Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E166 | When Care Calls | Change Makers - Bhavana Issar
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What if love isn’t enough when care gets real? We sat down with Bhavana to trace a bold pivot from corporate certainty to building Caregiver Sathi, a mission grounded in lived experience, practical skills, and the quiet courage to act. The journey starts with an unlikely spark—a return to motorcycles that rekindled agency and joy—then unfolds into a deeper inquiry about living a dharmic life, moving beyond personal suffering, and doing work that serves the greater good.
Across this conversation, we unpack why caregiving needs training, language, and community, not heroics. Bhavana shares how her father’s rare neurological illness shaped her worldview and why family caregivers often carry invisible burdens: decision fatigue, cultural pressure to “leave no stone unturned,” and the myth that money or sheer attitude can solve everything. We challenge assumptions—such as women as default caregivers and love as a form of preparedness—and map a more humane approach: building skills in symptom literacy, communication with clinicians, home safety, grief navigation, and coordinated decision-making. Post-pandemic, the urgency is shared; elder care, mental health, and long-term illness intersect in ways that demand better systems and kinder narratives.
We also widen the lens to society. Care is a life skill we should all learn—like cooking, cleaning, budgeting, and dignifying labor—and it belongs in schools for every gender. Aging should be integrated, not isolated, honoring the wisdom older adults bring to families and communities. Along the way, Bhavna offers striking metaphors from riding: you gear up, calibrate to terrain, accept you’ll fall, and rely on your crew. Preparation doesn’t eliminate uncertainty; it builds resilience, clarity, and grace.
Listen for practical takeaways and micro experiments: set parallel goals across career, health, learning, and service; list your childhood dreams and pick one; read or write poetry to keep beauty in view. If this conversation resonates, share it with someone who might need strength for the long ride, and subscribe to keep these humane, skill-building stories in your feed. Your review helps more people find the tools—and the courage—to care.
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You know, in the handrum of life, I had forgotten the motorcycle. And um on this trip we felt ki we could have a motorcycle. So I got he got me a motorcycle for my birthday, and um that was fun. I got back to riding, it felt very nice. I got into a group simultaneously at the work place. I wanted to, I had been an HR for a very long time, and uh I just felt that uh the entrepreneurial world was um shaping up and I'd like to do something that I could call my own that was distinctive and that gave me pleasure, and it was not because I just wanted to do a job. These things were happening in in parallel. I was also going through my personal growth journey through Sumedas, and I was exploring the question of what is the purpose of your life? That question that unlike Karna in Mahabharat, so it is believed that Kern was different from Arjun in Mahabharat because Kern got caught up with his own, you know, victimhood of saying that, you know, bad had been done to him. So we don't know how much life we have, and everything must happen in parallel. And I don't think we can wait to give back to society only after we have retired.
SPEAKER_01:Not everything that matters needs to be loud. Some conversations help you pause, some help you see differently, and some stay with you long after they end. Welcome to Inspire Someone Today, my dear listeners. A space for honest conversations about life, work, and the choices that shape who we become. No quick fixes, no borrowed certainty, just real stories, thoughtful reflection, and the quiet courage to live with intention. This is Inspire Someone Today, where conversations are human, reflective, and meant to stay with you. Change doesn't always arrive as deception. Sometimes it arrives as responsibility. In this episode of Expell Someone Today, we meet Bhagana is a someone who crossed worlds not for reinvention, but because a problem refused to be ignored. From the certainty of the corporate world to the ambiguity of the social sector, from the freedom of the open road to the responsibility of caregiving, from individual agency to collective preparedness. This is not a story of sacrifice, it's a story of ownership. As part of a change maker series, this conversation explodes. What happens when people stop asking why this happened to me and start asking what now? No pity, no heroics, just a humane, grounded conversation about care, courage, and designing for the future that's coming for all of us. Care. Let the conversation begin. Bhana, it's an absolute joy to have you on this episode of Inspire Someone Today.
SPEAKER_00:I got a little emotional while listening to the introduction. Thank you. It's a very nice uh perspective, and I'm very grateful that you look at it like that.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Thanks for giving us time and uh willing to share your experiences of what have uh uh accomplished over the years. So, first up, the chasm of the corporate world to the social sector. What started to feel incomplete for you in the corporate world for you to make the transition into the social sector?
SPEAKER_00:Um, two, three things. I think it's different from how I saw it at that time and how I reflect on it now. I think I told myself a story. The story that I told myself at that time was that um I have pursued this corporate ladder for a while, and um, you know, what will give me true happiness? What is really the purpose of my life? I have spoken about this earlier, and I said, what would I really like to contribute to myself, to this world, to the life that I have been given. And um today, when I look back, I think I was definitely um bored of what I was doing. It seemed repetitive, it didn't seem to feed my soul, and it also felt like as if I uh was running out of time. My dad was 54 when he had passed, it was quite young, and I just felt that I didn't have probably the luxury of um, you know, knowing whether I will retire at some point. What if I never got that opportunity? So, what do I really want to do with my life? Were a few things that were happening around the time. Uh, I also think that um I had been a techie in my heart, so I wanted to do something around technology. And I definitely wanted to do something that felt was for a larger purpose than serving me and my bills. And that's what led me to figure out what I want to do. It didn't feel like a huge chasm, like you call it, but it's interesting that you call it that way.
SPEAKER_01:But nevertheless, a very interesting pivot that you were wanting to make from the corporate world to the social sector. Was uh your dad's condition the only trigger for you to do that, or was there some other defining moment or the drift within that kind of nudged you to say that okay, it's time for you to kind of go make a bigger impact?
SPEAKER_00:It wasn't like that. They were not it was just very organic, you know, Srikant. I think I, you know, it I was around 39 um when you know on a trip to Goa, my husband and I we thought, oh, you know, maybe we could have a motorcycle and we should get a motorcycle. I used to ride a scooter in my young days, and uh I used to have a motorcycle later. And you know, in the handrum of life, I had forgotten the motorcycle. And um on this trip we felt we could have a motorcycle. So I got he got me a motorcycle for my birthday, and um that was fun. I got back to riding, it felt very nice. I got into a group simultaneously at the work place. I wanted to, I had been in HR for a very long time, and uh I just felt that uh the entrepreneurial world was um shaping up, and I'd like to do something that I could call my own that was distinctive, and that gave me pleasure, and it was not because I just wanted to do a job. These things were happening in parallel. I was also going through my personal growth journey through Sumedas, and I was exploring the question of what is the purpose of your life, how do you want to live your life, how do you want to add meaning to yourself, etc. And um they seemed to all organically grow into wanting to do a venture of my own, not necessarily a social venture. So then I thought about what is it that will give me a sense of purpose? What is the purpose of my life? And that led me to think about saying, oh, I would really get a lot of joy if I was able to go beyond myself. Also in the Sumeda's uh school, one of the questions was, what is your dharmic life? What is a dharmic life? And one of the definitions of leading a dharmic life is if you can go beyond your personal suffering and do something for the greater good. Interestingly, I also come from XLRI, and the tagline for XLRI is for the greater good. And uh, all these things were not something that I was very aware of or very mindful and intentional, but um but they did seem to come together at that time. So I introspected a lot and thought about what is the core of my life experience. And the most defining thing and the most uh significant thing that I felt at that time was the fact that my dad had a terminal illness, and that uh his illness had deeply impacted our family, and it had definitely impacted uh life choices that I had made, career choices that I had made, the kind of person that I had become. And I felt that I was not the only one who would have such a thing. There are many, many people who are impacted by illness like him. And what about such individuals? So it's that question that unlike Karna in Mahabharat, so it is believed that Kern was different from Arjun in Mahabharat because Kern got caught up with his own, you know, victimhood of saying that, you know, bad had been done to him. If only Kern had gone beyond himself and been able to look at many other people who are, you know, capable and competent, but they don't get the opportunity because they are not kshatriyas, then he would have led a dharmic life, made me think a lot. So I felt that I can't be caught with my experience. How can I take it beyond me? And then uh a friend of mine suggested that why don't you raise money for this? And I thought, oh, the best way to raise money for this would be a nonprofit. So without really understanding the social development sector in, you know, like a professional, I decided to pursue it like that. And then I was quite particular that healthcare should be a nonprofit because a nonprofit healthcare will drive a very different set of metrics. A profit-oriented healthcare organization will drive a very different target segment uh orientation, profit orientation, profit generation goals. And that was not what felt right to me at that time. And so I got into what was later called the social sector.
SPEAKER_01:What a brilliant start that is, Baumna. And you kind of thought about three or four different threads that will definitely talk through this conversation. Couple of things that you did mention about when you kind of go beyond the self. And this is a quintessential question that all of us has. What's the purpose of life? Right? Yeah. And you you did speak about boredom on one end, personal crisis on the other end, uh, love or passion for motorcycles, passion for giving back, right? In hindsight, when you look at all of these things, it might sense saying, okay, these are all the triggers that happened. But at that point of time, when we were going through all of these things, what was that sense that you had? How were you able to connect all of these dots and take that step forward?
SPEAKER_00:I have tried to explore this question a few times. Uh, so you know, if uh, you know, people look up my podcasts and they will find there are commonalities because after all, it's the same thing. But I'm going to try and see if I can, you know, explore something else with you now that you're asking me this question. I think getting back to motorcycle riding gave me pleasure and a sense of independence and abandon like nothing else had given me for a very, very long time. There is something very um liberating and powerful about being able to ride a motorcycle. You know, even if it is a and if it is a nice Royal Enfield 200 kilo motorcycle, the sense of invincibility, the sense of I have control, um, i is incredible. I totally recommend it to everyone, especially women. And uh I I do think that it was very important for me to have a sense of control on my life, which otherwise I did not. So that and the second I think was the sense of liberation, you know. If I could fly, I'd fly. Uh, but I couldn't fly. So, you know, riding a motorcycle was a nice close second, and uh it gave me a sense of freedom that was very, very empowering, and uh I felt I clean reclaimed a part of myself that had been forgotten in the humdrum of life. So I think that was step one. And then this whole question of what is a dharmic life, etc. And I kind of the way that I framed my response to it was very grand, and you know, like, oh, it should be something that is for the this, that, and the other. It should give purpose to my life experience, it should be for the greater good and things like that. So it had become too grand. And um, I ended up joining a group of women motorcyclists in a group called the Bikerney, where I discovered even more fun parts of myself which I had forgotten. And uh, you know, incredible women over there, all motorcyclists, all you know, uh breaking barriers in so many ways, led me to a trip that I made with six other women. We were seven of us. And that experience reinforced that it's worth giving it a shot. Whatever your dream is. It's not very clear, and um I was definitely influenced by a few people. Randy Posh was one of them. And uh Randy Posh is very popular. The last lecture definitely influenced me very, very deeply. And I said, Oh, childhood dreams are worth chasing. And I made a long list of all the things that I want to do and I want to chase. And um, you know, having a venture of my own that gave me a sense of satisfaction was definitely one of them. And so it led to a few other things and then a few other things, and I didn't like have a full plan originally, just took the next logical step, and things started taking shape of their own.
SPEAKER_01:So, as you're kind of uh responding to this, I did pick up uh one phrase that you used, which you called it as breaking barriers. So, in a lot many ways, yeah, does that kind of sum up the kind of uh mindset that you had? And along the way, when you made this transition from corporate to following your passion or to the social sector, what is that one thing that you underestimated in this particular transition?
SPEAKER_00:Definitely um the kind of resources that I will need, and the kind of ambition that I have. I think both of those things. Um so the truth goes hand in hand. I thought, okay, let me do what I can do. And uh how much resources would this need? I definitely underestimated that. Resources is not just financial resources, it is time, it is effort, it is uh the number of people who join you, and so on and so forth. So I just thought, oh, you know. And then uh I also underestimated how much ambition I have. So uh I could have kept it like a small project, but um for sure I have a lot more ambition than I know.
SPEAKER_01:I I can relate to that. And looking back now, what's on the corporate world that still serves your purpose in the development sector that you've been working on? What are some of those skills or traits that still uh serves you well today?
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, execution, action orientation, you know, knowing about goal setting and uh performance assessment are all very, very valuable skills that the corporate world introduced me to. Networking, also um having a network, whether sometimes you like it or not, you end up knowing people or I don't know whether networking can be attributed to the corporate world, but for sure um I think some kind of goal orientation, action orientation, execution, performance orientation are all very, very valuable skills and experience from the corporate world that I have to keep going back to.
SPEAKER_01:And as you were making this change, as you made this particular transition, was there moments where you questioned, did I make the right choice?
SPEAKER_00:All the time. I continue to do that even today. More so even today, uh Sri Kant, you know, um it's like finding your path in a dark alley, right? It's like not knowing a clear path. Like who are the people who have done something like this before me? I don't know. I don't have an example. And so self-doubt is a constant companion, not because of just this, but also because of the kind of person that I am. I do tend to look at all dimensions. I do tend to look at you know, question everything, especially myself.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, self-doubt is a constant so what's the big difference between that self-doubt of today versus self-doubt of say 15 years back?
SPEAKER_00:Great question. I think the self-doubt of 15 years back would have been a little like whether or not something like a caregiver-oriented organization is possible, whether something like this has a place in this world, and whether I'm the right person for it. But the self-doubt of today is whether I can last long enough for the kind of energy and the resources that an ambitious project like this requires.
SPEAKER_01:In a corporate parallelance, if you were to kind of say that does this product meet the market requirements then, versus the product is there, how can I scale it up? How can the product go globally?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So well said. I mean, whether or not such a um, you know, is there a product here? Is there a market here? Is there a segment here?
SPEAKER_01:All of this, uh, Bauna, what kept you the hope? What were you hopeful of, even though you felt that okay, you had that self-doubt, you kind of didn't see what you saw in the corporate world. But heart in heart, what kept you going? What was that hope behind the mission?
SPEAKER_00:So when I started off, it was never about winning something. It was just that this had to be done. And I was arrogant enough to believe that I'm the best person to do it. Or that, you know, if not me, who will do this kind of a thing? But um what gives me hope today is you know there seem to be a large number of people wanting to do things in this area and adjacent areas. So the fact that many more people are joining in tells me that there is something here. We probably don't have the answer, and we probably all need to come together, or we probably need to figure out something. But it isn't as lonely as it was when I started off. When I started off and I would have conversations, even now, some people would say things like, like, what are you really trying to do and why? And this was pre-pandemic. So telling somebody pre-pandemic that, you know, healthcare is a crisis and it's a bomb that's going to blow up in our faces sounded very dramatic. But post the pandemic and post everybody having a very visceral experience of caregiving, it has become so much easier to tell people to relate with that experience. I can immediately say that, you know, the helplessness that you felt during the second wave of COVID when people were scrambling for medical resources, that is what a family caregiver goes through even today. It has become so relatable. So, and now recently, in the last couple of years, elder care and aging has become a big concern. So while it is not the same as caregiving, but because elder care is very close to it, I think many, many more people are paying attention to it and trying to solve this problem. So the more of us who pay attention to this gives you hope that uh, you know, something can come out of this.
SPEAKER_01:It's a good one. And that's a good segue to the next segment of our conversation about caregivers sati. Tell us a bit about what caregiver sati is. How did you kind of come about with this particular idea?
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So how did I come up with the idea? It goes back to the same question of what is the purpose of my life. Uh and the core of my life experience was the fact that my very fit father, who was a pilot in the Air Force, had a very rare neurological uh condition called multiple system atrophy, which took a very long time to diagnose. And um he was in his 40s at the time, um, and I was in my teens, and um it impacted uh him for sure. It impacted our entire family, and uh it impacted us in a way, not just you know, physically, emotionally, financially, but also the kind of choices that we made and the kind of other consequences that we had. So um many years later, as I reflected on my life and I felt that, you know, this seems to be a very core experience that I have. Initially I wanted to do something around multiple system atrophy and you know, the condition that impacted him. And uh very soon I realized that I didn't have the knowledge or the skills to do anything around it because um I wasn't my dad's primary caregiver, my mother was, and uh, I was at best the caregiver to the caregiver. And in if I kind of look back at my experience, I also felt that uh if I look at caregiving across multiple conditions, not just multiple system atrophy, uh, whether it's cancer, whether it's mental illness, whether it's aging, whether it is any kind of long-term, terminal or uh chronic condition, then patient care is usually taken care of by the family caregivers. But the caregiver has a very lonely journey. Now, at that time, also when I started, or how Caregiver Sathi came about, for me it was a way of honoring not just my dad, but my mom and my grandmother, who were the you know, the caregivers. My mom was the primary caregiver. And uh her loneliness and her struggle and her valor through the caregiving was something that I felt um is something that I saw that it was only many years later that um in a conversation my mother turned around and said, You keep saying this is about uh me, but what about you? Don't you see yourself as a caregiver? And it struck me how um, you know, I keep saying that caregivers are invisible and they don't see themselves. Here I was, even I had not seen myself. Um and as a young caregiver, as someone who was in her teens and uh early 20s, it was very difficult for me to talk about the circumstances at home, or to talk to my friends, or to um even have many friends because it was so difficult to relate. So having a friend during difficult times was really something that I missed. And so much so that last week I was meeting my school friends and they went on talking about something about, you know, going back to our 20s and going back to the life of abandon. And I told them, I said, uh, I don't know, I would have never said this many years ago, but I certainly don't want to go back to those days, uh, you know, and I would have found it so hard to share it with you. Today I can say it because, you know, I'm at a different stage and you know, it's not so overwhelming for me. But basically, that whole reflection of how can I bring my life experience, my academics, my professional expertise together to do something meaningful beyond myself led me to the idea of Caregiver Sathi. At that time, uh, it was more around just life experience and professional experience of corporates. But over time, it has also become an integration with technology because that was my first love. I was uh I would have been a techie if I had continued uh my first chosen career.
SPEAKER_01:Look at you, and now we have that opportunity where we embed technology in what you're doing. Let's pause here for a moment. You may have noticed one idea quietly settling in. Something that doesn't need an answer, just awareness. Inspire someone today has always been about conversations that stay with you beyond the episode. Sometimes they continue reflection, sometimes in action, and sometimes in community. If you'd like to engage beyond the podcast, there is an IST community where these conversations are carried forward thoughtfully. And if you prefer your own quiet space, the book inspires someone today, gathers many of these ideas for slower reflection. Let's continue. And Bhana, you made a very pertinent point, particularly in terms of caregiving. And in a lot of these new age set of challenges that we have is the absence of a protocol or a benchmark or a playbook of sorts, right? And you have very uh um nicely coined this out, saying that love doesn't equal to preparedness, right? It doesn't you might love somebody in the family, but that doesn't give you the skills, the ability to be prepared for an eventuality like this.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So how are you enabling the community, the society through Keregivasati in this uh direction?
SPEAKER_00:So um one of the things that I I really didn't want to be as I was growing up was my mother was an educator and a school teacher. And uh a lot of people told me that, you know, a working woman being a teacher is a good idea. You can be a teacher or a professor. And um, if there was one career that I did not want to have coming from a family of academics, was being a teacher. I uh wanted to be different. And uh there's nothing you can do about your DNA and stuff that's in your blood, right? This whole context is to tell you that learning certain skills is absolutely essential. So, first recognizing what are the skills that are required for caregiving and picking up those skills is absolutely essential. What we have done through Caregiver Sati so far is create the awareness, education, and the possibility of picking up certain skills. There are some people who can don't have the time or the luxury or the you know the opportunity or the inclination to learn some of these skills, and that's fine. And uh, you know, they can take a slightly different route. You can probably um outsource caregiving and hire somebody to do it for you. But I personally feel that you cannot outsource all the caregiving that you have to do. So somehow the analogy of you remember um many years ago there would be these guidebooks for taking exams.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So if you have a predetermined curriculum in which there will be standard questions, then you can simply follow the guidebook. There will be question answers, and you can learn just about those question answers and do very well in the exam. But life is not predetermined questions, and therefore it is really important to know the subject and to study the subject, like my mother used to say, not for the exam, but for the sake of knowledge and for the sake of your growth. So life is that exam and you can't take a kunji or a guidebook and get past some of the curved balls life can throw. But I don't want to decide that for people. So at Caregiver Sathi, we have primarily given people education and skills, but we feel that people should make some of these choices. So sometimes they hire services, although our main focus is to help people prepare themselves for caregiving.
SPEAKER_01:Which is a good start. You don't walk into a dark room not knowing what it is, at least you have some tools, some frameworks on which you can build to your respective scenarios.
SPEAKER_00:But sometimes you're not there. So, or sometimes it is so intense that uh, you know, you have to take expert help. So, for example, if you are just not in that city, you're not in that country, then you will need somebody to help you. Or uh, you know, you're dealing with something that is so intense like Alzheimer's, or you're dealing with schizophrenia, or something that is uh, you know, very, very intense, in that case too, uh you will need expert help. And that's okay. And you will learn along the way.
SPEAKER_01:You learn along the way. And Bhang, in the work that you have carried, if you were to kind of give me three or four mythbusters, what is a myth that families are carrying around caregiving?
SPEAKER_00:Number one, women are better caregivers. Okay? That two, that it's something that you know that you can do only if you have love, okay? And that all it needs is an attitude and not a skill. These are all um these are all many, many myths that are there. Another one prevalent these days that you can throw money at the problem. You can have all the money, you may want to buy all the services, you may have the best person you have hired, but you can still feel helpless and guilty and uh sad. You will have to learn how to navigate that. You will experience grief and loss and and the tension of managing different parts of yourself. You know, there's a career-oriented part of you, there is a person who is also a parent, who's also a friend, who is also a citizen, who wants to do so much for himself or herself, and then there is also the the daughter, the son, the caregiver. Right? All these roles are pulling at each other and sometimes in very different directions. How will you outsource that?
SPEAKER_01:And with this, is it also one is lack of not knowing what they don't know?
SPEAKER_00:And other is is there some kind of an invisible burden that individuals are carrying that they're not able to kind of realize it for themselves, for explicit or linked to this is this that you know we come from a land where we every everywhere there are social narratives that define us as people or as societies, right? We come from a land where stories of Shravankumar and Savitri and whoever else have shaped and groomed us. So there is an idea of what is ideal caregiving. And that's very troublesome because on many occasions uh a large number of caregivers will or family members will take make a choice of going to the hospital or choosing very, very difficult treatments because they don't want to be the person who is leaving leaving any stone unturned, who is uh not doing more than the best that they can because that's your duty, and that's uh that's what you should be doing. So um there are many, many, many, many ideas around caregiving.
SPEAKER_01:So a a related segment, a related thought on um aging, caregiving. We have seen some of the countries already down that path. As a country, as a nation, as a community, what do you recommend we do to prepare towards that eventuality? All of us are future caregivers in some shape and form. So, how do we as a community prepare towards that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think that caregiving has to be a skill that all of us need to learn. I think in the Scandinavian countries, there is, I remember when I was a school going girl, there were choices, and home science was considered a very bad thing that only girls took. And uh I I really admire the Scandinavian countries because from grade seven, both boys and girls are taught life skills, and they are taught how to manage homes. And I think children should know how to manage homes. I wish I had learned that skill when I was that young. And um being a full-grown adult, both for men and women, requires you to have life skills that includes running your home, cooking for yourself, cleaning your home, etc., rather than be dependent on someone else. Just as uh young girls must learn to also be financially independent. Young boys uh need to know uh how you know homes are built. Building a home is not just about learning how to cook and clean, it is about uh building a space for nurturance, for care, for affection, for a place where uh you know you can have joyful relationships. So, how are we shaping adults who have the skills to not just be employable and be uh you know productive members of the society, but also are able to shape caring, compassionate homes, societies is a very important thing. And the earlier we start, the better it is. It's also true in Japan. So, for example, you may have seen many of this. Young children in Japan clean their schools themselves, they learn the dignity of labor. So I think it is also important that not just children, but young adults and older adults recognize that if you have to care for a patient who needs to be cleaned up, it's not a low-level job. One of my biggest pain points around caregiving is that cleaning a person is considered a low-level job. That's caste system. Cleaning somebody is as important as being able to intellectually conceptualize an idea. So all of us need to be able to pick up these skills, all of us need to be able to dignify these skills if somebody else is doing them. And all of us need to be uh able to uh recognize that different age groups bring in different value to society. The older people bring a very distinct value to society. There is no fun in putting them in assisted living facilities and segregating them from the rest of the society. There is years of wisdom, there is uh, you know, a certain uh irreverence towards life, there is a certain, you know, knowing that life goes in cycles and circles that young children can benefit from. Right? So I would definitely invest in some of these things in the longer sustainability, at building skills, building sensitivity, as well as appreciating that it's not just the able-bodied young person who is valuable to a society, but the vulnerable, whether it is the children or the weak or the um persons with uh challenges or the aging are equally important because they bring in a sense of compassion. And as a society, we need our compassion as a glue to hold our humanity together.
SPEAKER_01:These are all wonderful thoughts and uh a segmented set of things. It's just not about caregiving, it's about aging, it's about aging in a dignified way, it's about having the skills, it's about being prepared. I think you touched upon a whole lot of uh topics that is very relevant, just not for somebody who is going through, but for everybody to prepare as families, as communities, as countries. If I were to kind of round all of this up and ask you a question, uh if somebody is listening to this podcast, say 30 years old, what's one message that you would give them in terms of aging?
SPEAKER_00:How can I give somebody any message? But I would just say this that uh you know it is both a good thing to know that you have a limited life but to live in an unlimited way. I think knowing that I don't know if I will cross fifty four and I must do something now was very interesting in driving certain goals for me. So we don't know how much life we have. And everything must happen in parallel. And I don't think we can wait to give back to society only after we have retired, for example. So while you're working on your career, while you're working on your relationships, while you're working on your friendships, simultaneously please figure out how you're contributing to society at the age of 20. I believe not just 30. Anyone who is an adult should be contributing to their homes and society simultaneously while shaping your skills, your competencies, your career, your relationships, everything. So it has to be a balance along the way. I think having goals is very, very, very useful. Now, when I look back, I wish I had made some goals. So I would say that seeing that, you know, in my 20s, I would like to achieve this. In my 30s, I would like to do this. None of us knows how long we are going to be there. But for sure, defining those goals and being able to look back and say, oh, you know what? This is what I wanted to get done in 2025, but it has not happened. But now that I'm at the cusp of 2026, I know that at least I have to try very differently to make 2026 happen. But if I didn't have that goal, it would be so much harder. So I would therefore think that life is limited, but I would still live in a way that I was taking care of my physical health, my mental health, and know that my God, I might live up to 100.
SPEAKER_01:That's a great call-out. Uh is while you can be at any stage of your life and career, you want to pursue whatever you want to pursue, make giving back to the community as one of those elements. And that need not necessarily start when you retire. It has to be embedded as part and parcel of your growing phase.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think acquiring uh new skills should be a part of every year's goals. And those skills should not just be work-related. So, for example, learn a new language, learn a hobby, go to a new location, all those uh have a new set of experiences should be a part of you know every year's goals.
SPEAKER_01:I'll uh change gaze here, literally and figuratively, going back to your biking expeditions, uh Balna. One question I have for you, bringing your riding analogy here is how did riding prepare you for caregiving's paradox of slowing down?
SPEAKER_00:Riding is not just fast. I'm not in racing. I'm in riding. Riding is also cruising. Being a long distance rider requires you to navigate twists and turns, falling down, getting back up, not worrying about hurting, gearing up, you don't go for long rides without your uh you know, knee guards and your uh elbow guards and your helmet. So preparing yourself, not being afraid of falling down. And if you fell down asking for help.
SPEAKER_01:So those are the parallels that you can draw between riding and caregiving.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, and being and being gracious enough to not just take help, but know that it's a long ride. Sometime I will take help and sometime I will give help. Right? So any long ride, let's say if you're doing a solo ride, you prepare for it a little bit, but you can't prepare for it altogether because you can get lost. So you prepare for it a little bit and then you uh but you do take on uh the adventure. So it's like an adventure. Uh and you can hurt yourself and you seek help and you give help. And uh if you're going out in groups of people, I've had a friend of mine, uh, because I got lost and we were, you know, four of us riding together. The three of them waited for an hour until I found my way back. And I told them that, you know, I could have found my way back and I could have gone home. And they said, no, that's not what we do when we ride together. So a sense of sisterhood, a sense of camaraderie are so many things that uh riding has um has taught me. So I don't see them as very different, which is why probably I took a little while to understand your question.
SPEAKER_01:So you don't see paradox, but you see parallels, is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. Well said.
SPEAKER_01:And has a moment on the road changed how you lead off the road?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Many. Many incidents. So, like I was telling you on my ride to Manapas, uh, this is an incident I've spoken about a lot. I uh, you know, I fell down and uh I was above the tree line. Uh, my friends were not with me. We were much ahead, three of them much ahead, and three much behind. And uh there was nothing I could do. I was just gasping for breath with a 200 kilo bike on top of me and uh not knowing what I could do. So I just waited till I would have the energy to get back on. And then after some time, some help came. And um I got back on the ride, and there there was no road over there. And then there's no road. You imagine there is no road, there are just rocks, boulders. How do you navigate a very heavy bike? It can't be very slow and it can't be very fast. So it is a it's a continuous calibration, recalibration dance between you, the machine, the body, the the road. So there are so many, many things that I have learned from riding that I think I apply. And I think off-road riding is much more fun. Off-road riding is adventure. Riding uh already laid path is not as much fun.
SPEAKER_01:Break the barriers.
SPEAKER_00:Break the barriers.
SPEAKER_01:Wonderful. So Bhavna, if I were to ask you, what is that one insight you was not the bike journey, your life journey so far. So sitting here, end of uh 2025, if there's one insight your journey has clarified you about what would that be.
SPEAKER_00:Every story matters, and uh how much ever intense the story is, it's good to find some humor in it.
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Thanks for that insight. Bhavna, what we do on this show is with every episode we give one or two micro experiments for our listeners to go and try out for that particular week. If there's one or two micro experiments that you would want the listeners to kind of try it out, what would those micro experiments be?
SPEAKER_00:Ride a bike.
SPEAKER_01:A 200 kg Enfield.
SPEAKER_00:Ride any bike, ride a bicycle for all I care. Um try us, try something new is what I would say that you haven't. List your childhood dreams. It's never too late to chase them. It doesn't matter how long that list is. My list still has another 30 more to go. Um for sure I would say um indulge in poetry.
SPEAKER_01:That's an interesting take.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think uh I think poetry is a very beautiful uh expression of your experience. Um I love poetry in any language, particularly in Urdu or Hindustani. And I think um poetry is is a great way of expressing your emotions. And I if we don't write, we should certainly read poetry. Because poetry i is the beauty of life, and I think it is really important for us to cherish the beauty of life and the gift of life. So all the loss and grief and the challenges notwithstanding, life is beautiful. If we can find ways of experimenting and celebrating, then uh for sure we should do that.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's been a consistent theme all through our conversation, uh, Bauna, which is celebrate life and prepare for life. So thank you so much for sharing uh your wonderful story, for sharing what it means for the country, for the community to kind of get ready for caregiving and what it means for each of us to develop a life skill and uh be prepared towards that. On that note, Bhana, thank you so much for uh your time and uh your experience sharing. It's been uh one heck of a conversation. Appreciate that. Thank you for spending this time with us. Conversations like these remind us that good doesn't always come from answers, it often comes from better questions. Inspire Zaman today began with the belief that each of us has the power to make a difference. Not to grand gestures, but to everyday choices. That belief still holds now with a little more depth and a lot more listening. If something from today's episode stayed with you, carry it forward, share it, sit with it, or explore it further through the IST ability or the book inspires someone today. Until we meet again, stay curious, keep inspiring, and inspire someone today.
