My Story

“The way we gather matters. Gatherings consume our days and help determine the kind of world we live in, in both our intimate and public realms. Gathering - the conscious bringing together of people for a reason - shapes the way we think, feel and make sense of the world.”

― Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

I find deep meaning in holding spaces for connection, collaboration & co-creation. I work with a variety of groups, collectives and organisations to design & facilitate different types of gatherings - team connections; participatory visioning & strategy; engaging events, dialogues & consultations; reflective learning; and nurturing facilitation capacity.

I discovered my love for facilitation and holding spaces quite organically when I attended a four day long residential programme when in college almost 23 years ago. It was the first time in my life I felt my mind was invited to think, that someone cared about what I thought and that I actually paid attention to what other people were saying - I felt “connected” like I had not felt before. I fully immersed myself with this group (Centre for Civil Society) and hosted programs for young people throughout the country and engaged in various other organisational roles from 2001-2007. In 2008-09, I stretched outside my comfort zone with a one year volunteering engagement in Lagos, Nigeria with Voluntary Services Overseas. I worked with the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation as a Programme Manager from 2009-12 managing partner engagements in the areas of governance, education and economic freedom across South Asia. 

In 2012 when my son was born, I was called to ask myself if there was one thing I wanted to do with my work time, what would it be - and the answer was loud and clear! Facilitation was my calling and since 2013 I have been lucky to have worked with amazing groups and individuals across sectors (primarily non profit) and issues in designing and hosting spaces for connection, co-creation, and collaboration. In this fractured, fast paced and cynical world, I hope to seed little pockets of ease, belonging and connection.

I work independently and also with amazing co-facilitators. I had the opportunity to be a part of long term Organisation Development work as a consultant with the Bullzi Team founded by the amazing Sanjeev Roy from 2014-2024. We worked together on various assignments to support organisations find the best in themselves. 

Some glimpses of the variety of spaces I have had the opportunity to hold/ co-hold…

• Team Connections 

• Year End Team Reflection with The YP Foundation 

• Culture mindfulness, team connection gatherings, all-team trainings with Janaagraha (100+ team across three locations) 

• Team connection with Jana Urban Space (team offsite, follow up check-ins, coaching for revamp of internal team meetings so team themselves host the meetings and town halls), Centre for Civil Society (team offsites) 

• Opening orientations & ongoing reflections with Women Public Finance Management Fellows with Janaagraha, Indian School of Public Policy and India Fellows 

• Connection Circles for batch of 100 Vedica Scholars 

• In-person Community Gatherings and Online Parent Circles, Aarambh Waldorf Learning Space

• Stakeholder Convenings

• Decarbonisation of textile industry with banks, philanthropy, suppliers, brands and civil society with Apparel Impact Institute  

• Mountain Cleaners’ Summit with Waste Warriors 

• Annual Forum with Urban Collective Action Network

• Visioning & Strategy co-creation 

• Multi-day participatory process with TARSHI (three cycles), Nazdeek, CREA, BBC Media Action, NIIT Foundation 

• Supporting the initiation and running of Collectives 

• Urban Collective Action Network since 2022 

• India Public Finance Collaborative (initial meetings)

• Learning Exchanges 

• 12-day international exchanges on “education”, “NGO development” and “facilitation” with global partners of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany 

• Peer Learning Circle with teachers from Vasant Valley School 

• Online Open Peer Learning Circles on topics of meeting culture, strategy in action and lived values

• Online Open Check In Circles with over 100 folks across various groups when lockdown hit 

• Nurturing Facilitators 

• Facilitation Labs to strengthen the internal facilitation perspective and capacity with Blue Ribbon Movement, India Fellows and Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University of Delhi

• Initiation and hosting of a community of facilitators since 2014 

• Introduction to the Thinking Environment with Centre for Civil Society’s leadership team and outreach teams, U-CAN Fellows and members of the International Association of Facilitators 

• Online Open Gathering Genie Circles to bring collective attention on how we gather at work and life 

My facilitation practice and way of being is nurtured by a variety of approaches and communities of practice. While I learnt facilitation mostly on the job, I am grateful for formal learning opportunities and continued community engagement with the facilitators from the International Academy of Leadership of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the Genuine Contact Community (with whom I learnt the soul of facilitation - Whole Person Process Facilitation), and The Thinking Environment (where I am certified as a group process facilitator). My engagement in the past ten years with my mentor Sanjeev Roy (founder, Bullzi Inc) has taught me deeply about facilitating organisational change processes in midsize to large social sector organisations. 

To build my own support system when I stepped into facilitation consulting, I co-founded a peer learning facilitation community in India in 2013 that was agnostic of a particular facilitation approach/ style - Facilitators Learning Spiral (over 100 members currently working across sectors, geographies, spaces and approaches) - where we bring conscious attention to our way of being and doing as facilitators and share - learn - grow together. 

Being the youngest of three siblings, I have yearned to belong since childhood (one of the reasons I love hosting spaces where people while feeling like themselves feel like they also belong in a space). I am a mom to an energetic teen with whom I relearning how to parent and be a human. A Gujarati native, I was born and brought up in Delhi. Basking in the winter sun, playing acoustic songs on my guitar and enjoying my homemade cappuccino are some of my energy boosters.