New Indian Woman

Women often decide to leave their careers for the sake of family - be it to take care of young children or to move to a new location where the partner is posted. Meet Radhika, who, happily made such a choice and then felt disappointed when she was unable to find a job aligned with her skillset and experience at her new location. She chose the next best option available for her, namely, to switch t...

Do we know how to make best use of our smart phones ? Most often, we get sucked in into using the phone for various purposes. At the same time, we may not be using it enough, as a tool, to help us. The phone could be your most powerful tool. And you need not know anything about technology to use your phone in a smart way.   In this episode, we go thru the various categories of usage. Some of these...

Why would someone with a background in design want to focus on something that everyone wishes to hide away in a corner of the house ? And that too, when she is one of the founding Faculty member of the reputed Shrishti School of Design in Bangalore ?   In this episode, we chat with Poonam Bir Kasturi, the founder of DailyDump. Her work has directly impacted more than 75,000 homes and she is a wond...

Imagine resuming your career as a fresher after having worked for 9 years ? Working with senior colleagues who are much younger than you and peers who are of the next generation! It is not easy, worse, it has all the elements to pull you down on a daily basis..   What was Uma's way of handling these ? How was she able to resume her 2nd innings like this and then grow to become the Assistant Vice P...

Not just resuming, but flourishing in the 2nd innings! Meet Uma, Assistant Vice President at a multinational bank, share her journey.   She shares the challenges faced by her and how she handled them. After starting her career at a bank, she left after 9 years, to take care of her child. And then she was a stay at home mom for the next decade and then decided to resume her career again, at the age...

If you feel you are burning the candle from both ends and you want to quit - pause. Look around. Examine what organizations are ready to do to retain or hire good talent. Yes, the times are changing indeed.   We continue our chat with Mohinish Sinha,  a Partner and Leader – Diversity and Inclusion at Deloitte India to understand more on this topic. In this episode we examine what organizations are...

A Global survey finds that 51% of women are less optimistic about their career prospects than before the pandemic. Plus nearly 57% of the 500 women surveyed in India do not feel their career is progressing as fast as they’d like. This and more, is from a survey conducted by Deloitte India. Their report says  employers can support women and create more high-trust, inclusive cultures during and afte...

We continue our chat with Tina Katwal, who discovered quilting by chance and later went on set up a quilting related store and a design studio. And no, she didn’t stop with that, she went on to conduct the first ever India International Quilting Festival, in 2019, along with 2 of her friends.   This is Part 2 of a 2 part conversation with Tina. She talks about the challenges they faced and how the...

She started a hobby a decade back and today she is one of the core team behind the India International Quilt Festival! In this episode, we meet Tina Katwal, who discovered quilting by chance and later went on set up a quilting related store and a design studio. And no, she didn’t stop with that…   This is Part 1 of a 2 part conversation with Tina. We chat about the first ever India International Q...

Most of us would have found cleaning a burden under regular circumstances itself, not to speak of the lockdown period imposed due to the pandemic.    In this episode, we look at why we should examine our approach towards cleaning and the 3 reasons why you would be interested in this. The focus is on figuring out your optimum level for your home and to be happy about it.    If you are looking for s...

Dr. Lalitha Regi chose to live life and rear her children in a remote village. What did it mean for her, as a woman, as a mother ? And that too, while being active and busy saving the lives of hundreds of people over several villages, in so many different ways.   In Part 1, i.e., Episode 42, we talked about her engagement in the community as a medical Dr, growing a mud single room hospital to a 35...

How often do you get to meet a doctor who chose to be a physician for people with limited or no access to medical facilities ? And who feels, this was the most obvious choice for her right from her teens! Though ensuring medical facility is what brought her to this remote village, she chose to dream so much more and continues to do so. And in the process, she has touched the health and lives of hu...

Don’t you love taking photos ? How often do you go back to see and relish the photos taken by you or your loved ones ? By the way, did you know that Google is changing their policy around storage and it may impact how you take and store photos on your mobile ?    In this episode, we look at how we can use this as a mechanism to stay positive, revisit good memories and more. We are not talking abou...

The pandemic has made devices easily accessible, even a necessity, amongst children across all age groups. We did not have enough time to prepare for this, fully understanding the pros and cons of it. Before March 2020, discussions around device usage happened with the context that device usage is optional, for children.  That is no longer the case. Do we have time to discuss, debate and figure ou...

If the HR/Personnel department comes and asks you for one wish to be granted, what would that be ? This is the question in this episode of New Indian Woman podcast.   The few women who feature in this episode, very clearly, have never been asked this question. But they have their wish ready. Is the HR ready to listen ?   Would you like to add yours to this list ? You are most welcome..   What the...

Listen to Part 2 of the  chat with Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, popular singer and composer.  She has won National Award and Filmfare award as best playback singer for a Kannada film she composed and sung songs for. She has chosen to follow her passion and strived to explore different avenues and genres in music, from Kabir to several women poets across the centuries. In this episode we talk about...

Listen to a detail chat with Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, popular singer and composer.  She has won National Award and Filmfare award as best playback singer for a Kannada film she composed and sung songs for. She has chosen to get trained in Carnatic and Hindustani as well as many other art forms and pursued multiple academic paths as well.   She has chosen to follow her passion and strived to exp...

Welcome to a chat on looking at festivals, the need to reimagine and adapt them to today's context. I invite you to this chat with my friend Srividya where we explore our memories of festivals, what they mean to us and how we can play a role in creating memories for our children and enjoy it differently.   Does this mean we stop celebrating our traditional festivals ? Definitely not. Don’t we have...

Welcome to Planner World! If you are someone busy chasing deadlines and making sure the most urgent tasks are done, this episode is for you. On the other hand, if you are someone who diligently keeps track of to do lists and get a kick out of crossing off items in the to do list, this episode is for you as well. Whether you are someone who is very systematic or you revel in creative chaos, you wou...

This is the narrative version of Episode 33, recorded in English. If you know Hindi, suggest you listen to Episode 33. And if you don’t understand Hindi at all, listen to this episode.   What does it take to start from a place where one is most disadvantaged at multiple fronts, to run an organization that focusses on youth leadership and community development ?   We meet Deepa Pawar, founder of An...

What does it take to start from a place where one is most disadvantaged at multiple fronts, to run an organization that focusses on youth leadership and community development ?   We meet Deepa Pawar, founder of Anubhuti, an organisation working in the area of Youth Leadership. She is from one of the nomadic tribes that is Economically, socially and  intellectually challenged. She struggled to comp...

With the ever increasing number of women around us affected with breast cancer, it is very important for us to pay more attention to breast health.   In this episode Dr. Geetha Manjunath explains to us on the many contradictions about breast cancer. It is one of the most curable cancer but typically gets diagnosed very late. She explains what each one of us should know and how we should take care...

In Part 1 we examined challenges faced by young Indian women at workplace. What about older women ? What kind of challenges do they face ? Does it vary based on their age or their childrens' age or their work profile ?  When they get more senior, does the gender matter ? Do you think there are women specific challenges in our cities in large organisations that talk about having women friendly poli...

What kind of challenges do women face at workplace ? Is it the same for all ? Does it change based on age, profile, stage in life etc? Interaction with a few women on what they face and how they overcome the challenges. Listen on ..   What the New Indian Woman podcast is about As you may already be aware, this podcast has 2 focus areas. One, We examine the challenges faced by today's Indian woman...

A short episode on how you can craft your day - yes the 24 hours are there for you to craft it. What does it mean ? Is it even possible ? And why should you do it ?  Listen on ..   What the New Indian Woman podcast is about As you may already be aware, this podcast has 2 focus areas. One, We examine the challenges faced by today's Indian woman and proposes ACTIONABLE strategies in the Indian conte...