The Mommy Mix Tape

Episode 18 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Dr. Ritu Shree

Parenting today often feels crowded with rules, labels, and absolutes, but there is no one-size-fits-all childhood—and there never was.
In this episode of The Mommy Mixtape, we’re joined by Dr. Ritu Shree to talk about play as a way of being, surrendering to the process, and resisting rigid narratives around parenting and development. We explore what a good enough childhood really means, how movement and stillness can coexist, and why chaos is often part of growth.
We also remind ourselves that parents are neuroplastic too—that maybe you already know enough, and learning to trust your innate strengths can make life feel a little easier.
This conversation invites us to look at our children with wonder, not worry and perhaps, to do the same for ourselves.
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Useful Resources:
1. Dr. Ritu Shree on Instagram.2. The Moving Child I: Supporting Early Development Through Movement.3. General Theory Of Love: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests.
Find Us On Instagram: Priya, Bakul, The Mommy Mix Tape.

Episode 17 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Aranyani Bhargav

Becoming a mother changes you in ways that are both subtle and profound. Some parts of who you are shift, while others remain your strongest anchor. For a dancer— whose art is rooted in the experience of living through the body—choosing to have a child is one of the most powerful decisions she can make.
Dancers speak of a heightened awareness of their body, of a deeper connection than most to movement and presence. During pregnancy, this awareness and the deeper connection come alive. 
In today’s episode, we’re joined by Aranyani Bhargav—dancer, educator, and activist—who shares how motherhood has reshaped her practice, redefined her art, and expanded her perspective on teaching, activism, and what it truly means to inhabit the body.
 
Useful Resources:
Aranyani Bhargav on Instagram.
Aranyani Bhargav, the Bharatnatyam performer on Instagram.
Vyuti Dance Company on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube.
Instagram, Facebook and YouTube pages for Re-Cognising Dance, A space for learning and dialogue on Indian dance.
Instagram and Facebook pages for IDGC, A collective of artists and humans in solidarity with the suffering children in Gaza
Some of Aranyani’s dance performances:
Natyarambha,
Dancing while pregnant, Questioning Frontality/Changing Body Excerpts feat. Shabana Azmi
Dancing while pregnant, Questioning Frontality/Changing Body Excerpts feat. Dr. Urmimala Sarkar
Dancing while pregnant, Questioning Frontality/Changing Body Excerpts feat. Avinash Pasricha and Akhil Wable
The Endless Mind
Lori
LOCKDOWNATYAM: A Day in Quarantine
Light Room Bookstore, Bangalore
Zen Shorts (a Stillwater and Friends Book) - Jon J. Muth
Zen Ghosts (A Stillwater and Friends Book) - Jon J. Muth
Zen Happiness - Jon J. Muth
Stillwater - Apple TV
Gigantosaurus, TV Show
Ratatouille
Moana
Call to Action: IDGC's appeal to speak up for Gaza's children
Link to Aranyani’s performance in New Delhi for the 31st of August 2025
Find us on Instagram:
Priya, Bakul , The Mommy Mix Tape

Episode 16 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Kavita Nehemiah

Motherhood often begins with hope—with dreams, plans, and the growing anticipation of new life. As the bump grows, so does a deep and quiet sense of responsibility.But for 1 in 4 pregnancies, that journey ends in loss.
It’s a kind of grief few talk about—a heartbreak that often has no ceremony, no ritual, and no shared mourning. Bereaved parents are left to grieve alone, their pain invisible to the world.
Today on the show, we meet Kavita Nehemiah—a mother who has turned her loss into a collective healing experience. Through her work, she’s creating spaces and communities where loss mothers can gather, be witnessed, and find strength in each other.
 
Useful Resources:1. Kavita's personal story of loss.2. After Baby Loss Blog.3. After Baby Loss on Instagram.4. Kavita Nehemiah on Instagram.5. Kavita and Dhruv's current Favourite book set.6. Funky Rainbow Book Store.7. Lightroom BookStore.8. The Grand Chapati Contest - Asha Nehemiah.9. The Mystery Of The Secret Hair Oil - Asha Nehemiah.10. Meddling Mooli and the Blue-Legged Alien - Asha Nehemiah.11. Trouble With Magic - Asha Nehemiah.
Find us on Instagram:
Priya, Bakul, The Mommy Mix Tape.
 
 

Episode 15 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Dr. Sucheta Tiwari

The being and becoming of “mom” is often fraught with contradictions. The experience of Motherhood is frequently betrayed by the institution of Motherhood — by the expectation of stepping into a role rather than remaining a person.
The powerlessness, rage, ambivalence, demoralization, and weariness brought on by this new identity are often pushed into the darker recesses of experience — yet every mother has felt them, at some point, in some measure.
Everyone with an opinion polices Motherhood; judgment seems to come with the territory.
So, how does one navigate and enrich her own experience, while building resilience against the very real challenges that Motherhood carries within?
On the show, we have Dr. Sucheta Tiwari. Sucheta is a mum to a two-year-old and a psychiatrist with a special interest in women’s mental health, particularly during the perinatal period. She studied public health at Oxford, where she explored the impact of intimate partner violence on women’s health, and she is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Sucheta works as a speciality registrar in London and has completed her training with a perinatal mental health team and a mother-and-baby psychiatric unit.
 
 
USEFUL RESOURCES:1. Of Woman Born - Adrienne Rich.2. My Daughters’ Mum, Immortal For A Moment - Natasha Badhwar.3. Natasha Badhwar’s Substack.4. Matrescence - Lucy Jones.5. The Gardner And The Carpenter - Alison Gopnick.6.Why Love Matters - Sue Gerhardt.7. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read - Phillipa Perry.8. (M)otherhood - Pragya Agarwal.9. There’s No Such Thing as Naughty - Kate Silverton.10. All You Need Is Love - Shelja Sen.11. Hello, Mum - Polly Dunbar.12. There are Moms Way Worse Than You - Glen Boozan.13. Elephant in the Womb - Kalki Koechlin.14. Oh Crap! Potty Training - Jamie Glowacki.15. The Dreams of Matrescence, an article by Sucheta in FemAsia Magazine16. Dirty Mother Pukka - Podcast By Anna Whitehouse.17. @parentingtransaltor - Cara Goodwin.18. @kalkikanmani - Kalki Kochelin.19. @bacchon_ki_doctor - Dr. Madhavi Bharadwaj
 

Episode 14 - The Mommy Reset

The unpredictability of motherhood is something we face every day. No one can truly prepare for a giggle fest or a tantrum—you just have to roll with it.
The mommy meltdown, however—whatever form it takes—is a critical reset for all of us.
There are moments when we need to “force quit” and take stock of everything happening within us.
How we carry both triumph and shame throughout our journey is essential to staying true to our essence.
In today’s episode, Bakul and Priya share how, sometimes, we need to pause our passion to understand context, crisis, and the way forward.
 
Find us on Instagram:
Priya / Bakul / The Mommy Mix Tape
 
 
 

Episode 13 - It's All Good With Shena Gamat

When we think of the mothers who have inspired us, our minds go to women who hold motherhood with a distinct lightness and nurture themselves and their children with palpable joy and easy wisdom.
Shena Gamat is someone who fits the bill. Her work in theatre and with the Rock Street Journal brought together young people and gave them the space and vocabulary to thrive, much before the dawn of social media. Her beautiful daughter Aditi, Dot. is a veritable treasure trove of talent and a true reflection of her mother’s inimitable spirit. Shena has found a way to redefine herself with every passing decade and embodies the transformative power of self-awareness and resilience.
Currently involved in her start-up, “It’s All Good”—a platform for joyful living and curated retail experiences—Shena brings to this venture several decades of experience in the performing arts. She has worked as a theatre practitioner, founder of the theatre company Barefoot, and co-founder of the music magazine The Rock Street Journal. Shena was the Show Running Director for the production Zangoora at Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon.
In 2012, she initiated “The Dog Would Know”, an effort to bring theatre games and experiences to public spaces across the city. (The documentation for this is still available at The Dog Would Know blog if you are interested.)
Shena also worked in the social sector as Programme Director at the Society for Labour and Development, Delhi, where she developed and managed an arts-for-social-equity program and cultural centre. Additionally, she is an active and versatile voiceover artist, having lent her voice to documentaries, corporate films, IVRs, ads, e-learning projects, and audiobooks for both adults and children.
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Find us on Social Media:
Priya Mathews, Bakul Dua, The Mommy Mix Tape, Shena Gamat, 
 
 

Episode 12 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Tanushree Seth and Tena Pick

Self Actualised Motherhood - Redefining success, Self Worth and Productivity
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As Adrienne Rich puts it “All human life on the planet is born of woman. The one unifying, incontrovertible experience shared by all women and men is that, months-long period we spent unfolding inside a woman’s body.”
Today's episode we delve into a deeply personal and insightful exploration of feminism and Motherhood with our guests Tanushree Seth and Tena Pick.
They show us that self-actualised motherhood within a capitalist construct is achieved through radical equality, focusing on emotional intelligence and rebuilding ourselves without shame or guilt. Our conversation highlights the value of developing compassionate language for ourselves and how motherhood can be a truly healing experience if we let go.
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Tena pick Bio
 
Tena Pick is a social impact consultant passionate about women empowerment, community development and social impact measurement. She is based in India with extensive experience in the Middle East, Caribbean, Africa and South and Southeast Asia. She is the Founder of Project Kal, a gender leadership academy focusing on dismantling toxic masculinity patterns in India. Project Kal works in the prevention of gender-based violence by proactively and intentionally engaging men in the greater conversations around equality. As a Founder, Tena works with schools, corporations, universities and social enterprises around India. Project Kal also focuses on policy advisory and thought leadership in the gender and development space. She is also co-founder of Parenthesis, a feminist parenting platform. She lives in Bangalore with her husband, Josh, and her soon-to-be 4-year-old son, Leo.
 
Tanushree Seth
 
Tanushree is a seasoned business leader with 16 years of experience in the US, India, and Southeast Asia. After graduating with an MBA from the Wharton School, Tanushree joined Booz & Co. in NYC where she advised leading fortune 500 companies in beauty, personal care, wellness, and fashion on marketing and growth strategy, turnaround, restructuring, and retail operations. She then joined Estee Lauder Companies in NYC to lead growth strategies for 30+ prestige beauty brands across makeup, skincare, haircare, and fragrance. She moved back to India after almost 2 decades in the US, to run the business in India for Estee Lauder, Tom Ford, and several designer fragrance brands. More recently, Tanushree launched an acne-focused brand with $2M in pre-seed funding, which she exited last year. Tanushree lives in Bangalore with her husband, Raja, and two kids, Nirvaan and Tara.
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Find us on Instagram:
Priya
Bakul
The Mommy Mix Tape
Tena Pick and Parenthesis
Tanushree Seth
Podcast Mention:
The Mommy Mix Tape on The Seen and The Unseen - Figuring Out Motherhood
 

Episode 11 - The Mommy Mix Tape With Pooja Pande & Swaati Chattopadhyay

Motherhood is best described as a roller coaster ride through social, personal, and emotional highs and lows. From the ecstasy of holding your baby for the first time to the depths of despair that come with the baby blues.
Within the Indian context, we have layers of imagined social propriety and cultural narratives that define the visceral reality of motherhood but rarely invoke a deeper understanding.
On the episode today we have Pooja Pande Author of Momspeak - the funny bittersweet story of motherhood in India. Also joining us is Swaati Chattopadhyay, a writer, dancer, and entrepreneur who contributed her own life-affirming experiences to the book.
Links:
Find us on Instagram:
Priya, Bakul, Gunjan, The Mommy Mix Tape
Swaati's Substack
 

Episode 10 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Soumini Menon

As we form life-affirming connections with our kids the value of persistence and resilience grows. Each one of us is wired uniquely. For parents with kids who are on the spectrum, forming connections and coping mechanisms run parallel and this goes hand in hand with navigating life in a neuro-typical world.
Soumini Menon, a seasoned developmental psychologist and arts-based therapist. In our conversation we explore aspects of neurodiversity and the path for parents towards acceptance, advocacy and allyship in order to create positive role models for our kids.
 
Recommendations:
Out Of Sync Child - Carol Stock Kranowitz
The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida
Empathy, Education and Inclusion: A Guide to Real Friendship - Emma Liu
Neurodiversity, The New Normal - Cynthia Coupé
Reimagining Parenting In A Neurodiverse World - Allison Burgess
Much Much Spectrum, Instagram Profile
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Find us on Instagram: Priya, Bakul, Gunjan, The Mommy Mix Tape and Soumini Menon

Episode 09 - The Mommy Mix Tape with Natasha Badhwar

Most of us seek to surround ourselves with people who wear their Authenticity with a certain ease. There is a decidedly transformative power in unabashedly unique women, those who have learnt to embrace all  their idiosyncrasies and celebrate their wonderful worlds. None more so than our guest today- Natasha Badhwar- Her books My Daughters Mum and Immortal for a Moment are the perfect starting point for anyone looking to rejuvenate their life force. 
Show Notes:
Natasha’s website: https://www.natashabadhwar.com/ and her social media handle: Instagram  ,Twitter , Facebook and Substack.
Her books: Immortal for A Moment and My Daughter’s Mum.
Her recommendations: How Children Learn and How Children Fail
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Our Social Media handles, The Mommy Mix Tape, Priya, Bakul and Gunjan