Interesting Lives of Ordinary People

In 2022, it is estimated that there are 106,000 people who are known to be waiting for an organ transplant, of which 92,000 (87%) are waiting for a kidney. The average waiting time for a kidney is longer than for any other organ: 3-5 years with with many not surviving the long wait. During that time, most patients will undergo dialysis and live with severe dietary restrictions.

In today's episode you will meet 22 year old Ayush Chandwani who had his first kidney transplant at the tender age of 6, and a second one a few months ago. He is one of the lucky ones. He received a kidney first from his mother Smriti and more recently from his uncle Sanjay who both share their experiences of being living kidney donors. 

In the course of this conversation, you will understand and appreciate the important role kidneys play in our body, and why it is the most endangered of organs. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the top two causes of kidney failure. This conversation might help you take greater control of your health and preempt the onset of some of these chronic conditions that are caused by our lifestyle choices.

In this conversation, Joanna talks about the experiences in her formative years that taught her the meaning of catastrophic compassion. She offers a moving account of how she first encountered death and the grief that stayed suppressed for years. Her career trajectory, with its twists and turns, is a reminder that life has interesting ways of making us pay attention. Saving the best for last, Joanna described her vision and mission that is so needed, and yet controversial. 

Joanna Davis, MCC is one amongst a very small worldwide community of Master Coaches, as defined by the International Coaching Federation. She has over 5,000 hours of coaching experience, spent seven years as Senior Faculty for a Level 2 ICF credentialed school and works in-house as a Corporate Life Coach for a South Florida Fortune 500 company of 20,000+ employees. She is an ICF PCC Assessor, serves as a Mentor Coach for both ICF and ReciproCoach, and has a small private practice specialising in coaching to Executive Development. Her passions include the neuroscience of human behaviour, creating food forests, and trying to keep up with her Basenjis.

Leon VanderPol is an internationally recognised leader, master-teacher, and author in the field of transformational coaching and transformative living. He is the Founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching and his book, A Shift in Being: The Art and Practices of Deep Transformational Coaching, sold in multiple languages, is bringing his work to new audiences daily.  

Leon has spent over two decades immersed in the dynamics of personal and inter-personal change. At the core of Leon’s teaching lies the transformation of human consciousness—what happens when we consistently begin to experience ourselves beyond our ego-based state of consciousness, as our essential Self and Soul.  

Today he works with people from around the world to explore the boundaries of their existence, grow into new paradigms of personal experience, and tap into their most authentic Self.  He is Canadian by birth, Dutch by ancestry, and has called Taiwan home for over 22 years.

Today’s episode of iLoOP is a bit different, especially as the voice you will hear will be mostly mine. 

I share with you today a recording of a deep coaching session I had only yesterday with Dipti Singh, who is a life coach and is part of a wonderful community of people who are learning the art of deep transformational coaching with Leon VanderPol. The session I am sharing with you culminates a series of coaching sessions I have had with Dipti and other coaches who are my peers in the Deep Coaching Intensive (DCI) community. When I went into the session, I had no idea I would publish it, nor that I would share so much of my personal life with my listeners.

Dipti was masterful in the way she let me be my vulnerable and authentic self. She heard me and she held me in her compassionate presence. And you will witness a genuine shift occur within me. It is a powerful real life example of how we can find solutions to even the most difficult problems when we are given the space and the silence to let the answers within us emerge.

Alcoholism takes many prisoners, most of whom are not even drinking. Living with alcoholism comes with many social taboos and deep seated shame. Most people feel reluctant to share their story because of fear of judgment, or because they simply want to forget and move on. I am sharing my family’s story today because I believe we need to look at the topic of alcoholism with greater compassion and openness. I hope this episode will spark a conversation and sow a seed of greater understanding of the condition - its causes and consequences. I have to warn you, that because of the unscripted and largely unedited nature of the audio, there is raw emotion and one swear word. Caution is advised! Thank you for listening.

Madhura believes that the youth of today will shape our tomorrow. With this in mind, she started working with Podar Jumbo Kids and completing my ECCed (Early Childhood Care and Education) qualification. After graduating in Developmental Counselling from SNDT, she started working in children’s day care services, including in a leadership role, followed by work at a school in the North India.She became a facilitator and trainer for teachers with The Teacher Foundation, followed by a "Teacher as an Innovator" certification  from OEP, Finland. This led to her delving into the deeper aspects of children’s education, their approach to learning and creating tools for becoming a lifelong learner.  

Madhura is the founder of “Learning to Learn”, a course that aims to turn children into lifelong learners. She describes herself as a spoilt daughter, supportive wife and loving mother who is striving to be a compassionate and accepting human being. She views her life’s journey as one of constant learning.  You can reach her via email – madhura@learningtolearn.in

Adrian is a transformation coach who creates profound mindset shifts for his clients. He helps them focus on both their inner alignment and the outer transformation of their life and business. His tough love and supportive approach creates a new sense of freedom for his clients. Adrian is a former soldier turned master neuro-systemic coach. His clients include other driven coaches, high achievers and business owners ready to move to the next level.

In this special episode, I share the experiences and insights from my recent ten days at the Dhamma Sukhakari Vipassana Meditation Centre in Suffolk, UK. Vipassana is an ancient Buddhist practice whereby you train your mind and body to experience things as they are, not as you want them to be. It was both intense and interesting.  I am grateful to my friend Sanat Rao for hosting this conversation with me and drawing out the most useful aspects of my experience.  If you're considering going on a Vipassana retreat for the very first time, you may it helps you go better prepared and get more out of your experience.

My guest today is Jennifer Ramsey.  Jennifer and I were colleagues for seven years when we both worked in wealth management.  With a busy and often stressful working life and a young family, Jennifer used fitness  as a daily antidote. She was a keen cyclist and long distance runner who found a way to weave both into her daily life.  Then five or six years ago things started to change. Jennifer describes her journey through menopause, how recognition of her symptoms led her to be kinder to herself and how the sense of loss of her former self was eased by the joy she found in the acceptance of the person she has now become.

Dr Ramya Ranganathan is an electronic engineer from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, an alumna of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from London Business School. After having worked at blue chip firms like ICICI, Infosys and Citibank, she quit the corporate world to explore the fundamental question – “why do people work?”  She spent a decade as a full time faculty member at IIM Bangalore, has three Ted talks, is a published poet and has been recognised as one of the top 15 innovators in higher education by the Ministry of Education in India. She has impacted  over 25,000 participants worldwide via her various initiatives that are designed to empower individuals to craft their own realities. You can reach Ramya via her website https://craftingourlives.com/

Initially, like many young Indian professionals, Kavitha pursued a career in software. She gave that up in order to bring up her two children.  In the process of parenting she practised Yoga and eventually became a Yoga teacher. Over the past 20 years she has learnt from different Yoga traditions and teachers, and evolved her teaching from being about the body to holistically working with the student at all levels of being – physical, mental and emotional. She describes herself as a seeker with a quest for learning the deeper truths of life. 

This conversation is a reminder that life has mysterious ways of preparing us for the challenges it has in store, but only if we pay attention.  In this conversation Kavitha describes the first turning point that occurred when she turned 40 that laid the foundation for her next big challenge that shook her to the core and turned hers and her family's world upside down. We talk about how she and her husband Elango dealt with their son's life threatening brain haemorrhage five years ago when he was only 17 years old.  

The true story of what happened, a step by step account of how they dealt with this crisis and the lessons they learnt in the process is beautifully encapsulated in the book This Too Shall Pass by Elango Thambiah is available on Amazon.  It has some powerful learnings for us all, irrespective of the health of our loved ones.  

You can reach Kavitha direct via email kavithaelango89@gmail.com.

In this short (under 2 minute) audio I talk about what this podcast is about. It is my hope that my guests and their stories ignite a spark inside my listeners, so they feel empowered and inspired to own their own story and live a life of meaning and purpose.

Aditi is a PhD and a biostatistician at a global pharmaceutical company.  She recently hit a really important five year milestone. A cancer survivor, she talks about her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. She credits her kids, spouse and parents, as well as the network of friends and family with providing the backbone of support in her journey from diagnosis to wellness. Above all it is her growing self awareness that proves to be the biggest support through adversity and beyond. She talks eloquently about what cancer taught her about her body, the gift of time and how she is finding fulfilment in her life. 

Shahana Roy is a Director at Time Institute in Bhopal.  At some point most people are faced with existential questions about the meaning of life and how they are living it. Shahana grappled with these big questions in her twenties, not long after graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad, one of the top business schools in India.  She met her life partner and now business partner at this critical juncture in her life.  They had a vision for a different kind of life and took the road less travelled to create something more meaningful that is making a real impact in the lives of young people.  

In this searingly honest conversation, Sam talks about growing up with an alcoholic mother, becoming a single mum in her late teens and losing her younger sister to suicide.  But this is not a sob story, and Sam is no victim. She is a daughter, sister, mother and a young grandmother who has taken ownership of her life's choices with grace and magnanimity. And perhaps for the very first time, she articulates what it would mean to rediscover her own identity and create the life she has always dreamed of.  

So much of our understanding about gender, biological sex and sexuality is changing.  No amount of science or facts can ever replace the impact of a story: the struggles of someone who just doesn't fit into the neat boxes society creates.  Dr Erin Baker is a transformational coach and strategic adviser to high performing entrepreneurs and leaders.  Erin is a doctorate in social psychology and has previously worked at Facebook and Microsoft.  In this conversation we begin with Erin sharing the three year milestone event that changed their life.  I hope you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.  Together, one story at a time, we can make a dent in the mountain of misinformation about gender identity one. Today we hear Erin's story. 

An unexpected side effect of a commonly used drug changed Pramit's life. Instead of blaming his doctors or living with resentment, he took ownership of his life's choices and decided to find a different way of living. He is now the founder of a startup that creates voice enabled solutions that help the visually impaired navigate the digital world with far greater ease. Go to https://www.visio-apps.com/ to find out more. 

I'm Rohini Rathour and I want to make being ordinary feel like a blessing.  A chance to live freely and to be whoever you want to be without the burden of other people's expectations.  One of the best ways we can do this is through stories - through the telling and listening of real life and fictional stories, we can create magic.