Rooted and Routed Podcast

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What happens when the local feels like the outsider, and the foreigner feels at home?

In this episode of Rooted and Routed, Sabiya sits down with Dieter Withoeck, her husband, a Belgian who has lived in India for nearly two decades, and a returning guest from Season 1. Together they unpack one specific tension: the difference between collective and individualist societies, and how the two of them have quietly ended up on opposite sides of it.

Dieter pushes back on the assumption that Belgium has "no family culture," and explores what family and social connection really look like in Europe versus India. From there, the conversation turns to something far less talked about: the difficulty of returning to your own country after years away. Dieter returned to Antwerp after eleven years and felt like a foreigner in it; Sabiya, the local, has felt the reverse. They discuss why "going home" is so much harder than people assume, what reintegration asks of NRIs coming back after a decade or two, and how their children inherit that in-between.

The conversation widens into the fast-changing India that returnees now meet, and the wave of Belgian companies arriving across food, beer, chocolate, agriculture and technology, much of it built and adapted locally rather than simply imported. Along the way: India's developing airports and seaports, shifting tastes, the sensory shock of arriving in India for the first time, and Dieter's own "49% Indian" sense of belonging.

And to close, something lighter, imagining a festival that blends Belgian and Indian traditions, and a shared hope for the day India plays in a football World Cup.

A conversation about belonging, return, and the truth that home isn't a fixed place; it's something you negotiate.

Follow the show and share this episode with someone living between two cultures.

Follow Dieter on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/dieter-withoeck-57887928

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

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Visibility without values is just noise.

Ketaki Tanaji Golatkar returns for Part 2 of our conversation on Rooted and Routed — and this time, the lens turns from identity and belonging to the work itself. After 21 years across global communications, diplomacy, and international sport, including heading Global Comms for the International Cricket Council, she has spent the last year mentoring women across 108 countries through career pivots, first-time entrepreneurship, layoffs in midlife, and the quiet work of starting over.

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode.

Listen to Part 1 first if you haven't — Ketaki's journey from Bombay to London to Germany to the UAE, and what 22 years of living between worlds taught her about home, identity, and being a woman of colour in rooms built for white men.

In this episode, we explore:

- Why visibility without values is just noise, and what most personal branding conversations refuse to name
- What "performed authenticity" actually looks like, and why authenticity has become one of the most overused, abused words of our time
- What makes a brand or a leader truly brave, and the cost of taking a stand when the board, the investors, and the markets all say no
- Why virality isn't the goal — resonance is
- The unique challenges BIPOC women face in owning their narratives, and the cultural conditioning that tells South Asian women not to talk about their work
- Why nobody tells a 40-year-old woman who's been laid off to start a business
- Grief, divorce, parenting an aging parent, and what reinvention teaches you that conventional success never can
- What it means to lead a crisis with both soul and structure
- Why so many PR people thrive under pressure, and the hardest thing for a comms specialist to do (turn the spotlight on themselves)
- Imposter syndrome, single life by choice, child-free by choice, and what it looks like to build a business as your own boss after 40

About the guest:
Ketaki Tanaji Golatkar is a global communications leader, personal branding mentor, and the founder of Good Day PR and Strategic Communications. Over 21 years, she has worked across agencies in Bombay and London, led a diplomatic project marking 60 years of Indo-German relations, and spent a decade in sports broadcast and governance — including heading Global Comms and PR for the International Cricket Council. She has mentored women across 108 countries and is based in the UAE.

Follow Ketaki Tanaji Golatkar:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ketakigolatkar
Instagram: @ketaki.golatkar

Listen and subscribe to Rooted and Routed wherever you get your podcasts — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

What words has the world taught you to repeat — about authenticity, about success, about visibility — that don't quite hold up close? I'd love to hear your story.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

Ketaki Tanaji Golatkar is a global communications leader, a DEI advocate, and the founder of GoodDay PR and Strategic Communications. She has worked across agencies in Bombay and London, led a diplomatic project on Indo-German relations, and spent a decade in international sports — including heading Global Comms for the International Cricket Council. In this episode, she joins Sabiya for a conversation that moves between the boardroom and the deeply personal — what 22 years of living abroad teaches you about home, identity, and the rooms women of colour are still fighting to be heard in.

This is Part 1 of a two-part episode. Part 2 releases Sunday, 10 May.

In this episode, we explore:

- What "home" really means when you've lived in four countries — and why values, not geography, become the thing you carry
- The difference between being an expat and being an immigrant — and why the same person can feel one in Dubai and the other in Germany
- How leaving India is often what teaches you to see it clearly — casteism, colourism, body shaming, and the things that stay invisible until you step outside them
- Why the song "Saare jahan se accha" quietly shapes how Indians see the rest of the world — and what it costs us
- The global beauty industry built on women hating their bodies — from fairness creams in India to the Botox shops on every Dubai corner
- What it takes for a woman of colour to be heard in rooms built for white men — and the cost of working twice as hard to not be called a "diversity hire"
- Why so many women in leadership pull the ladder up behind them — and the scarcity mindset that keeps women small
- What it really means to leave a 21-year corporate career and build something of your own after 40
- The difference between being in the room and being at the decision-making table
- Why the people who get heard are the ones with the audacity to speak in rooms that don't welcome them

Follow Ketaki Tanaji Golatkar: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketakigolatkar
https://www.instagram.com/ketaki.golatkar/

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

Marie Truchassou is a global mobility HR consultant, founder of My Expat Compass and Forwards International HR, and one of only two people in France to hold both the GPHR and SPHRi certifications in international HR. In Part 2 of this conversation on Rooted and Routed, she goes deeper — into the systems, the failures, and the future of global mobility.

In this episode:

• How AI is reshaping global mobility HR — and what it will never be able to replace
• Behind the scenes of an on-the-ground HR audit — from Jakarta to Pekan Baru, Indonesia
• What happens when relocation providers prioritise their own interests over the expat's wellbeing — and why HR inaction ends assignments prematurely
• The invisible work of expat partners — volunteering, NGO hours, logistics management — and how to make it count on a CV
• Why the moment of repatriation is the most powerful salary negotiation leverage point an expat will ever have
• Marie's vision for redesigning international HR from scratch — and who would benefit most

Part 1 of this conversation is available now on Rooted and Routed. Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

Marie Truchassou is a global mobility HR consultant who lived and worked as an expat in India — before becoming the person advising organisations on how to do it right.

French, countryside-raised, she packed up her life and moved to India alone –  navigating a new country, a new culture, and a new career, all at once, with no blueprint.

In Part 1 of this global mobility podcast conversation, we talk about what happens when the person responsible for supporting expats has never been one themselves, and what it costs, professionally and personally.

Topics covered in this episode:
— What HR professionals get wrong about expat support and why lived experience is the gap no certification fills
— What it's really like relocating solo to India as a single French woman in her late twenties
— Safety, unsolicited opinions, and the ring she wore just to get through the day
— Why expat partners pay the highest hidden price — and what career continuity actually requires
— What to negotiate in your expat contract before you sign — repatriation, retirement, healthcare, and unemployment rights
— Localised HR strategy vs. the one-size-fits-all trap
— The contract clauses that protect expats when assignments end unexpectedly

This one is for anyone who has ever held it together in a country that didn't quite make sense yet or stood beside someone who did.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music — link in bio.

💬 Tag someone navigating expat life, or an HR professional who has never left home.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

For Rika Bouffe, Indonesian by birth, married to a French husband, and an expat spouse who has built a life across Indonesia, France, the United States, and India, home was never going to be a fixed address. It had to become something else entirely.

In this episode, Rika shares one of the most honest and layered conversations we've had on Rooted and Routed. She talks about observing Ramadan as a minority in Western countries, where the absence of community led to something unexpected — deeper personal reflection. She talks about pausing a career that had spanned logistics, IT, L'Oréal, and education, and how volunteering became the bridge between who she was professionally and who she was becoming. She talks about raising children between cultures, the guilt that comes with every move, and the quiet work of passing on values when everything else keeps changing.

And she arrives at something that will stay with you long after the episode ends. Identity is not fragmented by living across cultures. It is layered. Every country adds something. Nothing is lost.

In this episode:

— Ramadan across four countries and what changes, what doesn't 

— Why Rika's identity feels different in Indonesia than it does in the West 

— The identity gap a career pause creates and how volunteering fills it 

— Raising third culture kids and answering the question: where is home? 

— Cross-cultural marriage, language and the patience it requires 

— Why home is not a place, it's wherever the family is together

Wherever you are in your global journey, this one is for you.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

Season 2 of the Rooted and Routed Podcast is officially wrapped, and this is your recap. 

From authentic voices to deep-dive conversations, this season has been about growth, identity, and navigating change. Thank you to every subscriber, listener, and guest who joined the journey.

As we reflect, we’re also reimagining what’s next. The conversations are evolving in direction, in depth, and in reach.

We’re not just telling stories.
We’re exploring what it takes to begin, to adapt, and to create impact through lived experiences across cultures. Small steps that connect, bridge, and quietly transform lives.

👇 Got someone in mind whose story deserves to be heard?
Nominate a guest for Season 3; we’re always looking for voices that inspire, inform, and challenge the way we see the world.
All nominations will be thoughtfully reviewed by our team.

Drop your nomination in the comments or message us directly with a brief intro to their story.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

In part 2 of our conversation, Carlos Ruano unpacks the quiet decisions and systemic gaps many never hear about — from pensions to policy reform, reinvention, and the emotional costs of service.

 What We Cover in This Segment:

• Why some diplomats transition into real estate, coaching, or other services tailored to diplomatic families
• How working inside institutions contrasts with entrepreneurship: balancing structure, autonomy, and adaptation
• The emotional decisions behind leaving a diplomatic career to return home — and how priorities shift
• Concrete policy measures Carlos is proposing that require no new resources — just a shift in mindset and internal memos
• The pension dilemma: how years of service lost while following a partner abroad affect long-term security
• Comparative thoughts: Why some countries may already have better support systems for diplomatic families
• How educational systems abroad force families to pick between curricula, bilingual schooling, and cultural continuity
• Carlos’s passion project: linking nutrition with education in high-need areas, and the innovation in bridging ministries
• A touching personal story of a former student whose life was shaped by a radio-based education program
• Reflections on the unseen impact we have on others — sometimes by simply pointing someone toward an opportunity

 Tune in to hear how Carlos imagines systems evolving, and how lived experience can push policy toward more human-centered change.

 This is only Part 2. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, we encourage you to start there for full context.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

As always, Rooted and Routed isn’t here to deliver headlines. We’re here to hold space for the stories that shape people, quietly and powerfully.
In this part 1 episode, Sabiya sits down with Carlos Ruano — a diplomat, academic, and cultural observer who has lived in 10 countries, worked in international diplomacy, global education, and policy design, and held roles from UN specialist to radio host, academic mentor to diplomatic spouse. He offers layered insights into identity, service, and belonging. His journey isn’t just professional; it’s personal — shaped by systems, family, movement, and meaning. 

📌 What We Explore Together:

- How a childhood marked by catastrophe — a major earthquake in Guatemala — became a foundational anchor for resilience and purpose

- What it means to stay grounded when your roles, locations, and responsibilities are in constant motion

- The idea of Liminality — living between identities, between geographies, and between assignments — and learning to adapt through it all

- Why answering “What do you do?” isn’t always simple when your work spans disciplines, borders, and belief systems

- What it means to live both as a diplomat and a diplomatic spouse — and how those shifting roles impact identity, agency, and emotional well-being

- Raising children in diplomatic circles — and the emotional tension between craving stability and growing up in constant movement

- The often overlooked realities of life as diplomatic spouses — and how marriage, mobility, and identity intersect in systems that haven’t caught up with modern family dynamics

- The quiet trade-offs behind a life of global service

🎧 Whether you're part of the global mobility world or simply curious about the lived realities of those who carry purpose across cultures, this episode offers a rare glimpse into what it truly means to serve — not just as an individual, but as a family.

🔔 If you’re here for depth, for human truth, for cultural storytelling beyond the mainstream—this is for you.

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.

Send us Fan Mail

When you build a team across continents, how do you turn multiple worldviews into business results, not chaos?

In this episode, Bindi Basan shares how she created multicultural teams that didn’t just show up, but stood out. We also dive into how she uses her fitness and dance practices as leadership tools; consistency, resilience, focus and how those bleed into work when it matters most.

 Keypoints Explored in Part 2:

• Hiring people who don’t think like you — deliberately challenging your blind spots.
• Empowering team members from diverse backgrounds and letting their ideas influence the product and business strategy.
• The importance of creating environments where employees thrive. Even top performers won’t give their best if space to grow is missing.
• Cultural overlaps: When Punjabi values and Egyptian hospitality “meet” in an office — how much more alike we are beneath the surface.
• How fitness taught Bindi the power of consistency, handling pressure, and staying focused when the noise is loud.
• The role of dance (learning choreography, performing) in building cognitive agility, teamwork, and performance under stress.
• The specific example: the Egyptian colleague in Dubai who insisted to host a lunch, as a gesture of respect — and what moments like that reveal about values.
• Why leaders should look beyond just experience and technical prowess — what people do in life outside their career can reveal leadership potential.

 Watch or listen to the full episode on Rooted & Routed  Podcast available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple & more.

 If you've ever led (or been part of) a multicultural team, we'd love to hear:
What is one practice that your team adopted that made cultural collaboration smoother?

Rooted and Routed is a global mobility and cross-cultural storytelling podcast hosted by Sabiya Pathan Withoeck. New episodes every week.

Follow the show:
Instagram: @rootedandrouted
LinkedIn: Rooted and Routed
YouTube: @rootedandrouted
Website: https://www.rootedandrouted.com

Follow Sabiya:
LinkedIn: Sabiya Pathan Withoeck

For guest collaborations, sponsorships, and media inquiries:
[email protected]

If this episode resonated, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with someone who'd love it — and leave a rating on your podcast platform of choice.

 Every share helps this conversation reach further.