Brought up by Liberal Indian parents in East Africa, I was a bit of a wild child and created my own rules and still do. Lucky enough to be able to dance my own path, I studied Art Direction, when every other Indian was preparing to become a doctor or lawyer. My parents were rockin’ roll and I blame them for my madness.

Conceptual advertising took me on an interesting journey, working with film, TV, and projects that stretched my imagination more than anything else I could imagine. I also worked as an Art Director for a specialist wildlife illustration agency based in Norfolk where I helped produce work for National Geographic. I preferred publishing, it was run by women, and even though still cut throat, much less testosterone to deal with in the office, and more PMS – not sure which is better!

And then travel opened my mind to other things. While on a beach, learning to fire dance in Cambodia in 2002, I had an epiphany and decided that after our year of backpacking, I would study to become a Shiatsu Practitioner instead. Helping people heal themselves reminded me of growing up watching my father doing the same, he was a doctor. I felt that this was my calling now, to follow his path but in an alternative way.

After 3 years of studying, I started to practice in an integrated Osteopathy clinic in Bristol until the travel bug took over again. A black pirate (the colour) VW camper became home for another year in 2008, until the Monchique mountains cast its spell over us. Here, I dabbled in writing and created a food blog in 2015 after qualifying as a macrobiotic chef in Lisbon that same year. I loved every minute of creating the blog, talking about the health benefits of food, cooking, writing stories, and photography, it was bliss until the raw unpredictability of nature took its toll – I nearly lost my house to a huge fire in 2018, and shortly after separated from my 20-year relationship and became a single mum. 

While navigating a breakup and new life, I did have the opportunity to work with an amazing woman who was a Russian TV producer who sometimes gave me off-the-wall projects around writing that paid well and kept my creative mind ticking. And journaling through my trauma helped me realise, as one of my Creative Directors mentioned almost 20 years previously, that I was a good writer. So, when I moved to Aljezur I honed my superpower which was ‘listening’ – I love stories and people in this region have many to tell – so I have been listening intently and writing for Tomorrow magazine ever since. 

I’ve recently finished an online journalism course with the Guardian newspaper and it inspired me to write more for varied publications. 

When not daydreaming on the edge of the Atlantic, you will probably find me up to some mischief with my soon-to-be teenage son and beautiful old cocky cocker!