Her extended family is from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India & is settled in Chennai. She was born there, in Washermenpet. Her parents were already working in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates & she was brought back there as a baby. She grew up there, going to Our Own English High School & Sharjah English School. In 2009, during the recession, her my family immigrated to Canada.
What you don’t see in this snapshot is that she was a third-culture kid, both in the Gulf & Canada. She never fit in & when she did, it was usually with the group of misfits. But there were spaces where she felt like she fit in: church & swimming. She was a competitive swimmer, competing at regional & provincial levels. However, in 2012, sustained a back injury which marked the beginning of her chronic pain journey. This is important to mention for two reasons. First, living with mental illnesses, complex migraine disorder, & chronic pain allows her to empathize with others who live with chronic conditions, are in pain, or are differently abled. Second, while this injury limited how competitive she could be, it taught her to be her swim mates’ biggest cheerleader. Friends still comment on how loud & rambunctious she could be when she was cheering them on. She's even won awards for cheering, spirit, & sportsmanship.
This theme of being a cheerleader continues in her life.
She volunteered at a maternity hospital in Washermenpet in 2013 & even got to attend a birth at Langley Memorial Hospital in 2014 where she cheered birthing people on in various capacities. She coached her high school’s swim team, cheering her swimmers on until she went to university. There she found her people - nerds, misfits, science enthusiasts, conversationalists, so on & so forth. Being on the student council, she would voice the needs of the student body. At this time, she also began working as a swim instructor & would cheer on her little kiddos! In the midst of all of this, she was informally supporting parents after the birth of their baby, without knowing there was a name for the work she did. She wants to carry on empowering expecting & new parents. Support them in finding their voice & cheer them on as they begin the marathon of parenthood.
Having been bullied & intentionally excluded, she embraces a “no one left behind” philosophy. This philosophy is what makes her a fierce queer ally & drives her attention to systematically marginalized communities. Feel free to reach out to her if you think you would be a good fit, especially if you are becoming parents in a “nontraditional” route. (She would like to clarify that making sure to include some communities does NOT exclude others. It just means that she would like to represent & care for communities who have been excluded systemically, structurally, & institutionally in the past.)
