Earlier today, I had an amazing conversation with a lovely woman in the UK, and it inspired me to share the real, unfiltered story behind why I started The Sattva Collective.
To be completely honest with you, last year, I was on my way to Cambridge for a day trip (and a helicopter lesson!) when I had the idea to start a charity. I looked into it, and while a charity sounded great on paper — mostly for the validation — it was complicated to set up. So, I looked into the next best thing: a CIC (Community Interest Company).
Within two weeks of that bus ride, my CIC was live. But here is the truth: back then, it was just something I wanted to add to my CV. It was about accolades. It started as a way of feeling validated by others that I was doing something right. Much like when I first started my Substack, I was just scheduling an article a week, hoping for a miracle, and leaving it at that.
The Shift
Then, earlier this year, after my surgery, something profound shifted inside me. I realised this was about so much more than me, and it was about so much more than just publishing articles. We are talking about women’s lives.
I decided it was time to bring in South Asian experts. We started with one weekly interview, and it grew. For our first anniversary on the 14th of May, we launched Sattva Day, an annual awareness day to celebrate South Asian women going through midlife and menopause. Then came My Sattva Story, giving women a platform to share the life and menopause journeys we simply do not talk enough about in our culture.
But it hasn’t been an easy road. When I started hosting our monthly meetups last year. At first, no one came. It was a little heartbreaking when you put in so much effort. I recently hosted a one-on-one drop-in session, and again, no one came. I understand why. In the South Asian community, midlife, menopause, and women’s health are completely taboo. We are so afraid that something is wrong with us, or that we will be judged, that we stay silent.
I even emailed a local temple multiple times to see if we could use one of their rooms for our monthly women’s meetups. The temple is run by men. After five or six ignored emails, I finally called them. They said they would “discuss it at the board meeting” and get back to me. A month has gone by, and I have heard nothing.
This is exactly why The Sattva Collective exists.
Breaking the Silence
Lately, since putting my heart and soul fully into this mission, we have grown immensely. We were even named the UK’s Platform of the Year for South Asian women’s midlife and menopause!
But the real reward has been the conversations. I am naturally someone who prefers to hide behind my laptop, but stepping outside my comfort zone to have these video calls has been life-changing. Almost every woman I’ve spoken to lately has cried. They cry because, finally, they feel seen and heard.
Unintentionally, we have gone global. I am speaking to women in New Zealand, Australia, the States, and India. The dilemma is the same everywhere. We want to be free and independent, but if you go against societal norms or expectations in the South Asian community, you are labelled a “bad girl.”
I know this firsthand. I am a divorcee. I remember when I got divorced, my ex-husband told me that while he would easily move on, he was going to ruin things for me because “no one wants a secondhand woman.” That is how toxic the mindset can be.
A Generational Legacy
It breaks my heart that in 2026, when we have AI and the entire world at our fingertips, women are still suffering in silence because they are afraid to break cultural conditioning.
I think about my mum often. She didn’t know she was going through perimenopause. She was actually pregnant with my youngest brother at the time, and the pregnancy was incredibly difficult. Looking back now, I recognise the hot flushes, the anxiety, the tears. My mum never used to get angry, but during that time, she did. It is heartbreaking to realise what she went through blindly, something I can’t even fathom navigating without support today.
Next year, on our second anniversary, we are hosting a major summit in central London: Thrive through Midlife and Menopause. On that exact day, my next book is releasing. It’s called Good Girls Don’t Talk About This. Until Now.
The cover features a beautiful illustration of three generations: my mum, myself, and my daughter, Khushi (who is the co-director of the CIC!).
I want to share the dedication of the book with you, because it is the true heartbeat of everything I am building:
“For my mum, for always being the good girl and for everything you carried quietly, I see it now. And for Khushi, who will never have to carry it alone and who never has to stay silent.”
I am so grateful to stand between these two generations. I get to be the one who breaks the cycle for the women coming after us.
The Sattva Collective started as an idea on a bus to validate my existence: that “I am Enough”. Today, it is a global movement. It is becoming a safe space with in-house experts and ambassadors so no South Asian woman ever has to feel alone again.
When we secure our funding, my next goal is to get Sattva Day officially registered on the global awareness directory for a lifetime. Because even though we should be celebrated every single day, we deserve at least one day a year that is entirely ours.
Thank you so much for being here, for reading, and for sharing this journey with me.
Kiran x
