Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E164 | Dignity by Design | Change Makers - Soumita Basu
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Change rarely waits for permission, and Soumita Basu didn’t either. After losing most of her mobility, she refused to hand over her identity to illness and instead asked one practical question each day: What can I still do? That mindset led her to keep dancing while seated, confront the hidden labor of caregiving, and build an adaptive clothing company that designs for real bodies, real pain points, and real life in India’s climate and culture.
We trace her path from a gradual loss of movement to a surprising recovery the medical system didn’t expect, and we challenge the idea that “strength” means silence. Somita shares how a near-death night reframed her priorities, why asking for help is a design skill, and how inclusion starts with rethinking defaults: street lighting that keeps women safe, bus systems usable without literacy, and restrooms that respect different needs. When clothing becomes easier to put on—especially when the range of motion is limited—dignity increases, pain decreases, and caregivers regain time and energy. That’s design as care, not charity.
Entrepreneurship with a disability forced new processes. Standard advice assumed step-free access, endless stamina, and quick sourcing runs—none of which applied. Somita responded by reinventing workflows, co-creating with users to refine closures and cuts, and starting small when funding was tight after medical expenses. Along the way, she tested yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, pranic healing, and conventional medicine, not as dogma but as experiments measured by function and relief. The takeaway is clear: uncertainty isn’t an ending; it’s an invitation to iterate responsibly.
You’ll walk away with grounded prompts you can use today: end the day asking if you’d accept it as your last, do what you can with what you have where you are, and measure your 100 percent against today’s reality. If you’re a manufacturer or distributor who believes clothing should serve everybody, reach out—we’re building this together. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs adaptive design, and leave a review with one mindset you’re ready to redesign.
Reference Website/s
https://inspiresomeonetoday.in/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/13286-psoriatic-arthritis
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Choosing Agency Over Illness
SPEAKER_01It was very important that I still had a life. So I refuse to believe that my mobility was the only element of my life. Because it wasn't right. So for me it was very simple. It was like, okay, there is an illness in my body, but it just has that. It doesn't have me. For me, resigning was never an option. With a disability, without a disability, being sick, not being sick, resigning is just not an because like I said, I wanted to be. I have been asked this so many times. Oh, you have a disability. Are you sure that you can do this? I'm like, yes, I can. Not the way you think I will, but I can. More importantly, I have been asked, are you sure you're not a liability to your organization? Okay, yeah. I mean, I I think the biggest challenge is people's mindsets of what a disability is or isn't.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Inspire Someone Today Podcast, a show where we dive into the stories and insights that has the power to create ripples of inspiration in your life. I'm your host, Shrikant, and I'm thrilled to be with you on this journey of inspiration. New year, new beginnings. Change doesn't arrive with permission. Sometimes it interrupts, sometimes it hurts, sometimes it forces a reckoning. What matters is what we do next. In 2026, Inspire Someone Today brings you change makers, people who didn't wait for things to return to normal. In life bent the rules, they bent back with courage, care, and clarity. Not from pity, not from anger, but from purpose. These are not stories of survival, these are stories of ownership. New year, new episodes, same human conversations, because that's where change truly begins. And it's an absolute joy to have one such change maker join us for the very first episode of 2026. It's an absolute joy and pleasure to have Somita Basu gracing this first episode of 2026. Somita, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much, Rikanda. I'm just delighted to be here.
SPEAKER_00We'll jump right in, Swamita. The moment that changed how you saw the world. And it was after losing 80% of uh your
Losing Mobility And Finding Adaptation
SPEAKER_00mobility, you kind of landed it into what you are doing today before we get in there. At what point in your life you lost a significant part of your mobility? Take us through that phase emotionally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh I was around 32, 33, and uh it was not just about losing my mobility, but uh like let's put it this way. I have been a dancer I think since I was born, but uh I've been trained in it since I was two and a half. And I was very intensely uh practicing martial arts uh all through even when I felt sick, like till the point I fell sick. And uh so I was I had a very active physical life, and then I s uh for me the uh loss of mobility was gradual. So it was like every day I would wake up and it for me it was like okay, what is it there today? What's working, what's not working, and uh so it was like you know, a constant sense of loss, but I think it was also a constant sense of, okay, so what's today? So suspense, thriller, whatever you want to call it. So that was there. So I think uh that was the emotional part. I think the constant nature of it was more emotional because it was not like, oh, you know, I lost my hand. Now let's figure this out. It's like one day, one finger, the next day there's something else, the third day. Let's say the shoulder was going till one point, and the next day it's even a little less. So it's not just the mobility, but the extent of it. Otherwise, from the emotional point of view, honestly, there was not much. It was uh very much for me, it was more like this is what it is, now what do we do?
SPEAKER_00Your condition was psoriatic arthritis, and your response to that was what changed first? Was it the change in your body, like you said, or how people responded to you or reacted to your condition?
SPEAKER_01So, you know, as the condition started progressing, uh and by the way, after a while I did have a miraculous recovery too. So I was in bed for four years and then I was walking around, moving around, etc. And it's miraculous because the medical world did not expect it at all. So, but while it was progressing, for me it was very important that I still had a life. So I refuse to believe that my mobility was the only element of my life because it wasn't right. So for me it was very simple. It was like, okay, there's
Dancing While Seated And Identity
SPEAKER_01an illness in my body, but it just has that, it doesn't have me. Thank you. But I mean and it kind of moved moved from that point on, like, so if I can't move, can I still dance? Because for me that was very important. And everybody was like, oh, you poor thing, oh you poor thing, oh she's to be the whatever, you know, the life of the party. I'm like, I think I can still be the life of the party guy. So yeah, I mean, for example, you see, like we can dance even while sitting. And dancing, because I was trained in India classical, the part of Abhinaya is very important in our classical dance. That was very much still on on point. So I was like, see, that there's one kind of dance that I can still do. And I can just change things my way. Nobody has ever told me you have to do only if you do this, is it called dancing?
SPEAKER_00So true. You did mention about you could change things my way, and you did go about changing things your way by virtue of starting your own entrepreneurial venture, and there was a reason behind that as well. Right? So, where did you first fill the gap between design for some to design for all? And what was the trigger for that?
SPEAKER_01You know, interestingly, that started hitting me even before I fell sick, though not from the same point of view, not not from the disability point of view. I would take a step back. You know, earlier you had asked me about like, or rather, you didn't ask me in your question, you felt like, you know, when my world changed, or my So my world didn't change. It was a part of things that were happening, but my perspective on the world was changing. And somehow that perspective also changed. I'll give you one example. I was once traveling alone. This is before I fell sick, and uh, there's this woman who just randomly met me. We don't know each other at all, and uh she said, What will you do here all alone? Uh, my house is right here. She couldn't get in tune with the idea of like traveling alone. She said, Just come and have lunch with the us. And I went there, and uh it was a very small, like a hut. And um, I mean, uh, there were bricks around, but it was largely a hut. And they she scrambled to get food together. She actually ran towards the river and uh caught some crab. So I was like, okay, this is the freshest food I can have, but she was really scrambling. I mean, that was a time it occurred, you know, my perspective changed that you know you can share no matter how little
From Design For Some To For All
SPEAKER_01you have.
SPEAKER_00So true.
SPEAKER_01And it is living and or being or interacting with so many other people who don't necessarily always is a part of our everyday interaction. That's where I started seeing how design is not for everyone. When we board the bus, when we have our documents, those who can read, those who can't read. The, you know, uh the street lights for women, not for women, for men, not for men. So I was already noticing that design was not for everyone. The way our cities are built, you know. I mean, I'll give you a simple example. A woman's toilet, you will see a longer queue than a man's toilet. And that's uh, I'm not talking of a standalone toilet, I'm talking about those, you know, cubicled ones. And that's because uh for men, uh the their urinary structures that they need take lesser space. So in the same overall square space, the number of cubicles are more. For women, the number of cubicles are less. But it it then translates to, oh, women take longer. Oh my god, she's gone to the restroom now, she'll hardly come back. No, you have just not given it enough space.
SPEAKER_00It's a paradigm.
SPEAKER_01So I had started watching this and started acknowledging it more from a gender point of view, from a marginalized group point of view. Uh, as I was growing up, I found things like uh, you know, uh just outside our homes, there would be like a few steps and people would be just sitting there, chatting away. So uh the idea of a community building was so easy. Now, with all the gated communities, the architecture is so different that that doesn't happen. So people don't talk, so people don't interact. And that's one of the first things I also understood about disability because everyone told me there are hardly any people with disability. I'm like, not what the number says, but probably you can't see them because things are designed in such a way that they are not out there and you're not interacting with them. So that's how I started interacting with design and noticing how it's and because as I I've had a non-disabled body and a disabled body, I can see how how little I go out there sometimes, how little I am visible very often.
SPEAKER_00And in the context of your own situation, how did that perspective uh further tune in to kind of okay, design for some to design for all in what you went about doing?
SPEAKER_01Right. So living in the 2000s, you would think that, oh, Google has all the answers. So I very quickly Googled clothes that are easy to wear without like a shoulder movement. There was nothing in India and a few options abroad, which was just not suitable for me for cultural and climate reasons. So that was like a big surprise point for me. And I knew I was struggling to wear
Clothing Gaps And Starting Up
SPEAKER_01clothes every day. So while trying to wear it alone, I was struggling, and even when I was totally bedridden, which means everybody, like I was depending on someone else, my mom mainly. We both struggled. We we had such a harrowing time because uh it was so painful, and she was handling an adult grown body, you know. So we just wanted a design that's easier, and I thought it's available because I thought Google has all the answers.
SPEAKER_00But now it wasn't the case. And at this point in time, Swamita, what made you to choose agency over resignation? Saying, okay, this is not done.
SPEAKER_01I guess you can call it a choice, but it it was not like a sitting in contemplation. It it it's more uh for me, um resigning was never an option. With the disability, without a disability, being sick, not being sick, resigning is just not an because like I said, I wanted to live.
SPEAKER_00I told you a mental construct. Not many people, particularly amongst our listeners based, if somebody were to kind of go through the challenge that they have gone through. And anybody for that matter, it's very easy to kind of sit back, resign to play the victim card or say that why me kind of stuff. But you never chose either of these because that is how you are kind of programmed as an individual.
SPEAKER_01See, I'm a very practical person. So my first question was, okay, this is what I have, so what is it affecting? And I say it's a part of my life. So I was like, why am I giving it the rest of my life? So it's affecting, let's say, 20% of my life, for example. In terms of mobility, it's affecting over 90% at that time, but in terms of life, maybe 20%. But why will I give it, why will I gift it the rest of the 80%, right? Like I need that for myself. And the why me thing, actually, a lot of people start asking, oh, but you're such a nice person. Why did that happen to you? I said, Thank you for at least acknowledging I'm a nice person, so let's start there. But if I have to ask that question, then I have to have an answer again, a very practical point of view. If not me, then who? Like, do I have a good candidate for it? Can I go to the illness and say, hey, you know, you got the wrong person. That's the right person, right? I couldn't think of anyone.
Practical Mindset Over Why Me
SPEAKER_01So so that Hawaii question did not make sense to me.
SPEAKER_00I love the attitude that you have that that you wear upon your sleeve. And through this entrepreneur's journey that you took on, did you face the resistance of why we went down that path and what was the resistance of being an entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_01See, I think the journey of an entrepreneur is very exciting, but also very difficult all at the same time. And for other people to understand what it is to be an entrepreneur with a disability, that is the part which is most challenging. Because I mean, it's simple things like, oh, people can do this in two days. I'm like, yeah, not me. And this is the reason for that. So for example, it's so quick for people to go and get some raw materials. For example, you go to the whole sales market, you walk yourself out, you get, etc. etc., whatever you need. And then from that point on, you take something. But for me to get access to that, I had to devise an entire new plan. So I had I had to be in, people say, Oh, your dresses are so innovative. I said, welcome to my processes that are even more innovative because I have to create them every day almost. And since we, of course, learn from each other, our peers, but the learning uh group from other entrepreneurs is so with a disability, is not uh they're not as many. So even your learning curve is much higher.
SPEAKER_00And this wanting to be an entrepreneur, did it was the seed days right from your uh say childhood days or your uh going up years, or it happened because condition pushed you to a place and you kind of blot in what you wanted to do from a design perspective, and both of that kind of came together at the same time.
SPEAKER_01I think all my life I was a bit of an intraprennial person, like you know, I was entrepreneurial enough uh but not really building something and starting things off uh from that point of view. Like there was always someone else uh who was helping me with it. From that point, actually, uh when I was 30, I went for my master's,
Entrepreneurship With Disability
SPEAKER_01my second master's in the Netherlands, and just before I took off, I also decided that this will be the next two years a deciding factor of what I really do want to do. Like, how do I pull together my learning of the last eight, nine years and you know, take it forward? So entrepreneurship was one of them, but it was like I wasn't charged with it. Like it was not like that's my only option. But will my illness and the fact that I had the solution, the the clothing solution, the dressing solution for so many people, I just thought this is I have to do this.
SPEAKER_00So for the benefit of our listeners, would be helpful if you're okay, to shave what what your condition is all about, and how can one be aware of something like this? What kind of precautions or what kind of awareness one can have to even know that such a condition can kind of uh come through?
SPEAKER_01Uh so pine is an autoimmune illness, and uh it's called a psoriatic arthritis, but even now the doctors, after all these years, nearly 15 uh years, doctors are still like, we are not hundred percent sure if it's a psoriatic arthritis. We're 100% sure that it's an autoimmune disorder. And they would always say they're I mean, for most people it is progressive, but I have been able to reverse it as well. And I have been able to walk when I was not expected to walk. I have been able to climb steps when doctors thought I'll be totally only and only be in a wheelchair in my bed and that's it. So what helped me was two things. One is that none of the doctor every time I asked the doctors why do you think I can't get better? They kept saying, Because we don't know how to get you better. We don't have an answer to this. Which means it was a problem with getting the answer. The uh illness itself may not be a problem. Second is that I asked them, what do you think is the root cause of it? Why am I getting it? And they said they don't know. So when they don't know the root cause, then obviously they don't know the solution, right? But because your doctors don't know the solution doesn't mean that you don't have to have a solution. And look everywhere. For I have I don't even know how many doctors I have met. I have met doctors in two countries and multiple cities, and I just kept looking for an answer because I refuse to believe that I will not get better. I refuse to a lot of people said, Oh my god, uh God is punishing you. I think God is very kind, I love God, God loves me, so there's no way God is punishing me. So God is not punishing me, so I have to have an answer. I looked at yoga, I looked at meditation, I looked at Ayurveda, I looked at, you know, the regular uh general allopathy medicine that's there. I looked at ev magnetic therapies, I looked at everything because I have to get better. And uh d don't go with blind faith in anything. I also didn't. But for me, yoga meditation was a
Understanding Autoimmune Ambiguity
SPEAKER_01game changer. Pranic healing, uh, it's an energetic form of healing, it was a game changer. I've had people laugh at me saying that uh you are such an educated person, how do you believe in something like pranic healing? And I'm like, I don't have to believe in gravity, gravity is there, and I have experienced it when I felt from a d in a height. Similarly, I don't have to believe in pranic healing because I have experienced it and it's gotten me better. So whatever helps you, just go for it. Even if somebody says it's a placebo, it's okay if it's getting you better, right? Do it. So just do whatever works for you. Listen to your body and try everything, not with a blind faith, but keep trying. You never know what works for you. And things work. I I'm a living example of a miraculous. Healing. I was told I'll be stuck in bed and in the wheelchair. I people were shocked. Doctors were stunned when I was walking and taking stairs.
SPEAKER_00And along the way, I I think you and I we have spoken a bit about uh this element of it, is about care. Right? You went through what you went through, and it would have been impossible for you to kind of be here at this point of time without having that care. How did your lived experience redefine what care means to you?
SPEAKER_01I don't think I've used the care so much as a word in my life as I have after I've fallen sick. And that's not just physical care, but you know, it's emotional care. It's just people standing by you, and it's what it means in your life. So a lot of people see me as the face of inspiration, but it's my mom, my dad, my sister, my friends, my mentors, all of them. And and they have poured in a lot of care. A lot of care. Uh, my sister has quit her uh job multiple times. She has changed career tracks, I mean, not completely, but yeah, I mean, she did not follow a simple career track which would have helped her, uh, but she decided to care. And it's it's very difficult to be a caregiver because the person that's in front of you wants to do their best for you. They want you to recover. But they very h often don't know what to do. They don't even know the boundaries. So, you as a person, you know, okay, you know, this is my boundary. Or you know, maybe tomorrow I can try a little bit more because you really know your body. But others, your caregivers don't. So they feel really helpless,
Healing Journeys Beyond One Path
SPEAKER_01much more than you do. I think being helpless is one of the worst emotional space to be in.
SPEAKER_00Tell me a bit more about it.
SPEAKER_01Like let's say your mom comes and says, Oh, I wish I could take your pain away, but she really doesn't know how to. Right? Let's say she can't do the breathing exercise for me. She can't uh get the doctors are not being too helpful. I mean, they don't know what to do next. So medically she doesn't know what to do. The only thing she can do is sit by my side, which helps me emotionally, but she she o only wants to think about my physical pain and take it away. And she doesn't know what to do. I know that I can breathe and I can feel better. But that's that's my doing. Uh, the doctor is trying to, and for a doctor, very rightly so, I am one of the many patients. For my mom, for my sister, I am the only sister though. Yeah, I'm the one. And even for a lot of my friends, and I'm very blessed to have them, I'm one of their closest people. So their sense of being helpless is far worse. And then they don't know.
SPEAKER_00And that does that feeling, that that process make it harder for you? Does it kind of alienate you, make you a lot more lonely? Or how do you kind of you know you are also you are having your own journey, your own struggle. On top of it, you also see that and unfortunately we don't have a care manual, a care playbook for people to say, This is how I need to operate. So does that make your job that much more harder?
SPEAKER_01It's yes and no both. I think what you asked me, right? Like, how did I not choose resignation? It's easier to resign when you're alone. Even when uh, you know, it's a it's a motivating factor. It's a mo because the one of the reasons that I can't resign or I don't feel like I want to resign is because I'm not alone. There's so many people, and they are not just, you know, being there for me to encourage me, but they're fighting it out with me. And that includes my friends as well. Like, you know, let's say taking me out to a restaurant when most things are accessible, inaccessible. It's not easy. But they will spend so much effort and you know, they will put it all in, they will find the place, they will figure it out. All of that matters. So when there's so many people with you, I believe in the power of people. So that's that's really, really diff uh easy to push yourself a little bit more. But what does happen is even though it's not your fault that you're sick, but you still feel like for something that has happened to you, especially for your family, it it's affecting the family so much in so many ways, including financially, because medical expenses are so high. There are times when you feel like I I I have to figure this out, I I have to do it for them. It's so I can't see them like that.
SPEAKER_00One thing I must say for somebody who's kind of gone through what you've gone through, to have that kind of an attitude, that upbeatness, that energy all that time, hats off to you.
SPEAKER_01I guess I I was always a little in I liked having fun. And that's what I said, like, you know, when I was falling sick. I said, you know what? I can fall sick, that's fine. I mean, it's not fine, but okay, we'll figure that out. There's pain, that's so we'll figure it out. I can't move, we'll figure it out. I refuse to not have fun. I will continue to have fun. Fun is important. We do fun.
Redefining Care And Caregiving
SPEAKER_01Uh so one thing that changed is that when I was in the Netherlands, like I said, uh, you know, around the time I was 30, and I had already started falling sick before I went there. I just didn't know to like grow up, but it was like a gradual process. So it was already 28, 29 when I was falling sick. Then I went there and things deteriorated and nobody knew what to do. The diagnosis was not in yet. It took three, four years for me to get diagnosed. And one day things were so bad, there was an emergency paramedics who came over. And uh they have the best doctors for the emergency treatment when they come in with the ambulances and everything. So it's not just a paramedic, it's also a very good medic and most experienced usually. And she left the room saying, next time like we need to call, we would actually take you straight to the hospital. She she wanted to do that right away, but I was like, can we wait and see? So, you know, that way. And before leaving, so she said that we're going straight to the hospital. And honestly, it looks like uh so she thought I would be dead. And then a few other doctors were like, Okay, this looks like really fatal. Me being practical saved me because I kept asking them, I think that's a if we'll all die, do you know when am I dying? And uh she they said, No, but you know, it it could be any time. I said, Yeah, that's like something even I could have guessed. And uh then I said, Do you know the root of my problem? Because I was still without the diagnosis at the time. And they said, No. And I said, if you don't know the diagnosis, then you can't give me a prediction of death. Like, it's more like you can't do and you don't know, and maybe that's why I'll die, but then you don't really know. And they're not very happy hearing it, but they kept saying, this might be it. So when the when that paramedic left my room that day, uh, I I was home alone and I was trying to sleep, and I thought, if this is my last night, how does that look? And I was like, not bad, not bad at all. But I just want to be with my family and I want to be with my friends, and so many times I have missed their calls because you know I was busy working or something like that. And uh funnily, I did not think about that work at all. I couldn't even remember most of the work that I was hanging up for. I was preparing for a PhD at that time. I did not even think of my proposal, my PhD, whatever it is that I thought is going to change the world. None of that. I only kept thinking about my family, and I was like, I really and I was like, do I really have to die in this cold country? Uh can I not be a little warmer? And can I not be with my family? Can I not be with my friends? And the you know, people say, what do you regret? One of the things that I regretted was, I wish I had danced a little bit more. It was never my profession. It was always a hobby. It's but I was like, I didn't realize I love it so much. I wish I had done that a little bit more. And I wish I had gone to have more picnics, attended more weddings, which I did not for, you know, work. And uh it's it's funny,
Community Power And Guilt
SPEAKER_01but I was I suddenly thought about all the things I wish I had done. One of the things was also I wish I had said sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. And, you know, stuff like that. So I was like, that stayed with me. And that has been with me all these years. So every time my go my goal is when I go to sleep at night, and if that's my last night, how bad is it?
SPEAKER_00If this is your last night, leave a life with no regrets. And what you don't want to do is not to have anybody go through that experience to realize that. What you're kind of sharing is a lived experience. That's not a lived experience somebody needs to go through to have that realization. So, Sovita, when I kind of talk about Zenika, what comes to your mind?
SPEAKER_01So, so we design clothes very, very specifically adapted to different body types, uh, flexibility, the range of flexibility and mobility, and any other need that a person has in their everyday life. So we look at life phases and body types to design our clothes and we adapt our clothes accordingly. So be it the mobility, be it uh let's say obesity. So all of it. And like you said, care is an important part of it. We also specially design for assisted wear. So when somebody else is helping you wear your garments, how to make that easier? How to make that painless for both the person wearing it and the caregiver.
SPEAKER_00I believe your partner in crime on this venture was your mom, and you started this venture at as little as 20,000 rupees.
SPEAKER_01We actually started at 5,000, 6,000. The next person gave us 15,000, and that's how 21 happened. And uh, yeah, it was mom. And um see the money part was also is kind of fun because uh we had spent every dive of our savings for my health. Uh, we had to do uh crowdfunding for my health. So all the people who knew us, they had already invested in me, so to say, right? So to go back to them and ask them to invest in the company would have been a stretch. And we had already spent everything. And you know, it's so easy to say, oh, we are a middle class person. That means nothing. Uh like in actual quantitative terms, the word middle class means nothing. And it's very, but we still have a s similar kind of behavior. So it's so difficult, it it was so difficult for me to my parents also like, can we can't ask for money? Because that's a taboo in our society. So when our my friends set up a crowdfunding, they were
A Near-Death Night And Clarity
SPEAKER_01they were so overwhelmed. They were so they were humbled and they were loved and you know, they felt all of that. And they felt very blessed. But and also starting a business meant that you are not earning directly uh from a job, like uh everyday salary is not coming. So all of those decisions made me believe that we'll start small if that's what we have to do. And we did that.
SPEAKER_00And you did that, and how lightly you took off with Jenica. And as you took off, what were some of the challenges building what you have built?
SPEAKER_01When we started, we started as a B-spoke where, and we wanted to do that so that we learn more about the body's needs. I researched and I researched and tried to find answers for it. Uh, I couldn't find anything, so I straight away went to the community, spoke with them, and we started co-creating with them. Because see, everybody who's going through something has found some Jagad method of working something out. It may not be the best. So that my job was to understand their solutions and make it better and make it more standardized and make it uh scalable. So I worked on those ways of doing things. Other than that, uh when we wanted to when we wanted to start scaling, again, uh finances was a huge thing. We w needed some funding, like every ad spent mattered and everything mattered. So that's been a challenge. The other challenge, like I said, accessibility, just to go to the regular places to buy your stuff. Raw materials that's so easy to get, otherwise. So, you know, if you would go to a mentor and say, hey, this is my I'm finding challenge in getting this, he would have never heard the challenge before from anybody. So it was a learning uh space for everyone. Uh the other thing is like even now, I I had to really change my mindset a lot to be comfortable doing this. Because uh the expectation is to be the hustler, to work for 18 hours and 20 hours a day. And I was trying to do that because I thought that's the only way to do it, and I was just crashing. I was I kept I kept physically crashing, uh, which which was worse than uh not being a hustler. So I had to really change my mindset. I think that was the biggest challenge, if you ask me, that was the biggest challenge. And it was not just my expectation, right? Like the entire ecosystem expects that. So the challenge is this my personal mindset, which is also a reflection of the societal mindset about being a hustler, but also the society thinking that, oh, if you can't do it this way, then you can't do it at all. Or I have been asked this so many times, oh, you have a disability, are you sure that you can do this? I'm like, yes, I can, not the way you think I will, but I can. More importantly, I have been asked, are you sure you're not a liability to your organization? Okay, yeah. I mean, I I think the biggest challenge is people's mindsets of what a disability is or isn't. And they tend to see the person with the disability and identify with the disability at the same time. It's just a part of us, right? It's not the whole thing. So uh thinking that my challenge uh is a problem, I am totally with it. I agree with it, I face it and I say it too. But to think that I am the problem, I I think I I draw the line there.
SPEAKER_00He's getting a little too far.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Building Zyenika’s Adaptive Wear
SPEAKER_01So we it's I don't blame anyone. It's also the way we are put through school, you know, like for anybody with a disability, like even in my school, I have a non- when I was a child, I didn't have a I was a non-disabled child. So I didn't see any child with a disability around me. And mostly they are put in the so-called quote-unquote special school. And the more I learned about the special schools and how they teach, etc., I was like, I think I would have learned more if I was in a special school. Because their teaching methods are so much better. But more importantly, out there in the world, there's nothing like a special world and a not so special world, right? So we're all together and we have not learned our schools, our society has not taught us how to really learn about each other.
SPEAKER_00That's so true. And keeping the same spirit of mindset without framing it as charity. If you were to leverage this particular platform, Swamita, how can this platform come and be of support or assistance in terms of collaboration or support that we're actively seeking? If you have to kind of call it out and ask the listeners out here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, this is a great platform. So I would love to uh reach out to anyone who wants to uh come in and join in, uh, you know, as a partner from various uh fields. Like uh I am looking out for a manufacturing partner here in the field. Come join in, we can do something together. Also, to some I I feel like everyone knows somebody who needs a comment like this. That's what I keep hearing every time I talk about it. So if you think you know someone who needs this, just tell us about uh tell them about us. I would love to uh know them as well. So, and if you have any better ideas, come and tell us how to make it better. What are you looking for? What what else can we make? Uh but yeah, let's partner up together, be it in an individual capacity, even if you talk about us to somebody else, that's I would really hold that very dearly. Or if you can come together, like I said, one of the things we're looking for is manufacturing, and uh the other thing they're looking at is distribution. So if you want to be a partner in that, that would be lovely.
SPEAKER_00So there is a call out from a change maker. If somebody can uh want to join hands with a change maker, there's an opportunity to do so. With that said, uh Swamita, if I were to ask you, you were very strong-minded, you were able to kind of manage what uh life threw at you. But if somebody who is going to struggle, what would you say to them
Funding, Access, And Processes
SPEAKER_00who are going through that pain? What would be a word of wisdom to them would be?
SPEAKER_01Okay, that's tough. But I think I'll start with saying don't try to be strong. It's overrated. There's no need to be strong, it's a it's an exaggerated uh burden on us. And that's what I always advocate that let's make our things around us designed in such a way. And design is like everything is designed at the end of the day, even your menu is a design, right? Food menu. So let's design things around us in such a way that everybody d doesn't have to exert their strength. Uh, but so if you're going through it, it's it's not your problem alone. Reach out to people. I have learned one thing there are more people waiting and willing to help than those than there are not. So all all that's needed is that we need to learn how to ask for help. It's not easy. We're not. Taught that either. So please reach out for help. The other thing is you know your self, your life, your body, your mind better than anyone else. Trust yourself. Don't trust anyone else uh more than yourself, even if they come as experts. And I'm not saying anything wrong about experts, but they have an expertise over the field, but you have an expertise over you. And there has to be a kind of a marriage between the two. Emotions are very, very important. Have them, but don't don't stop being practical.
SPEAKER_00Those are some wonderful call-outs, Swamita, that you shared. One is being strong is overrated. How true it is. Trusting oneself. Asking for help. I think that's what a lot many people shy away from, asking for help. It feels that I'm burdening somebody by virtue of asking. No, you're helping somebody to be part of the journey that you are about to embark on. That's that's a great call out. And have emotions, how true it is. Why do you have to suppress those emotions? You didn't choose the way things spanned out to be. So don't be uh guilty of it, don't be sad about it, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01I would even say, you know, sometimes even if we sometimes choose to do the wrong thing, and it could be our immaturity, it could be whatever it is, to learn to be emotional about them too and sort of face it and say, you know, I was immatured. I I did what I knew best. Uh, I was wrong, and I forgive myself and move from that point on.
SPEAKER_00Lovely. Savita, as you draw to a close in this conversation, I would want to draw two or three insights from you. One is one insight your journey has clarified for you. What would that be?
SPEAKER_01You're never alone.
SPEAKER_00And one small reflection that our listeners can try this week.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I'll actually give you two. One that I've already given, so I'm going to repeat that. Which is if at the end of the day you're happy with what you've done with that day overall. I mean,
Rethinking Hustle And Capacity
SPEAKER_01of course, we'll have two lists for the next day. I'm not talking about that, but if that was your last, are you okay with it? Uh that was that's a good uh for me. Uh I have had a good time with that reflection. And the other is kind of pretty much, you know, helps this uh reflection, which is do what you can do with what you have where you are, but do it now. Don't don't wait for the next perfect moment of your life because that perfect moment doesn't arrive. So I started with 6,000. You can start with 600 if you want. And do what you have, which also is like, you know, sometimes we say that, oh, I'm so it's so bad that I couldn't give my hundred percent, but maybe you did. Your hundred percent every day is not the same. Your hundred percent at at a hundred and three temperature and your hundred percent at a normal temperature is not the same. So, you know, be good that way. Do, but keep doing, even if you're even if you're inching, and I have been there, I have been inching sometimes, but I have moved that inch.
SPEAKER_00Do something, keep the momentum going. That's the message out there, my dear isn't this. And innovation that was born from your personal experience, but you have taken it beyond innovation, Swamita. You have given us a lot to kind of think over, a lot to be grateful for, and a lot to kind of make a difference by just shifting our mindsets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's the hardest one though, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00So true. So before you and I sign off, Swamita, what is your inspire someone today message to all of our listeners?
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, I I often feel like I'm nobody to give anybody a message. But uh if you have something, um just share it. And uh, even if that's a problem. So share the good things in your life and share the tough things in your life, and you will see that there's so many people who are really, really good. I feel the world around us is much better than what the media has it believing.
SPEAKER_00That's absolutely true. The world around is so much nicer, so much brighter than what we think it is. There is hope, there is love, there is a lot more, there's a lot of care. On that note, Swamita, thank you so much for uh being part of the Changemaker series and sharing such a wonderful uh story of your own personal journey and uh making it impactful to me and my business. Appreciate your uh time and joining us.
SPEAKER_01Singh, thank you, thank you so very much. And I have personally experienced so much real,
Mindsets And Inclusion In Schools
SPEAKER_01true warm love from absolute strangers that uh I cannot be more grateful. So, thank you everyone, and I'm looking forward to knowing more people through this channel.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So, on that note, my dear business, until next time, keep inspiring. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Inspire Someone Today. This is Srikant, your host, signing off. Until next time, continue to carry the ripples of inspiration. Stay inspired, keep spreading the light.
