Profile
Rachna Bisht-Rawat is a journalist and writer with more than 20 years of experience. The Statesman, Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Outlook, Discover India and Femina are a few publications that she has written for. besides, a few websites like www.yourstory.com and Iconoculture, a global research and advisory company. She has worked with newspapers including Delhi Midday, The Statesman, Financial Express, Indian Express, Deccan Herald and The Hindu, has been atttached with the Leicester Mercury in the United Kingdom, reported on the London tube blasts, TN Seshan’s election campaign and the aftermath of the Kargil war. She has authored five books on the Indian Army, including three for Penguin Random House, one for the Assam Rifles and one detailing the history of her husband Lt Col Manoj Rawat's regiment – The Three - a history of the elite 3 Engineer Regiment. She has also helped in editing the regimental history of The Fifth Airborne, the Indian Army's highly decorated Para regiment, to which her late father Brigadier B.S. Bisht, SM, VSM, and her brother Col Sameer Bisht, SM, belong.
Books
The Brave - Param Vir Chakra stories
1965 – Five battles and five heroes from the first Indo-Pak war
Shoot.Dive.Fly. – 21 stories of grit and valour from the Indian Army that introduce young people to an exciting and adventurous career
The Dreamcatchers – Stories of hope from the Assam Rifles of how they used compassion to fight a war that guns could never win.
The first three books are available on Amazon. The fourth is for private circulation but can be ordered from its publisher.
Fellowships and awards
Harry Brittain Fellowship: She was the only Indian to be picked for the Harry Brittain Fellowship, 2005, organized by the Commonwealth Press Union. The fellowship gave 10 journalists from across the Commonwealth countries six weeks of exposure to the working of the press in the United Kingdom and an opportunity to study the Catholic Protestant divide in Northern Ireland. During this period, besides spending time in the offices of the BBC, Reuters, Daily Mail, Guardian, The Independent, she did a stint with the Leicester Mercury to understand how their newsroom works.
International Rolls Royce Award: In 2006, an article on Pooja, an eight-year-old girl child who supports her family by performing acrobatics on the streets of Bangalore, brought Rachna and her Deccan Herald photographer colleague Samson Victor the Commonwealth Press Quarterly’s Rolls Royce Award. The award was given for joint effort between a journalist and a photographer. www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150098608746057
Commonwealth Short Story Competition: Rachna's first short story Munni Mausi was a Highly Commended winner in the 2008-9 Commonwealth Short Story Competition, organized by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. It was picked from 1700 entries from across the world. Winning stories were recorded and given to broadcasting stations around the Commonwealth, including All India Radio and BBC.
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=79290886056
East Asia Regional Media Programme 2010: In March 2010, she was one of 30 journalists from the East Asia region invited to take part in a three-day programme on the role of journalism in multi-cultural societies and a globalised world.
College and School
Rachna did her schooling from St Anthony'sand St Patrick's Junior College, Agra,and graduation from St John's College. She studied journalism at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi,and started a career in journalism withThe Statesman, Delhi, where as a sub-editor her job responsibilities included editing copy that no one else wanted to edit and making tea for all the seniors in the news room.
Books
The Brave - Param Vir Chakra stories
1965 – Five battles and five heroes from the first Indo-Pak war
Shoot.Dive.Fly. – 21 stories of grit and valour from the Indian Army that introduce young people to an exciting and adventurous career
The Dreamcatchers – Stories of hope from the Assam Rifles of how they used compassion to fight a war that guns could never win.
The first three books are available on Amazon. The fourth is for private circulation but can be ordered from its publisher.
Fellowships and awards
Harry Brittain Fellowship: She was the only Indian to be picked for the Harry Brittain Fellowship, 2005, organized by the Commonwealth Press Union. The fellowship gave 10 journalists from across the Commonwealth countries six weeks of exposure to the working of the press in the United Kingdom and an opportunity to study the Catholic Protestant divide in Northern Ireland. During this period, besides spending time in the offices of the BBC, Reuters, Daily Mail, Guardian, The Independent, she did a stint with the Leicester Mercury to understand how their newsroom works.
International Rolls Royce Award: In 2006, an article on Pooja, an eight-year-old girl child who supports her family by performing acrobatics on the streets of Bangalore, brought Rachna and her Deccan Herald photographer colleague Samson Victor the Commonwealth Press Quarterly’s Rolls Royce Award. The award was given for joint effort between a journalist and a photographer. www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150098608746057
Commonwealth Short Story Competition: Rachna's first short story Munni Mausi was a Highly Commended winner in the 2008-9 Commonwealth Short Story Competition, organized by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. It was picked from 1700 entries from across the world. Winning stories were recorded and given to broadcasting stations around the Commonwealth, including All India Radio and BBC.
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=79290886056
East Asia Regional Media Programme 2010: In March 2010, she was one of 30 journalists from the East Asia region invited to take part in a three-day programme on the role of journalism in multi-cultural societies and a globalised world.
College and School
Rachna did her schooling from St Anthony'sand St Patrick's Junior College, Agra,and graduation from St John's College. She studied journalism at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi,and started a career in journalism withThe Statesman, Delhi, where as a sub-editor her job responsibilities included editing copy that no one else wanted to edit and making tea for all the seniors in the news room.