My editor warned me to be prepared to answer the question “why did you write this book?” once I published Fast Forward to Hope. I thought this would be an easy essay for me to pen as I clearly know the answer intrinsically. Expressing it in writing proved harder as I started and stopped doing it more than a few times.

Host Smita Tharoor asks guests from around the world to share their story and to reflect on their life experiences with unconscious bias.

Fast Forward to Hope: Choosing to Build the Power of Self recounts Indira’s journey from fear to hope as she struggled to face various challenges, particularly related to her advanced breast cancer diagnosis.

I have been wondering why it is harder this year. Why am I letting myself feel uncertain? I don’t want to squash the fears. I want to let them out. I feel like I will exhale fully tomorrow when I make it to fourteen years.

A Sikh woman who migrated to the United States from India in 1984, Indira shares her unique perspective on social and economic development initiatives around the world. In this episode, she discusses her views on the role that identity should play in program design for international development and the challenges and opportunities she has encountered along her career journey.