About me

What's in a name? ....apparently a lot!

In India, where I was born and brought up, children are often named symbolically and intentionally. My mother's name is Saroj, the Sanskrit word for the lotus flower. In India, the Lotus flower symbolises purity of mind, rebirth and transformation, resilience and strength, divinity and creation. Similarly, to my parents, my name symbolised my lineage and purpose.

My name is Sugandha, which in Sanskrit means fragrance. So, in lineage, I was the fragrance of Lotus, my mother. Symbolically, my parents wished that I remember to spread my fragrance in the form of knowledge, good will and skills to others tirelessly and selflessly. If my mother was the symbolic lotus who could bloom in the muddy pond of scarcity, early maternal loss and financial hardships, I am the symbolic fragrance from that lotus, its essence. In this journey, I owe my knowledge and skills to my mother who excelled at all things worldly and spiritual. A self -taught coach, teacher, mother, friend, designer, gardener, musician and artist. She is the reason for my lineage and purpose.

A journey that led me home.

I have worked and lived in Delhi, Bangalore and London, and presently live in Kent with my husband and our teenaged daughter. I have a double Bachelors degree, first in History (my love) and the second degree in K-12 Education (my passion) from India. I am an Early Years and primary school teacher trained in India (B. Ed, with Distinction) and the UK (PGCE with Distinction). I began my teaching journey in India in 2001, where I worked in progressive and international schools before moving to the UK. Here, I worked in inner city London, Kent town, village state as well as in an independent school.

Through my teaching journey, I reflected on what it is that enhances ability of learners. This led to my M. Ed research (Educational Leadership and school Improvement) at the University of Cambridge where I deep dived into researching conditions for learning. The result was transformative! Teacher support and flexible and effective use of space emerged as some of the important conditions in my research along with numerous others.

In my next assignment as a founding head teacher at one of its kind progressive schools in India, I put my research into practice by designing effective educational spaces, educational design and curriculum and fostered teacher development through recruitment and training. This was followed by numerous consulting assignments where I designed bespoke training programmes for schools based on their school improvement needs, working closely by consulting and coaching teachers, middle managers, heads of school, charity organisation directors as well as coaching parents.

While I was working deeply with individuals and organisations, assuming that I can do it all, at times my inner world was overwhelmed with confusion, exhaustion and a lack of rigour. I needed reflection to see if I had the right conditions to thrive.

This brought me to a path of healing, nurturing my health so that my inner sun could glow. To achieve this, I slowed down to breathe, to notice, to be fully present and to realign. I worked on my physical heath through lifestyle transformation where food played a vital role and through bringing intentional design into my life which brought deeper spiritual health.

Alongside this, unlike many school leaders, I continued my work directly with children (my first passion) in one of the most nurturing of schools, here in Kent. As I took the time and worked within me, what emerged was my moral purpose to consolidate over two decades of knowledge in coaching, designing and culinary skills into a premium, bespoke service for highly motivated individuals.

So now, I work as an education leader as well as work with my clients to co-create transformation. I facilitate mental clarity through coaching; build systematic or spatial design through design consultancy and develop culinary practice through my tailored courses. It brings together evidence informed research, ancient food science and design thinking for individuals.

To empower you to lead your transformation is my purpose.

Together we join the dots!