Coffee with Aditi

Every Monday on the journal, we'll share a short format interview with one of our wider Gather community members. Just a handful of questions with a generous helping of everyday inspiration to tuck into over your morning cuppa. This week, meet Aditi.

Aditi Kaushiva

"...home for me is, I guess, the safe space you carve for yourself where you can be completely authentic and honest in this world of impermanence and change."

What part(s) of the world do you call home?

Home is a concept I've written about often. Is it the people, the memories or the moment in this ever changing fast paced world where you feel complete, happy and satisfied? I've grown up in different homes, shifting cities and schools, and houses, year after year. Seven cities, Six schools and colleges, and ten houses. So, home for me is, I guess, the safe space you carve for yourself where you can be completely authentic and honest in this world of impermanence and change. What is your industry, hustle, current project or passion?

My passions are many. I like to call myself a Multipotentialite, a term I borrowed from Emilie Wapnick. 

I am the Co-founder of The Dance Bible. A passion project that bloomed from my love for dancing but today is a growing business and a first of its kind dance brand in India. Dance as a career was an alien concept to many in India until a few years back. Pursued as a hobby and even looked down upon by many families who only gave importance to education, the industry picked up pace in the last few years. Recognising and riding with this change, what started as a blog, a resource and inspiration tool for dancers, is today the only eCommerce platform in India providing accessible, affordable and quality dance-wear & accessories. We also provide performing artists and studios with exposure and authentic marketing via social media marketing, event promotions & ticketing etc to help alleviate their work.

When I am not devising strategies on how to take the brand forward, I write. On my blog, Instagram and online magazines, or I pick one of the three drafts of unfinished fiction and poetry books that take space in my head. I have earlier self-published an anthology of flash fiction on Kindle. What’s an important moment that signified a first step towards where you are today? It's all a culmination of small steps, few taken consciously, few ridden with the wave. I think it all started when I started blogging. I was in a not-so-good phase in my life when I took refuge in writing. From travel, to unraveling of the ideas that were seeded in my mind, to starting the dance blog - it all started on the day where I felt the lowest, quite indifferent to the world. The year was 2013. As they say, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. What is a moment you are proud of? I was extremely close to my Nanaji, maternal grandfather. We lost him last year after a difficult fight with cancer, but I feel his presence everyday. His words of encouragement and adulation ring in my ear each time I catch myself feeling a bit lost. He was an Urdu poet, and one day while reading one of my poems he took out one of his old diaries and read a couplet of his and said, "this has the same melancholy and a similar description of the moon as in your writing". I felt so proud in that moment of my roots and everything that I have imbibed from him.

Two more incidents come to my mind and I am so grateful he was there to cheer me on for those accomplishments; one when I self-published my short stories, and the other when we had a remarkable month on The Dance Bible, significantly crossing our revenue goals in that year.  

What advice would you give your younger self today? Don't compare yourself to others. You are unique. You are enough. In one word, what is the most important thing to you in life?

Authenticity.

Where can we find you?

Instagram: @aditi_kaushiva and @thedancebible.shop 

Blog: www.aditispen.com