Gurasis: 0:19

Today I'm thrilled to welcome back an individual whose story inspired many in my last season. She's joining us again to talk about the incredible path and the mindset that fuels her work. Last season, we talked about her journey from being an international student studying kinesiology to becoming a business analyst at Deloitte. She's the founder and CEO of Redefined, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering inclusivity and recognizing diversity. Since we last spoke, she has once again created many waves, amassed over 10 million impressions on LinkedIn, built a community of 50,000 immigrants, recognized as LinkedIn top voice. She's a career coach, two times TEDx speaker, one Young World ambassador ambassador and has spoken over 40 talks. Her story was also featured in Times Square, CTV and CBC News, and in this episode, we'll dive deeper into her mindset, catch up on where has she been so far and talk about the behind the scenes of the event that she loves to organize. Please welcome Ritika Saraswat.

Ritika : 1:24

Well, excited to be here. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed the last time we had a conversation and I'm looking forward to diving into some of the new things that have happened, because a lot has happened in the last, I think, six months or a year, oh my.

Gurasis: 1:36

God, it's going to be two years almost.

Ritika : 1:38

Oh, wow, okay, Well, a lot to talk about.

Gurasis: 1:41

Absolutely Welcome. Very, very excited to have you once again and, like I mentioned, your episode was definitely one of the top seven. You know, and I've got like so many questions about you and definitely I have those with me, so let's just dive right into it. And is it your first time in?

Ritika : 1:55

Montreal. Yes, yeah, this is my first time. I was just in the Uber coming here and I was like, wow, everything looks so different and vibrant absolutely, and I was definitely giving away the tourist vibes and the taxi driver knew it right away and I was like yes, new year.

Gurasis: 2:09

So yeah, I'm excited to explore what was like your initial impressions when you came to Montreal? What was it like?

Ritika : 2:15

I think it was like. It just seemed very vibrant and very like, I think, full of energy, and I think there's more, uh, it's hotter here than in Toronto, so I think it definitely feels more happy.

Gurasis: 2:27

Just, you know, some ways I think we all associate with happiness compared to winters, which are dull oftentimes, so it's refreshing yeah, okay, and remember you were all telling me on the phone about a certain metro station. You know how hard it is to pronounce certain things, because it's not doesn't come naturally to us.

Ritika : 2:42

The French right how do you feel about that? No, I mean, I think it's been like for all of us, like as immigrants in general, I think, just coming to a new country, I think the accent in knowing how to pronounce certain things, certain ways, is obviously a challenge many a times. But and French is way beyond that obviously I actually took French for two years while in high school, but I know nothing in French, so don't ask me. But, yeah, okay awesome.

Gurasis: 3:08

So to kick off this episode, you know I would like to revisit some advice that you shared to younger Ritika in my last season, and you talked about telling younger Ritika to focus on gaining experiences and recognizing the glass balls and plastic balls in life. Oh yeah, you remember where it was a great analogy glass balls, obviously, things which are pretty critical and might not give a second chance to work on, and plastic balls being something not so critical but still need your attention, but not the immediate one. So tell me, what would you say are your current glass balls and plastic balls at this moment?

Ritika : 3:40

oh, my god, you always put me on the spot with these questions, but I think for me right now, I think glass balls being those major priorities right on life.

Ritika : 3:48

I think for me, like my family, and health is definitely one of those. I think when I initially started on my journey, like a lot of us get carried on in that rat race of just running, wanting to reach that end goal and get that cheese slice as soon as you can, as a big of a cheese slice as you can, and I think we sometimes end up compromising our own health and well-being when doing that. And I realized that my health is not just mine, it's my parents, it's my sister and so many others who love me as well. So I feel like we owe that responsibility to take care of ourselves. So for me, one of the glass balls has become is just focusing on my family, making sure I take out time for themselves and myself as well, because I think just in the last two years you know, I've seen a lot of like deaths happening in my family and others and you just.

Ritika : 4:34

It makes you realize how fragile and how limited our lives are, and so we need to cherish those. So I think that's definitely one. I think second glass ball for me is like the community that I'm building you know, immigrants and international students. In itself, it's a very vulnerable community and demographic you're working with. So I think they are my babies to me. I feel like I'm related to them somehow, either as a sister or as a sibling or something, so I think they are always my priority. Every initiative I'm thinking of and I know I know when we'll chat about this you'll notice is like, compared to what we were doing before, a lot of our programs now are more focused on creating that longer term impact. Right, because I think you can keep doing how many ever events that you want, but an event is still a one-time thing, yeah, right, and it needs to be recurring to have that long-term impact so I think, yes, exactly.

Ritika : 5:24

So my focus is now more on how do you create that longer term impact, which obviously takes a lot more planning, a lot more behind the scenes than being out there in the front in the limelight Right. So I think those are definitely some of the glass balls. I think plastic balls would be a good question. I haven't thought about my plastic balls. I think you don't.

Gurasis: 5:43

Don't have time for that you were too busy working on all these.

Ritika : 5:47

Yes, yeah but I think plastic balls would be things like which again are priorities but aren't like a deal breaker in many ways, like you know, things like um, applying to awards, getting these other opportunities. For me my entire life kind of revolves around work, which I know is pretty boring. So a lot of my glass balls and plastic balls are all related to work, but just different aspects of it.

Gurasis: 6:08

So what do you think I do for fun? What's like your go to way of unpacking a day? Let's just say oh wow.

Ritika : 6:15

I don't think I have a concept like that that exists, like unpacking a day. I might have like a concept of unpacking a week. I think it really depends on how the week has been, how the month has been, and I think that's the part of work-life balance that we talk about which I think is so subjective For me. I don't prefer that concept because for me, you have life and work is a part of it.

Gurasis: 6:36

There isn't like work or life.

Ritika : 6:38

It's both together, right, and I think for me, like there are some days where I feel like I need that break, but then there might be six months where I go back to back and I don't need that break because I'm doing something which just brings me so much energy. So I think it really depends. But if I want to take that break, what I might do is pace it out and maybe, like once every few months, take like a one-day vacation, like I'll go to a city nearby, book out an Airbnb and I'll still be working. But it's just like a new space, a new setting, and I think it just allows you to be more like calm and focus on yourself yeah, just like today you came to visit, but I end up doing this podcast exactly but I'm still enjoying myself.

Ritika : 7:14

I love talking to people, I love being in front of camera. I'm doing both things, and I'll get to explore a city after so 100, awesome, great.

Gurasis: 7:22

So moving on, you know, this next segment is something I've added new in my second season, you know, which wasn't there before, and I basically I'm trying to turn up the fun factor a little bit in my second season. I'm trying to take the entertainment route, you know, still educating, and give a little bit of fun to people as well. Next questions are sort of in the same segment. Okay, so my first question is what's your go-to breakfast?

Ritika : 7:44

go to breakfast avocado toast all the way and like just boiled eggs. Yes, either that or the days I'm feeling more like sweet. You know it'll be uh, muesli with like a bunch of berries, like blueberries, strawberries, apples, bananas, any fruit I can find in the kitchen and some honey on top okay, love, their mouth is watering for sure.

Gurasis: 8:06

Uh, you know, I also see on your stories you always go to the second cup and get you those smoothies and everything. Yeah, and I kid you not, after watching those stories, I have started going there as well. And you know, I say that because I feel like when I came to canada, to montreal, I feel like the menu of second cup was very different before. Yes, and they have like switched everything after, like pandemic, something happened. You know, second cup, you're watching sponsors, yeah, so you know. So tell me, like tell me about that. You know. But is there something you still do? Or go to just at home, just avocado and this?

Ritika : 8:36

so I think this is definitely the home thing, but I think whenever I have to go outside, there's this place in Toronto. If anyone's watching, please go visit. It's called Moss Moss. It's a cafe and they have the best chai lattes. Oh my god, I know there's nothing called chai lattes, because chai is just the tea like it's chai but that's what we call it in North America.

Ritika : 8:55

So, but they have the best because they have flavors like cinnamon and cardamom and so on. So it's amazing. It reminds me of home. So that's definitely one I love to get as a drink, and I think the second one is getting smoothies. I forgot the name of the place. It's called glory glory juice co. Uh, which is based out of vancouver, and they have the best smoothies and acai bowls, but very expensive. So get it once in a few months.

Gurasis: 9:18

But yeah, definitely, yeah, those would be some things okay, awesome too much, uh, talk about the food. So next is tell us about your favorite song, what a dialogue or a movie and why it's significant to a song, a dialogue or a movie.

Ritika : 9:34

I think I really like three idiots. I know that's for all my bollywood fans out there. Three idiots has been a movie that resonated with me a lot because I think it many in many ways still speaks to a lot of the work that we try and do through redefine as well. Right, it's all about helping you look outside of the box and not commit to the directions that people lay out for you. Right? A lot of us, especially who come from South Asian heritage, we have things put into place for us.

Ritika : 9:58

Many a times we have been told hey, these are the five career paths you should choose once you graduate from your high school. Right, and that's what even I came in with is yes, I want to be a doctor because my parents told me to or because everyone else around me is doing that. So it felt like the norm. Right, and I think there's this concept in India as well. Right, you first become an engineer and then anything else, absolutely, and that is very fascinating to me, because it feels like so many years of life gone by doing something you never really wanted to do. Right, imagine who that person could become in those five years that they spend doing a degree right. So I think I'd redefine as well.

Ritika : 10:32

It's the same concept even with immigrants, international students. When they are coming in, they're likely to follow what their friend next door is telling them to do, right? So if they are doing a part-time job, they're like, hey, you should also do that. Also do that, right. See how much money I'm making. I'm affording that iPhone, right. I'm affording that Starbucks coffee every single day, not realizing that that may actually not be your end goal, right? Because everyone's journey is different. Our end goals are different, right? If you follow someone else's, you're going to find yourself going where they are going, and that will lead you to be dissatisfied and not happy and then lead to you know the host of other issues that we see immigrants facing exactly.

Gurasis: 11:05

It's not like becoming the first einstein or first. It's like becoming the first guru seesaw, becoming the first rithika, right, absolutely, yeah, totally. And I think you really love the idiots, because I don't know if you remember, you actually mentioned this in previous episode as well oh, really, yeah, we were talking about something and in the final you know final segment and you actually mentioned your three idiots. You know you liked that movie, so I think you really love three idiots.

Ritika : 11:28

Yeah, I think I really. Oh wow, I didn't even remember.

Gurasis: 11:31

Okay, okay, awesome. So teach us something in your mother tongue, Anything you would like to teach to the people who don't speak our language, you know?

Ritika : 11:46

Oh, interesting. I think maybe I brought this up in the last episode so I don't want it to be repetitive, but I think the concept of gurmukh and manmukh I always bring that up because I think it's something so new to people. It's not a terminology we come very commonly across and I feel like it's a term which I think resonates a lot with the values I uphold in my life and I think it is what helps me be more disciplined at times and make sure I'm heading in the right direction, because I think at times it's so easy to, you know, get distracted, even on your laptop. Netflix is right there, so many things are right there, and we all procrastinate at times. And you know the concept of that Gurmukh, and I think a lot of you watching may know that concept. But if not, do we, do we want to describe it? Or sure, yeah, yeah, like good work is basically like.

Ritika : 12:27

I think the difference is good work is someone who thinks through your mind. I guess you know where, if you know you it's emphasizing or prioritizing the needs, uh, over the wants. Um, you know whereby, if you know you have to get an assignment in today, even though that netflix tv show might be so amazing Bridgerton that has come out, you still prioritize to get that assignment because you know that's a need and the Bridgerton show is a want right, even with terms of expenditures right, and I think it's so relevant to even immigrants overall, because we see ourselves wanting to do things which are more of those wants than needs right. The reason students are working seven days a week, five hours every day at a part-time job, it's not to make ends meet. They can make ends meet in three days, they work right. But the reason they work two extra days is because they want to fulfill wants which are getting those Jordans right, affording the latest iPhone, whatever that is, and that then takes us so much away from the goals that we have initially set out for ourselves.

Gurasis: 13:22

so I think that's where the manmukh is talking you know exactly, yes, yeah okay, awesome. So if you could teleport back to your home country or any place in the world, where would you go and what would you do?

Ritika : 13:33

wow, grass is really putting me on the spot. I think if I have to teleport, it doesn't have to be a place I've been to yeah, it can be anywhere.

Gurasis: 13:41

Anywhere in the world.

Ritika : 13:42

Okay, I really want to go to Bali. Quite honestly, there's no reason or logic. It just looks beautiful. I've seen too many stories about it and I'm hoping because there's an organization called Utopia. I'm one of their youth ambassadors with them and they're based out of Bali, actually, so a lot of their initiatives are happening there at the local level, so hopefully if I get to go there, I can join them in their you know initiatives happening regionally.

Gurasis: 14:05

Okay, Even then, even on, once again thinking about vacation but at the same time working as well, why not have two birds with one stone right? Absolutely yeah. And also I think nowadays Bali has become pretty famous amongst Indians because they can't go to the other place, they can't name you know, so they are pretty popular to go to the Bali.

Gurasis: 14:23

So perfect. So that's the end of this segment. So that's amazing, wonderful answers. So you know, now, obviously, like in the last season, we talked about your childhood, you know. You talked about your upbringing and the impact that your mother has had on you, and one thing you spoke very briefly was about the boarding school, that you actually went to boarding school.

Ritika : 14:41

Right, tell us about that experience so I went to an IB school. Right, I, my parents wanted to send me abroad for education, but I've always been a mama's kid. That means like I could not live without my mother, even for a day. You know, if they left me at the relative's house, I would want to be back the same day because I'm like where is my mom right? And the idea that, okay, we have to send her away to live by herself, away from her mother, was so, it felt, so far fetched, and that's why my parents were like you know what, let's do it a pace at a time.

Ritika : 15:11

So that's why they put me in day boarding initially, which was this concept where you stay there for the entire day, away from your parents, and they come pick you up later. And then I switched to weekly boarding, so the entire week I used to stay there. And then it eventually switched to monthly boarding right, where I was staying like in the boarding school the entire month, and this was at Indus International, which was an IB school. So their curriculum was fairly similar to the North American curriculum and that's why I was very like. It was very easy for me, when I came here as well, to transition, because I had already exposed myself to the idea of already crying a lot of staying away from parents. I'd already been through that and adapted, so now when I came so far away, I was pretty like adapted to the fact of being far away from parents. I did not miss them as much.

Gurasis: 15:55

So I think that really helped me prepare in many ways and I think that goes back to that concept of that preparation piece which I think is so important okay, and then, speaking of moving abroad, you know you came in 2018, I believe, to study kinesiology obviously we discussed about that and you move into business analyst role 2016, 2018 to 2024. It's been six years, almost six years. I also actually came in 2018. Okay, yeah, and to tell me, like, what is something that you've discovered about yourself after coming here in the past six years?

Ritika : 16:26

I think I discovered how resilient I am, and I think it's not just for myself, I think it's for most of us here, right, a lot of us. From the time when you enter into the country, you realize, wow, not everyone looks like me, right that I think we don't realize how big of a shock it is, but it is because we we, for the longest time, have affiliated belongingness with people who look like us, which may not be true either, right, because you, I, have found the bestest friends in people who may not be from india, for example, right. So I think like that was like. I think starting with something like that, where you suddenly start feeling like one in many, um, it is a lot of pressure as well, because now it's not just about oh'm alone kind of a thing, but it's also the responsibility you now uphold, because you are representing your community 100%.

Gurasis: 17:09

So you constantly.

Ritika : 17:10

I was feeling this a lot, where everything I did, every time I spoke in class, et cetera, I was like, wait a second. If I do something wrong, people are going to assume this is how my community is Right. So for me, I think that was a very big, I think kind of a burden, in a way, that I put on my shoulders of like living up to certain standards and expectations I was setting, so that I was setting the bar ahead and people would not just see me in a high way, but my entire community.

Ritika : 17:35

So I think that also was something else and I think you know, when we start transitioning to the job market as well, we all know the main thing OK, you don't have Canadian experience right, that being such a big challenge and a topic of conversation, and I think for me there were a lot of rejections that came as a result of it, because you know me transitioning careers as well, from kinesiology to consulting me, being an immigrant and wanting to get into the job market, sometimes being even a woman wanting to get into the business world right, I think it has many factors to it and I think having those constant rejections and still being willing to kind of get up and be you know what you have said, what you wanted to say, but I know who I am, I know what I can do and I'm going to write this story because I have the book, I have the pen right.

Ritika : 18:20

All I got to do is start writing and think. Just realizing that, um, and bouncing back was, I think, what helped me keep going. And I think that's what I keep doing even today, because it's not like rejection stop, it's not like questioning stops. It's going to happen every single day, right, even my relatives back home constantly question why my parents sent us abroad, saying that they wasted their money spending education on me and my sister.

Ritika : 18:40

Right, yeah we still get that to this day imagine imagine, yeah, so there's always this thing of wanting to do more and better and better.

Gurasis: 18:46

So I think through those things okay, yeah, you said it right like we are somehow asked to fit in a certain boxes when we come. You know, like I think you mentioned before many times on the podcast that I was, you know, kind of stereotyped to someone who was gonna just go and drive a truck. You know, and once again, there's nothing wrong in that, yeah, but just that you cannot associate every turban wearing person to do and to do like a certain job, or maybe a person with a certain skin color to go and do like a certain job, right? So I think that's what I also try to aim to do with this podcast as well.

Gurasis: 19:16

And then, speaking to individuals like yourself, you know who has broken those, broken those. You know glass ceilings and you have for sure, you know to I mean, look at, look at the linkedin, for example the kind of people that vouch for you. They really like, really back your arguments as well. You know where you have also talked about, uh, your manager, you know, at your lab that pizzeria pizzerias you're working at right now who maybe commented to you that you know, hey, like people like you really do certain kind of jobs. But you said, no, I am here, I'm going to write my own story and you cannot define how I'm going to live my life, and I think that's how you call it redefining as well.

Ritika : 19:51

Yes, absolutely well, you've got it. Your marketing is absolutely on 100.

Gurasis: 19:56

So, uh, you can talk to a manager for the money, okay, yeah, all right. Um, was there something that you were not prepared for, ritika, when you came? I'll tell you example of myself. You know, when I came, I knew I'm gonna do my chores on my own, my cooking on my own, yes, my study, living my life on my own. But I wasn't prepared that it will take me forever to find an accommodation, and I think it took me a month to find a good place, and which I never left for two years because it was so hard to find. I was moving, like, to a new place every week and it was so freaking hard. Yeah, tell me something that you were not prepared for.

Ritika : 20:33

I think most of the things right, because I feel like the things that I talk about on what students should do comes from the fact of things I did not do and once I came here I realized how I should have. Right, I always say I even started redefined, because the year I spent figuring things out, I feel like a lot of that figuring out could have been avoided if I had known things before, been more aware, networked more with people here, right? So I feel like I came in pretty unaware of a lot of things right for me. I think I was fortunate whether I had one friend who was going through to the same university as me and you know I was fortunate.

Ritika : 21:05

I went to an institution that had housing right, so the initial housing problem wasn't as evident. But as soon as it came time in fourth year to move out, that's when it stuck. Wait a second, I gotta sign the contract for the landlord. I gotta figure out I have a good landlord right like those kind of things were fairly new, because I think while you live in student accommodation, you still are pretty much in a safe space in a shell, yes, yeah, but I think now, as soon as you graduate, that's when I feel like you feel like oh wow, I'm, I'm by myself, like you know, I'm holding the fort, right, no one else is there to support, kind of a thing. So I feel like that was when, in fact, I felt more of the oh wow kind of a feeling instead of initially, where, I think because of just the institution I was a part of, that just made the process a lot more smoother for me.

Gurasis: 21:54

Yeah, it's like initially it would be something that you have at least like a place to go to. You have like a. Okay, there's somebody who sort of like to guide you to this new place and I had one friend right, so the day arrived.

Ritika : 22:04

I met her the first day, so that made it easier, right, because she had been there a month already, so she knew where things are and the housing was already sorted out. But I know, like we have this new program launching I'm sure we'll talk about but like we have a lot of students coming in now, so so they have a lot of this unpreparedness oh, what's the housing going to look like? Where will I live? Right? How do I talk to these landlords? Because their institutions don't have housing options, right? So I think that also shows you how, at the institutional level, there's a lot we still have to do in Canada from an infrastructure standpoint policies that we implement to actually create a space which is very supportive of newcomers coming in.

Gurasis: 22:41

Yeah, you know, another thing you shared with me last time, like an anecdote that you went to a friend's house, like after so many months, finally, for a dinner and then it suddenly hit you that oh my God, I haven't posted on LinkedIn today and you quickly, you know, whip something up, you made something and you finally posted it, yeah, during your dinner. Okay, yeah, but tell me, you know, that was like almost two years ago and that was, like you know, coming from a few thousand followers to now almost like 70,000 on LinkedIn. Right, would you say that the process, this posting process, has become even more intense now? Or have you been able to find a balance between your work and maybe, like, your private life as well?

Ritika : 23:24

I think honestly, the process remained quite the same okay, but now when you ask me, it should actually have improved now, where I shouldn't be writing last minute, but I think, from the person I was last time as well, I've taken on a lot more in terms of not just things to commit to but, I think, taking more of a responsibility on myself, even from an initiative perspective.

Ritika : 23:44

You know I was mentioning I don't want it anymore to just be an event to event thing, because we are not events company. We want to be more than that, right? So I think with those things, there's a lot of like back end that's happening and I think, with so many things going on, what I'm finding myself is that process of posting is still fairly similar, but I think there is definitely better output I'm able to create through it, because obviously, the number of years that you spend doing it as well, like a skill set, right, so you'll still find me sitting at you know, like after this, I have to post today, right, okay, so I will be at a dinner today, for sure. So I'll be whipping it up while I'm in my Uber going there, so, yeah, so that's still the same, okay, but maybe I should improve that.

Gurasis: 24:23

Yeah, isn't that like too much pressure, ritika? Like be honest, you know, isn't it like too much pressure to post every day, like twice a day, and just life just surrounds around posting all the time, you know. So isn't it too much pressure? Like is it somehow harms your?

Ritika : 24:41

mental health also. I don't think for me, like it is definitely a lot of pressure, but I think the way I post is actually to express myself. Yeah, I think that's something that distinguishes me from a lot of other creators on LinkedIn is and I think the audience sees that as well I think I'm just too authentic in the way I post in the sense which may not always be right because I'm too vulnerable sometimes, but it's like I use it as a way to I don't want to say went myself, but a way to express myself. You know things that I may have in my mind. I think I use that typing to just kind of get it all out and it resonates as well with a lot of people.

Ritika : 25:14

There are some things obviously I'd write, but I don't post. But there are others which I always write and then post ahead. So I think for me, in fact, if anything, it helps me many a times Because, you know, if you also keep a busy lifestyle, what ends up happening is you don't necessarily have the time to keep scrolling through LinkedIn and see what others are doing. I think the mental health pressure comes when you start saying, OK, they're doing X things right. I have so many friends who have grown so much faster than me on LinkedIn. But it's because for them that's the focus, right, and they're investing hours thinking of what that post should be like, right. But I think it comes down to the individual and your priorities. For me, that may not be a priority, so I'm willing to rather invest that hour doing something else than spend an hour creating a post, you know. So I think it depends on a lot of those factors.

Gurasis: 25:58

And do you? Do you actually like sit and reply to those comments or do you just went by? I?

Ritika : 26:04

used to. I used to, and I'm so sorry, I apologize because I feel like I have. I think sometimes it just gets so like it's just post, get out, post get out kind of a thing that I have actually like to your point. It's a good reminder. I'm going to do that today. I forget to, you know, comment, respond to a lot of the comments.

Ritika : 26:22

I have a lot of messages pending as well from people, so, but I think every month there's at least one day where I sit down and I just go on this rampage of replying to everyone, going and commenting on their posts as well, and you know, it goes back to showing again. Those are things that actually help you grow your following a lot faster as well. Right, but right now, the stage of life I'm at, I think my priority is getting some other things to a certain level, while I still keep this going, right, so I still keep the consistency, but I think there's a lot more I can do to amplify what I'm already doing to grow a lot faster, obviously yeah, so you know obviously, like with more followers come more eyeballs, more mouths and more opinions.

Gurasis: 27:01

What do you have to say to that?

Ritika : 27:03

See, I always say people are always going to talk, right. You may be someone insignificant, you may be someone very big or whatever it is, people always have things to talk about you. And for me, my response to them is always I feel pretty, because the fact that someone has so much time to just think about you, I think, first of all, that's a good thing for you, because they're obsessing over you. The second thing is I feel like, yeah, I think for me.

Ritika : 27:25

My mom has always told me you know, just know what your end goal is. Walk towards it. Don't need to look left or right, just walk straight, right, and there are going to be a lot of noises come out. You know, close your ears, close your eyes, just focus where you want to go and that's it. And I think when you keep doing that, you'll realize there'll be a lot of chatter initially, but it'll die down when you don't react or respond to it. Right, obviously, I'm not a very big influencer on Instagram. I think that there are going to be trolls, kind of crazy. There have been people you know, obviously, who will troll, to a certain extent at least, like on Instagram specifically. I've seen Trolling is a lot more of a behavior on instagram than on linkedin. I feel like on instagram I don't even have as crazy of an audience or very beginning honestly, but you still see like people having more opinions, but it's always about the accent.

Gurasis: 28:12

I read that oh my god, accent coming from all the time I'm 26 years, maybe that's how but I don't even notice it right yeah, exactly, and you know also I want to talk about. You know the concept of this having unfair advantage. We all are blessed with certain gifts, you know, which are very unique to us and nobody can take from us. What would you say is your unfair advantage in this journey of being an immigrant and somebody who is creating this online content and trying to make that impact?

Ritika : 28:43

I think it is connecting with people. I've realized that's something I do very well. And how I realized that is because I read this concept, I think somewhere in some inspirational TED talk or something I was reading where they said how do you know what's? What is your gift? Is by something that you can do so easily and get immense output from. And I've realized it is that connecting piece with people.

Ritika : 29:06

You know the networking piece, like whether it, if you look at Deloitte, my organization, where I work like full-time, or even through redefined these conversations we are having, even the community, I feel I feel so much love from them and I think a big part of it is because I think they are really able to connect with my story and they're really able to connect and I'm able to get people emotional when I talk to them.

Ritika : 29:26

Something people have told me, even my friends and others, is like you make us want to share things we may not have shared with others, right, and I think a big part of it comes from the idea that you know that empathy piece that my mom has drilled in me from a very early age ages always putting herself in the other person's shoes, right, listening to the other person a lot right, just being there in their space and just hearing them out, and I think that allows the other person to feel valued and more comfortable to just share who they are and me. I think being vocal about my vulnerabilities, my insecurities allows them to be feel comfortable sharing theirs as well. Right?

Gurasis: 30:00

so I would say it's that piece I've realized connecting with people yeah, and would you say this has also helped you assimilate within the culture as an immigrant absolutely 100, not just simulate, but, I think, be successful, whatever you define that as, but being able to be successful and thrive in the culture.

Ritika : 30:18

I think that is something that allows for, like sometimes, when I reflect back, I think you know, like even in my journey at a corporate firm like lloyd, you imagine it to be so traditional sometimes that it's very hierarchical based and it can be at times right, maybe I'm just fortunate to have the team I have. But I've realized it's just the act of reaching out, being honest, transparent, authentic in your conversations with people, showing them where you want to be and how you plan together and that you have. What it takes automatically allows them to a see that potential and, b be willing to support you in that journey because they see you becoming that expression. You help them see that vision and then they want to be by your side in that vision because it helps them as well. Right, yeah right.

Ritika : 30:57

So I've realized that plays such a huge role, because now people value you when you sit in a room right beyond and you're able to help them. Look you beyond just your role and your title, because that's what a lot of people define by your accent.

Gurasis: 31:11

They look beyond that.

Ritika : 31:13

Yeah, exactly right because when I walk into a room and when I'm sitting against someone who has a very fancy british accent, I'm sure people want to pay more attention to that question than me.

Ritika : 31:21

Even I would, right, because it just sounds different and I think maybe traditionally we've just made to think that it sounds better, right, so we're likely to pay attention to that. But I think when you let people know that you know what you're talking about and that you have put in XYZ effort to be where you are today and be a very vocal and advocate about it, I think people see the value and they're willing to listen. Right, and I think that is where the biggest shift is, because a lot of us are constantly questioning our value and because we spend so much time questioning it and are not able to identify our own thing, we can't communicate it to someone else, and if you don't communicate, no one's seeing it right. And now it's just a cycle, because now you start thinking, okay, I don't have value because no one else is seeing it, not realizing you're never actually showing it.

Gurasis: 32:06

And even to the point of bringing certain ideologies in our culture. People see that as a drawback, as a con, but that's actually an advantage. You are bringing an outer perspective which people in North America or maybe, for example, I've in montreal people in montreal might not have. That people really don't really like. It's very underrated. Now people start recognizing and accept their cultures and they're bringing a lot because that has a lot to provide to this new world where you have decided to live in now. Yeah, absolutely.

Ritika : 32:38

And I mean, like you see, companies are emphasizing on edi there's a big reason for it right, because you realize, I don't know the exact stats, but I know Forbes released an article recently that I was reading that said when in a company, you have diverse perspectives and opinions, you're more likely to have a more successful company because you have more creative ideas coming to the table. Why? Because different perspectives, different backgrounds, different cultures, which allows you to be more creative. You see, the biggest brands today are having such unique collabs, like even in the music industry, right, you see, like we have North American, us singers collaborating with singers from India.

Ritika : 33:12

And it's just insane the output that they're having on either side Right, because it's just so creative, it's just so unique. So I think, not only identifying that you're unique in many ways, and this is not culture specific I think that's what a lot of us forget as well. We think, oh, it's only our culture that makes us unique in Canada.

Gurasis: 33:29

No, there are many more things about you as a human, the qualities as a human.

Ritika : 33:33

Yes, and it's so different, like, even if we may have the same quality let's say we both are empathetic the way we express that quality would be very distinct. The way others see it will be very distinct. So I think, identifying that, which I think comes by spending a lot of time with yourself. I know it sounds very philosophical, but, trust me, like spending that time with yourself to identify, like, who am I right, what's that, why for me? And once you identify that, being able to communicate that to people. I think it sounds so simple, but I think that's what a lot of us fail to do effectively. I'm sure even I fail to do that effectively in certain spaces, in certain industries, and that's why I may not get those opportunities. Because there's this simple idea that, no matter how much money you have, no matter how much experiences you have, no matter how smart you are, if people don't know who you are, people won't pay you or hire you. Simple, you need to be visible.

Gurasis: 34:23

As simple as that. Right, that's the main crux. Totally yeah, and you talked about, you know, talking to yourself and kind of introspecting. So when would you say, within your six years, even before that, when was that moment when you actually had that conversation with yourself?

Ritika : 34:35

I have it almost every single day right, because I feel like every day I spent, I'm constantly like I'm one of, like I'm someone who's a high achiever and I have a tendency to sometimes have very high expectations for myself in terms of things I want to put out. Yeah, and you know how we're talking about the glass balls, plastic balls. You also realize, okay, family is important because you never know when you can't meet them, right, you got to take out that time for them, right? And I think, with all those things, you just realize, like what you need to be sorry, I forgot the question it was literally about when did you start to introspect?

Ritika : 35:06

introspect? Yes, I think yes. That's why, for me, it's a day-to-day thing, because I feel like every single day I always start questioning myself okay, am I doing the right things or not? Am I moving in the right direction? Right, because, especially for someone like myself and I'm sure a lot of other people might relate, who are currently doing corporate jobs but want to do other things as well why do we enter into corporate jobs, at times like a full time role? I hope Deloitte's not saying this. It's sometimes because you're looking for stability, right as immigrants. I think by the time I was graduating, we were already getting rid of student loans. There was those pressures to pay off things and I knew if I pursue full-time entrepreneurship, it would take some time. Right, and I knew I did not have that flexibility. So I knew. For me, the first reaction was okay, let's get into a job that provides that stability, build more experience and then get back so I feel like doing multiple things and having my leg in two boats leads me to constantly be introspecting.

Ritika : 35:55

Okay, am I doing the right things at the right time?

Ritika : 35:58

Right, right, because I feel like time is so limited. I don't want to feel like I wasted my time doing something when I could have done something else. So I reflect day to day. But there are those, you know, once in a few months kind of introspections, which are those deep ones where you're just sitting down, it's just by yourself and having that conversation and maybe even noting things down, which I think makes a huge difference. So for me it just happened last week.

Ritika : 36:28

Has it ever led to having that self-doubt as well that, oh, my god, what am I doing? Always, I think, constantly, I think I. I always have self-doubt because I feel and more than self-doubt I think it's the I'm very confident, I think, in my abilities to do things. But I think what I feel, um, hesitant about sometimes is me not living to the expectations or the potential I know I can live up to. So I don't think it's self-doubt, but it's the idea that I'm scared that I won't live up to my potential. Ok, right, because I know I can work X amount. I know I have X potential but I feel like sometimes because of things around procrastination, distractions, so many other things that come in life, I just fear I don't become someone who isn't able to do that Right. I know I have it but I just fear not living up to it.

Gurasis: 37:08

Yeah, Okay, and you also talked briefly about, you know, talking to your parents and taking out the time. Do you actually speak to your parents every day? Yes, absolutely.

Ritika : 37:18

You know, even if it's five minutes. I'm walking to the office in the morning, I always give a call to my mom right on the way, maybe even when I'm coming back unless I'm writing a linkedin post last minute while walking to the office it would be a call to her, like just to check in how they're doing, everything's fine, see if they need anything from me, right? I think those things are important, right, and I always talk about this in my post as well. You know, giving back to your parents because we're so many miles away from them. Sometimes it's so easy to forget and so easy to focus just on what lies in front of you, and I know we say that focus on the present and what's in front, but they are people we can't forget.

Ritika : 37:50

Uh, they are the reason for existence in the first place and us being where we are, and I think so it's so important that you give back and I always say this, even if it's a no matter how affluent your parents are, even if it's an X amount, which I think you know, giving back to them, buying gifts for them, I think it's very important because they came in your life first, before anyone else did you know any girlfriend, boyfriend, whoever comes in later on, they should be your first priority, right?

Ritika : 38:16

So I think that's important because I found myself initially. You know, when you have that extra money put on the side, you tend to buy yourself a lot of things. Yeah, and I remember that day when I was buying myself something. I just thought about it and I was like, wait a second, but did I buy my mom something? Because I know if she made extra money today, the first thing she would have done is invested that in me, you know. So I was like wait a second, oh my god, what I've been been doing, and I think that was a huge thing for me.

Gurasis: 38:39

So yeah, so I I'm glad to hear that, because I'm not the only one who talked to my parents every day, because sometimes I do have this conversation with a few people and I tell them I talk to my parents every day, like every day, what you talk to them every day. There's such a shock to people, yeah, but I'm glad to hear that you know there's somebody else also doing the same thing again people are different, right.

Ritika : 38:58

I think we just need to realize that, and I think a lot of people may not realize today the importance of doing that, but they will later on, right? I think we're just fortunate to realize it a lot earlier. And it's not like you're spending five hours talking to anyone, right? It's just the two-minute conversation as well, to just check in and be like hey, I love you, hope you're doing well, let me know if you need anything. That's it, yeah that's.

Gurasis: 39:17

That's exactly what I did today Before coming here. I was like okay, I think I won't be able to talk for long today. I have a recording, but I'll talk to you tonight.

Ritika : 39:24

You know Exactly, but I think that's the least we can do for all they've done for us. Their entire life, even today, revolves around us.

Gurasis: 39:43

If you think about it right have moved on right, so it's just yeah.

Gurasis: 39:44

So this next question is actually from one of our listeners. You know she's a religious listener of the podcast and obviously she knew you. She follows you everywhere as well, and I happen to tell her I didn't know about that you were coming on the show and this question is also something which will be a great segue to the point where I want to talk about redefined as well. So her question is Ritika, what drives you to pursue your work with such passion and dedication? Is there a particular motivation or set of values that fuels your commitment to these initiatives?

Ritika : 40:10

yeah, great question. First of all, I think what drives me towards doing what I'm doing, I think, is the smiles of the people behind the cameras, right, smiles of the people who are coming to those events, because I've seen, like, see, what we do is not extraordinary, it's simple. Most of the companies, whatever we do, is not like out of the world kind of genius ideas, right, but what we're doing is something which is so simple but yet missing and so needed, right. And I feel like you see how the most simplest things around teaching someone around just how to advocate for yourself, or how do you do, embrace public speaking and you know, actually like are able to effectively have conversations, communicate for yourself, make such a huge difference in terms of opportunities that they get access to college for a guest speaker session.

Ritika : 40:58

And there was this girl who came at the end. She's from India and her English is not developed quite yet, right, and she was just telling me Ratka, I feel like people don't like me in the class. No one talks to me because and I noticed that you know she's so struggling to speak because she wasn't able to complete her sentences and you know I just had the corner, see again, I didn't give her any advice, which was out of the world, but I just told her hey, I've been there right. There have been times where people may have had those questions for me, where people may want to avoid me, where people may want not want to talk to me because I was missing words on how to fulfill my conversation. But she, I said, like it comes with practice and all you gotta know is you are at a starting step today. You are eventually going to get there. All you got to do is show up every single day and keep doing what you're doing. And I feel like just sharing that part that I've been there and her being able to see me on stage presenting to an audience of 150 160 makes her believe that, okay, you know what, next time I can be that person.

Ritika : 41:55

I told her you absolutely can, and she's like I'm going to work on this now. I said you will, and I said don't assume that people don't like you. Maybe you are not talking to them as well. That could be the other thing, right? So I feel like just that change of perspective helped her feel so grateful and I saw tears in her eyes and she got really emotional because she was like no one told me that I have value, right? No one told me that I can be that x person, but I said, well, you can just look at yourself in the mirror and just see that person and you'll just know it.

Ritika : 42:24

And that made a huge difference for and I think that is what I live for, right, knowing that you are able to impact even one person's life, I think is the biggest gift of all. Right, and if again, like I know, it might be running late on time, but I think something like quick as well, that happened with me is someone on LinkedIn had just messaged me and it was such an intense message, but just in a message right Put in is that they said that they were at this low stage of their mental health where they at a point, felt like giving up on life in general, and but it was my posts where I spoke about rejections and insecurities that really helped them be like you know what I can bounce back. If she can, I can.

Gurasis: 43:04

And.

Ritika : 43:04

I think that's what I live for is just to give them an example that if someone like me can man, you are killing it out there already. You absolutely can. So that's the whole reason.

Gurasis: 43:12

You know, I also see you, ritika, as someone who is obviously the head in their immigrant journey and you, who has lived that initial years in Canada or as an immigrant, you understand the pain points of people and you know what really you have to do to cater to those pain points.

Ritika : 43:28

have I said it correct.

Gurasis: 43:29

Yes, yeah, absolutely so I asked Ritika to tell me about the five events she would like to talk about and discuss. You know, obviously she organizes like millions of events, you know, and it was hard for her to choose top five. Yes, uh, so, yeah, here we go. So the first one is Ritika the one young world event which happened in Belfast. You were representing Deloitte Canada and that was, I believe, in October 2023 last year. Right, tell me about your experience. How did that happen and what would also say some of the perks that you got?

Ritika : 44:03

oh my god, one of the best experiences of 2023. Not gonna lie um, I got to travel first class it was your first time, right uh, in the first or in first class.

Ritika : 44:15

First, first class I've been fortunate that my parents could afford me before, but, uh, but no, it was definitely one of my first times being paid by someone else to travel in first class. So that was definitely a first time and hope for many more to come. But I think the overall experience was superbly enriching because I think I got the opportunity to meet so many people from so many different cultures, backgrounds all who are there passionate about change. There were, in fact, a lot of people from corporate companies as well, you know, who were showcasing that duality where they're doing these full-time jobs but, at the same time, they want to create an impact, get out there in the world, and I think it's so amazing that companies like deloitte and so many others have these delegations which they're investing so much funds into as well, which showcases their commitment as well, right to prioritizing impact and change right overall. So I think it was an amazing experience. It was, I think, an entire week that we were there in balfast uh, you know, in ireland and I got to go to london after that as well, which is really nice because it's close by and uh, I got to meet, uh, malala yusufzai um, I hope that's I'm correctly pronouncing her name. I got to meet her and there were quite a lot of um I forgot the names of the other speakers, but there were quite a lot of the other like trailblazers and changemakers in the market who we have all seen, you know, on the big screens in a way. Yeah, so I think overall it was amazing. Some of the perks, as I mentioned, was just the travel journey and the stay experience overall, because obviously it's through Deloitte, so it has to be supreme.

Ritika : 45:40

And I think how it came about was actually like, so I didn't know about this opportunity for quite some time but because I was creating a brand for myself within the firm of someone who's a change maker, someone who's passionate and advocates for immigrants, people kind of knew about me within the firm. So I had a lot of people reach out to me saying, hey, have you applied for this opportunity? And I was like, oh, never heard of it. So I think once I looked into it, I was like, oh man, this is the exact something I would love to be a part of and I was like I have to and have to be a part of this and I manifested it for that entire like.

Ritika : 46:08

I think I got to know about it when one of the sessions had already gone and the next one was coming up.

Ritika : 46:14

So I had a year in between and I was like I need to make it to the next one, and I was able to get referrals from other people within the firm as well. Usually a lot of the people who go attend these events are mostly managers and above, and so I was one of the first, like South Asian women, one of the youngest ones in the most early roles to actually go in and be a part, and I think a lot of it came down to the branding piece right Me leveraging LinkedIn, me being that advocate connecting with people, letting every single person in the firm as many as people I could, letting them know how passionate I am about this. I even reached out to the CEO of Deloitte Canada AV. I made sure I set up a coffee chat with him and let him know as well how passionate I am, and I think a lot of that enabled me to get access to that opportunity and for them to look beyond my role and my title and see me as someone who would add value to it as well.

Gurasis: 47:02

So what was like the eligibility criteria for it?

Ritika : 47:05

I think, someone who has just gone above and beyond and created immense impact within the firm and outside, and I had you know, even though it was only six months I had been in the firm. I've already led five initiatives there. You know impact initiatives that we have within the firm, and I was doing already a lot of work with Redefine externally as well, of course, and I'd been a part of a few panels I'd organized within the firm as well, focused on newcomer issues and immigrant issues. So, with all of those things in mind, I definitely emerged as one of the people standing out, at least at my level for sure, and even across different managers, so that ended up letting me getting selected over others, and apparently there were like 10,000 people who apply for that because it's open to everyone, so it's the entire across all canadian offices okay, oh so it was only specific, if I'm not wrong to deloitte uh employers it was specific to deloitte canadian employers.

Ritika : 47:56

Yes, yes.

Gurasis: 47:57

So like if toronto has 17 000 employees, you can assume, like if you have seven offices, how many people there are yeah and out of those many people, they select only two people to represent yeah, okay, and if anybody you know would like to, you know, really be a part of it, yeah, how can they do that?

Ritika : 48:15

I think so. For a lot of external folks who may not be part of deloitte, they definitely have one and one scholarships that they give out. So deloitte has some amazing perks, like one angle scholarships is where they fund your ticket Plus, they give you an X amount to visit and I think I forgot the name of the other program, but it is another specific kind of One Young World scholarship itself but in that they provide you $50,000 plus, they fund and finance your entire trip as well towards your initiative. So we were able to meet quite a few of those founders as well through this initiative who are actually out there, and a few of those founders got featured on Forbes 30 and the 30 just yesterday or day before yesterday.

Gurasis: 48:53

yes, yeah, who also came on Shark Tank? I believe right yes, yes yes, what was the name?

Ritika : 48:58

Prachi, prachi, yes, yes.

Gurasis: 49:00

So next event is I would say like the feature is the CTV Morning Live Appearance. Tell me about that. How did that happen?

Ritika : 49:10

So I've been fortunate to develop a good relationship with CTV News, specifically based out of the Atlantic. I think I've been there twice now. The initial segment I had with them was with Tia Upshaw, who is a founder of an organization called Black Women in Excellence, who is a founder of an organization called black women in excellence. She's amazing and she does this segment where every week I think she features um a trailblazer and a change maker in the industry who is doing an impact, and I was fortunate to be one of the people she featured on that program as well and that feature was in person, so it was lovely to be on the sets of it.

Ritika : 49:42

You know, news channel and see how the back end happens.

Gurasis: 49:45

So it was a different feeling altogether.

Ritika : 49:47

Yes, oh my god, it was so exciting and I'm looking forward to many more. And the second one ended up happening online. So, because I'd done the first one with them, they already knew a bit more about my organization and since we had a lot of new events and programs coming up, they were like hey, we love to kind of like you know, have you featured in? To kind of share more about those stories. But next stop, global news. Hopefully, yes, we'll get that as well.

Gurasis: 50:10

Yeah, hopefully love that. And the next one is the Deloitte's newcomer summit, which happened in April 2024 and, like I told you before our recording, it was the talk of the town, talk of LinkedIn, so to say. There were 1500 plus registrations, right out of which you chose 170 international students, and it was a day full of upskilling programs, panel discussions, networking and much more. So tell me all about that.

Ritika : 50:35

You know how did that came about. That was such an exciting event. I think that was one of the days where I felt, oh my god, we're making something happen. Why I felt that was because, even though we've done so many events with more attendees than that, right. But the reason it stood out so much to me? Because that was the first time where I felt I brought my two pieces together Right. I brought Deloitte, my corporate side, alongside my passion area, which is newcomers, and I was eventually able to bridge both.

Ritika : 51:01

Because one of the things when I started in this space, someone told me was Ritika, you can never bring the two together. And that day I was like you watch me do it. And I was so happy to do that because I think it just shows that if you are strongly advocating, you can create flexibility, you can get people to agree to what you want to do. So very, very grateful to Deloitte, obviously, for sponsoring that entire initiative. And so, as a One Young World delegate, what you get is you get an x amount to invest into different initiatives. Um, and that was one of the initiatives since I was passionate about. I wanted to host that program and I plan to actually host that program now across the different deloitte offices as well to start with, because it was a success here, so eventually we'll be there in halifax or over montreal as well.

Ritika : 51:41

So please invite me yes, yes, for sure, you'll see the, the invite on LinkedIn and personal invite as well. But the way it came about is I was just having a conversation around how I want to do something like this. Deloitte was very open to it and, you know, we just got started with the planning process. It was no about any back and forth. They were like, ok, you want to do it, you can make it happen. I was like, yes, absolutely I can. And that's how it got started. I had support of one to two people from our CSR team, which is the corporate and social responsibility team, who are helping me put things together. I think, right from identifying who the speakers were, even reaching out to the CEO of Deloitte Canada. That was actually not something we were planning to do.

Ritika : 52:18

Okay but you know one day I was like you know, what would really add like a shine to this event would be if he's also there to address it, because Anthony is actually an immigrant himself.

Ritika : 52:27

Yeah, um, so he also came from somewhere else, so I think he would really relate to the journey and he's spoken to it before. So I was like it would only be make sense if you could have someone like him. And we also had another speaker like Zabin Hirji come in. She is also a very accomplished person out there, another immigrant really advocating, and you're really setting the bar high for immigrant women. Honestly, right, she's amazing. So I wanted to really have both of them and we were able to eventually get them. And I remember messaging Anthony, feeling nervous that he might say no, and I messaged him hey, we have an event happening. We'd love to have you share your perspective. He's like, yeah, we'd love to be a part, reach out to my, you know, ea or whatever. And it ended up working out. And the amazing thing was that post the event, he actually made a post talking about how amazing the event was.

Gurasis: 53:09

And then Duncan Sinclair I remember seeing that the chairs at Deloitte as well. He gave you like a special thank you note. I see that, yes, he was amazingly sweet.

Ritika : 53:15

And then Duncan Sinclair, the chair, also followed up and there was so much happening, even within many people reach out hey, how can we do this more? So now, actually, I'm working with our partner, cs solido, who is our ontario lead, to fund this program every year moving forward. So that's something, fingers crossed, we completely execute and I'm really looking forward for us to kick that off. But, yeah, overall amazing event. It was completely deloitte run, only deloitte professionals were there, all sharing about their experiences across different levels and ages, and we had, as you mentioned, 170 delegates of students.

Gurasis: 53:51

How did you choose those?

Ritika : 53:54

So what was interesting was I've posted about events before, right, but initially I know Deloitte was concerned about how will we have like? I was telling them we can get 200 people. They're like, how will we get 200 people? Because the way most companies market is very traditional, right, like this influencer marketing. I think they don't know how much power it can have. So I remember even I thought, okay, we might get max like 200 registrations. And I remember I made the post at like 8am in the morning and I just checked the post 12 hours later, 8pm, we were already at our 1500 registrations. I was like this is insane.

Ritika : 54:25

There's so much interest. I gotta do more events like this, right? So I remember stopping the the registration just in 12 hours, and then we were looking at people because we had a few questions actually. So once people registered, we send them another follow-up form, uh, for them to actually write down why they deserve to be there at the event, like kind of like a job application, but for the event only right, because we wanted to make sure people who show up are actually invested in changing things for themselves and actually use the opportunity for good, right, I always say what you put in is what you get out. So we wanted people like that and so we had that filtration process in. Eventually, we're able to identify our 150. Actually, we identified 30 showed up on the day off to be like hey, can we come?

Ritika : 55:06

in oh wow and we were like, okay, you know what, now that you're here, let's just get you in. So we had around 170 to 180 people actually at the end of the space. So, yeah, that's how it happened and it was meant to be a seven hour event. It went on for eight hours because we were just having conversations and it was just so much fun and, yeah, I think overall it was amazing. The Deloitte employees also enjoyed themselves so much just giving back and I think the energy in the room was just yeah, amazing.

Gurasis: 55:33

And how long was the preparation process for it?

Ritika : 55:36

So we technically started planning like three months before. Really, yes, yeah, but me being me, I think the main preparation happened a month before.

Gurasis: 55:46

Did at any point you feel like maybe I have a bit more than I can chew at any point.

Ritika : 55:51

There are always times like that. I feel like my mom always tells me she's like you always have more on your plate than you can chew. And I think, yes, I agree, there are times like that, but it's about, again, prioritizing. It depends from what perspective. You see, right, if you are someone who prioritizes on an hour to hour basis on what things you have to do and not to do, um, you you won't feel like you have too much. So I feel like I operate in that way, which allows me to feel more balanced. But, yes, there are times where it's like, oh my god, too many things coming at me.

Ritika : 56:20

My project work as well, this redefined events were happening at the same time. We are launching three big programs this summer, which is becoming intensive. We are launching our first pre-departure program as well, which is becoming intensive. So so many things. So, yeah, it was overwhelming, but I think just taking a deep breath and getting started step by step helped I believe there were like around more than 100 people who posted about the event, right yeah, which was yeah, which was insane.

Ritika : 56:45

And I mean we have seen that through our previous events. I think we have the same number of people post, but I think for Deloitte especially, it was very new because they for the first time saw that, you know, like a lot of people organically, without investing in ads or anything, they were just posting and talking about the event, right, and it benefits both the organization and the students themselves. Right, both the organization and the students themselves, right, because on average, each student who posts about an event, their followers get bumped up by 20-30 percent within the first week or so because of just the people they tag and everything. So I think it ends up being a good way for both.

Gurasis: 57:16

Yeah, and majority of them were talking specifically about your personal branding workshop.

Ritika : 57:21

Tell me about that yeah, that is my Even today. I was in the train actually from coming from Toronto to Montreal, five hours. I had two sessions happen in the train, both on person branding and LinkedIn, because I feel like that's the area of the niche where I would want to come across as an expert in, and not because I'm an academic expert in that space I haven't done a degree in that or in business at all, but I think or in marketing, but I think it's something I've just learned through my experience and because it has been such a big transformation for me personally. Like there are some instances I think back and I'm like how me right, why did that person work up to me out of so many other people in this office and so on and so forth? But I think it was just that piece which is so simple but yet complicated, which I think can create a difference, and I want to see the same for others as well.

Gurasis: 58:09

Yeah, uh, moving on to the next event, which is the career mastery events, which you organized and were speakers and professionals from various companies like kpmg, deloitte, obviously, rbc, scotia bank, accenture and many, many more. Tell me about that yeah.

Ritika : 58:24

So the career master event started mainly because of the idea that, you know, I thought we wanted to have something recurring that's happening in the same format in the same duration across different cities so that we can cater to each audience and demographic and their needs as well during the same time.

Ritika : 58:40

So this usually we host during, you know, the main job hiring seasons that happen. The newcomers collision obviously is another one that comes up, but I think this is something we host after that event just to kind of fill in that gap during which we have other one-timer events happening. But I think the whole perspective of this event is where we bring in the professionals not just to network with people but in a way also spend one-on-one time, where we rotate them across the different professionals and each professional's talking to the students or guiding them in their area of expertise, right? Someone may be an expert in resume and cover letter, while someone else may be an expert in creating a linkedin profile, while the third person may be an expert in networking, right. So giving them the opportunity to a build a personal connection with each mentor and professional in that space, understand about their company but also gain their expertise in that x area that they are so passionate and great at.

Ritika : 59:27

Yeah, I think was our concept going around with it so that now not only are students upskilled, but they also have a network to tap into and because they're connecting one-on-one, that connection, I feel, is a lot more stronger absolutely than you know like connecting in a group with people yeah and to this day, I, honestly, was chatting with one of the directors at deloitte and she said, through one of our events, someone she had met who attended our events, she was at the director's house having dinner with her.

Ritika : 59:53

Oh, wow, right, so that is how great of a relationship they developed Right.

Ritika : 59:58

So I was so happy when I heard that I was like this is exactly what I want, right. That is where accessibility comes in, right. So sometimes people might think, oh, oh, it's such a simple idea, but it can have a huge impact based on how you carry it out. And now the fact that people are having such strong relationships being established with such people you know initially you would think as so far-fetched for you to connect with, showcases the power of doing it right yeah, exactly, I think there's something about the in-person events you know like.

Gurasis: 1:00:26

For example, when I went to toronto last september and I came to one of your events as well women empowerment event that you had I actually connected with a few people from there, like tuba and empire and mushta, and I knew them, like from linden. Again, it seems like it felt pretty far fresh. Maybe I can't reach out to them, maybe through you, but not directly and to that event I was able to build that connection. I've actually interviewed most of them and those episodes will be out soon as well. But, yeah, I think there's something about in-person event, that connection you built. And also, I feel like somebody like me who is who's pretty like a like interpersonal communication is pretty good, I feel like and I would like to always, you know, prefer those rather than doing those online events, you know yeah no, absolutely.

Gurasis: 1:01:09

So, moving on, the next event, ritika, I want to talk about is the Newcomers Collision Summit that you organized last year in Toronto in September 2023. And there were obviously workshops, panel discussions. There were also employers from EY, kpmg, deloitte once again, you know, obviously, rbc and Squash Bank, and some of the topics I believe you guys covered were the financial literacy, job search, personal branding, academic excellence, networking, obviously, and many, many more. Tell me about that.

Ritika : 1:01:38

So I think that event, I think the difference between that one compared to the career master events is the career master event is purely focused on career, as the name suggests, compared to the career master events is the career master event is purely focused on career, as the name suggests, but the newcomers collision idea is, as the name again suggests, is to bring different facets of the newcomer journey together. So that's why our focus is on touching based on the financial aspect. Housing is something I know we didn't cover, but I think it's something we plan to cover this year as well, because my whole goal is that's why we do it in september, because that's the time where you have one of the biggest uh cohorts of international students and immigrants coming in right, exactly, yeah, and the reason we do it a bit earlier in September.

Ritika : 1:02:10

The goal is so that now that they have come into the country, how can we, through this event, set them up for success for the rest of the entire year or the next four years that they're coming in for right? So giving them all those insights and all those nudges that are necessary to kind of get them started and get the hit the ground running and maybe have realization, so that they don't end up just doing things with every other person around them, is doing right. Because I think once you get involved into things it's a lot more difficult to come out of it and change paths. But if you can very initially nudge people to show the different directions and what the outcomes of those different directions can be, it now becomes a lot more easier and clear for them to know which path to choose and how to proceed there. So that's the whole goal of that event. It's again one of those six to seven hour events. Right, we're trying to make it very holistic.

Ritika : 1:02:54

We have a combination of workshops, a combination of panels that we host as well and a lot of networking sessions in the middle, obviously, breakfast, lunch included, uh, with the whole idea and we cover topics around, as you said right, from the perspective of okay, how do you understand what is the mindset you need to be having to be successful in North America? Yeah, to then even the idea of what are the expectations from you in this country, whether it be from an employer, whether it be just to be, um, you know, creating a career for yourself. How do you know what's out there and prepare accordingly. Because I think the mistake we make is we just think all we got to do is prepare ourselves. So we keep getting certifications after certifications, not realizing, buddy, that's not something even the other person is looking for.

Ritika : 1:03:34

Yeah, right, and you are already investing your time. Now, when you invest time, you are thinking, oh, this will give me great outcomes, yeah, but it's not made specific to the audience you're reaching out to, right, so if that's not what they expect initially, either, you're not putting an effort for something that will give you no returns? Right, and that you could save that time doing something else. So our whole goal is to provide that and, at the same time, give them all those tactical, tangible skills around, like you know the resume, the cover letter, the base, the classics yeah, as well, and the personal branding piece, which I think is one of the biggest ones, and networking.

Ritika : 1:04:06

I think we spend a lot of time talking about how do you effectively build relationships yeah because still to this day, almost 60 to 70 percent of students still don't know how to effectively network. For them, it's just their one-time coffee chat, but it's actually a lot more than that.

Gurasis: 1:04:19

So that's the whole concept of that event I like the idea like you're gonna do it in september, and it's absolutely correct. You said at that time this is one of the you know the session starts, and that's when I came, at least, you know. And I feel like at that time, if I would have something like this, an event like this, I would might get a little bit of reassurance that, okay, my decision is not wrong, right? I feel like that would be the one of the reasons you want to do something like this, right?

Ritika : 1:04:43

absolutely, and that's the whole goal, exactly how you mentioned, because even when I came I came in september, right. So, how I said, you know, I met that one friend and that automatically made me feel at ease. I want this event to be kind of that friend that tells them hey, you're okay, right, we got you right, we're giving you what we think you should need and if you need anything else, let us know and we'll connect you with the right people. That's the whole idea to just make people feel like they're safe right, absolutely yeah.

Gurasis: 1:05:09

This is like a safe space and also you're able to find your own community. So to say, absolutely yeah, perfect. Another event which not something you told me to talk about, but I'll still talk about is the redefine your career speaking tour that we did in India. You visited five cities, including Pune, delhi, mumbai, amritsar my city and Jaipur as well. So tell me how. First of all, tell me how were you able to get in, connect with all these institutions? And, once again, like, since how long you were preparing for that?

Ritika : 1:05:40

so, honestly, I didn't prepare that long for that. Okay, again, I think a month before I just started getting in touch with institutions and I just created one or two LinkedIn posts saying, hey, I'm going to be there in India. My visit to my parents was long overdue and me being me, I was like, okay, I'm not just going there for visiting, even though I love them to the heart, but I was like you know what I got to make use of my time as well alongside there. So that's when I was like you know why not just spread the word of what we're doing here, but back home in india as well? That would give me an idea of how the market and the audience is there. Does our content appeal with them? Right? Does my journey appeal to them? And I realized it did to a big extent, right. So it started by reaching out to institutions, cold messaging, literally on linkedin, being like hey, like, because you know I'm connected with a lot of people who I've never actually spoken to, so I will literally filter based on my first connections and just start messaging them because I'm already connected with them, saying that, hey, you know, we've been connected. I, I think you've been following my journey for quite some time. This is what I do, would love to get involved, and you know, see how I can contribute to your audience and to your students, right? So that's how it started. Obviously, there are people who you're back from, you don't?

Ritika : 1:06:44

I ended up hearing back from a lot of the different institutions and thus ended up deciding on the different cities as well.

Ritika : 1:06:49

Initially, jaipur actually wasn't a part of the city I had to go to, but when I made the post, I had a few people universities reach out saying, hey, can you come here as well? So that's how that got added to my list also, and then I was, fortunate enough, I forgot the name of the organization. Actually, if I remember, I'll let you know, but they're an organization who are connected with multiple high schools, and they then got me, they saw my post as well, and one of their team members got in touch with me and they like hey, we would love to have you speak at a few of our schools, okay? So through them, I got access to like five to six schools at once, right? So that's where the school piece came in.

Ritika : 1:07:24

And then universities was all through LinkedIn and them seeing the work that I do, and it was absolutely amazing to be in this space and, you know, I had my mom in the audience, so that was really nice because, you know, when I left India, I was someone who was very shy, never stood in front of the stage, you know, and now I was on the stage in front of her.

Gurasis: 1:07:39

I don't believe that you were shy, is it?

Ritika : 1:07:41

no, I was oh my god, yeah, before I came to Canada I was so shy I would never speak. I used to literally like hide as if in the audience, like I was very different person. Yeah, like I think I lacked a lot of confidence then, but I think it's been changed quite a lot since then and I think for her to see me, like you know, so confident on stage and you know, in India because of our population we had like 200 300 people in the room uh, so seeing that audience size clap for your daughter like obviously feels great, and I think india has an amazing culture of rewarding their speakers as well.

Gurasis: 1:08:12

Right, yeah that idea of giving, even if it's like a thing like a potted plant or like you know I have so many trophies I got from india.

Ritika : 1:08:20

Literally, I have 10 trophies at my house right now, because each institution I went to they were like hey, this is an award from our side for the work that you're doing, and it was just so nice, um.

Ritika : 1:08:30

So, yeah, that entire experience was just amazing, and I think, uh, there's one of the schools that we work with that um, why am I forgetting names today? But education on meals is actually an initiative we're doing out of, uh, jaipur, in Rajasthan, um, and I was able to visit the students who were able to fund. So there is this school bus that we fund which provides education to about a thousand children every month there, and that's a redefined initiative alongside an organization that's locally based out of there as well, so we work together to fund it Udaan Udaan society. That's the other organization, so we work together to fund those children's education. Uh, so it was amazing meeting the children. They all, uh, you know, uh, daughters and sons of like street vendors, um, people who do like begging on the streets, so it was really nice to see their transformation as well. So, yeah, overall, amazing it sounds definitely awesome.

Gurasis: 1:09:19

Tell me about the like, if you can give us like a synopsis of those events. Obviously we could not see the videos and everything what was in the talks yes, so my talks were mostly around, like I think there were different topics.

Ritika : 1:09:30

The main topic was around, again, the personal branding piece and advocacy, because I think that's something we don't often talk about in india at least, right, at least not in high schools and not even colleges, right, if you look at our curriculums back home, even here, honestly, like it's not, like it's made a part of the curriculum as it should. Even back home it's definitely not a part of the curriculum. So a lot of students, even though they are so hard working, trying to do every single thing, they really don't know who they are. They haven't figured it out because they are going by the books of what others have been telling them, like their teachers are directing them to do right, and I think so I was speaking a lot about that. I think there was a lot of discussions around how do you work with your parents as well? Right, because I think, as, coming back to our cultures, a lot of us are, many times our parents are very involved in our lives, as compared to what I've seen, you know, in North America and other places, which is a good thing, but it comes with its other side as well, where sometimes, because our parents have had different lives. They tend to. They love us and that's why they tend to guide us in exact that direction, which may not always align, and a lot of students were struggling because they're like I really want to do this, but my parents just don't allow for it. How do I figure this out? Right? So I think that was another piece.

Ritika : 1:10:34

The third piece was a thing around just empowering communities. There was an ngo, again I was working with, which caters to students of children of you know, street vendors and lower underprivileged communities, and I remember I was talking to them. They have limited resources, right, and one girl she said she said I want to be a singer. And I was like, go out there and become a singer, she's like, but I don't think I can ever be that right Like she's like I think I can only clean there. And when she said that I was like what made you think that? But you know like it was just so interesting the fact that like interesting, not in a good way, obviously, but you know we have so much dictated.

Ritika : 1:11:10

Sometimes Our surroundings dictate who we, the limitations we place on us. No one is limiting her to be a speaker, but in her head that limitation has been created, that it's not a life I can ever afford because it lies beyond my pay scale today. Right, but that's not true. Right, that's your parents pay scale. Your pay scale may be something different.

Ritika : 1:11:29

So I think, just empowering communities as well by sharing my story of how I may have broken some of those glass ceilings and I mean for them obviously they have a lot more challenges than I had I'm very fortunate, but I think sharing just that perspective, being a woman, really helped them get their empowerment and I think they were just like you know, didi, thank you so much and a lot of them were crying literally, which shows you how sensitive they are and how mature they are at such a young age I'm talking about the age of like eight years, six years, right and they have gone through so much that they've become so mature at such young ages. So I think it was a lot about those kind of discussions and it was just rooms full of students.

Gurasis: 1:12:06

And instilling that sky is the limit.

Ritika : 1:12:08

Yes, for sure, yes, absolutely.

Gurasis: 1:12:09

And you also briefly talked about, you know, working with parents and I think I've mentioned it a couple of times on the podcast and mentioned it once again. I feel like our parents were just product of their own time and they just blame your parents for the maybe if they're over possessive, because maybe they have seen the world and they're little uh, you know concerned about you, they know the society around you, and also, because we live in a culture, somehow we do things based on the social ramification, ramification of things. So I think I would say, just like a maybe, uh like like a guide to students or anybody, like don't blame your, blame your parents. You know they are proud of their own time and they were trying to do the best they can at that time.

Ritika : 1:12:49

Yeah, and I think like to your point. You said it very well. It's like I think we can't blame anyone. It's your life at the end of the day, right?

Ritika : 1:12:56

100%, if you want to blame, keep blaming, right. If you want to follow, keep following, right. Right. At the end of the day, I always say to people is see, your parents and other people have a lot of things to say. Yeah, you choose who to listen to, right, and I think never be rude to anyone about it. I think, even with my parents there are things I absolutely listen to them, but there are things which I may not agree with. I don't just leave it in the air exactly, I will address that with them as well. Right, because see there your parents. At the end of the day they will understand I rather have the friction today than having it later on, right? So I think in the shorter term, don't fear the short-term friction.

Ritika : 1:13:30

Right, because, trust me, if you delay it, the long term becomes worse right, it spoils our relationship overall right, and that's why I see a lot of people their relationship growing apart with their parents, especially when they come abroad as well, because they just think they have evolved so much. Yeah, and you know, we have caught on to our lives. You've become independent, you're focusing on the now, which is your friends around you. You know the other people you have built as family here, but you sometimes forget them because they may be where exactly you left them, right, but you are not where they left you, yeah and I think that's important.

Ritika : 1:14:02

It's important to think about because you are being so ungrateful when you don't even take out some fraction of your time to give back to them, right? So I think even people like who make comments around oh, you're spending time talking to your parents, I feel like I think five minutes a day, I think, is the least they can expect out of you.

Ritika : 1:14:18

Right, If anything you owe them everything. Right Again, not all are fortunate to have the most supportive parents, but I think for the ones, for all of us that do, I think it's important we appreciate it and set good examples, because your kids in the future will treat you the same how you treat your parents. So just keep that in mind. Karma is right there, right. So, yes, don't blame them. I think they are doing their best.

Gurasis: 1:14:46

Their life still revolves around you, but you have moved on, so just make sure you still make them a part of your life. I think that's the least totally. And one thing I'll add to that is even a bit, you know, having that relationship being evolved to be actually able to have that conversation with your parents. And I say that because I come from like a very patriarchal upbringing and maybe there were a few things I could never discuss with my father, for example. Or my mother could not even like say a few things that time. Not because she could not, it was just organically not taught to her that she could right or even like.

Gurasis: 1:15:09

For example, I have two sisters and at one point I realized, I saw that my sisters had a voice, but they were just like in a certain atmosphere but they were not given the opportunities somehow through societal again you know pressures to speak. So I feel like now. I think now it does not happen with just one conversation with your parents. It's going to happen eventually with multiple conversations, using the correct words with them, maybe the right analogies to tell to them. So I think, yeah, I think this is such a great topic.

Ritika : 1:15:35

It's an iterative process.

Gurasis: 1:15:36

It doesn't happen overnight.

Ritika : 1:15:38

It's something you've got to build right. It's not like the first time I spoke to my parents about things. They were like, yeah, let's do it right. There are times where there is friction, but you keep doing it repetitively and you're very transparent, honest and authentic. Similar with social media, similar with your parents, similar in any relationship. If you're honest, transparent, that relationship will last and be successful.

Gurasis: 1:15:56

If you're not, it's going to be messy, right simple before we get into the final segment, you want to say something about the internships you guys are working on and where can people connect with you.

Ritika : 1:16:07

Yes, definitely so. We have internship programs that we're offering, mainly focused on the idea of helping you develop Canadian experiences. You know the challenges we are talking about, so if you're interested, reach out to us on our website, redefinesocial, or you can just message us on LinkedIn as well. You know all the forms are on there.

Gurasis: 1:16:27

And I'll put the links to that in the show notes if you're listening on the audio and, obviously, in the description box if you're watching this video. So, Ritika, before we get into the last final game segment, you know I have added this new segment in this season which is basically like Know your Host, where I ask my guests to ask me any question they might have.

Ritika : 1:16:42

Oh, okay. So what has been your biggest uh learning in the last six years you've been here?

Gurasis: 1:16:50

one thing which I discovered is definitely a cook within me it's, it's. It might not be the best answer, but I think I've answered this before. Also, definitely that I think I didn't know what to cook. Obviously, apart from cooking maggie, or maybe boiling few eggs, we'll make an omeletteette, maybe, yes you gotta invite me over and some amazing like palak paneer.

Gurasis: 1:17:09

I will, I will. So, yeah, definitely. I think I'm able to try different cuisines now and I've experimented. And second thing which I've learned is not to have that fear of judgment anymore. Maybe I had that a lot before once again coming back to the point of having social amplifications and taking things in mind what will people say? But at the moment I don't care anymore. That is something I have definitely uh, evolved from. Yeah, amazing, wow, perfect. So now in the final segment, ritika I call it beneath the accent I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. You can ask them in one word or a sentence, how several you feel like. The idea is just to know more about you okay, one word, it is so what advice would you give to younger rithika, and at what age?

Ritika : 1:17:48

at what age and what advice? I think when I was 10 years old, because I was not confident in myself at all, I think. So the advice I would say is yeah, hold your head high and just know that you have what it takes and keep going, keep doing what you're doing and shut your ears and that's it. Just just walk, okay.

Gurasis: 1:18:05

Yes, and tell me about an experience where you had a significant cultural shock.

Ritika : 1:18:11

Cultural shock. Yes, the first time I remember I had a cultural shock. So one of my friends her name is Marna, she's based out of Vancouver, she is, I forgot from where she is, but yeah, she's from somewhere and she follows the same North American traditions. So I remember we had finished our class at 4 pm and she was like do you want to go grab dinner? I was like dinner For Are you serious? Like this is my lunch time, like late lunch or maybe like tea time. Right, I was like let's get coffee.

Ritika : 1:18:40

She's like no, I eat dinner around this time. I was like shocked. So that was one of the biggest cultural shock pieces. We had dinner at like eight yeah right, or maybe early, dinner is like seven, but 4 pm. I was like this is too much.

Gurasis: 1:18:52

So that was one of the biggest things for me definitely okay, one dish that brings the most comfort and nostalgia, oh my god, rajma rajma, oh, I love it.

Ritika : 1:19:01

My colleague recently asked me what can I cook for you, because he is amazing at cooking and I was like I'm missing home.

Ritika : 1:19:06

So he cooked me rajma chawal and it was the best thing ever any funny story related to your accent or english yes, I don't know if it's relating to my accent, but I remember when I first day of university, when I was in my part of our you know the onboarding sessions that we have someone in my group. She was from Canada itself and she asked me wait, aren't you from India? I said yes, I am. She's like do they speak English in India? I said yes, they do. Like she was just shocked that I was from India and the fact that I could speak English and I was like Britishers colonized us for quite some time.

Ritika : 1:19:39

In case you forgot.

Gurasis: 1:19:41

So that was just interesting. Yeah, of course. Okay, what's your favorite cultural celebration? Or like a festival in Canada of yours?

Ritika : 1:19:50

Like a Canadian culture, yeah.

Gurasis: 1:19:55

Something like Thanksgiving. I was really fascinated by.

Ritika : 1:19:57

Christmas I really like because I feel like I've known of the concept of Christmas, never really celebrated it. So that one, yeah, okay.

Gurasis: 1:20:04

A tip for fellow immigrants adjusting in a new country be yourself and uh get out there okay, who was your first friend that you made in canada and are you still in connect? Just near okay, you still in connect with? Yes, yeah, okay, uh, what is this? Something that you ate for the first time in canada? Poutine. Did you like it? No, no, okay, this is the common answer on the poutine, or even the following one no no, no okay, and what's this one law that you would create that everybody has to follow?

Gurasis: 1:20:40

in canada or anywhere else in general, just a law that anybody has to follow.

Ritika : 1:20:45

You have to do at least one kind deed every week.

Gurasis: 1:20:48

Okay, yes, and how would you describe Canada in one word or a sentence?

Ritika : 1:20:55

Complicated.

Gurasis: 1:20:58

Okay, and lastly, what advice would you give to me before leaving?

Ritika : 1:21:04

Do what you're doing, okay, keep doing it, no matter what thank you?

Gurasis: 1:21:09

and finally, how would you describe your experience being on the podcast?

Ritika : 1:21:14

enriching. Okay, yes, different. I always said this to you, right I? I go to a lot of podcasts. I keep asking the same questions and I get bored of it because I'm like my audience might be wondering why she's saying the same things, but it's like the question is the same. So I felt like there were different pieces we touched on.

Gurasis: 1:21:30

So yes, okay, very, very glad to hear that. Thank you so much, ritika for being on season two. I would say thank you for coming back once again yes, yeah, and now in person, then you know online so different about the in-person thing, right?

Ritika : 1:21:43

yeah, I'm excited, I'm looking forward to the content coming out and hopefully the audience can, you know, feel the the energy in the room of kind of the passion that we have towards immigrants and newcomers.

Gurasis: 1:21:52

So, yes, looking forward to it awesome and it's almost 4 30, let's go grab dinner. Yeah, all right. Thank you everyone for watching and staying with me this far. Thank you so much for watching this. I really appreciate. You subscribe to this and you can listen to the audio version of this on apple podcast, spotify, google podcast, amazon music or wherever you consume your podcast, and you can all check out the previous episodes, as well as my previous conversation with ritika, on all these audio platforms as well. So until then, take care, bye, bye, and let's continue knowing each other beneath the accent.