Welcome  to my site

I am a muddled collection of multiple roles, the predominant ones currently being writer, caregiver, and resource person for dementia/ caregiving.

I write stories that insist on coming out, even if they get mangled in the process. I write serious stuff and fun stuff as part of my professional work and my volunteer work. I write about personal things that touch me, and things that make me wonder. And when I am puzzled, I write to understand things.

Writing helps.

Speculative fiction fascinates me. I am currently enjoying the process of writing it and learning a lot in the process. Information about my creative work can be found here. I am also using these pages to share resources with other writers (some day, hopefully, I’ll expand this section).

As part of my professional work (software consultant, trainer and author), I have written books on process and quality, and have recently published a business novel, Aligning Ferret: How an Organization Meets Extraordinary Challenges. The story uses a crisis in a fictional organization to explore concepts of strategy and performance management systems for organization-wide alignment. What made it fun to write was creating and depicting a very normal ‘hero’ who faces extraordinary challenges at work even as he struggles for that ever-problematic work-and-home-life balance. No stodgy, preachy stuff here. I’m thrilled to see the book getting good reviews.

My mother has dementia; caregiving work, worries, and insights form a major part of my mind-share and timeshare. For years, I handled this solo, but now I am part of support groups and communities. Initially, I set up some pages to share dementia caregiving resources on this site.  Then, as I was drawn deeper and deeper into helping out with dementia awareness programs, and with training caregivers, I decided to do a more thorough job. The result is an extensive website for caregivers handling dementia patients in India. This site, Dementia Care Notes, contains information on dementia and caregiving in India, lots of material for caregivers, as well as links for resources. I have also included (and keep adding to) interviews of dementia caregivers and experts from India, to give a wider perspective of dementia caregiving in India.

I also blog on WordPress about dementia and caregiving and life choices; this includes a blogfest I do every year where I blog every day through January.

For other updates, on the small and random parts of my life, I occasionally post on my other blog, Zigzag Musings.

On the personal side, hmmm. I live in Bangalore, India, with my family. My son, Vipul Naik,  is currently enrolled in the graduate studies programme at The University of Chicago. Hubby Rajesh Naik is a consultant, juggles a lot, and barely has time to update his web site though he keeps saying he will do it.

And I love dark chocolate (you mean there are people who don’t?). I also love reading books and taking long walks when time permits. I am at my creative best while finding excuses, I mean reasons, to avoid socializing. My personality type is INFJ, which matches well with hubby (ENFP) and son (INFP).