Lavanya finds opportunities to recreate herself every time she sits at the canvas. Each frame captures and relives the most tender and beautiful experiences of her personal life. Color brings her joy. Painting professionally now, at first seeking inspiration in nature and then expanding to visually illustrating emotions. Her art represents the drama in life through color.   

Lavanya’s free spirit and desire to go beyond expectations, inspire her art. she is constantly engaged in “finding peace in the bad, messy and ugly”. In her childhood, Lavanya found bursts of art even in her mother’s molecular biology lab. As a trained architect, college days were filled with sketches of building forms; historic, contemporary, and imagined. Art by Joan Mitchell, Kandinsky, Rothko, Van Gogh, and Monet, continues to awe her.   

Lavanya has lived in Hyderabad and Bengaluru (India), Princeton, and Dallas (USA). Her varied life experiences allow her to experiment while enjoying the process of discovery and the jubilation of the outcome. Several years of strokes have led to this moment of livening up a canvas with her imaginative play of color and joy. Finding relationships between colors, emotions, and nature, Lavanya wants to move people, one painting at a time.

Youtube video version at http://bit.ly/workyogi

In todays’ episode, we are in conversation with Padmaja Nagarur, CEO of Artflute a leading online portal connecting artists and consumers who value high-quality art.  She has been featured in leading publications like the economic times, the Hindu, and Femina. She serves as the board member of dream a dream(NGO) that empowers young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in a fast-changing world, using a creative life skills approach.   

We talk about her work journey, her decision-making approach to work(and life in general), what's behind leaving a lucrative marketing job to start a venture of her own, the pro-Bono work she does with NGO dream a dream, and her vision of the future.

From a degree in medicine followed by disillusionment in the medical practice, our guest today charters a journey that eventually brings her back to her true calling.  

We discuss the key pivots and mindset that helps her navigate this journey amidst big changes and life events.   Give this a listen/view and let us know if you took something away from this conversation.

Youtube version on : 

http://bit.ly/workyogi

In conversation with Hiren Modi, former Landmark Education Forum Leader and subsequently Area Director for multiple organization transformation companies.  

Consider this quote; "If we are to release the full potential of human beings, spirit and technology must exist side-by-side.". Hiren believes developing people and leaders of all ages and levels into their most powerful, unique selves is imperative today in every culture and company. 

He is hard at work at that imperative and making a difference every day.  And he isn’t being casual about it, Hiren is someone who has been working with people transforming their lives. He has to his credit lead transformational programs for over 140,000 people.   

He humbly acknowledges his early struggle for lack of a big degree but seems like spent his life making a huge difference with people who had big degrees.   

We had the opportunity to talk to him about his early struggle, the evolution of his life’s purpose, the jolt from personal transformation to organizational transformation, what is needed to have high-performing organizations, and finally what’s next for him.

My guest today is someone who has spanned a career in engineering and general management and scaled the ladder in corporate America.  He describes himself as a serial intrapreneur, business, and technology leader with a track record of incubating, building, and growing businesses in large organizations in a world wide capacity. HIs story epitomizes the American dream.  He is a Product creator and a technologist with a PASSION FOR user experience.   He has been the Founder of HP's Wearables and Cloud/Mobile Printing business,. Created 'Engineered by HP' as a sub-brand, CREATING Wearables/ for consumer lifestyle brands like HUGO BOSS, COACH, TITAN, FERRARI, and MOVADO. The former head of all products and Engg for Digital Home at Comcast. Chief Product Officer, EVP/GM at SharkNinja working on Appliances, Foodtech and Robotics. Board member IOTC  He currently heads the Robotics business for a growing company that's expected to disrupt the world as we know it in robotics and artificial intelligence   We get to talk about his journey from a humble beginning in India, how failures create new opportunities, the importance of a learning mindset, a recipe for success in corporate life, the evolution of his role into a product creator, brand marketer, and the future of AI/Robotics.

My guest today is a creative powerhouse. Her story is of finding self-expression through her values,  passion for food, and photography to work. Through her plant-based food Instagram handle #yummyyatra which grown to over 37k followers, she brings joy, happiness, and ideas for people on a journey of healthy living.   We get to talk about how it all started, what got her into the plant-based lifestyle journey, what's behind its growth, challenges, and joy of being a digital creator, how does she make brand choices, and what's next on the horizon.  You can reach Anusha at https://www.yummyyatra.com/ and Instagram handle @yummyyatra

My guest today is one of the few who followed his heart for the love of a craft  Back in the mid-80s and early 90s India, life was about survival, the obvious options were to pursue engineering or medicine, it was a sure shot to making it to the middle-class life, but he traveled a road less traveled  First, as a photographer later morphing to cinematographer in Indian cinema working with big names like Kamal Hasan, Nagesh Kukunoor, and  K Ravi Chandran.  Later in his second chapter, co-founded The Vault, a unique service, that it offers a never-before curated collection of artisanal whiskies, rums, tequilas, cognacs, gins, and other spirits.  We get to talk about what got him started on his journey of the road less traveled, the travails and the challenges, what's behind the decision to go cold turkey on one career and start one in his mid-40s, where does he derive the courage and passion and what drives him to stay in the game.

All projects have a back story, and it mostly involves your immediate circle who buy into one crazy ideas . This is about that, and why WorkYogi Diaries.

Work is core of our existence in the world, its what gives us being, without work, we have no bearing . This channel is about work ( of all kinds , as along as it brings joy and satisfaction to your life)

Srinath's story is that of a beginning with self-doubt and half-baked conviction, to embracing opportunities with a growth mindset. His grounding on core principles is unwavering, and its not every day you stumble on individuals who stand up for their principles even it means losses. Thats his story. Hope you will listen and take away inspiration back to your work.