Influenced by the words of Adrienne Rich: “When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her”, I created Diligent Candy, a blog and an inclusion services platform. 

I work as a teacher trainer and diversity facilitator for the LEARN! Academy at Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam. I specialize in the Mixed Classroom Educational Model.

I am also an educational advisor for the MOOC English Pronunciation in a Global World.

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I am an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based academic. I have been living here since 2006. This is the longest I have continuously lived in one place. My life has and continues to be truly transnational. 

I was born in Cuttack, Odisha (in India); a small sleepy town that can be dated back to the 8th century, steeped in history. The ayah, who helped my mother bring up her two opinionated children, once reprimanded me for eating from the ladle of the pot, “Someone who eats from the pot lives very far from home.” I did not pay heed to her prophetic words and continued my gluttonous escapades. Little did I know…

I was born to parents of different cultural backgrounds and have lived in different villages, towns, cities, and countries. My grandparents and mother were refugees, who migrated from Pakistan to India during the Partition.

What is home for me? I think I have a long-term quarrel with the word. 
My context is flooded with locations that have filled me as I have tried to fill them.
Often, spilling out of them.

I am an INTJ (Myers Briggs), a voracious reader, and a proud mother of a teenager whom I call Bambi. I also rather enjoy my role as an indulgent wife to my college sweetheart – Apoorva.

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