In a public discussion at the Press club in March 2017, Teesta recounted that despite coming from a family steeped in a legal heritage, she decided to pursue a career in journalism after reading a book that her father had bought her called "All the President's men". She subsequently went to college, studied law for two years, dropped out and then graduated with a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Bombay University in 1983 and started work as a journalist. She reported for the Mumbai editions of "The Daily (India)" and "The Indian Express" newspapers, and later for "Business India" magazine. Her first brush with communal violence came when she covered the 1984 riots in 1984 in Bhiwandi.