Too British To Be Asian

The former pharmaceutical recruitment partner, Sarah Woods is best known as BBC’s finalist on Best Home Cook 2020. 

Like, most people once the pandemic hit Sarah decided it was time to follow her dreams and commit to her passions. Sarah decided to up-skill and put herself forward to train as a chef in culinary school, Devon. 

Sarah talks on being “Too British To Be Asian” - navigating her way between cultures, code switching, learning to have different faces and grappling with acceptance but by which crowd? 

Writing ‘Desi Kitchen’ was Sarah’s true labour of love to ‘make Indian home cooked food accessible to everybody.’ An exciting blend of British meets Sarah’s desi culture. Exploring all culinary cuisines from many different types of diaspora. 

Desi Kitchen is a love story to Desi culture and what the true meaning is to be British and Asian through the love of food. Truly beautiful. 

Desi Kitchen is out now..

It’s Day 3 of Diwali!!

And what better way to connect with my South Indian heritage whilst celebrating The Festival ofLight then popping over to my dear friend TV Chef Parveen Ashraf - The Spice Queen home to share how much fun and simple cooking authentic Indian dishes can actually be.

Even for someone that’s #toobritishtobeasian like me.

And the best bit… we’re cooking Jelabi Baby!

What did you cook?

Christine Pillainayagam is a retail strategist by day, who lives in Kent with her young family and a collection of records, CDs and minidiscs (remember those?). Her mild obsession with the Beatles and the desire to write a story that reflected her own experiences growing up as a first-generation immigrant led her to put that love of music and words into a book.

“My name is Ellie. Ellie Pillai…I think I might be a little bit weird. But aren’t we all, just a little bit?”

Ellie Pillai has no idea how to apply eyeliner properly, or what makes people cool. She just writes songs in her head like she’s living in her own personal soundtrack, and sees dancing girl groups, which is a bit, well…weird. But that’s only on the inside - on the outside, Ellie Pillai does everything she can to stay completely invisible.

Sound familiar?

Ellie Pillai is Brown is her debut novel available to buy from Amazon and all major bookshops.

I was honoured and privileged to welcome onto the “Too British To Be Asian” podcast - award winning Personal Trainer and Wellness Coach Lavina Mehta. Her mission….To help ALL ages to FEEL GOOD physically & mentally. Her slogan: To “Exercise for Sanity not Vanity.”

By dedicating her time releasing twice daily workouts over the COVID-19 Lockdown featuring her 74yr old elderly mother-in-law Lavina in Gujarati and English, she has been featured on TV & Radio & have had up to the age 100 join her community.

In 2020 Lavina caught the eye of royalty and awarded an MBE for her services to health and fitness over the pandemic.

She has further received the “British Asian Heroes Award;” by the British Asian Trust endorsed by the Prime Minister, Women of the Future “Kindness Rules Programme”, BBC’s “Make a Difference” for her COVID work.

Lavina won the “She Awards Inspiration in Health & Fitness 2020 Award.” A finalist & only PT in the Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2020 Sports Category.

Currently, Lavina is an Ambassador for Diabetes UK and supports Alzheimer’s Society & Brain Tumour Research fronting charity fitness campaigns.

Here on ‘Too British To Be Asian’ Lavina speaks openly about her medical scare that sent her alarm bells to take care of her health, her passion to help the South Asian community, the love and support of her family and the struggles to learn her craft

I was fortunate to host my very first panel discussion at the prestigious Somerset House, London exploring;  

“WHY IS REPRESENTATION SO IMPORTANT IN THE FASHION AND BEAUTY INDUSTRY?”  

I was so honoured to be joined by..  Arooj Aftab - Fashion Consultant and founder of #DoneWithDiversity https://www.instagram.com/its.arooj/

Sejal Sehmi - U.K. Editor of Browngirl Magazine https://www.instagram.com/sejalsehmi/ https://www.instagram.com/browngirlmag/

Shanil and Jenika Gudka sibling Founders and CEO’s of The Wolfe London https://www.instagram.com/thewolfelondon/ 

To be part of the panel to discuss what representation means to them and how we can combat the misconceptions of what diversity means to people today.

“People said I didn’t look Gujarati, I Didn’t know what that meant” | Sejal Sehmi

As UK editor of Browngirl Magazine Sejal Sehmi has a front-line view on all trending discussions on issues facing South Asian people. As Brown Girl Magazine’s U.K. Editor, her passion for writing stemmed from challenging society defined rules created for women of her generation. She initially started contributing for Brown Girl Magazine in 2013, and in 2017 successfully created her own UK team and been involved in major events at TedXUCLWomen, UK's first Asian Woman Festival and collaborated with South Asian Heritage Month.

To understand the legacy that she creates and the present stigma surrounding cultural expectations, over the years she also attempted to film and document such issues both in India and in the UK as writer and director of “The Evolution of the British Indian Woman,” a mini-film series that explores the essence of a British Indian woman through the experiences of three branches of her own family tree. Sejal had been a guest speaker for the BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio London discussing social issues impacting British South Asians today. As well as being a contributor for The Asian Today, she has featured in Asiana.TV, Asian Woman, The Independent, Red Magazine, NetDoctor and Seema Magazine.

In this interview with Sharan Raju on The podcast “Too British To Be Asian” Sejal discusses the politics people had on her mixed race ethnicity that made her question her own identity.

Full interview available on Spotify and all Apple platforms

Link to interview via @sharanrajuofficial bio on instagram. 

Also full interview available on Spotify and all Apple platforms - Too British To Be Asian Podcast 

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Introducing Naveeda - An international Hair and Makeup artist with a career spanning over 30yrs. Not only has Naveeda established herself as one of the most sought-after Hair and Makeup artists in both Western and Asian commercial fashion industries, she has also stood out as a top bridal make-up artist.

Naveeda believes the attitudes towards the stigma of dark skin within the South Asian communities have improved over the last few decades. She shares  her experience on refusing the requests from the groom’s family to make to make a bride fairer as it conflicted with her values that everyone is beautiful.

She exclaims that “Social media is fake” as there are influencers who do not understand the craft of make up and that contouring needs more understanding and that self-love should be everyone’s top priority.

This is a must listen!

To contact Naveeda for enquiries;

https://www.instagram.com/naveedamua/

www.naveeda.com

It’s finally here!

My interview with Kama Sutra expert, Storyteller, Author and Mythologist is available to download NOW via Spotify and all Apple platforms!!!

Seema is debunking the stigma of self pleasure and how over the years the Kama Sutra has become a manual of sexual positions from what it should be, which is a beautiful art of ethics and philosophy.

Self pleasure isn’t pornographic -“it’s a woman’s right to her own body, of her sexuality”

Seema explores the stories that had been silenced around the Kama Sutra; "The Kama Sutra was written to create the most refined society...the success in all relationships depended on good pleasure. A society that understood the pleasure of women properly, was a refined society”

“Women have an independent source of pleasure that has nothing to do with a man”- Seema Anand

This is a must listen!

All social media platforms and to buy 'Arts Of Seduction' can be found ; https://linktr.ee/seemaanandstorytelling 

Born in India and placed in an orphanage in Bombay just 2 short days after her birth. Trishna shares her journey from being adopted a year later by a Caucasian family from a small town in Ohio, USA.

Although blessed with supportive parents that encouraged Trishna to embrace her heritage, she was subjected to racism, name calling and rumours from her extended family which led her to constantly question herself; “Where do I fit in” Race and colour being in the forefront of her mind she marked ‘Caucasian’ in her college applications trying to convince herself she was white.

Today, Trishna is an up and coming singer, actress, and model located in Los Angeles, CA - having worked on feature films, major network television series, model campaigns, as well as writing her own music and developing her own television series. She strives to be a role model and voice for young brown-skin women looking for that light to get through every day personal struggles. Trishna can be found all over social media speaking on and working towards representation for brown-skin women, Black Lives Matter, members of the LGBTQ+ community – breaking barriers and glass ceilings for all.

“Time Becomes So Important As You Get Older” - Huji The Grey Indian

Meet Huji, she’s part of a growing movement of women proving that ageing naturally is the key to living a younger and happier life.

After the birth of her second child, Huji realised that her priorities had changed and spending hours in the hairdressers had become “a waste of her time” and the up keep simply took too much time away her family.

Huji decided to document her experience to stop dying her grey hair via Instagram which has attracted thousands of followers. Suddenly, this opened a door to a huge community of “Silver Sisters” who have become liberated and more confident through their attitude to Pro Ageing.

I was completely honoured that Huji came onto my podcast, supporting my little part of the internet world. She was completely honest and I felt we connected through our energies. I could have spoken to her for hours.

Take a look and listen and tell me what you think of the interview..

Huji’s socials;

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thegreyindian/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC99wklX8ERY1QKd4NsjwXRA