 She was awarded a Summa Cum Laude for her M.A.by Boston University following which she taught Literature for a short while at Miranda House, and then joined the Government's Publications Division.Sheila had published a book - Raga'n Josh - about the lifestyle of the Mathur Kayasthas in the Delhi of the 1940s and '50s providing a glimpse of the old Delhi, which included her experiences with life in bureaucracy and anecdotes from the lives of musicians like Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar, Pran Nath , and Begum Akhtar.