Mayank Agarwal was just 29 when he breathed his last at one of Bengaluru's hospitals last month. He had been put on a ventilator as his condition deteriorated after he tested positive for COVID-19. After battling the virus for 20 days, he passed away on April 26. An enterprising young man, Mayank had a beautiful life with a flourishing career, a loving family, and countless friends. Always ready to extend a helping hand, he was the go-to person in a crisis. When he contracted the disease, his family had to bear witness to the trials and tribulations, making headlines, of people burning the midnight oil to save their loved ones from the deadly virus. To honour his memories, his family decided to start an initiative to raise funds to help low-income families avail medical treatment. In a span of 24-48 hours, they were able to raise nearly ₹ 33 lakh and help as many as 50 families.Mayank loved Bengaluru and was extremely passionate about the culture. His family started a fundraising initiative under 'Mayank Agarwal Memorial Fund' and decided to engage with Varun's followers on Instagram to raise the funds.

Chatted with Varun & his mum, Purnima, on the show! Listen in!

Indian Golfer Aditi Ashok mesmerized the nation with a brilliant show at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Holding the position of World No. 200, she entered the top 5 in the women's individual stroke play on Saturday and missed a medal by a whisker to finish 4th.

Aditi Ashok narrowly missed out on being the first Indian golfer to win an Olympic medal in the women's individual stroke play of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Saturday. When the fourth and final round got underway on Saturday morning, the Bangalore golfer had maintained her second position and was just behind USA's Nelly Korda. As the play continued, she slipped down to the third and further to the fourth.

After a 9-minute rain delay, the 23-year-old remained under-15, which meant that she needed a birdie to remain in the medal contention, and eventually, it all came down to the 72nd hole of the tournament as Aditi's podium finish depended on it. Sadly, she could not get the job done and was out of the medal race.

Spoke with Tarun Sardesai who runs the Tarun Sardesai Golf Academy about her performance(being her former coach). We also spoke about the future of golf for India. The future is so bright.. we need to wear shades!

With the theatres being closed, over the top platforms have seen a boom in content, be it regional or mainstream. With the constrain of earning big at the box office gone, and the audience being more accepting of actors who are not popular stars, it has given filmmakers the push to experiment with brave stories. Stories that would otherwise have been unfeasible to show on the big screen. And the production of anthology series has taken this whole process of telling risky stories a step further. So here we have collated a list of such features from within some of the recent anthology series, that have dealt with themes commonly missing in the mainstream.

Queer representation in most Bollywood films has always been in the extremes. Either it is over the top with its portrayal of characters or there are depressing stories about their survival (which is not inaccurate). However, what these kinds of films generally miss is a proper and ‘normal’ representation of these characters, which do not alienate them further. One of the shorts of Netflix’s recent anthology series She Loves Me She Loves Me Not written and directed by Sulagna Chatterjee and Danish Aslam respectively does a commendable job in normalising queer stories and making the story about their journey and not their sexuality. Starring Sanjeeta Bhattacharya and Saba Azad, the short is something whose extended version would be a great thing to watch on the big screen.

Spoke to Sanjeeta on the show and I highly recommend a binge-watch for 'Feels Like Ishq' on Netflix!

Para swimmer Niranjan Mukundan has been granted a bi-partite quota for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics, the national governing body said on Tuesday. The International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) decision to offer a quota place to Mukundan would mean that India will have two para swimmers in its 54-member contingent, the largest ever. 

Niranjan Mukundan is an award-winning professional para-swimmer who was born with Spina Bifida, a neural tube defect which affects the spine, leaving him paralyzed below the hips. In 2018 Mukundan won a bronze medal in men's 50m butterfly at the Berlin World Series, and created an Asian record in the men's 200m backstroke at the same event. Over the course of his career he has won numerous gold medals, with particular success at the 2017 IWAS Junior World Games in Prague and the World Junior Games in 2015.

I'm thrilled to call him a friend and so happy about his achievements! 

Prerna Wadikar, a student who hails from Bengaluru, has won the Vice Chancellor’s Social Impact Award at the University of Oxford. The recognition was for her work in making portable energy access more affordable by developing a technological model using a lithium-ion battery.

The technology developed by her resembles a power bank that can be charged using either a solar panel or an electric grid, both embedded in the device itself. She also highlighted that the device was less than 500 grams heavy and that a daisy chain of 10 such units could even generate power to run a small refrigerator. Wadikar, who began her career as a distribution marketing professional in the Karnataka capital, has worked in different sectors within and outside the country, expanding the outreach of her background in technology and public policy. Wadikar hopes to scale up her product and her social enterprise named Jeeva Global to offer support to micro and nano entrepreneurs, mostly deprived of government support, to help them better their livelihoods in the days to come.

Spoke to her on the show and I hope you enjoy the conversation!

As we enjoy all the Olympic action.. Hakim joins me on the show to talk about his experience at the Olympics when he represented India years ago.

Hakimuddin Shabbir Habibulla (born 25 September 1979) is an Indian former swimmer, who specialized in middle-distance freestyle events. He represented India at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and later became a co-founder of GoSports India Pvt. Ltd., a sports management company based in Bangalore. He was also the Founder Trustee of the GoSports Foundation. Habibulla competed only in the men's 200 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He received a Universality place from FINA in an entry time of 1:56.11. He challenged four other swimmers in heat one, including Uzbekistan's two-time Olympian Oleg Tsvetkovskiy. Coming from third at the first turn, Habibulla finished the race to a fourth seed in a time of 1:58.35, finishing behind the leader Tsvetskovskiy by 3.42 seconds. Habibulla failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed 50th overall in the prelims. Habibulla is currently the founder and principal consultant for sports performance at Winning Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd., a sports consulting firm.

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Ever since the internet came into existence, digital privacy has been a battle. Whether it is securing companies from cyber threats or protecting individual’s information from data breaches and data leaks, the fight has been hard.

It becomes all the more critical when collecting sensitive data on surveys like mental health, sexual health, activism, and others. Although there are platforms like Google Forms, Survey Monkey, and TypeForm, among others, the data here is stored in an unencrypted manner in a centralised database, increasing the vulnerability.

Bengaluru-based startup BlockSurvey looks to make a disruption here. Launched in January 2020 by Wilson Bright and Raja Ilayaperumal, BlockSurvey is a decentralised blockchain-powered data collection platform.

The Bengaluru-based startup enables businesses and individuals to create no-code online forms and surveys and collect data based on anonymity.

Spoke to Wilson Bright, the co-founder of Block Survey! I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Although the original Cheesecake Day was conceived and first celebrated in 1985, it didn’t really take off until 2001 when the power of the internet helped its cause. It then gained traction and became a sensation that is now celebrated all over the world.  Dating back to its invention by the Ancient Greeks, probably around 200 A.D., cheesecake was believed to have been one of the first “sweet” desserts in the world. Or at least, it was one of the first to be written down. In its earlier time, this dish was originally made from a soft cheese but was probably very different from what we now know as cheesecake.

Today on the show, we answer the burning question: IS CHEESECAKE OVERRATED? To help me out, home-baker Khushboo Gupta joins me! She runs 'Ganached by Khushboo' and we're going to get to the bottom of this. Oh, by the way, try her dessert tubs! They're amazing!

Nisha Millet (Head Coach & Founder) is one of the most recognized names in Indian swimming with a career spanning 15 years and more than 600 gold medals to her credit. A brief summary of her achievements are as follows:

With the Olympics at hand, I spoke with her and what a fun chat that was! Enjoy listening!

Prakash Nanjappa (born 29 February 1976) is an Indian shooter who competes in the 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol events. He was the only Indian to win a medal in the 2013 ISSF World Cup, when he won bronze with a very minor difference between the second place in 10 metre air pistol event in Changwon, South Korea. In the same event, he won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Nanjappa won a bronze medal in the 2013 ISSF World Cup in Changwon, South Korea, in the 10 metre air pistol event having scored 180.2 points in the final. In the same year, he suffered from a paralytic attack in the right side of his face, during the World Cup in Granada. Following his recovery, in October 2013, Nanjappa won the silver medal in the 50 metre pistol event in the Asian air gun championship in Tehran.

In the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Nanjappa won the silver medal in the 10 m air pistol event, having scored 198.2 points in the final. Earlier, he had topped the qualification round by scoring 580 points.

Nanjappa qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Men's 50 metres Pistol event, where he finished 25th in the qualification round.

Had a chat with him on the show! Enjoy!