Founder, debater, gymnast and permanent new kid.
Paris, by way of Bengaluru.
Inspired by the fear of being average.
Bengaluru
discipline
British School of Paris
creativity
École Européenne
critical thinking
I landed at a Paris airport at nine, on my own, to join my mother and start a new life. I spoke English, Kannada and Hindi, and not a word of French. For a while the loud, lively girl I had been in English went quiet in French, because I was so afraid of getting it wrong. Learning the language turned out to be the easy part. Finding the courage to speak was the hard part.
Since then I have studied in three school systems: the discipline and repetition of Bishop Cotton Girls' School in Bengaluru, the creativity of the British School of Paris, and now the critical thinking of the École Européenne Paris La Défense, where I am completing the European Baccalaureate. Each one asked me to unlearn something before I could learn something new, and I have come to enjoy that. My friends call me a social butterfly. I prefer people reader: I listen first, work out where someone is coming from, and then find the way to connect.
I am also dyslexic. For years I thought I was simply less bright than everyone else, until I read Wonder and started asking a better question: not what was wrong with me, but how I learn. The answer was to see or hear things first and read them afterwards, and it changed everything, including my love of the English language. As Auggie says, "Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams."
"Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams."
That was the poster on my bedroom wall when I was six, and I meant it. I trained for hours every day to compete at a high level, and gymnastics taught me discipline and respect long before school did. Then a severe foot injury meant I could no longer train at the same intensity. I kept competing at a lower level, and learned that resilience is sometimes about changing direction rather than pushing straight ahead.
The injury also sent me looking for other ways to fly. In skiing I found the same feeling as my bar routine, the moment in the air and the focus on the landing, and after eight years I now ski at an advanced level. I surf and box for fun, and I have passed it all on as an assistant coach at Elan Baby Gym, where my favourite moments are when a child who was too scared to try walks the beam anyway.
At fifteen, my school offered an exchange with the European School of Heraklion in Crete, and nobody had taken it in ten years. I put my hand up. For six weeks I lived with a Greek host family and waited tables at a dinner show restaurant, mixing up orders, learning that the kitchen is always fashionably late, and discovering that every customer reacts differently to the same problem. It was where I learned that work is less about tasks than about people.
I came back with an idea. In Crete I had discovered COSEEA, the council that connects the students of the Accredited European Schools, and my school was not part of it. I pitched it to our administration and became our first representative. That opened the door to events like Euro Night, where we met students from schools across Europe.
Upcycled fashion, inspired by the fear of being average.
The original sweatpants, patched with fuzzy socks
Black T-shirt, "Inspired by the fear of being average" hand embroidered in gold chain stitch
Light blue flared jeans, embroidered back pockets: "Inspired by the fear of being average" and "Make love, make art, make out"
Black T-shirt with a cut detail at the collar
White T-shirt with a lace cross appliqué on the front and a slashed, ribbed back
Black boots reworked with chains and fringe
It started with a pair of old grey sweatpants full of holes. My mother kept telling me to throw them away. Instead, I cut open a pair of fuzzy socks and stitched them over the holes, and suddenly they were unlike anything anyone else owned. People at school kept asking where they came from, so I made more: jackets, jeans, T-shirts embroidered by hand with the line that became my signature. Soon I was selling at school fairs and on Vinted.
Rafu is the Indian art of invisible mending, and chez is French for "at the home of". The name brings together the two places that made me. Chez Rafu taught me how people decide what something is worth, why the story of a garment can matter more than its fabric, and how hard it is to build a business on pieces that can never be made twice. I design, sew, style, photograph and curate everything myself.
Shop on Vinted
I co-founded Voices United with my town hall to help children aged 8 to 10 discover English through games, theatre and storytelling, so that they experience the language rather than fear it. Every child picks a character, with picture cards and props as cues, so nobody ever has to read a script cold. I know exactly what it feels like when a word will not come, so nobody is ever rushed.
Outstanding Delegate
AI MUN, representing Singapore on the impact of AI on climate change
July 2026
Delegate
MUNPSL Crisis, as James Duane in the American Revolution
May 2026
New York MUN
a worldwide intercollegiate forum
February 2027
EU simulation
Simulation of the EU's institutional triangle on fast fashion and environmental policy, with Les Jeunes Européens France
November 2025
€10
a stall in Kolhapur
€700+
a runway in Milan
heritage arbitrage
In June 2025, Prada showed sandals in Milan that looked almost identical to Kolhapuri chappals, priced at over €700, when a pair costs around €10 at a stall in Kolhapur. I was angry, and then I was embarrassed. Why had it taken a luxury label to make me see the worth of something my own culture had always held?
I have started calling this heritage arbitrage: a craft bought at the artisan's price and its story sold at the luxury price. "Cultural appropriation" names the offence; I want a word that explains how it works, and who gets paid. My goal is to build an ethical luxury company. I do not want to take Indian fashion global. I want to change the way Indians buy luxury, beginning with how they value their own.
Inside LVMH
certificate in creation, branding, retail and client experience (October 2026)
Summer intern supporting women's financial independence through self-employment. I arrived thinking my job was to convince women to become taxi drivers, and learned that it was to understand why they hesitated, because the same decision can be simple for one person and complicated for another.
Digital marketing intern producing promotional videos for awareness campaigns on safe solo travel.
Volunteer in donation campaigns for abandoned cats.
Architecture intern on prototype development. A senior architect taught me that a sofa blocking a door is obvious in real life and easy to miss on a sketch, and that great teams value ideas from everyone, interns included.
Assistant coach, training young gymnasts with a focus on safety and progression.
Waitress at a live dinner show venue during my exchange.
⛷ 🏄 🥊 🧳 ✒️ icons:
Skiing, surfing, boxing, travelling and writing.
Languages:
Currently reading:
The Paradox of Choice, which helps me choose what matters in a world of too much information.