Washington, Apr 21: India-born journalist Geeta Anand shared this year's Pulitzer prize for explanatory journalism for a series of stories about scandals in corporate America. She shared the Pulitzer prize with the staff of 'The Wall Street Journal', the South Asian Journalist Association (SAJA) said today.
Very few South Asians have won the prestigious journalism award. The first was Gobind Behari Lal in 1937.
The two stories that the one-time Mumbai-based Anand contributed in the winning series were: 'history and science: in Waksal's past: repeated ousters' and 'trial heat: biotech analysts strive to peek inside clinical tests of drugs'.

Anand told Saja, "I was very excited and so was everyone here at the wall street journal because a big group of US contributed to the winning stories.
"I felt very lucky because you can go through life writing good stories and never win big awards. But if luck and timing are on your side, you get recognized every now and then. In this case, we wrote good stories and they happened to be on a compelling topic."

Anand's first job in the US was at 'Cape Cod News'. Then she moved to 'Rutland Herald' in Rutland, Vermont.

She went to the 'Boston Globe' before joining the 'Wall Street Journal' in 1998.

Anand was India's national champion and record holder in 1982 in women's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. That year, she represented India in the Asian Games in New Delhi and the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia.
She now lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Bureau Report