In Conversation with Ashwin

Jananie shares her journey from being the reluctant "family showpiece" singer to recording tracks that echo through theater speakers. Growing up in Chennai's vibrant music scene, she discovered her voice through college radio hunts and formal Carnatic training. Now balancing life as a copywriter at Ogilvy in Bangalore (India) with her passion for playback singing, Jananie opens up about recording...

On Season 2 episode 4 of In Conversation with Ashwin , I chat with Rudra about a topic very close to both our hearts, Friendship . Rudra is my first and best friend and we met 27 years ago in a queue to our school admissions line up, not knowing that we'd be tied to the hip for years to come.  There's so many things I admire about Rudra, but most of all his generosity and attentiveness to his frie...

On this episode, I have Abishek Narayan who is currently working as a researcher at Eawag, the Swiss Water Institute in Zurich. Abishek has PhD in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zurich and a Masters from Oxford in Water Science, Policy and Management. After checking privilege at the door and discussing his early upbringing in the modest city of Chennai, Abishek talks to us about his tryst with...

The episode is titled ' second life' because that is how lucky and grateful Suhail felt after he gained consciousness from having suffered a gruesome New York subway accident that left his left leg amputated. On the show, we discuss Suhail's early childhood, his obsession with reading and ball along with his love for public policy. A large part of the episode dives into his mental and physical res...

My guests on the show are Ashna Lulla , writer of the book ' With Love Madras ', and Vignesh Sivakumar , the photographer , and visual storyteller . One of them is my wife and I was a proud beaming husband after recording the episode :) She absolutely crushed it with this book and so did Vignesh.  With Love, Madras is a book that takes you on a stunning visual journey through homes across the city...

Nimmi Roche is the founder of Blue Flag Project - an all-purpose sustainable men's shoewear that I cannot wait to buy. Each pair of Blue Flags is made of ~8 upcycled plastic water bottles. On the episode, we discuss Nimmi's early childhood and how that has influenced her choices. We chat about her MBA at Harvard (and why Harvard MBA students shy away from revealing the name of their institution)....

YouTube Link to audiovisual - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMe_oUUfIkg&t=1544s FYI- I would say it's better to watch and listen via the Youtube link. However, if you are on the move, this recording should do a good job as well! The visual helps drive the point home but the audio, independently, does not do a bad job either. Best to listen in with headphones :) About the episode- A recording...

On the show we discuss Rahul’s early childhood and his motivation behind starting Storiyoh. How he moved from being an employee in London’s financial district to a full-time entrepreneur. From the 15th minute on, we talk about podcasting- Rahul’s love for BBC world services and how it inspired him to start Storiyoh. We talk about the business model of podcasting by breaking it into 3 topics- distr...

On the show, we discuss Rashi’s journey of vagabonding across different cities in India as an army kid and how that helped her to embrace change and even thrive in it. We discuss how the army life exposed her to sports early in her life, her tennis adventures and why she decided not to pursue a career in sports. We get her take on women and gender diversity in the corporate and sports arena. We ta...

Amrita, an HR professional for 7 years, now turned photographer runs mommyshotsbyamrita- your one stop shop for anything baby and camera related. She’s been an entrepreneur for 4 and a half years now. Although Amrita Samant liked her job in the Human Resource department, there was a constant desire in her to do something artistic with her life. During this phase in her life, photography started of...

You can find Swapna on- Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/swapna.nair Swapna’s glamorous experience as the cover girl of Good Housekeeping- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhZhwC_g1AA   Swapna’s blog - http://dreamlearns.blogspot.com/   Show notes-  People-  Carol Dweck  Marilee Adams  Brene Brown  Books-  Mindset  Change your questions, change your life  Daring greatly

Aditya is a former investment banker and management consultant with a Finance degree from NYU Stern, but he left all that behind to join Pocket Aces, a digital media start-up best known for it's channels FilterCopy and Dice Media. After starting as a production intern, 3 months he was asked to take over as the Head of Video for FilterCopy. You might not have heard of Aditya himself but chances are...

In my conversation with Krishna, we talk about his early childhood, his love for battlefields, how he hid his passion for writing for a good amount of time just so he wouldn't be discouraged. His loneliness and frustration leading up to his first publication, Krishna's interaction with musical maestro, AR Rahman (Krishna spent months traveling with AR Rahman, spoke to his family, directors and oth...

In casual conversation with Chennai boy and a dear friend- Ashwin Sridhar Iyer (fondly known as Iyer). We discuss Iyer’s childhood, his journey in Boston and what motivates him. We also discuss his obsession of making people around him happy, how he deals with expectations of being happy all the time and his love for alone time. Iyer shares a tip on how humour helps him get through difficult times...

Pranshu grew up in Chennai, went to Wharton for college. He had originally dreamed of going into politics in India after college (idealistic dreams of changing the country and all that. He started his first company in his 2nd year; retail analytics using security cameras which got funded by Y combinator, raised $1mm. But then he shut the product down in 2016, returned money and began pivoting. He...

In casual conversation with film enthusiast Kishen Das. Kishen is a film enthusiast and currently works with film merchandising and movie reviewing company-Fully Filmy. Only 20 years old, Kishen has a great skill base to thrive in the movie world as an actor and beyond. Only a matter of time till he makes it to the box office. We discuss his early childhood, stand-up comedy, why slapstick humour w...

In casual conversation with yogini Deepika Mehta. Deepika is a well known yoga teacher and professional fitness expert, Deepika lives in Mumbai, India where she teaches regular classes in Bandra. She also has clients (individuals and corporates) all over the country. She helps them achieve ultimate mind and body experiences with Ashtanga Yoga, diet and lifestyle advice, and has helped them arrive...

In casual conversation with Siebel Scholar Rohan Rajiv who currently works at LinkedIn as a Product Manager. Prior to this, he graduated with an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His personal mission statement is to build active relationships with framily (close friends and family), learn, and strive to have a positive impact on his world and, in time, “the world.” H...

In casual conversation with Asmita Ghosh, a digital editor at Feminism in India where she writes, edits and tweets for a living. On a Saturday morning, we discuss the MeToo Campaign, the Raya Sarkar episode, the world's patriarchy, generational social conditioning and Asmita's YouTube video which gathered a million views. Outside of work, Asmita spends her time singing with a blues band and missin...

In casual conversation with the Gujju son and mom- Dhruv Vora and Neha Vora. On a lazy Sunday evening, we discuss god, first impressions and pineapple on pizza. Dhruv's twitter handle is @VoraDhruv94 Subscribe to News on the Go here: @ashwin-chhabria-764883296

In casual conversation with Bhargav Prasad, a writer and stand-up comedian. On a lazy Sunday evening, we discuss objectivity versus emotion and social anxiety among other things. Bhargav's twitter handle is @CFLlightSabers Subscribe to News on the Go here: @ashwin-chhabria-764883296