Swishing Mindsets with Anuradha Varma

When  Shobha Viswanath returned to India from the US in 1995, she couldn’t find audiobooks for her young daughter, something that her son had enjoyed growing up. That prompted her to start Karadi Tales and its signature audio cassettes that accompanied illustrated books. Children could read along as they listened to the story, encouraging "sight vocabulary" as Shobha calls it and, more importantly...

From being in jail at barely 20-years-old, facing prison time on a drug charge and feeling, “My whole life, one stupid mess after another,” international leadership coach Dr Marcia Reynolds has come a long way. Nearly 50 years later, she counts among the top voices in coaching. Here, she talks about the power of reflective inquiry and how it forces one to look deep within and take hard life decisi...

For Arundhati Ghosh , polyamory means “the desire, the ability and the practice of loving more than one person simultaneously, with or without sexual intimacy, and with the consent of all.” A practising polyamorist, cultural practitioner and social activist, the 53-year-old is the author of All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India , published by Aleph. In her earlier years, she felt her fee...

At 82, Sabita Radhakrishna , founder chairperson of Udhavi , provides a networking platform to elderly people, with retro karaoke evenings, social visits at home, and more. She talks about facing loss, the importance of family, the joys of reconnecting with old friends, and pushing forward at all times.  Sabita has several firsts to her credit, such as starting Chennai’s first boutique where she i...

From travel to tourism, real estate and beyond, the silver economy is seeing a boom, says PS Srikumar , a senior care expert and the founder of Care Finder . Besides grappling with issues such as loneliness, senior citizens are a fun, vibrant community and want to live the good life, with products and services already recognising and catering to this demand. Srikumar has helped over 9,000 families...

Most of us lead lives where we feel stuck, not allowing ourselves to feel our emotions fully. Business and embodiment coach Rhythm Malhotra talks about the transformative Heart Activation Cacao Ceremony, which brings together ceremonial-grade cacao, breathwork, and sound therapy for an emotional catharsis. Cacao, which contains theobromine that increases blood flow to the heart, gently enhances me...

Sopan Joshi , in his book Mangifera Indica: A Biography of the Mango , which took eight years to write and research, accomplishes a historic, cultural, religious and  economic exploration of India’s favourite fruit. Did you know that India is home to over 1,000 varieties of mangoes, besides the much loved Alphonso, Kesar and Dashehri? And whenever a major battle took place, such as the Battle of P...

When  K. Hari Kumar was young, an oracle or soothsayer in Kerala prophesied that his work would revolve around the “undead”. Now, known fittingly as “Horror Kumar”, he talks about his latest novel Dakini, published by HarperCollins India , born out of personal tragedy and drawing on news reports of witch-hunting.  He touches upon his affinity for an all-pervading mother goddess, creating strong wo...

Everything that exists in the physical universe is located in space. “We carry a village in our heads. All our people, our senses and feelings are literally directed and mapped out in the space around us,” says Bhavana Nissima, a Hyderabad-based mental spece psychologist.  Or to put loosely, we live in a 3D world, inside our heads and outside of it. Mental Space Psychology “works with our individu...

When Mumbai-based Gopika Kapoor and Moneisha Gandhi , moms of Vir Kapoor and Mihaan Dhall, witnessed how life-changing friendship proved to be for their neurodivergent young sons, they decided to launch  Buddy Up – A Friendship App for People with Disabilities & their Caregivers. While Vir, who is on the autism spectrum, is quiet, Mihaan, who has Down Syndrome, loves to talk non-stop, the two...

(Audio mostly in Hindi) Wanderlust or the spirit of “ ghumakkadi ” bit  Shashank Mani , a Lok Sabha MP, as a teen and turned into a lifelong passion, with him founding the Jagriti Yatra , a multi-city train journey across “middle India” with over 500 youth on board, transcending regional barriers. He is also the founder of the Jagriti Enterprise Centre Purvanchal , at Barpar in Deoria, UP, which a...

(Audio in Hindi & English) In this interview, Chandan Pandey, the award-winning author of the The Keeper of Desolation , published by HarperCollins India, and translator Sayari Debnath, talk about the “surreal yet gritty, violent yet poetic” stories that form the book and the importance of translating from regional languages.  He recalls breaking down, sitting in a boat in Varanasi, after writ...

The Buddhist Tonglen meditation, a “warrior training” that reinforces altruistic resolve, allows us to take in the suffering of others, witness pain and stay without fleeing, building courage, opening us up to be of service. While it makes us kinder and more compassionate, it also makes us strong, says Dr. Erika Rosenberg , a US-based psychological scientist, who integrates traditional Buddhist pr...

“The one who needs to be loved is the one in the mirror. And if we can love ourselves so deeply, we can love even a stranger and see their suffering,” says Thailand-based  Fernando Hettiyadura , a Multidisciplinary Therapist and ICF-designated Master Certified Coach, who leads unique interventions derived from integrative neuroscience, Vipassana and psychedelic plant medicine. He has also launched...

As we celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna on Janmashtami, we should also honour him as a god who models positive masculinity, says Tracy Coleman , Professor, Department of Religion at Colorado College, US, She says, “Bold, strong, outspoken or aggressive, women are not a threat to him. He loves them as they are. In the Gita Govinda , he even submits to Radha.” Krishna, she believes, can be potenti...

(Trigger warning: Mention of depression, suicide and suicidal ideation) What makes India the suicide capital of the world? Did you know that a majority of suicide attempts are made by women, among which housewives figure in large numbers ? Mumbai-based Sachin Chitambaran , who started as a volunteer on suicide prevention helplines over a decade ago and now works full-time in the field, talks to us...

In this episode, Mital Salia , game therapist and founder of Khel Khel Mein talks about how she prescribes games to teach life skills and for mental wellbeing. A counselling psychologist and educator, she started by curating game nights at home, which were a huge hit. Certain games, whether solo or multiplayer, teach dexterity, stimulate brain function and raise EQ, she informs.  Playing also rele...

We make money everyday and not just at our jobs, according to Nidhu B Kapoor. And we can create more of it using the power of her “ WORDS ” (World of Retrograde Decrees Switchsentences), she assures. While the results, Nidhu promises, are instantaneous, attracting money has a lot to do with who we are. In this chat, she urges us to question our relationship and belief system regarding money. And y...

“Mumbai is like a large open-air casino and we are all putting our stakes on something,” says author Jerry Pinto , whose 2018 novel Murder in Mahim has been made into a series, playing on Jio Cinema. The action begins when a gay sex worker is found dead, his stomach ripped open, in a toilet at a Mumbai railway station. The plot thickens as good friends Peter Fernandes (played by Ashutosh Rana in t...

Meghna Khanna , a Bengaluru-based women’s motorcycle coach, is a Limca Book of Records holder for being the first Indian woman motorcyclist to reach Khardung La, the highest motorable pass in the world. You can have the biggest car in the world, but nothing beats the feeling of the wind in your hair when you ride a bike, she says. “When you ride a motorcycle, you know why a dog sticks their head o...

Living with a negative thought is like chasing a rodent in the house, according to Nitesh Batra , Mindfulness teacher and Certified Compassion Cultivation Trainer (CCT). He is founder of  The Mindful Initiative and also runs the Ashtanga Yoga Program in Bengaluru.  Mindfulness, he explains, is focussing on the task at hand, cherishing what you are doing and practising non-judgement. “When you are...

In this episode and a virtual masterclass on the entrepreneurial mindset, Games2Win co-founder and CEO Alok Kejriwal talks about his latest book “ Getting Dressed and Parking Cars: The Magical Story of Building a Gaming Company ”, published by Penguin Random House India. Alok describes himself as a hands-on serial entrepreneur and someone who loves to help entrepreneurs, especially through his imm...

TRIGGER WARNING: The interview contains mentions of mental illness, anxiety, clinical depression and suicide. In this episode, Aparna Sanyal talks about her new book Instruments of Torture , a collection of short stories published by HarperCollins India and how she has always been drawn to the “dark side”. She talks candidly about battling depression and anxiety, despite growing up as a seemingly...

“I’m blind, but so is love…get over it!” This is how disability activist and stand-up comic Nidhi Ashok Goyal disarms her audience during her performances. In this episode, the Founder-Executive Director of award-winning non-profit organisation Rising Flame talks about their anthology And They Lived…Ever After: Disabled Women Retell Fairy Tales , published by HarperCollins India and shifting minds...

Arundhuti Dasgupta , journalist and co-founder of The Mythology Project returns on the podcast to talk of the mystique of Radha, Krishna’s favourite gopi and consort on the occasion of Holi. Radha humanises Krishna, making him approachable and acceptable to everyone. Their playful companionship transcended gender roles as they dissolved into each other. Desire in ancient India, she says, was not d...