When Sujatha was 26 years old she migrated to the US. She worked in the IT field until 2009 when she was laid off due to economic recession. She then took up a job in the New York City subways as a conductor. Her debut book Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India was published in 2017 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.