Surendran had a brief stint as a teacher of English Literature at
Calicut University in Kerala before moving to Mumbai in 1986 to work as a journalist, in the footsteps of his maternal uncle, the late
C.P. Ramachandran. Surendran began his career in print media as a
journalist with leading English newspapers including
The Times of India,
Times Sunday Review and
Bombay Times. He was a resident editor of
The Times of India in
Pune for three years from 2003 to 2006. He was the editor of
Open Magazine in New Delhi from 2009 to 2012. He went on to serve as the senior editor with
The Times of India in Delhi and later, as chief editor of
Daily News and Analysis (a.k.a. DNA). He is currently a
contributing editor,
columnist and
media consultant with
Khaleej Times. He is a columnist for Indian and international papers like
The Hindu,
The Hindustan Times,
Outlook,
Khaleej Times, and
Gulf News. ==Poetry==