House Music & Hospitality
As I kid growing up with Mauritian immigrant parents, I was raised to 'study hard,' get a degree and get a respectable job like a lawyer, doctor, and dentist! I was never allowed to consider a career in dance! Naturally, I rebelled and pursued a career in Luxury Hospitality much to my parent's dismay. I chose this vocation so I could travel the world and experience more cultures, dances, and art forms.
It's a wonder I passed my degree at London Southbank University, with the infamous ‘Ministry of Sound’ London's first underground nightclub located next to my library. Many a late-night weekend was spent there! But I graduated with a Bachelor. of Arts in Hospitality and also attained a degree in ‘House Music & Dance” lol. and continued dancing there most weekends. I spent my youth traveling and dancing, with an internship in New York” in 1996 so got a taste of the NY club scene too with Limelight, Webster, Hall, the Tunnel and China Moon.
Time for a change
Fast Forward. Years later, after a long successful corporate job in the Luxury/ Boutique, events, and wellness industry and life in the fast lane, having lived in London, Mauritius, and now New York. My career took off, and another promotion meant longer hours and more travel.
At the time fueled me with caffeine, and alcohol, and ate at expensive restaurants to keep up. Life was seemingly good. I did not do things in halves back then. I met someone, got married barefoot in Mexico, got promoted, and became pregnant within two months.
Brooklyn Baby
After the birth of my son, Revel, life was never the same. We moved to Brooklyn and I continued to struggle to find balance being a mother and a full-time career woman. I had attained the life of a successful businesswoman but was working long hours with no real sense of purpose. My blackberry, or dreaded crackberry, as often referred to it, meant I was reachable 24/7. The hospitality industry was pretty inflexible back then. Working remotely was frowned upon (pre-COVID) - read about my story here. I had no choice but to leave my Director job in hotels as I wanted not to miss my son growing up.
I co-founded The Cocktail Architect, a mixology and events company that revived and further ignited my insatiable appetite for spices and food, drink, and storytelling. You can see one of my favorite events in Mauritius here. It was a fun business, and we got to travel the world, mingle, and serve all types of people, from luxury event planners, and celebrities, to CEOS and prospective wedding couples and compelling brand managers. At this time, I found myself living in Brooklyn, where I regularly hosted Mauritian-inspired pop-up supper together with my hubby. In our tiny apartment, these dinners would naturally turn into dance parties. We’d go through anything from the late 60,70, the 80s, and 90s, from House music to World Music dancing to KCRW’s eclectic 24.
Manifesting & Self Reflection
Life was good but something was missing and I needed some time away to pause and think. Rather timely, my darling friend Melanie Brandman invited us to her beach house in Southampton. For a few precious weeks, I had no agenda, and I took some much-needed time out. Life was flowing I filled my days with my favorite things, dancing, writing, photography, cooking, and entertaining. What began as journaling ended as a subconscious stream of food memories. The writing poured out of me, and I called my parents in London, asking my dad to fill in the gaps and my mother to finesse the recipes. This became the foundation of my site.
Being close to the ocean, came a wonderful time of self-reflection, I found myself going full circle, back to my roots, and I began studying Ayurveda, the Indian Art of Vibrant living, which translates to the Science of Life. It recognizes that the mind, body, and spirit are connected, and it's all about prevention rather than cure. It came to me at the right time. So intuitively, as coming from a Mauritian/ Indian Heritage, where my grandmother and ancestors had practiced this ancient Indian holistic healing modality, it felt so familiar to me and made sense.
Taking The Wellness Path
I continued along the path of wellness, manifesting a job at the David Lynch Foundation - you can read here about this story. I learned Transcendental meditation(while presenting meditation as a professional development tool to corporations.
I was already dabbling in Meditation, an avid fan of Alan Watts, and learning the gift of TM propelled me further into self-discovery and made me more self-aware. So the more I danced, practiced an Ayurvedic lifestyle, and meditated, the closer I got to hearing my inner self, which whispered gently in my ear, “A move to nature and more balance was needed desperately, which would allow me the time and space to hear my inner voice.
Passport to Paradise
But then my dad's health took a turn for the worst. I was very close with my dad, Gaya, a witty, spiritual, renowned Hindu priest, so I made as many trips to London as I could afford and made daily calls where we discussed vast conversations about Spirituality, Death, Astrophysics, Mediation, the afterlife oh and the weather!
On my last few visits, he expressed his yearning to go back home to his homeland of Mauritius for a slower pace of life. Though he was becoming frailer every day, my father's eyes still sparkled, and his skin glowed when he talked about his Paradise Island of Mauritius. He told me he was looking forward to 'simply sitting and eating freshly picked papaya from the tree in our family’s garden'. The last time I saw him was in London, mid-February 2019, a few days before he left for Mauritius. Sadly, he never made it to his beloved home and died en route to Mauritius. Gaya was an adventurer with a real zeal for life who took his last journey and passport to paradise.
Although his health had been on the decline, when he passed away, it was still such a shock. Life was never the same again, even my favorite dishes didn't taste the same anymore. One silver lining is that I believe in the universe and my dad's energy helped lessen the blow of his death by giving me a surprise five-percent baby. The doctors said after the age of forty, it's a 5 % chance of conceiving naturally. Zeal, Gaya Austin, a surprise baby, was born a year later; before him we had tried a few times unsuccessfully. Zeal has the intuition, curiosity, and charm of my late father, Gaya.
Passport to Paradise
My vision
In today's fast-moving world. So many of us are coping with overload and overwhelm. We're rushing around life, being ruled by, stress, work, and technology. We have forgotten how to connect with ourselves on a deeper level, each other as human beings, and nature itself. Moving upstate allowed me to be more present and inspired by the beauty around me, and dancing in Nature allowed me to reconnect with myself and this beautiful planet.
I aim to draw people from all walks of life to experience each other's company but, most importantly, come together to experience fitness in a fun authentic way. Exercise should be something that doesn’t feel like exercise I know that when I’m happy and motivated and balanced, I can feel my best. I am creating a community of dancers and hope to inspire others with my performances, recipes, and stories and help anyone navigate their health by making conscious lifestyle choices. So I hope to inspire others with this notion and build the community, I now teach dance classes geared to raising your vibrational spirit.
Preface
Eating well, self-care, and personal health are now the values I strive to keep in check daily, but it was not always that way.
I was an obese child who grew up in the 1970s in a family of second-generation Mauritian immigrants. Growing up, I watched many loved ones, suffer from diseases and mental illnesses, like diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, and depression.
