Welcome  to my site

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

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.

As part of my professional work (software consultant, trainer and author), I have, over the years, written books on process and quality, and also 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. I enjoyed 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.

Speculative fiction fascinates me, and I delve in it whenever I can. Some years ago, I was deeply involved in writing short speculative fiction (and all the fun reading I could justify as “research”). I have some published stories under my belt, including professional sales, and I am an SFWA member. Information about my creative work can be found here. My fiction writing was suspended for some years because of some other projects and responsibilities, but I am currently consolidating my involvement in various spheres and hope to squeeze out more time for this activity.

For well over a decade I was the primary caregiver for my mother, who had dementia; caregiving work, worries, and insights formed a major part of my mind-share and timeshare. Concerned at the problems being faced by caregivers in India and the lack of support and systems, I created a 90+ page website to specifically support dementia caregivers in India at Dementia Care Notes (its Hindi version is here: Dementia Hindi), and uploaded English and Hindi videos for dementia caregiving topics. My mother has passed away, but I continue to maintain/ update the online resources and also support dementia caregivers. I also blog on wordpress.com to share my experiences, observations, and concerns as a caregiver, and to share Resources for volunteers helping caregivers.

On the personal side, hmmm. I live in India with my husband. 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 also shares information and thoughts on operational excellence, process models, and performance management at Alignmentor.

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).