Riya's Ramblings

This episode is the first part of a series about my recent trip to India! This episode is about my experiences in Mumbai – the city that never sleeps 😊. My father grew up in Mumbai and my grandmother (‘dadi’ in Gujarati, my mother tongue) still lives there, whom we stayed with. I interviewed her in Episode 70. I was visiting after 8 years (yes, really!) and so didn’t have many memories of the pla...

  In this episode, I interviewed my soccer coach – Nic Heffernan. He started a soccer club in 2023 after moving to Texas and I joined in 2023 summer, after my previous team disbanded. He grew up in Brighton, UK (hence the name of our club – Brighton Soccer Club) and he was soccer-crazy as a kid, just like I am! He moved to the US as a D1 college player, and went to Montana. He was the captain, and...

I am learning about important figures in American history at school from the late 1700s, and the person talked about was my favorite! Lots of great men and women but one name stood out – James Otis. I loved his story, and you will to! Back in the mid-1700s, many US merchants were trading illegally to get around some trade laws. There was a lot of tension between the colonists and the British. The...

I love soccer. I love playing it. I love watching it (go US Women’s Team!) and I love talking about it! I have been playing soccer for many years now. I have played on 3-4 different teams and finding the next team has always been simple. But this time was different. The team I was on for the past 5+ years disbanded over the summer. So, I started searching for s new team! This episode is my experie...

For this episode, I interviewed my brother who had an amazing semester abroad at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. You remember my episode about my visit to Switzerland this summer? We went there because my brother was there for a semester abroad! (That episode is at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riyasramblings/episodes/Riyas-Ramblings-Ep-69---Switzerland---The-Country-of-Infinite-Wallpapers-e...

Shoutout to Minal masi and to Disha for their great feedback about my episode about our Switzerland trip!   I recently went to a Major League Cricket match and had an absolutely great time!   I went with my dad and my grandfather and we enjoyed the whole experience.   My grandfather is a HUGE cricket fan. He watched a live match in a stadium after about 60 years. Woah! And he loved it! He really e...

In this episode, I interviewed my grandmother! I had an awesome time recording this very special episode! My dad's mom - my daadi - was visiting us and I asked her some questions and learned so much. I am sure you too will be inspired by her wonderful story! Her name is Dr. Nishtha Chhaya and she is from Mumbai, India. Her family moved to India after the partition in 1947 and she is a practici...

After the great city of Paris, we headed to Zurich, Switzerland. We got there by train, and it was really nice. The views were awesome, so don’t sleep too much! The main train station is called Zurich HB (Haupt Banhof), which has so manyyyy different restaurants and different foods. AWESOME.   Trains : Paris and London had good trains, but Switzerland was incomparable. They had an app (SBB) just f...

In the last episode, I talked about our visit to London - all the things we saw and did there. This episode is about our second leg and in my opinion, the best part of our trip - Paris!!! This city has been on my list to visit for so long, and to me, it was everything. That first view of the Eiffel tower, that breathtaking, incredible, marvelous, building.  First, the way we got there, a train. Th...

Recently, we went on a trip to Europe. Firstly, we visited London. My mom has a lot of family there so we had a couple of really nice and awesome people to stay with.  We spent about a week in London and had a great time seeing historical sites, modern architecture, meeting family members and enjoying great food. Here's the highlights of my visit to London: Saw many sights using a double decke...

Here's a special episode in multiple ways - it's an interview with my mom and it's related to Earth Day! My mom loves gardening and grows many different flowers and vegetables. She also loves composting - and has inspired her friends to also collect vegetable scraps, coffee grounds etc. to use in their gardens. Super fascinating. Here's some highlights from the interview. Do you ha...

I just saw a movie on Netflix (True Spirit) about Jessica Watson and wanted to recommend you see it too. She is the youngest solo sailor to circumnavigate the world - unassisted and non-stop. That means no one can help her and she can't pull into port. She sailed for 200 days from Oct 18 2009 (before I was born!) to May 15 2010! But what really annoyed me was that she was told that she was under 1...

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. And wish you all the best for the new year! Let's get started with a 'knock-knock' joke: Knock-knock Who’s there? Razor Razor who? Raise your glass to the new year! Woo hoo! Over Christmas break, we spent 6 days in an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. Honestly, the beach next to the resort was meh – but the resort itself was real...

A Terrific Trip to Tyler, TX I had a 4-day weekend at school recently and we wanted to travel but we didn’t want to fly. So, we went to – Tyler, Texas It’s a couple of hours of driving for us and isn’t your typical tourist destination, but it was a lot of fun! Here’s what we did: 1. Hiked in the Tyler State Park – this is a wonderful state park with great trails and lovely tall trees. It was very...

I recently visited Philadelphia with my family. Listen to Episode 59 to learn all about Philly! Philadelphia has many locations and museums about Ben Franklin and I learned a lot. A few amazing facts about this founding father (who wasn’t a US president) - He didn’t have a formal education but was always curious - He had a printing press in Philadelphia - He loved chess – because of the strategy a...

This episode is a fun chat with my cousins who are visiting from Baltimore. In this episode, we talk about the city of Dallas. We talk about some food places, some fun attractions, and so much more! These are the same cousins from "Episode 49 - We started a business, you can too!" where we discussed how we have our own doggie treat businesses - theirs is called "V&S Doggies Treats" (in Baltimo...

This is part 2 of the 3 part series of my vacation. This episode will be about all the things I did in New York City, so enjoy!! We are gonna use the same riddle for this whole series so you have time! The riddle was: what has many ears but can’t hear? Email me your answer at RiyaRamblings@gmail.com . We drove from Philly to New York. You can listen to my previous episode to learn about my adventu...

I recently went on vacation, and we went to Philadelphia and New York, and then dropped my brother off to his job. This will be a 3 part series with one about Philadelphia, one about New York, and one about Ben Franklin. I will talk about all the things we did relating to Ben Franklin in another episode. This episode will be about my experiences in Philly. Valley Forge is an important part of US h...

In this episode, I wanted to tell you all about a few fun and interesting things I have been doing. Below are some of the things I talked about, but listen to the full episode for more fun information. We had our middle school spring dance a few weeks back. It was held in person the first time since 2019 so the entire school was really excited. It was a fun event and it was cool to hang out with m...

We went to Oklahoma City for Spring Break - and had a really good time. We hiked around Lake Hefner and saw a lovely lighthouse. I learned about the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, went to a skeleton museum and fed a tigress at a wildlife sanctuary. Wow! It was fantastic! The Oklahoma City bombing memorial museum is a very educational and beautiful tribute to a terrible event in the city's history. I...

In this episode I talk about my science fair project. If you don't know what a science fair is, listen to Episode 46 where I talk about my past projects along with background information on science fairs. My project this year investigated the difference between masked learning, and unmasked learning in three main categories; factual, emotional, social. Listen to the episode for more information on...

I recently visited the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in West Texas. It was a 6-hour drive and one of the cool things on the drive was seeing hundreds of windmills. They were making good use of the flat land and windy conditions to generate clean electricity. And shout out to Guy Raz and his ‘How I built this’ podcast series for making the car ride less boring.       The stat...

In the first episode of 2022, I talk to Ms. Prachi Mistry, member of the winning team of the second season of the "Big Family Cooking Showdown" on Netflix. If you haven't seen the series on Netflix yet (2 seasons), do so right now! It's a fun competition where families compete with each other to cook some really delicious food. We talked about many things including how the show boosted her self co...

What a year! So many good things (vaccines!) and some not-so-good things (the pandemic is still around. boo!)  A few accomplishments that stood out to me are:  - Zaila winning t he national spelling bee.  - Wally Funk’s space flight on the Blue Origin rocket.  - Gov Kathy Hochul as 1st woman gov of NY.  GIRL POWER!! Yay! Also, I started middle school and my older brother w...

If you like sports, you will love this episode. If you don't, you'll still love it! This episode, I talked to Mr. Corey Smith, an athletic trainer, about sports medicine, staying healthy when playing and how the treatment of concussions has changed over the years. He has worked with pro teams as well as high school teams. He was part of the stretcher crew when Argentina played Mexico. He saw Messi...