 Educated in St. Mary's Convent Inter College, a school run by Roman Catholic nuns, she went on to study History, Philosophy and English Literature at the University of Allahabad in the early nineteen seventies.In the course of an outstanding career in University, where she topped consistently in every academic year, she won ten gold and silver medals for academic brilliance.Soon afterwards in 1977 she was appointed Lecturer in English in the Department of English at the Allahabad University.