Umej Bhatia recieved his tertiary education in Cambridge and Harvard universities. In 1994,he worked as a print journalist in Phnom Penh, and was subsequently producer of “Talking Point” for Singapore television. Bhatia has been a career diplomat since 1996. He was conferred the Order of Independence (First Class) by the United Arab Emirates. Bhatia co-edited From Boys to Men: A Literary Anthology of National Service (Landmark). His short stories and poems have been published in various anthologies including The Merlion and the Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Malaysia and Singapore” (Penguin) and May Anthology (Cambridge). In 2008, the Rajaratnam School of International Studies published Bhatia’s historical monograph Forgetting Osama bin Munqidh, Remembering Osama bin Laden: The Crusades in Modern Muslim Memory with extracts reprinted in The Crusades: A Reader by University of Toronto Press in 2014. Bhatia is married and has two children.
