The Brand Called You

In this episode of The Brand Called You, we are learning about the large percentage of Indian diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America. Our guest for today, Mr. Adjiedj Bakas, is also an Indo-Caribbean and will help us understand more about his community in the Caribbean. By profession, Adjiedj is a Trend Watcher, author, TV personality and speaker.

Today, on TBCY, we have Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise engaged in providing easy access to clean water to African rural communities. It is an interesting conversation as he talks not just about his organization's sustainable work, but also claims that this serious water problem is solvable.

The power to be able to invest in an organization comes with great responsibility. Our guest for today, Anshul Jain, is fulfilling her responsibility successfully, for a very long time. She is the Managing Director of Lighthouse Funds. She is also a Board Member in several companies. Lighthouse Funds is a company that provides funds to companies in need. They operate in different ranges of companies, but the centre is always the consumer. However, they have invested in healthcare brands, wealth, digital and manufacturing brands as well. They are working with brands like Nykaa, Aqualite, CERA Sanitaryware, Fab India and many more.

Today, we have with us Mr. Subhabrata Maitra, the founder of, “A Custom Palette”, a management consultancy and investment consultancy with a portfolio ranging from food & beverage to advertising and education business. He is also a co-founder of “The Foodstore App” based in Dhaka, Bangladesh that focuses on serving food by utilizing modern technology at service. Tune in to listen about working in the hotel business, the adoption of new technology, and the impact of food on our life.

Sam Pitroda is a telecom engineer. He is also known as the Father of the Indian Computers Revolution. He is an internationally respected development thinker, telecom investor and entrepreneur. He has been credited for having laid the foundation for India's technology and telecommunication revolution in the 1980s. He was the Chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission. He has received numerous awards and recognitions including 20 honorary PHDs and is currently chairing five NGOs.

Steve Zeitlin is the founding director of City Lore, an organisation engaged in celebrating and preserving folklore, history, and community traditions. Steve believes in the idea of honoring the living legacy of stories, places, traditions through recognising the ordinary humans who are knowingly and unknowingly, consciously and subconsciously preserving it. In today’s episode of TBCY, we delve to discuss the importance of these traditions that give meaning to the concept of life. An episode that will make you feel good about the world and ponder about what we can do to preserve our culture.

This episode of The Brand Called You starts with our host, Lisa Lipkin sharing her story of the time she was living in New York City and how a phone call with Xaviera Hollander changed her life. Well, our guest for today is none other than Xaviera.   Xaviera Hollander is pretty bold and straightforward. She doesn't care about being politically correct or what others think about her. She speaks what she finds right without the fear of being judged. Not only her vocals are carefree, but her actions are quite bold too. Xaviera Hollander was in the prostitution business for many years. She did it because she felt it was the right thing to do.  She has authored many books and has also co-authored a book with Robin Moore called 'The Happy Hooker' which became the best-selling book of its time. The book is centered around the life of Xavier Hollander. In the book, she talks about the twists and turns of her life look at different stages.

It is rightly said, one can achieve anything if he/she is a student for a lifetime. Curiosity and the ever-learning nature of human beings can open a world of myriad things for them. Our today’s guest, at The Brand Called You, proves how one can achieve anything at any age with the right attitude. Steve Cohen is the founding partner of a law firm, Pollock Cohen LLP, and specialize in whistle-blowers and class action lawsuits. Before becoming a lawyer at the age of 58, Steve has worked in advertising, winning two Clio awards and publishing. He has also produced Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” documentaries. Besides that, he has served in the navy, wrote seven books, and has launched several start-ups.

Many of us dreamt of becoming a pilot or a doctor or something fascinating as children. As we grew up and started to explore the world, got to know about different things, our dreams changed.Our guest for today, Jignesh Bhate has a similar story. Jignesh tells us that both his parents were teachers, his mother used to give tuitions at home as well. So the whole ecosystem of his house was filled with studies and knowledge. When he grew up and he had to choose a stream for further studies, his father asked him to go for commerce. This is how his journey of being a CA started. Jignesh tells us that education is the only mantra for success according to his parents. Being an obedient son, he completed his CA, and after that also did LLB to increase his knowledge. Jignesh holds multiple academic degrees. Jignesh Bhate has been the topper and the gold medalist in his CA years. He is also a qualified lawyer. After that he moved to the Biotech industry.

With the pandemic and online availability of books, we cannot underestimate the job of a librarian. Picking the right material to read as per our need is after all very important. Today, we have with us Ariel Zeitlin, a senior librarian at Montclair Public Library who takes us into her magical world of books as she dives deep into her everyday job roles. She has also worked as a travel writer, and movie producer, and writer. Ariel talks about the beauty of her job, which allows people to share all kinds of stories with her. She calls it a relationship of “familiar strangers.”