Aditi Parekh

Scouting around dad’s store for our next piece of furniture 😍

He sucks at marketing, A++ at product

Love him but we need this business to do better 🕺

You know you’ve found your gff
when you both do cheap shit like trying out nail paint on one toenail or half a thumb

Someone who I had written off as ever being able to find love has found love, and I welcome with open arms how wrong I have been about this 😍

My husband saw me walking in Central Park in my white snow jacket on the one day I was visiting New York in 2018

He knew of me, but I had no idea who he was

Exactly 1 year later, we were engaged ♥️

The analogy in my head for people being uncomfortable with taking compliments: someone’s enthusiastically delivering you a gift, but you say leave it at the door, I’ve never gotten real gifts and who knows what’s in that box anyway

no cats here, but here’s a monstera leaf unfurling shyly

people pleasing rocks in a lot of ways: increased empathy, ability to connect, people will feel at ease around you… i think it’s very important to learn to love it before altering it

This is a user manual :) thank you, Brent! The resistance is real, this tendency gives me some real superpowers to understand and help people around me. This acknowledgment makes it a more gentle invitation to examine and tweak instead of an “out with it!” approach. That’s just not me :)

I find “mask” too strong a word but there sure is an outfit for each of these in here

Something I put on when I step out of bed that looks good, feels right, is appropriate

Daughter
Elder sister
Wife
Daughter in law
Sister in law
Best friend
Friend
Worrier of friends
Helpful Acquaintance
Manager of this Household

Freelancer / indie person
Client
Strong Independent Woman
Education “expert”
New to Bangalore
with homes & family in 3 other places
Tweeter, substacker

Somehow taking stock of clothes I own is becoming a metaphor to audit all the pressures and expectations accumulated over time

Will my in-laws find me hot if I do this 😂

And also the address of Aditi, no one where she is rn

I would like some antidotes to people-pleasing please

More attracted to people who can handle conflict (with me, within themselves, conflicting view points, messy explanations, etc)

They can hold a lot, and initially they appeared to be just… boring

Red sarees give you superpowers, it’s a well held secret by generations of women from the subcontinent

Where I want to be vs where I am today

♥️ big believer in keeping my heart open, staying fiercely hopeful, and in creating belonging

🌮 can often be found teaching, cooking, feeding people, encouraging friends to see their ambition and to take risks with themselves

🚏 going off the default path did something irreversible for me. I keep dropping into interesting pursuits - research, storytelling, communities & courses - and over time these rewarding quests have taught me to trust my heart and to keep learning

🚌 dropped out of school at 15, felt like school was prison & instead found myself a bunch of mentors and peers to stay rooted while I explored what learning out of curiosity looked like

🧬 education is my thing. experimented a ton on myself, led programs in school, finally did college & grad school

Jumping on this train!

🏠 grew up in the famous hills of the Nilgiris in South India

🌳 raised in Tamil Nadu, family is all from Rajasthan. I’m a microcosm of both cultures and it feels just right

🐣youngest of 25 in a large joint family. picked up lots about community, cooperation & conflict there

♥️

cannot wait to have my own little child development research projects

hello hello! This feels like a good day for a beginning 🙃 I just had a good cry with a friend who has known me 15 years, and we both agreed that even if we have felt hurt and blocked, we keep our hearts open and keep going ♥️