Parmesh Shahani

Activist, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Foodie, Gay, Global soul, Idea generator, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Parmesh Shahani is the author of the award-winning book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace (2020). His first book 'Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India' was released in 2008. He is presently a curator and consultant to many different organisations on their LGBTQIA inclusion strategies. Until 2021, he headed the Godrej India Culture Lab, an award winning experimental idea-space that he founded and ran for 10 years. Parmesh has a Masters degree in Comparative Media Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a TED Senior Fellow, a Yale World Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

LGBTQIA writing, films and activism, queer histories, contemporary Indian fashion art and design, the changing ideas around museums, the past and the narratives we tell ourselves, air cafes, Japanese food, Mumbai and Boston.

LGBTQIA+ inclusion at workplaces in win-win, whichever way you look at it!

Diversity and Inclusion, LGBTQIA activism, Media Technology & Web 2.0

TED has literally changed my life. It helped me gain confidence post the publication of my first book and selection as a TED Fellow in 2009, empowered me to do the work that followed with the India Culture Lab and being selected as a TED Senior Fellow re-inspired me to write Queeristan, my second book and subsequently help create a wider LGBTQIA inclusion ecosystem in India.

Listening.