Dr. Shalini has been writing poetry and short stories since her college days. Given the pressures of a demanding job and a hectic family life, her creative writing took a backseat. But she found her creative voice again and in April 2019, she published a novella based on her blog posts titled ‘Looking for Myself’ (Authorspress). The praise she received for the book from family and colleagues spurred her to explore her creative self and she has been writing daily micro-stories online since September 2021. The stories are under the hashtags – #oneparastories and #sookshmakathayein in Hindi.

During the year 2008-09, Dr. Shalini was the Program Director for the Advertising & Public Relations Department of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, IIMC, New Delhi which comprised over 60 students. This involved conceptualizing the entire course for the year-long Post-Graduate Diploma in Advertising & Public Relations from the making of the syllabus to organizing classes, teaching, grading, teaching in other PG Diploma programs in IIMC, as well as in the Development Journalism Program meant for media persons from the developing world and short-training courses for Central/State government and PSU officers. The Development Journalism course was a challenge as there were participants from countries across the globe – from Nepal to Mexico, Nigeria to Russia.

Having trained hundreds of Officer Trainees as well as officers of the Central and State Governments, and Public Sector Undertakings during her tenure at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dr. Shalini has been involved with training of officers even after taking voluntary retirement from the Indian Information Service. Her main areas of expertise include new media, including social media, governance, media relations, marketing and fact-checking, with focus on health fact-check. During her five-year stint in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, she was Course Director for the Indian Information Service officers, both Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’. She has organized and participated in conducting courses for officers from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting posted in media units such as Press Information Bureau, the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP, now the Central Bureau of Communication, CBC), All India Radio’s News Services Division, senior officers from the armed forces and many other officers from Ministries/Departments, as well as PSUs/autonomous organizations like BHEL, National Commission for Women, Employees Provident Fund Organization, the Administrative Staff College in Hyderabad and many more. She has been a regular invited faculty at the National Academy of Customs and Indirect Taxes, NACIN for over a decade now.