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…

• Strategy co-creation with groups like TARSHI, Nazdeek, CREA, BBC Media Action
• Year End Team Reflection with The YP Foundation
• In-person Community Gatherings and Online Parent Circles, Aarambh Waldorf
• Community connect sessions at The Mountain Cleaners Summit for Waste Warriors 
• 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)
• Co-creation of collectives (Urban Collective Action Network and India Public Finance Collaborative)
• Strengthening the internal facilitation perspective and capacity with Blue Ribbon Movement, India Fellows and Centre for Communication Governance, NLUD
• 12-day international exchanges on “education”, “NGO development” and “facilitation” with global partners of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany
• Connection Circles for batch of 100 Vedica Scholars
• Think Tank trainings in strategy, project management, fundraising and communications for the Asia and Africa partners of the Atlas Network.
• Opening orientations with new batches of India Fellows and the Indian School of Public Policy
• Online Open Gathering Genie Circles to bring collective attention on how we gather at work and life
• 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

My facilitation practice and way of being is nurtured by communities of practice since 2013, one of them is the global Genuine Contact Community with whom I learnt the soul of facilitation and the other is the homegrown Facilitators Learning Spiral (which I co-founded with other eager independent facilitators). My facilitation approach has had multiple influences - The Thinking Environment, Bullzi, Whole Person Process Facilitation, Game Storming to name a few.

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.