Jayashree Ratan never imagined that she would be able to gather 400+ crocheting and knitting enthusiasts from different parts of the world to come together for one collective purpose - to help women who have been through mastectomies to regain a sense of self with the help of their huggable knockers. As of February 2023, this wonderful group has knitted and crocheted and knitted over 10,000 knockers for over 5000 beneficiaries and over 1200 beanies for several paediatric cancer patients around the country. 

With hardly any awareness around the availability of a breast prosthesis that made of a special type of cotton yarn, Saaisha India's primary goal has been to create awareness about their knockers amongst doctors and potential beneficiaries who cannot afford the more expensive alternatives that are available in the market today. 

Listen in and if you believe you know of someone who may benefit from this, please redirect them to this registration form (or better, help them fill this up) - https://bit.ly/3YjGcJa 

And if you are a crocheter or a knitter, please sign up to become a volunteer at Saaisha India here - https://bit.ly/3yiw1tC 

Unless you learned swimming voluntarily, it is almost a fair assumption to make that you did not enjoy the experience. For an activity that results in a life skill, a good learning experience should be a bare minimum right? That is all Nirala wanted to bring to the pool. A way to get kids to love water and willingly put their heads in and swim even before they learned to walk! And after working with over 900 kids now, she has some really interesting bits of wisdom to share with co-host, Pooja Sriram and we hope this episode ignites that spark in you to also take a simple problem and solve it with all your passion. Dive in!! 

After having founded Arture Designs back in 2015 which is now pretty much on auto pilot mode, Shivani decided it was time to pick up that brush again and paint because she enjoyed doing so. The pandemic was pretty much a turning point for her where she tapped into that natural instinct of wanting to dabble with yet another medium and this time, it was Gouache. The rest is pretty much history. 

From working on maybe 1 to 2 paintings a year, to painting every single day, Shivani is now actively working towards spreading the word about what it takes to become a creative entrepreneur. While mastering a medium takes a different level of commitment, turning your skill or craft or art into a business is a whole new level of commitment and this is exactly what Shivani is helping aspiring creative entrepreneurs navigate through. And all this while she's busy building her brand, currently as a Gouache artist. 

Sukanya, a photographer from Chennai is a storyteller whose purpose is to make people fall in themselves all over again just by showing them what she sees through her window of happiness. As someone who believes that storytelling is possible only when you are being honest with yourself as the storyteller on one hand, while you get the protagonist to be honest on the other hand, Listen in as our co-host, Smriti, takes Sukanya down her little memory lane to the day her first camera arrived home and how there's been no stopping this girl ever since. 

What do you think of when you listen to the word 'Instagram Influencer'? Someone who has thousands of followers, who collaborates with the biggest brands and hardly responds to comments? 😅

Now, meet Dhanya Srinath, an Instagram Influencer who is very different from 'that definition' of an influencer. Her authenticity is her USP and her love for community building is her strength. You can binge watch her cooking vlogs on @dh6nya and tune into this episode where she speaks to Project Spark's co-host Pooja  about her love for social media, food and people - something that both of them bond over! 

"Motherhood is tough."

"You lose your sense of self and somewhere you're looking for your old self, ending up frustrated."

"You got to do what you love because you have another person to inspire now." 

These are a few standouts for us amongst other things that Nrithya and I spoke about in this episode. 

A song-writer, a singer, a toddler mum and the co-founder of Love, Baby Rose, Nrithya decided to find comfort in music early on in her life. Getting the lyrics right was her first and foremost task as opposed to adding music to the lyrics. But all of this changed when she became a mum. Coping with the fact that her creative process had been torn into a "hundred million pieces" left her feeling frustrated but she didn't give up. What would have taken her two days, took her almost a year instead, to write and produce a song. But what instead she decided to do was to break it down into micro-mini baby steps and voila, she realised that there was method to the madness after all. 

Nrithya's beautiful little girl is now 3.5 years old and is busy creating her own songs on bubbles while Nrithya decided that it was time to experience the joy of creating all over again. And this time it was with children's clothing. 

Love, Baby Rose was co-founded by Nrithya, her mum and her 3.5-year-old back in 2022 with the purpose of creating a small, happy, safe community. 

Listen in as we speak about everything, from motherhood, to LBR's unique business model and above all, what it takes to put yourself out there no matter what. Because, very baby step counts.

With the sole purpose of bringing to the fore the 'she' perspective in how brands communicate to women consumers, Heetal and Shweta decided to leave behind their agency life and instead start Nine Yards Communications Consultancy back in 2020. Having seen how brands have evolved over the years but yet speak about themselves instead of addressing the "why" of their existence has been a pet peeve for the co-founders and they're working towards changing this in their own way via their work while enabling brands to be unapologetically themselves. Listen in to this 45-minute conversation (we promise you that every minute is worth it) as we delve deeper into why its important to have a fair representation of women in every aspect of our lives today what its going to take to get there. 

With everyone's New Year Resolution including a travel segment for 2023, this episode is one that digs into behind-the-scenes of organizing travel plans from a professional lens. Bhawana Rao has started 4 travel companies focusing on different aspects of travel - Travel Mocha, Stratos Lifestyle, Encompass & The Picnic Company and has tonnes to share from her own experience of visiting 43 countries and enabling travel for many others. 

Join Project Spark's co-host Pooja Sriram as she unearths the motivation of traveling and how Bhawana's unwavering passion and confidence shaped her career, in this episode. 

Varsha Adusumilli was in for a surprise when she realised that she had never paid attention to the fact that she was part of a minority cohort of women who have had the chance to carve out their  growth trajectory in their own terms. This reality check turned out to be a book called Wonder Girls, that is a collection of 15 stories of people who dared to do things their way. In other words, they were  role models for young children, especially young girls could relate to.

Listen in to this episode as Varsha and Smriti reflect on the need for role models, more importantly, relatable role models who can help change aspirations and outcomes in ways that one can never imagine. 

As 2022 comes to an end, Project Spark's co-hosts, Pooja and Smriti reflect on the learnings they've encountered in the last four months. From showing up, to developing a routine that suits you best and setting yourself up for success by your own terms amongst many other nuggets, the journey so far has been nothing short of amazing. Listen in to this wrap-up episode as Project Spark is all set to take things to the next level in 2023.