Madhu Trehan studied at Welham Girls' School in Dehradun, graduating in 1962. In 1968, she went to Harrow Technical College & School of Arts in London to study journalistic photography. She earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, New York in 1972. While in New York, she worked at the United Nations in their press department, and served as an editor for a weekly newspaper, India Abroad. She returned to India in 1975 when she founded and started the news magazine India Today, with her father V.V.Purie, owner of Thomson Press. Trehan left the magazine to her brother's stewardship in 1977 during her pregnancy, and returned to New York to start her family. Upon her return to India in 1986, Trehan produced and anchored Newstrack, India's first video news magazine, which earned her a reputation as a pioneering investigative journalist.
In Aug 1994, Madhu Trehan took the rare and only interview of Yakub Memon who was convicted in 1993 Bombay bombings. In 2009 Trehan published her first book, Tehelka as Metaphor: Prism Me a Lie, Tell Me a Truth, examining the 2001 Operation West End exposé and its aftermath. Trehan has written for leading news magazines and newspapers such as Outlook India and Hindustan Times. In 2000 she launched Wah India, a website and print magazine. She, along with three other colleagues, also launched a crowd-sourced media critique website calledNewslaundry in February 2012.
Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:
IN MY OPINION
VERSE
D
My opinion
A
Is what people pay me for
G
I don't think I know anymore
D A
Than you or anyone else
My opinion
Is for the gullible
I'm not culpable
Just an actor playing a part
BRIDGE
Em A
I tell people what they want to hear
An affirmation of their own ideas
CHORUS
Em
And in a world of minions
G
Under dominion
A
You need strong opinions
D
Lightly held
VERSE
My opinion
Maybe overkill
But it pays my bills
Which is more than you can say for yours
My opinion
Brings in advertising
Which sells people other things
The secret cycle is shuddering
BRIDGE
I'm an illustrator that is all
The picture that I paint must be colourful
CHORUS
INSTRUMENTAL (BRIDGE & CHORUS)
MIDDLE
Em Am
Take what I say with a pinch of salt
The actions of others are not my fault
Can I be blamed for behaviour or refusal to think?
If someone pours you poison do you drink?
CHORUS