Meet NEVERSOBER: Indie Music’s Go-To Producers

Soham Mukherji and Riz Shain have produced songs for the likes of King, Jonita Gandhi, OutStation, Ikka, Chaar Diwari and even collaborations featuring Jay Sean and Jason Derulo. The duo, now 24 and 26-years old, have worked since their teen years on the art of music production, having learnt the ropes from YouTube tutorials, like many of their Gen Z peers.

While Mukherji comes from a musical family, having veteran Bollywood singer Shaan as his dad, Shain started out assisting brothers Armaan...

Selected Bylines

Splainer • 31st October 2026

Shop ’til you drop: Mumbai edition

Editor’s note: We asked Arunima Joshua, journalist and Mumbai shopping expert, to cut through the clutter and compile this no-nonsense shopping guide to Mumbai, with a special focus on counter culture and indie finds. After all, no place does hustle with a side of cool better than the maximum city.

(Check out our shopping guides to Bengaluru and Goa. You can also head to our sister site, Souk, for the best shopping recommendations.)

*****

Fluxus Chapel (map), Bandra

This is run by o...

Splainer • 13th April 2024

Bombay beauties: What you should be doing in the city

Bombay beauties: What you should be doing in the city

Editor’s Note: This is part one of the most detailed guides to Bombay’s crowded arts & culture scene. There are few people more passionate about the city than Arunima—who has spent 12 years exploring all its delightful nooks and crannies... Here’s what you really ought to be doing on your next trip to the Maximum City—from music venues, theatre, architecture and art galleries.

I've lived in the frenetic financial capital for the past 12 yea

Splainer • 22nd December 2023

A very useful gifting guide: How to shop on Instagram

A very useful gifting guide: How to shop on Instagram

Editor’s note: Gifting is tricky business—and creates great anxiety (See: This excellent The Atlantic essay). Insta seems like a great place to find something unique and thoughtful—handcrafted, bespoke items that show we care. But we all worry about being gypped. Advisory editor Arunima Joshua has a guide to help you navigate the perilous shoals of the ‘gram.

Instagrammable goodies. We’ve all seen them. Perfect pictures of baubles and cute

Mint Lounge • 18th November 2023

Sandunes’ earth songs in ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’

During the covid-19 pandemic, music producer and composer Sanaya Ardeshir thought “the world was going to end and that music was done”. Ardeshir, better known by her moniker, Sandunes, spent the first year of covid travelling through Goa and south India with her partner, bassist and mix engineer Krishna Jhaveri, recording circadian rhythms—12 hours of day time and 12 hours of night time recordings, with no intention of making music again.

The songwriter from Mumbai considered doing something el

IndiaTimes • 14th September 2023

Four Indie Music Artists Setting The Stage On Fire Right Now!

On a rainy evening at Mumbai’s G5A “black box” performance venue, Kavya Trehan, (stage name stylised as KAVYA), is surrounded by an extensive set of loopers, synthesisers, electronic drums and keys. The indie artist is performing songs from her 2021 EP Know Me Better: Her lilting voice casts a spell aided by her outfit of couture saree-pants. KAVYA put on an audio-visual spectacle nothing like I’d witnessed before, in my decade of attending indie gigs and festivals. Her vocals channelled pop and

Splainer • 2nd September 2023

Folk to film: Bollywood remakes traditional ballads

Editor’s Note: Here’s a modern folk lesson. Arunima takes you through the history of folk compositions and their several renditions that finally land up in the glitzy and danceable world of Bollywood music. Listen in, take in the folklore—and feel free to compare them to the filmy versions!

Bollywood has often retold folk and oral traditions glistening them alive to the silverscreen. This is also true for the musical traditions of the largest film industry in the world. We introduce you to the

Splainer • 5th August 2023

We recommend: Indie music from the Valley

We recommend: Indie music from the Valley

Editor’s Note: Here’s a wonderful crash course in contemporary independent music from Kashmir. Hip-hop, sufi and rock artists are recreating poetry and folk sounds—but with a message and often uncomfortable for the rest of the nation.

Indie experimentation in the subcontinent is peaking across genres. And it’s no different in Kashmir where indie artists are seriously kicking ass. The mood in the Valley is more hip-hop—marked by a resurgence of sufi-fol

Splainer • 8th July 2023

Beer drinker’s guide to Pune

Editor’s Note: The lesser-known treasure of Pune is its craft beer. Homegrown breweries, online deliveries, draft beer on tap and the multiple craft beer festivals reflect the laid back pace of the city. Hope you enjoy checking Arunima Joshua’s favourite spots to grab a cold one. Have a ‘brewtiful’ weekend:)

It’s no secret that craft breweries and artisanal beer are having their ‘hoppiest’ moment in the country. Beer drinkers are spoilt for choice—whether you’re in the mood for coconut cream al

Splainer • 1st July 2023

An excellent playlist of drummer beats

Editor’s Note: This weekend, unleash your inner percussionist with these groove slapping tracks curated by Aarifah Rebello. The selection ranges from the pop punk phonetics of Paramore to classics from Jet, Mutemath and Death Cab for Cutie. Also included: off-time signatures and double kick beats from the masters Foo Fighters and Alter Bridge and new-age RnB from Anderson .Paak.

As a storyteller and performer, Aarifah Rebello may strum a trusty acoustic guitar or experiment with a live-looper,