Most of us are living by invisible rules we never chose.
That’s where everything starts. Not with more effort. With clearer sight.
The systems that shape us are often invisible until we learn to see them.
I grew up in a multigenerational home in Bombay, where over thirty family members created a constant rhythm of connection, expectation, and belonging. Even then, I absorbed quiet rules about gender, tradition, ambition, and what was considered possible.
At 19, I left for Chicago. That shift changed how I understood the world and myself.
Living between cultures taught me how deeply our lives are shaped by invisible systems. What feels natural in one place can feel limiting in another. What appears fixed is often inherited, reinforced, and rarely questioned.
That contrast became my training ground.
1980 · The First Ray: Born in Bombay into a multigenerational family rooted in storytelling and tradition. My name, given by my grandfather's sister -- a poet, means the first ray of the sun.
1980's · Watching Closely: Surrounded by the women who shaped me. Even then I was learning the unspoken rules, what was expected, what was celebrated, what was never questioned. I belonged completely and observed everything
2002 · Ready for What Came Next: I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago into a world where digital design was still being invented. I didn't know exactly where I was headed, only that creativity and reinvention would be part of it.
2005 · Love and Reinvention: Our first trip together. I was beginning to understand how travel, art, and relationships expand not just where we go, but who we become.
2008 · Choosing Each Other: A marriage built across cultures, traditions, and expectations. In choosing each other, we chose the ongoing work of building a life that honored where we came from while making room for who we were becoming.
2009 - Exploring my roots: The year after we married, Thomas and I spent nearly 10 months traveling through India. Returning as both insider and outsider deepened everything I thought I understood about identity and belonging.
2014 · Becoming a Mother: The day my daughter was born, my understanding of love, responsibility, and purpose expanded all at once. I felt newly connected to every woman in my lineage whose sacrifices made my life possible.
2014 · Losing My Mom: A few months after meeting her granddaughter, my mom passed away. Losing and gaining the deepest loves of my life in the same year reshaped everything I thought I knew about grief, resilience, and becoming.
2014 · Graduate School and Reinvention: Earning my master's at the Institute of Design gave me the language and tools to turn a lifetime of observation into a practice. It changed how I lead, teach, and see.
2018 · BMW: Designing for global scale taught me that the numbers only tell you what happened. Qualitative work tells you why. Bridging those two worlds changed how I approach every complex problem since.
2020 · Venmo taught me that storytelling moves organizations. Covid taught me that when the ground disappears, the story is sometimes the only thing holding a team together.
2024 · Target: Leading across guest and enterprise during the rise of AI has made one thing clear: adopting a new paradigm isn't just a technology decision. It's a question of what kind of workforce, and what kind of future, you're choosing to shape.
Still Making Things: My daughter taught herself to prototype before she could spell prototype. Watching her build, draw, and question everything reminded me why I do this work, curiosity doesn't need permission. It just needs space.
What I Carry Into This Work
-
How culture, gender, migration, and belonging quietly shape identity.
I grew up absorbing invisible rules about gender, tradition, and what was considered possible for girls. Moving to Chicago at 19 made those rules visible for the first time. Distance taught me that what feels natural is often just inherited -- and that seeing it clearly is the first step toward choosing differently.
-
How narrative shapes identity, possibility, and collective change.
I was a voracious reader in a loud, communal home, books were how I traveled beyond the world I was handed. Again and again I've seen how the right story helps people step outside rigid roles, question inherited assumptions, and imagine a different way forward. The same is true inside organizations. Change almost always begins with a new narrative.
-
How stepping back reveals what rushing forward keeps hidden.
I spent years learning to look past symptoms and into the systems underneath them. People are constantly shaped by environments they didn't consciously create, and most of the friction in our lives comes from conditions we've never stopped to question. That shift from reacting to seeing fundamentally changed how I lead, teach, parent, and move through the world.
-
How organizations reveal the hidden forces shaping behavior and decisions.
My career has taken me inside large, complex organizations where I saw firsthand how invisible systems quietly shape outcomes. Many problems that look like talent or effort failures are actually symptoms of misaligned systems, unclear incentives, and inherited assumptions nobody is questioning. That experience taught me to find the hidden friction before trying to fix anything.
-
Why sustainable impact requires designing for energy, not just achievement.
High-pressure environments taught me how invisible drains quietly shape the way people work, lead, and relate to one another. Burnout rarely comes from a single moment, it emerges from systems that reward constant urgency and achievement without renewal. I became deeply interested in how our habits, expectations, and relationships either sustain us or slowly deplete us.
-
How creative practice reconnects us to meaning, possibility, and ourselves.
In a culture that prizes productivity over presence, creativity creates space for curiosity, imagination, and honest reflection. It's how we slow down enough to notice what we're actually feeling, questioning, and becoming. I've come to believe creativity isn't reserved for artists, it's a deeply human capacity that shapes how we solve problems, care for others, navigate change, and build more meaningful lives.
If any of this resonated
The Invisible Patterns Session is where this work becomes personal. In 90 minutes, we’ll surface the hidden forces shaping your experience, name what’s actually misaligned, and map a path toward a life that fits who you’re becoming.
$300 · 90 minutes · 1:1 · Video · Available globally