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DEEPTI
HAJELA is a newswoman with The Associated Press. (And yes,
newswoman is the official title.) She was elected president
of the South Asian Journalists Association in January 2005.
She
works in the New York City Metro Bureau. Primarily a reporter,
she also spends time as an editor and has been known to wax
obsessive in her search for the perfect word.
Being
an AP reporter means she covers anything and everything that
happens in New York, her absolute favorite city in the world,
and believe her when she says that encompasses topics she never
imagined. But she loves it, particularly when it means writing
about subjects she's really passionate about: race and culture.
Among her memorable AP and SAJA moments: writing the AP review of "Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix" while putting the final touches on the 2003 SAJA Convention.
Before
coming to New York in 1999, Deepti worked for the AP in Newark,
N.J., where she drove her gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle
into the ground while covering daily life in her favorite state.
(Hey, she's from there.) She loved covering sports, especially
since she can't play any but is a champion spectator. And even
now, she can usually figure out how to get home no matter what
part of North Jersey she's in.
Raised
and reared a Jersey girl (she can tell you where all the malls
are), Deepti left for the Midwest in 1992 to attend Northwestern
University's Medill School of Journalism. She graduated in 1996
with both bachelor's and master's degrees, and has been working
for the AP ever since.
A
founding member of the SAJA Board,
she served as convention coordinator for several years before becoming president.
E-mail:
sajadeepti@yahoo.com
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