Happy & Human

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How do we encourage our children to honour their culture in the modern-day landscape? How do we help them normalize their duality living in the states? These are questions Seema and Dinesh explore in this episode with Anu Sehgal, children’s author and the Founder of the largest cultural literacy and language education company for kids that focuses on South Asia. They have a conversation around the importance of this work, and the ramifications of not doing the work. She shares how to effectively encourage and foster children’s positive self worth and normalize their heritage, culture, and duality. Anu is sharing the criticisms she’s faced in this work and the incredible successes she’s had along the way. 

About Anu: 

Anu Sehgal is a children’s author and the Founder/CEO of The Culture Tree, the largest cultural literacy and language education company for kids that focuses on South Asia.  The goal of her organization is to create empathy, respect and understanding towards all different cultures and further inclusivity, while still helping address questions about Identity with heritage cultures.

She lives in New York with her family, and has two sons (aged 15 and 12). Anu believes awareness of one’s heritage, culture and language is key for children to become self-aware and confident individuals. She holds an MBA from Yale University and has worked in the corporate sector for almost 15 years. She has received several awards and recognitions for her work in cultural literacy. Anu has written 5 books that represent stories and languages of India. Anu’s books have been selected at the World Literature Festival at NYPL, Jaipur Literature Festival, Brooklyn Museum’s annual Children’s Literature Festival and Asia Society’s AAPI Literature Festival. Additionally, she and her organization have received several awards and recognitions from the NY State Assembly, Mayor’s office, The Society of Foreign Consuls and the Consulate.

Connect with Anu: 

Website: http://www.TheCultureTree.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theculturetree 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-culture-tree/ 

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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What does it look like when an ambitious woman at the top of her game intentionally pauses paid work to focus on raising children? Is there a right and wrong way to approach the balance of work and professional ambitions with raising children? These are the questions and topics Seema and Dinesh dive into with guest Neha Ruch, founder of Mother United. Determined to represent the possibilities of being an ambitious woman or parent, choosing to pause or shift a career to focus on family, Neha shares her experience and the common experiences of other families and women who have made similar decisions. They have a conversation around the modern day family and how to make the best decision for your unique experience balancing family and professional life. Regardless of what you’ve chosen or are trying to decide for your family, this a conversation for everyone. 

About Neha: 

As the founder of Mother Untitled and the author of the forthcoming book, THE POWER PAUSE (Putnam, 2025), Neha Ruch is on a mission to update and elevate the perception of stay-at-home motherhood in America. A rising thought leader, influencer, and sought-after speaker in the world of women, work, parenting, and identity, Neha's mindset shifts are shared widely by tens of thousands of women, including Mandy Moore, Kourtney Kardashian, Gabby Bernstein and Joanna Goddard. 

Neha received her B.A. from Skidmore College and her M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to downshifting her career for motherhood, she led brand strategy at a number of highly successful luxury startups, including Zola and Carats & Cake. Neha immigrated to the United States from Mumbai, India, as a child, and grew up in Massachusetts. She currently resides in Manhattan with her husband, their two children, and their dog Coconut. 

Connect with Neha: 

Pre-Order her book: https://www.motheruntitled.com/thepowerpause

Website: https://www.motheruntitled.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motheruntitled

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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We have our youngest guest ever on this episode of the Happy and Human Podcast! 

Anjali Popli is on the show today sharing her experiences in taking a less-than-traditional route as a content creator, what she’s learned along the way, and what it means to let your passion drive your actions. She shares with us what inspires her and drives her to work hard and the impact her parent’s had on her seizing opportunities in her 20s. This is a fun, enlightening conversation you won’t want to miss. 

Anjali Popli is a 22-year-old from Philly and a first-gen Indian American content creator diving into the comedy and music scenes on Instagram and TikTok. Her background and love for entertainment have inspired her to build a space where she can blend humor and culture, sharing laughs, relatable moments, and original music with her community. She hopes to inspire other Indian creators to follow their creative passions and use their voice to make a change!

Connect with Anjali: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anjalipop/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@anjaliipop?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc 

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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Seema and Dinesh are bringing on Desi Daughters Founder Salina Shah to talk about something that’s impacting so many of us yet rarely talked about - taking care of aging parents. To bridge the gap on how and why this is an important topic, Salina Shah shares her insights and the reason behind her mission in creating Desi Daughters, an organization to empower other working professionals with aging Desi parents. While these conversations can be difficult, she shares her insights on how they can be more effective and the important things to keep in mind along the way. If you have also found yourself in this situation or approaching it, this episode can provide you with valuable insights and tips on approaching this process in the most helpful and loving way for everyone involved. 

Salina Shah is on a mission to empower Desi women navigating midlife and aging elders. Before her current venture, Salina was an actuarial executive and Senior Vice President at Aon. She is a co-inventor of health benefits optimization software and a Board Member of the Actuaries for Sustainable Health Care nonprofit. In parallel, Salina was experiencing the challenges of balancing working motherhood while caring for aging parents. She realized no central, culturally relevant resource was available to support people like her. To fill this void and help others, she launched Desi Daughters to empower, educate, and support other working professionals with aging Desi parents in the US or India. The response has been phenomenal! Over 3,000 members (mostly women) have joined the Desi Daughters community network in less than a year. This thriving movement redefines how we support Desi women navigating midlife and aging elders.

Connect with Salina:

Website:  www.desidaughters.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/desidaughters 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salinashah/ 

Five Wishes (mentioned in the show): https://www.fivewishes.org/ 

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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Join Seema and Vidya Moorthy in this episode where they discuss the value of a genuine interest in others, finding courage to dismiss preconceived rules and notions and more. Vidya shares why she believes we all have the responsibility to make it easier for someone else in some way and why our primal intention is to uplift others. They discuss the challenges women in particular face when it comes to expectations and the power in choosing the values and rules we actually want to instill - both for ourselves and those around us. 

Vidya Moorthy is President of Austin Business Woman and Founder of Austin-based Clural LLC, is a communication strategist, public speaker and a specialist in geopolitics, cross-cultural training, professional development and inter-personal communication.

She served as vice-president of Client Services at Bassett & Bassett, Incorporated, a strategic communication management firm head-quartered at Detroit, Michigan, where worked closely with community leaders, local media, legislators, lobbyists, and organizations on both corporate marketing campaigns as well as grassroots public information campaigns.

She then served as the Managing Director, Asia-Pacific Operations for Bassett & Bassett. Dedicated to making a meaningful contribution to the field of education, she founded Bassett Education India, a Life Skills training solution for students, teachers and professionals. Recognizing that effective communication is the key to professional and personal success, she is an expert trainer in psychological skills, emotional skills, non-verbal communication, networking, email etiquette, global sensitivities, media relations and nuances of different styles of communication across cultures. During her expansive professional career she has worked with teams from all over the world including European, Japanese, American and African teams. She relocated to Austin in 2021 and her company, Clural LLC provides training programs and strategic communication services for organizations and college students. Clural offers specially designed campus-to-corporate program for international students that helps them merge with their adopted country and accelerates their careers.

Connect with Vidya Moorthy:

Website: www.austinbusinesswoman.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vidya.moorthy.5/

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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Do you believe health is wealth? This is the episode for you if you need that push to finally take your health seriously. If you’re still not convinced you have “the time” or it’ll be “worth” the time, this conversation with Akash will change your mind. Seema and Dinesh have an open conversation with Akash around the never ending benefits of taking your health seriously, why you may know what to do but still can’t seem to take action, and the inside scoop on his approach with clients that creates lasting transformations. 

Dr. Akash Bajaj is a triple board-certified physician specializing in anesthesiology, pain management, and anti-aging medicine. Dr. Bajaj has excellent educational credentials. He completed his undergraduate studies at UCSD, where he graduated summa cum laude and became a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa & Golden Key Honor societies. He earned his M.D. and a Master’s degree in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the New York Medical College, where he was also a first responder for the 9/11 attacks. Then, following which he completed a residency in Anesthesiology at UCLA Medical Center. He pursued further training and certification in Interventional Pain Management at the prestigious UCSF.

Dr. Bajaj began to realize that as powerful as traditional medicine is for curing illness, there was less consideration on how to optimize oneself physically, emotionally, and spiritually, to avoid the onset of disease in the first place.  His curiosity led him to pursue further training and certification in Anti-Aging medicine through the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine. He now focuses on optimizing his clients’ health with custom optimization protocols using all the modern tools of optimization and longevity medicine  and to allow his clients to excel and be the optimized, most badass, version of themselves, re-creating self respect, confidence, and authenticity in the process. 

Connect with Dr. Akash Bajaj: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akashbajajmd/?hl=en 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@akashbajajmd 

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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Dinesh and Seema are welcoming special guest, singer Vivek Agrawal. They have an exciting conversation around the unexpected paths we take to success, the value of embracing our passions and unique talents and how he pivoted from a career in tech as a sound engineer at Bose to making singing videos on TikTok. This is a fun and lively conversation you won’t want to miss - with a little singing surprise too!

Vivek Agrawal is a singer based in the suburbs of Chicago who aims to take Bollywood music global.  He has worked with a number of musicians in India, including Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman, and has recently grown his audience to over 250,000 followers on Tik Tok for remaking classic Bollywood songs in English.  Before pursuing music full-time in 2020, he studied at Stanford and helped created music technology products for a decade, including the Bose Frames audio sunglasses.  Now he is merging both of his talents in music and tech as he prepares to release his first album later this year.  To hear more of his music, find him on @viagrawal.

Connect with Vivek: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viagrawal/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@viagrawal?lang=en
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpCPPtfR40ZJ2HO2NaUBsIw

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

Happy and Human Podcast on IG @happyandhumanpodcast

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Join Seema and Dinesh for a deep dive into empathy and what it really means with Founder of RK Empathy, Dr. Payal Beri. Dr. Payal Beri shares insights into her extensive knowledge and research of empathy and how she blends her extensive organizational psychology and clinical therapy background with a deep commitment to fostering personal growth and societal impact. Seema and Dinesh have a conversation with her around her framework, what empathy looks like and how we can channel it for ourselves. Especially if you are in any sort of leadership or management role, this conversation is a must-listen. 

Payal's journey from a third-culture kid, navigating through diverse cultures across Dubai, Iraq, Egypt, Australia, and the US, to becoming the founder of RK Empathy encapsulates a narrative of resilience, compassion and empowerment. Her unique experiences, witnessing the universal threads of humanity amidst cultural disparities, propelled her into the realms of psychology and leadership development.

Today, Payal stands as a beacon for changemakers, blending her extensive organizational psychology and clinical therapy background with a deep commitment to fostering personal growth and societal impact.

Connect with Dr. Payal Beri: 

Payal’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/payalberi/

RK Empathy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rkempathy/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/payalberi/

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

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Here to discuss The Pain Gap, Seema and Dinesh welcome special guest Anushay Hoissan. They’re having the necessary conversation around women’s health, pain, and the gaps in women’s health research. Anushay shares her personal experience and what drives her to continue to advocate for women’s health and the challenges women, espeically women of color, are still facing within the U.S. healthcare system. She shares ways we can make meaningful change and what excites her about the future of women’s health. 

Anushay Hossain is a Washington, DC-based author and podcast host, renowned for her advocacy in women's health and her bestselling book, The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women. Through her podcast, The Pain Gap, Anushay highlights the systemic challenges that women, especially women of color, face within the U.S. healthcare system. Her advocacy is fueled by personal experiences, including a life-threatening childbirth that exposed the deep-seated sexism and racism in healthcare.

Starting her career with an internship at the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Anushay later earned her MA in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex. Her journey includes significant roles at the Feminist Majority Foundation and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Today, she is a prominent speaker and commentator, featured on platforms like CNN and MSNBC, and in publications such as Forbes and Newsweek. Anushay's work not only sheds light on critical health issues but also drives the dialogue towards tangible policy changes in healthcare and women’s rights.

Connect with Anushay:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anushayhossain/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anushay-hossain-88964555/
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FAnushayHossain
• Substack: https://anushay.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
• Website: https://anushayhossain.com/

Links:

Dinesh Melwani http://www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai http://www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

Happy and Human Podcast on IG @happyandhumanpodcast

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Here to share the truth behind WHY your vote matters so much, for the presidential election and beyond, we have very special guest and National Director for South Asians for Harris, Neha Dewan. She’s here to share with us the value of elections, how to make informed decisions, and the BTS scoop on what she’s seeing during this election year. Seema and Dinesh have a conversation with her around the pressing issues South Asians face in the United States and how to use their voice effectively. This timely conversation will give you all the need-to-know information in preparation for the upcoming election. 

Neha has long been active in both local and national politics. Most recently, she founded and served as the National Director for South Asians for Harris, an organization dedicated to engaging, educating, and mobilizing the South Asian community to elect Kamala Harris. In 2016, Neha served as the National Co-Chair for South Asians for Hillary and was appointed by Hillary Clinton to the National AAPI Leadership Council. 

Previously, in 2015, Neha was appointed as a guest of honor by the Consulate General of India in New York City where she was selected to speak about gender equality for International Women's Day.  During the 2012 presidential campaign, Neha chaired the New York Chapter of South Asians for Obama and also served on the steering committee for Lawyers for Obama in New York. For several years, Neha served as an Officer of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, an organization affiliated with the National Lawyers Council of the Democratic National Committee and comprised of Democratic lawyers and voting rights activists. Similarly, for many years, Neha served as an advisory board member of New Leaders Council, a national organization focused on training and supporting progressive political entrepreneurs. She has also been active in her local community board and political clubs. Neha served as the President of the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2012, and now sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Connect with Neha: https://www.instagram.com/msnehadewan/ 

Get Involved: https://www.saforamerica.org/

Links:

Dinesh Melwani www.dineshmelwani.com IG @dineshmelwani

Seema Desai www.drseemadesai.com, IG @dr.seemadesai   

Happy and Human Podcast on IG @happyandhumanpodcast