“We all share the same dream to be visible through our expression and enterprise”

Welcome to Designing Radically Everything

DRE FOR SHORT. The name of my project. My year of radical exploration.

A little about me.

*Credit: Antonella Gigli. At Barga in Garfagnana county in Italy. Thank you Antonell for hosting me and bringing me into your awesome, big life in Italia.*

Hi. I am Nirupa. I am 39 years old. I have lived now for the greater part of my adult life on the eastern seaboard of the United States. I left India when I was 18 to study Anthropology and Economics.

I am a traveler, independent writer, researcher, investor and entrepreneur in training. My heart is in too many places across the world to call one place home now.

In my spare time, I practice yoga, pilates, read-write, listen to a lot of awesome music, compile playlists, travel, eat-cook and keep merry and curious. I am a year and a half deep into my second life. I left a fulfilling career in financial services to pursue a life of autonomy, creativity, free expression and enterprise. I am in the throes of designing this. And it is one living, moving, giant experiment of sorts.

I have a wonderful family and a community of both old and new friends. And this makes me a happy clam.

Up until 2016, you would have found me transacting in the financial markets. I called the trading floor my home for many years. And knowledge of markets and the flow of money, a third language.

*This was me in my past life of not so long ago. Photo credit: Unnamed corporate photographer. Thank you sir.*

Things are different now.

I am on a year of exploration. A sabbatical. A journey, both literally and metaphorically.

*With the amazing children of Paksong, Laos. Photo credit: Jen Green. Thank you Yen for bringing me to Laos in the first place and Tyson for so graciously hosting!*

This year, I am breaking free of a past mould of living.

Inverting, reversing, interrupting a certain status quo.

I am returning to my roots in many ways, to explore my love for cultures, systems, people and ways of thinking. Through my travel, I am kindling and finding community across the world.

I am also writing, verbalizing and thinking aloud more. Learning a new trade and a craft so to speak.

And I am starting off with a blog, more a live journal of all things that arise and occur this year.

It can be accessed here.

I have also discovered that I have vaguely journalistic tendencies, specifically a passion for interviewing people, digging deep and asking questions and more questions.

This, I hope will take on a concrete form at the right time.

This website (like me this year) is in process. It will be a living and growing thing.

I hope that you will stop by and check in and say hello.

I will do my best to keep you entertained, with a few chuckles thrown into the mix.

May the dancing spirit always thrive within.

Nirupa