Aanakaryam Chenakaryam

'When you say rebel without a cause.. Was, am and I will be!' Femina Ms India contestant, successful model and now an experienced yoga instructor. Hear Anugraha Unnikrishnan's interesting journey and experiences that has shaped the person she is today.

From being barely able to climb 2 feet to scaling 12,250 feet, Syama Sreekumari achieved this in four year by consciously making a choice to change her life for her own wellbeing.As a child Syama was obese but instead of helping her she was fat shamed and teased. Thanks to a friend who was concerned about her well being and Syama’s own determination she set herself a goal to lose weight and become healthy. Listen to her journey and advice on what you can do to loose weight and change your life or give positive support to help your family and friends who need the motivation to make that change.

It takes courage to leave a stable job - specially if you have a young family to take care off - and follow your dreams and passion. Australian Indian Film maker Jay Janardhan a.k.a Jay J’dan started his career as an engineer, but he felt something was missing and then he discovered his passion for filmmaking. Hear his journey of life as a student in Australia to becoming an award winning Film Director and his future goals. Jay is a member of Australian Director’s Guild (ADG) and has worked in the Australian Film Industry since 2015 on various Hollywood productions like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2015), Kong: Skull Island (2016), Thor: Ragnarök (2016), Aquaman (2017) and Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019). A graduate from Queensland School for Film and Television in Australia, Jay was awarded “Best Film Maker” in 2016. His debut directorial short film LUCA (2017) won several accolades and official selections to international festivals - Los Angeles Film Awards, Miami Independent Film Festival, Sydney Indie Film Festival, Benalla Film Festival, Lake View International Film Festival, Jaipur Film World etc. Recently Jay worked as an Assistant Director to legendary South Indian film maker JOSHIY (Porinju Mariam Jose 2019) and also as an Associate Director to film maker R S Vimal on various upcoming projects (including Mahavir Karna 2021). His international production house Silent Panda Pictures excels in conception, execution and delivery of short films, TV Commercials, Music and Corporate Videos throughout Australia.

"How do you change a system? When you are in a system and you get ahead, you change it!" Supermodel, Performance Artist and Farmer, Tinu Verghis uses her achievements and position to challenge and expose preconceived notions. "Create your individuality. Never be ashamed of who you are!" Hear Tinu's story in conversation with Aanakaryam Chenakaryam

Born as Nitin but identifying as Maya - The journey of a brave young woman to live out life as herself. In this episode we explore the support or lack of it, the stigma, ignorance and bullying a transgender person has to go through when they come out to society. Maya also explains what a cisgender person can do to support and help. 

"The reasons for my singing career's success is because I know how to dance. The joy I get from singing is incomparable!" - Benny Dayal Benny Dayal the versatile multi lingual Indian singer whose repertoire of music includes Jai jai Shivashankar, Badtameez Dil, Bang Bang, Omana Penne and Catherine Dayal dancer, actor and blogger talk to us about being Benny & Cathy.

Dhanya Menon is India's first female cyber crime investigator and an accomplished dancer. Her lifelong passion and goal was to become a professional dancer but a chance work event got Dhanya interested in the world of cyber crime. Thanks to a grandfather who was forward thinking, a mentor and Dhanya's biggest supporter she entered this field when there was no one to look to show the way. Now she is setting the standards and has several acknowledgements and awards under her belt including the Presidents awards in 2018  for being the First Women Cyber Crime Investigator of India and the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Govt of India under Ms. Maneka Gandhi selected Dhanya for ‘First Women Achievers Award’. In her spare time Dhanya continues to pursue her passion - dancing and also instructs aspiring dancers. Hear her story and inspirations in this episode.

Anita is a passionate Accessibility, Diversity & Inclusion and Disability Rights Advocate. A series of life events made Anita aware of the issues faced by people with temporary or permanent disabilities.    Anita has made it her life's work to advocate, educate and create a barrier free world, where any one can physically go anywhere and be contributing part of society. The Ekansh Trust was founded to do just this. Anita is also empanelled by the Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.    Hear from Anita on how you can make a change and become an inclusive and empathetic human being.

As an 11 year old child Kanika met with an accident that changed her life for ever both physically and mentally. In this podcast Kanika tells us how she overcame this situation and went on to achieve several milestones and live a regular life. Currently Kanika works to connect underserved communities to the digital economy. She’s committed to driving inclusive and sustainable growth, through technology and impact investment. Kanika is also a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shaper Community and represented young Indians at WEF Davos 2018. In her free time she loves to dance, explore new cultures through travel and watch documentaries

A dear childhood friend Julie always brought a bright smile to the room. Even as a child she was a compassionate and considerate human being. Starting out in the software industry in the early 90's Julie was one of the few female programmers that pursued and sustained her career. She migrated to the US after a brief stint at a couple of startups in India and has an interesting story of a migrant pursuing the American dream.  Hear about her journey to becoming an executive leader, a mentor and an entrepreneur.    Julie grew up exposed to Media and Journalism with 4 generations of her dad's side of the family investing in a newspaper as a mechanism to fight against social injustice.  She speaks 5 languages,  was a state/national professional tennis player, has learnt Carnatic music and loves everything spiritual.  Her career spans 25 years in the Software industry (Ernst & Young, Microsoft,  Hulu and now at Google),  and an ongoing Storytelling entrepreneurial venture at Kadha.com. She is a lifelong learner and completed an Executive MBA at the University of Washington in 2020. Her deepest joy and focus centres around bringing up her 9 year old child. She loves to meet people, mentor,  engage in community service and explore the unknown.

"A Malayalee is like a chundan vallum, they can get in from any end and land anywhere". Born in to a well known artisan and creative family, Bose Krishnamachari wanted to become a doctor.  But destiny had something else in store for him.  At 17 Bose fell seriously ill and was in a coma for sometime. For four years the illness brought his life to a standstill. During this time Bose revived his inherent creative talents and took on a new path to become an artist. His journey led him to international acclaim as an artist and art curator.  Bose curates and  produces large scale festivals where artist from across India have a platform to showcase their creations, innovative and thought provoking conversational pieces. Bose is the co-founder of Kochi-Muziris Biennale which gives every one the chance to enjoy and be inspired by art and culture. In this podcast Bose gives us a glimpse in to his life, his journey and passion to create a united cultured world.  Lokame Tharavadu - The World is One Family is his latest endeavour opening on 18 April, Global Heritage Day, in Alappuzha, Kerala until June 2020.

Vanitha Women of the Year 2020 award winner, designer turned social entrepreneur Lakshmi Menon tells Aanakaryam Chenkaryam the influences and experiences that shaped her outlook to life.  Lakshmi believes that the key to entrepreneurship is to be present in the moment, interact and engage with the people and the world around you. It may not translate into something immediately but could come to be of use later. Her endeavours like Shayya and Samman bring together supplier and users who would have never met before and hence creating an effective circular economy in times of pandemic and war.  To hear more about it listen here.

Jomon Kuriakose, Chef de Cuisine (Acting Executive chef) at Baluchi, the pan-Indian dining destination within The Lalit London Hotel speaks about his journey from Kerala to London. His passion to create flavours and innovative dining experiences and give a modern perspective to Indian food in particular Kerala cuisine. His love for food and clear vision to create a fine dining version of traditional Kerala cuisine saw him through the early struggles and hardships to reach his goals. He has appeared on BBC Celebrity Master Chef 2018 to teach about Indian food and its unique cooking techniques and have received several awards and have been featured in industry magazines for his ideas.