Hello! Thanks for stopping by my musings. I am Gayatri, corporate lifer turned entrepreneur, mother to two bright, funny and curious daughters, wife to a wonderful man who manages to be both my strength and my weakness, sister to the world’s best big brother and his wife (truly, they are the best), and aunt to a dazzling array of nieces and nephews, sparkling brightly in the firmament of a widely-dispersed yet close-knit family.

Why the Itinerant Mother? I have always been a nomad at heart, driven by an incessant thirst to see as much of this world as I can, experience slices of life in different cultures, walk in another’s shoes for a while. I suppose it is my way of always expanding my world view – learning how and why different peoples approach life differently, and finding out time and again that ultimately, the things people desire most, irrespective of where they come from, are reassuringly the same – food on the table, a place to lay a weary head, opportunities for their children, a life well-lived.

But my journeying hasn’t always physical…

Motherhood has taken me, is taking me, on an emotional journey like nothing else before has. From being a first time mother, holding on to my delicate, newborn golden princess to watching her blossom into an articulate, talented sports girl-poet; from feeling the confidence of a second time mother to wondering how that ‘first child’ playbook is totally useless in the face of an indomitable, fiery, funny, outspoken pistol of a younger daughter, motherhood has taken me through so many stages of joy, fear, ups, downs, hopes, fears, delight and anguish, and everything in between all those extremes! And it has allowed me to connect and reconnect with an amazing diversity of impossibly wise, strong women. Women without whom, my village would not be possible. Who have helped me ground and center myself as I tackle this tiny thing called life. Who have made it so my overall existence feels more like the Philharmonic and less like a cacophony.

And what of my journey to define myself outside of mother and wife and friend and aunt? What of the girl that traveled from a small, local Catholic school to some of the best educational institutions in the world? Last I checked, MIT was still #1 globally. All those degrees were never meant to merely be adornments on a wall. What of those desires to find an identity? The corporate lifer route died an untimely and long-mourned death on the way to support my husband’s career. And it isn’t that my cup isn’t overflowing with joy. But somewhere within lies a desire, to look back on a life that has decisively, unequivocally made a meaningful difference and moved things forward for the better. A life that has had an impact beyond the immediate locus of family and friends. What to do?

Unfortunately for me, I don’t have the scientific chops to finding a cure for cancer, nor the diplomatic skills and the political capital to bring about world peace. So I’ve taken what tools I have and set out to make a difference through Poéthique. I’m just taking the first steps out of infancy in this journey, but I’m hopeful. Hopeful that the larger vision of sustainable sourcing and economic empowerment for small agricultural/harvesting communities will bring about a positive impact on several lives.

That’s the itinerant part. And the mother is because that is one part of my identity that will never change. Ever. No matter what. I am a mother.

And so, the itinerant mother have I become. No fixed address save the place in my daughters’ hearts, no one point in time that will forever define me, save the day I became a mother. The rest is all a journey and my vagabond heart plans on savoring every single step.