Remarkable People

S5E04 Lumière Learning Monday With Rekha Kotia Catch the Lumière Learning Monday with host Deepa Soman, 🎙️ in conversation with Rekha Koita, Co-Founder and Director of Koita Foundation, which focuses on digitally transforming nonprofit operations to optimize performance and growth 📈. Rekha is passionate about education, healthcare, and livelihoods. Her work includes spearheading digital health projects in India,🖥️ such as the Koita Centre for Digital Health, and contribut

A Legacy of Empowerment: Mrinalini Kher’s Vision for a Better Tomorrow Catch the Lumière Learning Monday with host Deepa Soman in conversation with Mrinalini Kher, a passionate social worker with over 20 years of dedicated service in the social welfare sector. Co-founder of Yuva Parivartan (YP), a transformative project of the Kherwadi Social Welfare Association (KSWA), she also serves as Honorary Secretary and Trustee. Under her leadership, YP has grown into one of the large

We have been doing Lumière Learning Mondays, inviting inspiring people to engage with the team at the Lumière office. During Covid, we transitioned Learning Mondays to an online video podcast featuring two-hour conversations with guests to delve into their journeys. The sessions were aired live on Zoom Webinar and later on YouTube. A snapshot of an event aired in 2020 We launched other online events, such as Torchbearer Thursday and CMA Samvaad , each with specific inspirati

An engineer turned marketing fanatic Rajesh Srivastava has had one heck of a professional journey. After finishing his engineering at IIT Kanpur, he went to IIM Bangalore - "I thought I would be a bad engineer. So I decided to do what the world is doing. I joined the MBA program." Post his MBA, he joined the alcoholic beverage industry, which is very unlike his personality. This shy marketing enthusiast, who disliked partying, has helped create the finest and most popular alc

Wise Wednesday guest speaker Dr. T V Sairam is a founder-member of the Nada Centre for Music Therapy (2004) and the Indian Music Therapy Association (2018). He identifies himself as a former administrator, economist, ethnobotanist, and musicologist. He is a retired civil servant (IRS). He has done pioneering research on herbs, alternative medicine, environment, art, aesthetics, architecture, music therapy, and nada yoga in India for the last 30 years. He has written over 350

Dr. Sarita Subramaniam, Director, Earth Brigade Foundation our Lumiere Learning Monday guest, is a multi-faceted professional who raises the bar in everything she does. A dentist with over 32 years of experience, Sarita describes herself as an "incurable animal lover, nature aficionado, forest conserver, animal activist, tiger savior, and philanthropist". Born to pet-loving parents, Sarita grew up in a tiny urban apartment with pet dogs. The close bond with dogs and their way

Zarin Virji's Gopal's Gully is an ode to friendship. The author shares her journey as a writer on Lumiere Wise Wednesday. A creative writing graduate from the University of Sheffield, Zarin is passionate about teaching and writing. Her core profession is that of teacher, teacher trainer, and Principal of The Universal School, Tardeo - an IGCSE school. As a part of the core team of 'Education Today Society Tomorrow' - initiatives of the change program, Zarin expresses herself

Hema Hattangady shares her life’s journey on Lumiere Learning Monday. She is a Mentor, Author, Independent Director, and Former CEO of Conzerv systems Pvt. Ltd., acquired by Schneider Electric. Hema has a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management PGDM from the premier Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. She also has a post-graduate diploma in French from Karnataka University. She has co-authored a book with Ashish Sen titled Lift Off - Trans

Connecting and leveraging his contacts to start a volunteer network, is Shishir Joshi's mantra to plugs into the core of Mumbai city - Kindness. "Oh, I know Shishir. He is a great guy", says many an admirer, responding to the Lumiere event promo. He is the Founder and Chief Executive, of the not-for-profit Project Mumbai (www.projectmumbai.org). Structured as a registered public trust, it strives for social transformation through initiatives of scale —where People are the Pu

Manisha Kapoor, is currently the Secretary General of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). A multi-faceted professional, she has been a brand marketer and a consultant. Manisha has helped companies establish and nurture brands through brand building, new product development, marketing and media strategy development. She has helped businesses grow and differentiate through integration of social development goals into business and brand strategy. In her current ro

An exemplary teacher, devoted to inclusiveness is what defines our guest speak - Ms.Neena Jacob . She personifies acceptance, inclusiveness and compassion. Lead by example is her motto. She is currently one of the trustees at The Sethu Foundation , Goa. The core focus of The Sethu Foundation is to bring many more children into the mainstream education. A trained architect at the J J School of Art, Neena chose education as her profession. She has impacted the lives of ~ 45,000

A prolific writer, thinker, philosopher, trainer and a change maker are some of the descriptors for our guest speaker Dr. Priya M Vaidya. An Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Mumbai, Priya has a doctorate in Swami Vivekananda's and Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of education. She is passionate about bringing in a reflective and values-based approach in society. Naughty Child to a Reader From a young age, Dr. Priya had interesting questions a

Awadh Decoded Jhankar Gadkari is a man on a mission. This is the third city he plans to bring to his audience in the 12 city circuit. Jhankar is a popular Lumiere Learning Monday guest speaker. He took us on a virtual historical journey to Mumbai and to Delhi in seasons 1 and 2. "If Jhankar were my history teacher, I would have learned and remembered a lot of my history" , is the reaction from many a listener. Jhankar's purpose is to talk about the little-known tipping point

Written by Juili Dharmadhikari and Deepa Soman Planning and Preparing It was after I interviewed Soundari Mukherjea on Learning Monday, that I learned about one more facet to her persona - pottery! The potter's wheel is a metaphor for God's creation of "clay", man. As a people collector, I lend a platform for interesting people to talk about their life and work on the Lumiere Learning Monday. A person has many layers and the longer one's history with a person, the more storie

Nature as Teacher Vijaya's curiosity and intelligence were shaped in her growing up close to nature in the deep Western Ghats. She learned about wild fruits and birds. St. Xavier's College opened up another world. Libraries jostled besides movie halls. Her academic, cultural and nature education had begun. Movies and books became her teachers along side learning via nature trails with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Friends of Trees (FOT). Xavier's has been one

Discovering Eleanor's Magic We were preparing for a Lumiere Learning Monday session by Ramesh Lakshman. I got interested in the subject and attended a session by Eleanor Crisswell Hanna, his teacher of Somatic Yoga. After the event I spoke to Ramesh about trying Somatics for my frozen shoulder. I had taken a few physiotherapy sessions by then but was not taking any medication. I attended an 8-week program called "Myth of Ageing" with Ramesh Lakshman and invited friends in my

With an experience of 37 years in the teaching profession, Prof. Dr. Leena Chatterjee, retired in 2021. Celebrated and decorated, she ranks among the most popular faculties at IIM Calcutta. She has recently joined at BITSoM. Accidental Educator Prof. Leena Chatterjee never thought she would become a professor. Both parents were professional social workers. She learned the value of “being helpful”. Her father encouraged her to read books in sociology and psychology. She was

~ Esha Mohol and Deepa Soman Torchbearer Thursday Grand Finale The season finale of the Torchbearer Thursday series is a tribute to women, work and well-being, a cause that reflects the Lumiere purpose. Madhura Dasgupta Sinha and Reema Sen, co-founders of Aspire For Her have initiated a movement to offer mentoring and guidance to women to take ownership of their careers.  "Our mission is to motivate women to enter and stay in the workforce and we want to add 1 million women t

~ Keerthana Mariam and Deepa Soman Moussumi Dhar, customer sales and loyalty expert created her company Gratefy.com. The platform provides for customised solutions to nurture customer and employee relationships. The "gratefy'd' look Begin at the Beginning Moussumi Dhar is a part of a community, Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) of IIT-B. Dr. Aparna Rao Nanduri asked her to speak to Deepa for a mentoring conversation. Moussumi talks passionately about loyalty and what led her t

~ Esha Mohol and Deepa Soman Learning Monday Guest Speaker, Jermina Menon Confluence of influence "I like to think I am the only Indian (named) Jermina"  says Jermina Menon, marketer and retail branding expert and the Chief Strategy Officer of Knowetic, India. Jermina talks about her journey through advertising, marketing and retail and how uses an interdisciplinary approach work with brands. Unfazed by finance and technology, she melds these into her knowledge of marketing.