Welcoming Ish, aka my twin, to the podcast! She and I dive into how our values as our south asian immigrant parents, her's from Punjab and mine from Pakistan, raised us in the Bay Area while implementing their cultural values.

We touch on the differences in how boys and girls are raised and the challenges in those differences of expectations and treatment. We both offer unique perspectives that align and misalign at times and shifted the conversation to specifically how it has translated into our friendships, college life, perspective of life, and dating. Further topics on childhood trauma, societal pressures, self-perception, desi values, the American system, the different versions we live of ourselves, building a relationship with your parents, and the importance of cultural exposure. We hope to open these conversations within our Desi American community.

I cannot thank Ish enough for joining on the episode. Her perspective is so unique from my own that I really valued having her on, especially because we have so many of these productive conversations all the time, and I am ecstatic to share our ideas with my listeners. Love you, Ish!

ENJOY

Welcoming my roommate to the podcast, I was truly grateful to hear her story. We began by sharing how we met and became roommates, reflecting on the value of living with people from similar backgrounds—how we all in a way automatically understand each other as we make some of the best college memories that we will remember for many years to come.

Merriam opened up about her hardships and how she overcame them, highlighting the skills she developed through her journey with therapy. We discussed the importance of falling, getting back up, and growing from challenges, as well as the internal struggles from childhood that many of us are still learning to heal during college and early adulthood. This episode was incredibly playful, heartfelt, and therapeutic, and I was honored to have her on.

ENJOY

Welcoming 2025 in basically March... but HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway as I haven't recorded since last year and wanted to share how I celebrated in Pakistan and Malaysia. After a quick reflection on my trip, I share how much perspective it gave me as I came back to my college routine. The two main pressures I talked about in my last semester of college are post-college plan (JOB) and marriage which is a conversation my parents sprung on me. I discuss quite a bit on Pakistani American marriage and my opinions on finding my person, but I'm also curious to know what my fellow Desi Americans feel about this. A quick side step to how my cut is going, losing weight and going to the gym. Also, RAMADAN MUBARAK I hope this time brings lots of peace to everyone celebrating. Welcome back to TMT :) ENJOY