Finally, after my initial intent, recent public request, and much searching, discussion (both online and on the telephone), toing-and-froing, planning, scheduling, rescheduling, and instructions (from both our and their side), I am pleased to announce the first of the series: Women Achievers Converse with Kymaia (WACKy) Talks, to be held on all Saturdays of September, October, and November 2022 (but one, on 22 October, when Kym would be at the Residential Horseriding Camp at Japalouppe).
So here, ladies & gentlemen is the lineup of speakers:
03 September 2022: Swati Sinha Shrivastav is a Post Graduate in Finance who worked for 12 years in the Indian capital markets prior to turning educationist 4 years ago. She is a Reflective Teacher certified by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
She will speak about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) and their importance to humanity as well as how exciting the pursuit of these is.
Swati would be donating her fees for this talk to Nanhi Pari.
10 September 2022: Anita Limaye is a travel enthusiast and a travel writer. She has been writing since the age of 10 yrs and has written for various publications, in-house magazines, and journals, as well as more formally published articles in The Economic Times and Fauji India magazine. She is a military wife who was posted to far-flung areas and has travelled to/lived in the following places:
1. India
North — Delhi NCR, Amritsar, Hissar, Joshimath (Near Badrinath), Auli, Mana Village (Last Village In India Near The Chinese Border), Rudraprayag, Dehradun, Ranikhet, Dharchula, Nainital, Ladakh Region Including Leh, Nimu, Kargil, Karu, Pangong Tso Lake
East — In West Bengal (Kolkata, Binnaguri, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri) In Assam (Guwahati, Misa, Misa Mari, Kaziranga, Tezpur) In Nagaland (Dimapur, Kohima, Chakabama) In Manipur (Imphal, Lok Tak Lake, Limakong)
West — In Rajasthan (Jaipur, Udaipur) In Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Vadodara) In Maharashtra (Mumbai, Pune (of course!), Aurangabad), Goa
South — In Telangana (Hyderabad) In Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore, Ooty, Coonoor, Wellington, Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Mamallapuram, Puducherry) In Karnataka (Bangalore, Mysore, Coorg, Hampi) In Kerala (Munnar, Palakkad)
2. The United States Of America
Lived In Mclean, Virginia For Four Years, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Grand Canyon, Atlanta, Florida, Niagara, New York City, Washington Dc, Pennsylvania, Pittsburg, Boston
3. Canada
Toronto
4. Lebanon
Beirut, Baalbek, Zahle, Farraya, Tripoli, Marjhayun, Saida, Sheeba, Byblos, Tyr
5. Dubai
7. Egypt
Cairo, Alexandria, Memphis, Giza
6. Turkey
Istanbul, Cappadocia
7. Kazakhstan
Astana, Almaty
She will speak about travel and travel writing.
Anita would be donating her fees for this talk to Pratham.
17 September 2022: Aarti Aney has been a theatre practitioner for the last 22 years. She has worked with directors such as Satyadev Dubey, Rehaan Engineer, Alyque Padamsee, and Vikram Kapadia. She is the recipient of the META special jury mention award for Gowri Ramnarayan’s “Dark Horse”. She has worked alongside some of the finest actors in the business such as Seema Biswas, Kalki Koechlin, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Darshan Jariwala, Vinay Pathak, and Kumud Mishra. In the past, she was the programming head at Ranga Shankara, and has taught dramatics to children in schools, and for the Trinity College of London, UK at Jagriti Theatre.
She will have a freewheeling conversation about theatre and acting and the importance of text.
Aarti would be donating her fees for this talk to Wikimedia Foundation.
24 September 2022: Reshma Bachwani, who describes herself as a ‘story gatherer’, is a qualitative researcher for over two decades. A trained hypnotherapist, she believes that ‘mind-work’ is often restricted to either therapists or spiritual gurus though it is a life skill every individual must have. Recently, she has authored the children’s book, ‘Ruhi Finds Her Princess’, a story that guides the reader through the process of moving from dreams to realisation through everyday conversations and situations between Ruhi (a curious strong-willed and ambitious child, and also the name of Reshma’s 7yo) and her mother. The story narrates how her mother patiently and deftly encourages her to use her imagination towards getting what she wants.
She will speak of imagination and discuss her book (which Kymaia would have read by then).
01 October 2022: Srushti Jadhav is, in no particular order, a biker, a writer, a big sister, an inventor, a cook, a funny person and a storyteller. She discovered at age 27 that she is, always has been, and always will be an autistic person. Ever since, she has spent her free time discovering what that means, and now she’s on a mission to share her findings with the world.
She will be speaking to Kymaia about Neurodiversity.
Srushti will be donating her fees from this talk to Kranti India.
08 October 2022: Dr Sonali Pande is a Sports and Exercises Medicine doctor practising in Darwin, Australia. She has been a qualified Orthopaedic surgeon for the past 25 years. Her areas of specialised interest are sports injuries & orthopaedic problems in women including osteoporosis. She is an advocate for more women in the field of orthopaedic surgery. She is a founder council member of the Asia Pacific Osteoporosis and Fragility Fracture Society.
She will share her journey & challenges as an orthopaedic surgeon, and touch upon gender diversity, education on different continents including distance learning, and also about sports-specific fitness & safety.
Sonali will be donating her fees from this talk to Matru Seva Sangh, Sitabuldi via Rotary Ishanya, Nagpur.
15 October 2022: Rashmi Aradhya is trying to lead a sustainable way of life and takes the Do-It-Yourself/Do-It-Together approach to everything. She is very passionate about her work. She loves having healthy interactions with the people in the community. She is actively involved in many community-building activities.
Rashmi loves everything related to food: growing, cooking, eating, sharing and composting! She is interested in learning about Food Security, Food Sovereignty, Food Safety, Food System Resilience, Food Waste Management etc. She regularly hosts workshops in Vancouver (Canada) to share her knowledge about cooking Asian/Indian Vegan/Vegetarian food. She also arranges for sessions where people can cook together and eat together!
She will be talking to Kymaia about food.
Rashmi will be donating her fees from this talk to Navdanya.
29 October 2022: Deputy Commandant (Retd) Reema Patel is a graduate of Business Administration and served the nation as a SAR/Maritime Reconnaissance Pilot for 8 years before joining Spicejet Ltd as a commercial pilot.
She will be speaking to Kymaia about the various exciting roles and duties performed while serving in the Indian Coast Guard and the differences between military and civil operations.
She has requested to use her speaking fees to donate dog food to shelters/NGO of Kymaia’s choice.
05 November 2022: Sowmya Somnath, P.E. is a registered Professional Engineer and an expert in rural water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). She has implemented rural WASH projects in India and Africa, including a hand hygiene project reaching 9 million children in Bihar. She is a founding member of Watershed Management Group (WMG), a former Indicorps Fellow and a professional mentor with Engineers without Borders. She has created www.tippytap.org, a reference portal for handwashing promotion. She is currently homeschooling her 2 children and caring for elderly parents in the US.
She will be talking to Kymaia about the exciting field of rural water, sanitation and hygiene.
Sowmya would like to donate her speaking fee to a WASH NGO of Kymaia’s choice.
12 November 2022: Payal Singh is an adventure enthusiast who loves the mountains, and craves to live her life to the fullest. This has led her to pick up what others say as “interesting” jobs, but to her, it is a calling.
Her love for the mountains has made her work for them in many different ways through managing waste, understanding the first-hand impacts of climate change and then working on the education status for the mountain State of Uttarakhand.
She does as her heart desires; she is a free spirit. She believes education is not confined to four rooms and a roof but the world is the very epitome of learning and knowledge.
She will be speaking to Kymaia about the importance of self-awareness, the power of books and films, but most importantly about self-education, that change happens if you want it to happen. We are in control of our own destinies.
19 November 2022: Poornima Sardana loves museums. She feels they can make people understand cultures, ideas and beings they do not otherwise connect with, and even feel better if they are sad or unwell. She is a curator and museum consultant, but her secret (or not-so-secret) mission is to make museums matter to people. She is a Fulbright-Nehru alumna. Poornima researches and experiments on museums and also on illness (caring). Apart from her day job as a curator, she works on her own project called Museums of Hope. She has a background in Design and Liberal Arts and loves graphic novels. Poornima is fond of dogs and cats, and hopes to be friends with many more beings. Because she wants to keep making new friends, she loves to be part of fellowships that allow her to learn more and explore new places. She has been part of the Art Think South Asia Fellowship, Tate Intensive, Asia Europe Foundation Mobility Fellowship, and Young India Fellowship.
She will be speaking to Kymaia about art, design, history, and culture.
Poornima would like to donate her speaking fees to ACGS (All Creatures Great & Small).
26 November 2022: Mary Flora Ross is a dedicated educator with extensive experience in a diverse range of schools and their curriculums in Canada, Bangladesh, and India. During her career she has served as a teacher, social/emotional counsellor, Head of Department (English) and Head of School. Ms. Ross is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University, Lakehead University, and The Harvard School of Education. In addition, she is a published author of the two-volume series “Behind the Scenes”- Drama studies for Canadian schools. She believes that her professional mission as a teacher is to empower students to become confident, open-minded, ethical, global citizens and life-long learners. As a colleague, Ms. Ross cites the importance of positive and mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships with her fellow teachers as an integral part of a fulfilled career. Her extra-curricular passions include equestrian riding, traveling, reading and writing-oh yes, collecting saris!
She will be speaking to Kymaia about their mutual experience with and love for horses.
Mary will be donating her fees from this talk to Shruti Darak’s Animal Rescue Centre Hyderabad.
And that, ladies & gentlemen, is that. Let us see what happens between them and Kym (we, her parents) will not be privy to the conversation, what she sees & hears, what questions she asks, and what we, her parents and the speakers, learn from her.
It’s going to be an exciting ride. And we’re just getting warmed up. There will be more sessions in 2023, with other interesting women, and as Kym grows, she’ll have even better questions and even keener insights. Let us hope this helps her move toward the final objective of our parenting: Kymaia growing up to be a happy adult. That, literally, is that. Nothing more is expected. Nothing less will do.
Wish her, and us, luck!
