N.R.I. Woman

Suzanna grew up surrounded by nature and by all things natural in Munnar, India. When she moved to the city, she quickly adapted to the city life of access and “use and throw” mentality. All that changed when Suzanna’s daughter was born. She wants her daughter to grow in a world that is not being crushed under the burden of consumption. And so, Suzanna became conscious of the eve...

Priti Raman Vishwakarma’s love for travel began after her first solo trip to Himachal Pradesh in India. Despite her initial apprehensions, she found the courage to travel alone, and her life was forever changed. She hopes that by sharing her experience, others are encouraged to travel more. That’s how Womaniya on road trips, a travel company for women, led by Priti began. Priti has Juv...

Reshma is an artist-activist advocating and supporting several issues from mental health and sexuality to human rights. Val Resh as she’s popularly known was diagnosed with schizophrenia at twenty-two. Since then she’s had many diagnoses. She does not let these labels define her and calls herself the schizophrenist, combining the words schizophrenia and artist-activist. She gives us an...

Sonam Shekhawat is the first Indian to win an Emmy Award for writing. She shares her story of growing up in Jaipur, India, watching cartoons all day to becoming one of the most coveted animation series writers. Sonam had offers to pursue a degree in medicine or engineering from some of the most prestigious colleges in India, and she chose to pursue a degree in animation, a career choice her parent...

Isha Soni has moved between twelve apartments, four cities and two countries over the past three years and is currently settled in Canada. She shares her story of growing up in India and then moving to the west and finding herself in an environment that felt completely alien, causing a kind of cultural chaos she hadn’t expected. She chats about her about life abroad, trying to make sense out...

Snehaa Sundaram, our guest today works with Wildlife Trust Of India, helping address wildlife emergencies across the country. Before this, she worked in the forests of Kanha National Park (Madhya Pradesh), Sanjay-Dubri National Park & Great Nicobar Island. She followed her passion for a career, and it led her to find love with Yaju, a naturalist, in the beautiful Sal forests of Kanha. Working...

If the word diet immediately makes you think of a stringent weight-loss plan, you are not alone. Humans have been obsessing about their weight for over two thousand years. We chat with Uma Narula about the importance of nutrition and why we must focus on nourishing ourselves instead of obsessing about following diet fads. She shares her opinion on various current diet fads. She believes in holisti...

Suman Manning is an events organiser, entrepreneur, manages the community Twinplus Arabia which supports parents of multiples and is mum to triplets Zara, Zoe and Zander. She shares her story of finding love with Shane, fertility struggles, having triplets and now raising them in a culture that is different from both hers and her husbands. She hopes her children will grow up to be cross-cultural a...

Parshati Patel is an astrophysicist, planetary scientist, science communicator and educator. As a young girl, she discovered astronomy on a trip to the planetarium on holiday with the family and has not looked back. She struggled to convince her traditional Gujarati family about her career choice and found a unique way to win them over. With her family convinced, she moved to Canada to study astro...

Addiction is a progressive mental illness. Mehek Gidwani shares her story of addiction, recovery and now living a sober life. She was born and raised in Hong Kong and had her first interaction with alcohol and drugs at the tender age of thirteen. The drug didn’t seem like a drug. It was a natural thing found around the house. What started as a fun, exhilarating experience and way to fit in w...

Janani Viswanathan from Sunnyvale, California was on a break from work a couple of years ago, and that lead to her becoming the co-creator of Project NoMoreNirbhaya in Chennai, India. This initiative aims to create safer public spaces for women. Their team teaches free self-defence sessions for school and college girls. They’ve also conducted gender sensitivity training for bus drivers and c...

Gulshan Kavarana is the founding member of SFS – Special Families Support group – a support group for families with children with special needs and an art mentor at Mawaheb, an art studio for adults with special needs. Zara, her younger daughter, was diagnosed with Dravet’s syndrome before the age of one. At the time Gulshan desperately tried to seek advice from others who may ha...

Have you ever wondered what Hypnotherapy is all about? No, it’s not a swinging watch over your head or people clucking like chickens. Explaining the difference between Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis is Arti Tuteja, a world-renowned hypnotherapist, and founder of Potential Unlimited, a company focused on helping people improve their Emotional Intelligence, learn to manage stress, change behaviour...

Andrea Bailey is a world traveller and explorer. Mum to three young daughters, she has made travelling with her children her focus to create a lifetime of memories. She’s here to share her experience as a world traveller while raising her three wonderful daughters, on how one can have a career in travel whilst being a mum and her current passion, sustainable travel. She also shares her favourite d...

Pashmina was born in Thailand and brought up in a traditional Indian family in Hong Kong. At sixteen she met and fell in love with her soulmate Willian. They dated in secret for ten years – why secret, because he came from a very different culture and community – literally, one that is at the other end of the world. He’s black Brazilian and their formative years together as a cou...

Triveni Acharya is a strong, fearless, brave journalist and multiple award-winning activist. She is the president of the NGO,  Rescue Foundation. The organization is devoted to the rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of victims for human trafficking from different parts of India, and it’s neighbouring countries. She chats with us about her day to day work, the hazards of fighting traffick...

No one plans to be messy, but over time with increased access to stuff, clutter creeps into almost everyone’s life. Shelina talks to us about how the concept of professional organizing is only just catching on, what one can do to declutter things that have sentimental attachments, especially after a bereavement and how her method is different from Marie Kondo’s method. Shelina Jokhiya is the owner...

Shobhika Kalra is a campaigner for wheelchair accessibility. She was thirteen when she was diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a degenerative disease affecting the nervous system and movement. By the age of eighteen, she was bound to a wheelchair. She says, “Disability is not something that can stop people”. She has facilitated building over 1100 ramps in Dubai improving accessib...

Aanchal Wadhwani is a Hong Kong based fashion photographer, entrepreneur and actress best known for her role in DBS Bank’s mini-series ‘Sparks’. She’s learnt that there are still certain industries where women are afraid to touch. For example, photography. She believes there is a lack of female photographers because of societies ideals and the concept that heavy gear and eq...

Feng Shui master consultant Samita Khanna is back on the show to share tips on how one can make the most of the year of the boar in 2019. According to her, this is the year of golden opportunities, abundance and windfalls. Everyone can benefit from the year if they grab the opportunities that come their way. She also shares specific tips depending on your sign according to the Chinese zodiac at th...

Shabnam Samuel from Frederick, Maryland is a woman of many talents with a number of accomplishments under her belt. She is a writer, author, business coach, social media trainer and a mum. She talks candidly about her life to us, After being abandoned by her parents, Shabnam was taken care of by her maternal grandparents but knew nothing else outside of that lifestyle. At age, 27, She moved to the...

Ruchi Gulati is a blogger, the founder of the first Thyroid support group in Singapore and creator of a clothing line for plus sized women, Curvy Craze. She shares her story of embracing her curves with confidence and conquering the world with love, fun and kindness. Ruchi has been curvy for as long as she can remember. She’s also always been confident about herself and her abilities. About ten ye...

Malini Ohri our guest today is a certified beauty and health consultant and aromatherapist. She has a career in the health and wellness industry spanning over 40 years and as an aromatherapist for over 30 years. She has a passion for using and making things all natural. She chats with us about aromatherapy, its benefits, how to introduce aromatherapy into one’s life and most importantly how...

Maithili Appalwar is a 22-year-old senior at Georgia Tech. She and her team won the People’s Choice Award at the Ideas to Serve Competition hosted by Georgia Tech’s Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship and they used the money as their pilot fund for Thrive. Maithili is passionate about improving mental health in low-resource communities which is why she started Thrive with two...

Unexplained Infertility. two words that provide hope and cause frustration in equal measure. Our guest today Supna Shah dealt with this for ten years before getting pregnant through IVF. While dealing with the infertility was distressing, the process of IUI and IVF was emotional, physically and financially exhausting. Supna chats with us about her journey through infertility, the treatment, managi...