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

“Allow your passion to become your purpose and it will one day become your profession.” A conventional path from the beginning Anil Nair, CEO of St. Jude India Childcare Centres was our guest for the Lumiere Learning Monday session on 4 July. At first glance, he comes across as quiet and unassuming but underneath it all lies a wealth of knowledge, leadership, and a passion for helping others. His journey was pretty much a conventional one - he went to the “ right schools and

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

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

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

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

~ 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

Introduction “They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou American poet, Maya Angelou's words epitomise the will to serve. We celebrate the efforts to save a life and the mutual feeling of giving and receiving in this Torchbearer Thursday episode with Dr. Maria Nigam. Dr, Maria Nigam and her Prana Pan-India team make an appeal to come forward and serve in the cause of humanity by donating blood. Dr. Maria Nigam, Principal found

Our profession presents continuous opportunities to work with new, never before domains and challenges. It’s a profession where learning is a way of life and a critical survival tool. Peter Senge’s landmark book, ‘The Fifth Discipline’ is an enlightened, inspiring and insightful book. It teaches how organization learning can give organizations their edge and can serve as an effective blueprint relevant for learning needs of all organizations. Senge writes, ‘as the world becom