Pull up a chair. The chai's still hot.

Hi. I'm Manisha Gautam Katyan — Manisha to most people, "Manishaaaa!" to my family when dinner's ready. The Katyan came with marriage, and I wear it proudly next to the Gautam I grew up with. Two names, one slightly overcommitted person.

I grew up in India, where I studied Commerce and Law at the University of Delhi. Then life did what life does and picked me up and placed me on the other side of the world, in New Zealand — where the sky is enormous, the weather has commitment issues, and finding good chai is a genuine quest.

Moving countries teaches you things no classroom does. How to start again. How to learn a whole new system while pretending you already understand it. How to be brave on Tuesday and homesick on Wednesday, and how both are completely fine.

I don't want to be defined by a single job title. I'd rather be defined by the things I keep choosing.

My working life has taken some scenic routes — hospitality management and leadership, then legal administration, property law and AML/CFT compliance. Each turn taught me something: how to lead a team through a Friday rush, how to read a document like it owes me money, and how to stay calm when everything is urgent.

Outside work, I'm a Bharatanatyam dancer, a Bollywood loyalist, a poetry enthusiast and a person who will stop mid-walk to photograph a tree. I write, I travel, I overthink, and I laugh at my own jokes before I finish telling them.

Family, friendship and gratitude hold the whole thing together. I'm a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend — and most of my best stories involve at least one of them.

I believe a person can be professionally driven and creatively alive at the same time. This website is my small proof of that. Still unfolding, still learning, still dreaming.

So — have a wander. Read something, look at something, and if anything makes you smile, tell me.