Shitika who?

Shitika Anand is a Sydney-based freelance journalist who is currently seeking another set of hands. You see, she always has her fingers dipped in way too many pies, so 10 of the aforementioned body part aren’t really enough.

If you ask her what she’s doing at this very second, first she’ll whinge (only a little) and then list out all the looming deadlines. She’s been published in Cosmopolitan magazine, CNNGo, CNN International, Fashionising, Courier-Mail online, mX newspaper, Frock Paper Scissors, The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide, MyLookBook, PRIMPED, Coco Lee, Sassi Sam and others.

But as of today, she’s the Contributing Editor of Fashionising.com, a regular contributor of CNN’s travel and lifestyle website – CNNGo.com and a health columnist at MWSG.

This addiction with the by-line started just as she became a proud owner of a beautiful piece of paper that read - “Shitika Anand – Bachelors of Journalism with Distinction”.

She finds it excruciating to praise herself in “about me” sections, but has realised, over the past four attempts, that they make her smile. This will be a very humble attempt, NOT to pen down another “i-will-be-the-next-Anna Wintour” alike post.

Shitika is scared of words like “hopes”, “wishes” and “might”. Justifying her scorpion traits, she is determined to follow the path of life, that she drew in her head when she first understood who a ‘journalist’ was. After concerned good-luck cards from family and friends, she left the ethnic land of India, and made her way down south to Australia. And over the past four years, she proudly confesses her love for this land.

She has a tendency to get lost under a colourful pile of post-it notes. You now know where to find her if she has a deadline to meet and she’s whining in despair. Also don’t be surprised if you find a neatly jotted to-do list behind her grocery shopping receipt.

Shitika used to buy flowers for herself every Saturday, but that not-so-cheap addiction had to come to an end when she made the big move to Sydney. She dreams of sitting in a French cafe with her hypothetical lover and reading French Vogue. She loves music in languages she doesn’t understand – only because it always sounds new and different. Give her a handsome Spanish man and watch her salsa and jive her way through the crowd.

She doesn’t find it offensive if you make fun of her five-foot-nothing height. She understands how it gives you something to talk about. She is very proud of her over-enthusiastic approach towards life. She always sees a positive in everything around her. Whether its a tyre burst, burnt toast or a rejection letter. She has a strange addiction with caffeine and macarons. She loves to laugh and loves to see you break in a chuckle too.

Photograph by: Samuel Webster