Karishma Mehta | |
|---|---|
 Mehta at 2019 launch of her book, Humans of Bombay: Ordinary People Extraordinary Stories | |
| Born | 5 March 1992 |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2014–present |
| Known for | Humans of Bombay |
Karishma Mehta (born 5 March 1992) is the founder of the photo blog page Humans of Bombay which launched in January 2014, and author of the related book Humans of Bombay. [1]
Mehta was born and raised in Mumbai and attended the Bombay Scottish School, Mahim. [2] [3] She attended a boarding school in Bangalore for two years and then college in the UK for three years. [2] In 2013, Mehta was an economics and business student in Nottingham, UK, [3] and holds a degree in business and economics [4] from the University of Nottingham. [5] [6] She is a freelance writer for various publications, including National Geographic . [3] She is a TEDx speaker. [7] [8] Mehta is fluent in Hindi, English and Marathi. [8] She is the niece of Zarna Garg.
In January 2014, Mehta began the Humans of Bombay Facebook page, copied from American Photographer Brandon Stanton's - the Humans of New York (HoNY) Facebook page. [3] [9] [4] After discovering the HoNY page in 2013, she tried to find a similar page for Mumbai, and after not finding one, she created a logo and made a Facebook page herself. [3] To find subjects for the website, Mehta approached people on the street [3] [4] [8] and interviewed them. [6] By 2018, her team had expanded to six members based in Mumbai, with freelance members in other parts of India. [8]
In 2016, Mehta compiled posts, into a self-published book, Humans of Bombay, [4] in her attempt to directly raise money to fund the website. [3]
As of 2021, the site has over a million followers on Facebook and over two million on Instagram. [10] In 2022, she launched an interview-based YouTube web series called "How The Hell Did I Do It?" which features businesspeople, celebrities, and other accomplished people answering interview questions to provide insight on how they accomplished certain things in their lives. [11]
In October 2023, Mehta faced widespread cyber trolling after a failed attempt at suing another page 'People of India' for copyright infringement and Mehta's work called out for plagiarism. [12] Mehta and Humans of Bombay also received criticism from their inspiration Brandon Stanton, the founder of the Humans of New York [13] [14] [15]