Before I get into my third column in the series for the readers of Design Dekko, I just thought I should like you know that the Everything Comes Together podcast has a brand new website:www.everythingcomestogether.com. Here, you can watch full episodes of my interviews with creative people from architecture, design and photography. 

You can also watch curated playlists, where each of my guests talks about a certain topic, giving you a well-rounded view of the subject. Not to mention, Season 2 of the podcast recently was launched on 7th of June 2021 -- a fascinating interview with architect & urban planner, Kavitha Selvaraj of CityWorks. 

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Now with that shameless plug out of the way, let me get back to the topic at hand, my conversations with food stylist & photographer, Shumaila Chauhan and graphic designer and visual artist, Shaun D'sa.

Not many of us can encounter societal discouragement and something akin to isolation in a foreign country, and then come back and make a name for ourselves. But that is exactly what Shumaila Chauhan did. While growing up in a military family, Shumaila was very much in her element when entertaining guests with delicious food. This was really that start in a journey to become a successful food blogger, stylist & photographer.

While in college, she planned to start a boutique cafe along with a friend. This was met by pressure to get married, suppliers not working with them as they were young women and a landlord that tried to get them to let go of their dreams of business. While this business didn't work, there was more to come.

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She got married soon after, moved to the US, lived in a small town with nothing to do. This isolation from friends and family back home prompted her to dust off her latent culinary skills and start a blog. Over multiple trips back and forth between India and the US, it became clear that giving up on her dreams was not an option.

In the interview, you'll hear her talk about how she taught herself food styling, photography, marketing herself, and how she is capable to learning and adapting on the job. These skills proving invaluable, especially during a global pandemic. My big takeaway from speaking with Shumaila is, as she is a self-taught photographer, how a formal education in a particular field like photography is sometimes overvalued. Her story proves that with discipline, a desire to learn and perseverance, you can overcome any career challenge.

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Not to mention that every time I see her food photographs on Instagram, she makes me want to eat food I know I don't like. High praise from a non-foodie. (If you are interested in food styling or photography, check out this video with Shumaila, where she breaks down what it takes.)

Shaun D'Sa's story is very different. Spending time with Shaun to prepare for the interview and then while recording, you can feel the radiating creative energy. I'd known Shaun for many years before this interview, and I knew exactly what his conversation would bring to the podcast.

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Shaun is a graphic designer and visual artist, and he partnered with his friend from college, Anek Ahuja, to start the creative agency, Whoa Mama Design.

The entire conversation revolved around one subject: creativity. How to help your creativity grow, how to foster it, how to keep things fresh and how to manage a team of creative people. For younger people: we explore the importance of keeping creative company, finding the right mentors and partnering up.

There are many things I can mention from our interview: how his creativity was encouraged as a child, how they ran their firm on a motto of edgy fearlessness, and then how you can keep that edgy, fearless, creative energy going by keeping your mind active and firing. But let me just that this is just an interesting conversation. Many of us in the creative fields are used to meeting or working with other creative professionals who for whatever reason, choose not to share their knowledge and their craft with others. We know that this only stifles growth within the industry. Shaun talks about something to address this: A No-Ego Club.

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BRS SREENAG
Sreenag is an award-winning architectural photographer based in Chennai, India. Aside from over fifteen years in the field, he hosts a podcast called Everything Comes Together, where he speaks with people from the architecture, design and photography communities. As a creative professional himself, he understands the need to document the journeys of people who work behind the scenes for decades, simply to create. This article is a monthly feature where he highlights stories from guests on his podcast. For comments and feedback on the podcasts or the articles, you can reach Sreenag on Instagram at www.instagram.com/sreenag