Haritha Chitta is an illustrator, animator, and storyteller whose art lives at the intersection of ancient wisdom and modern emotion. She doesn't think in words first, she thinks in pictures, and every idea she has arrives as an image before it ever becomes a script or a drawing. In this conversation, Haritha traces her path from an overthinking, image-obsessed kid in Chennai and Bangalore to the artist behind a body of work that's quietly helped thousands of strangers feel less alone. We talk about the "useless" years before she found her medium, the moment motherhood cracked something open in her, and what it actually means to build unshakable inner peace instead of performing it.Growing up across Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, and always being "the silent observer"How her role models shifted from Stephen Hawking to figures defined purely by stillness and self-awarenessThe years of feeling "useless" while searching for her purpose, even while surrounded by love and stabilityHow becoming a mother at the same time she discovered digital illustration changed everythingWhy she thinks entirely in visuals, and what that mental process actually looks like day to dayThe difference between seeking external validation and creating from her own internal compassHer definition of strength: unshakable peace that isn't shaken by good, bad, health, or diseaseWhat's next: a long-term project bringing Vedic stories to life through illustrationA Moment That Will Stay With You Haritha describes finishing a painting last November that she says she'd be at peace taking to her grave. One piece, decades of searching, and finally landing somewhere still. It's a quiet reminder that the work that matters most rarely announces itself.Connect with Haritha Instagram: @haritha_chittaListen & Subscribe Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and leave us a review, it genuinely helps more stories like this one reach the people who need them.

Four teenage gymnasts. Two back injuries. Two elbow injuries. One truth they all discovered the hard way: strength isn't built in the gym, it's built in the moment everything falls apart. Hilly, Freya, Poorvi, and Savannah sit down to talk about the injuries that took them off the floor and what it actually took to get back on it.

What We Cover

• How each of them found gymnastics, and why none of them think they chose it so much as it chose them
• What a normal week looks like when you're a teenager balancing school, work, and 12 to 16 hours of training
• The exact moment each injury happened, told in raw, unfiltered detail
• The surgeries, the casts, the six month recovery, the summer spent watching everyone else move without them
• How they coped mentally when their bodies wouldn't let them do the one thing they loved
• The first day back in the gym, and the specific moment each of them thought "I'm back"
• How their relationship with the sport changed after almost losing it

A Moment That Will Stay With You
One of the girls kept a journal for three months during recovery, writing down one thing every single day that she was excited to do again once she got back to gymnastics. She still has it at home. It's the kind of quiet, private discipline nobody sees, and it's exactly what got her through.

Listen & Subscribe
Available now on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. If this episode moved you, leave a review, it helps more people find these stories.

About This Episode

In this episode, Harry sits down with a couple whose journey spans continents, careers, and courage: Girija, an architect by training and a chef by passion, and Prashant, an AI product leader, marathon runner, and stage performer at heart. From building a life together in the US to returning to India and redefining success on their own terms, their story is about self-awareness, reinvention, and the quiet strength it takes to choose your own path even when it's uncertain.

This conversation goes deep. We talk about growing up under very different kinds of pressure, the astrologer who told each of them separately that they had no future in education, and the years Girija spent building financial independence from the ground up. But this isn't just a story about two individuals. It's about what it looks like to build a life and a partnership at the same time, through career pivots, a return home, health struggles, and the daily discipline of choosing each other.

What We Cover

• Two very different childhoods — Girija's rebellion against a joint family's expectations, and Prashant's constant moving and love of the stage

• The astrologer who told both of them, separately, that they had no future in education — and how they proved him wrong

• Girija funding her own education through tutoring and loans, and choosing architecture against her parents' wishes

• What first drew them to each other, from Prashant doing dishes at home to Girija refusing to fit any mold

• Moving from Chicago to India for Prashant's MBA at ISB, and later relocating permanently to be closer to family

• Girija's unexpected pivot from a 20-year architecture career into professional cooking, and how it started with learning to cook for herself in graduate school

• The moment Girija was told she was "as qualified as any chef" despite having no formal training

• Prashant hosting a global AI summit while sick, and what marathon running taught him about pushing through

• Girija's health struggles after losing her father and going through early menopause, and the two years it took to get answers

• What each of them leaned on the other for — and why mutual respect matters more than love in a long partnership

• Their advice to young couples: define happiness together, set boundaries with family, and let go of ego

A Moment That Will Stay With You

"I have to get education and get out. There's no way I'm going to be depending on somebody else's income."

"I think if it was anybody else, I don't think our relationship would have survived, or I would have survived this."

"You are stronger than yesterday. You are better than yesterday."

"Often there may be love, there may not be respect. I think more than love, respect is important. Once you let go of the ego, that becomes the barrier for both of you."

Connect with Girija & Prashant: https://www.instagram.com/prashant.ivaturi

https://www.instagram.com/vankayakura_n_tales

This episode is sponsored by Sri Krishna Jewellers ~ with over 50 years of craftsmanship, now serving the Dallas community from Frisco, Texas. Explore their collection at srikrishna.com or call +1 430-231-1111.