Aravindan Neelakandan has worked for the past decade with an NGO in Tamil Nadu serving marginalized rural communities in sustainable agriculture. He was awarded a junior research fellowship in cultural economics by the India's Ministry of Tourism to research the economic potentials of the neglected ruins in Kanyakumari district, in southern Tamil Nadu. These experiences provided him with in-depth knowledge of the history and sociology of Tamil people. He is also a popular science writer in Tamil and a columnist with UPI-Asia, a leading news portal. He is part of the editorial team of highly popular Tamil web portal www.tamilhindu.com.