About

Namaste. I’m Deepali Patwadkar — Deepa to my family, friends, and now, to this blog as well.

For twenty years, I lived the global IT life — projects, teams, deadlines, meetings, scrums, and long workdays. I spent a few years in the USA, building a career that was comfortable, successful, and secure… but also strangely incomplete.

Something inside me kept whispering: “There is more. There is something you left behind.”

Eventually, we – Naren and I – returned home, to India. The return was not just physical, but spiritual too. Once back, I started reading Dnyaneshwari, the Marathi version of Bhagavad Gita. As if guided by my Guru, it opened a door that I didn’t know was waiting for me.

Soon, with Naren’s support, I left my IT job and enrolled for an MA in Indology. I wanted to understand India in all its layers — its Itihasa, its art, its philosophies, its stories, its civilizational journey. The more I studied, the more I realized: I wasn’t just learning about India. I was rediscovering myself.

I found young generation around me, growing up without the stories, values, and memories that once flowed naturally from one generation to the next. I met college students who had, the thirst to know their roots, a curiosity about their heritage but without the resources to authentic knowledge. In a way, they reminded me of my own younger self. They too were the inheritors of the Cultural Heritage and the Culture Identity that came with it.

Thus it began … I started sharing the stories, insights, maps, metaphors, and memories that our generation had missed… and the next generation is missing even more deeply. I wrote of Bharatiya Sanskruti, its depth, its beauty, its global reach, and its touch of Parees. Now I –

Re-connecting the Youth to the Indic Culture, One Story at a Time.

Deepali Patwadkar is a researcher, writer, and artist specializing in Indic Knowledge Systems (IKS), with focus on Epic Studies and the culture of India. She holds Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Indology.

She explores India’s epics from a multidisciplinary perspective making her work is reverent, relevant and refreshingly inventive.

Her work includes books, newspaper columns, research papers and paintings. She serves as an Adjunct Faculty for courses on IKS at various universities in Pune.

Deepali’s columns and essays have appeared in leading newspapers and magazines including Maharashtra Times, Sakal, News Bharati, Mumbai Tarun Bharat, Saptahik Vivek, and Prasad. She is frequently invited as a speaker for academic forums, cultural institutions, and corporate learning sessions. Her lecture series on the Ramayana at the R. C. Dhere Cultural Research Centre has received wide appreciation, and her talks at TATA Motors, Indic Studies, Rotary Club, MKSS School, and Indology Katta reflect her interdisciplinary ability to connect Itihasa with contemporary themes.

Her work extends into the domain of visual culture as the founder of KalaaPushpa, an initiative promoting Indian art traditions. She has produced colouring books featuring Gond, Maithili, and Chitrakathi styles. Her paintings inspired by the Ramayana and the Dnyaneshwari have been exhibited at prominent art galleries including Bal Gandharva Kaladalan and Raja Ravi Varma Art Gallery in Pune.

Deepali’s contributions have been recognized through awards such as the Samarth Puraskar (2024) and the Ranaragini Award (2023). She was also invited to speak at the G20 Conference on Sustainable Lifestyle hosted at Indus University, Ahmedabad (April 2023), where she presented perspectives on sustainability rooted in Indic traditions.

दीपाली पाटवदकर या भारतीय ज्ञानपरंपरा (IKS) या विषयाचा अभ्यास करणाऱ्या लेखिका, व्याख्याता आणि कलाकार आहेत. त्यांनी संगणकशास्त्र आणि भारतीय विद्या या विषयांत पदव्युत्तर शिक्षण प्राप्त केले आहे.

त्या रामायण आणि महाभारत आणि भारतीय संस्कृतीचा बहुआयामी दृष्टिकोनातून अभ्यास करून लिहितात. त्यामुळे त्यांचे लेखन प्रासंगिक आणि नाविन्यपूर्ण ठरते.

त्यांची अनेक पुस्तके, स्तंभलेखन आणि संशोधनपर लेख प्रकाशित झाले आहेत. त्या पुण्यातील विविध विद्यापीठांमध्ये भारतीय ज्ञानपरंपरेवरील अभ्यासक्रमांसाठी सहायक प्राध्यापक (Adjunct Faculty) म्हणून कार्यरत आहेत.

दीपाली पाटवदकर यांचे लेख महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स, सकाळ, न्यूज भारती, मुंबई तरुण भारत, साप्ताहिक विवेक आणि प्रसाद यांसारख्या अग्रगण्य वृत्तपत्रे व नियतकालिकांमध्ये प्रसिद्ध होतात. त्या शैक्षणिक संस्था, सांस्कृतिक व्यासपीठे, आणि कॉर्पोरेट प्रशिक्षण सत्रांसाठी नियमितपणे वक्त्या म्हणून निमंत्रित केल्या जातात.

R. C. Dhere Cultural Research Centre येथे त्यांच्या रामायणावरील व्याख्यानमालेस व्यापक प्रतिसाद मिळाला आहे. तसेच TATA Motors, Indic Studies, Sattology, Rotary Club, MKSS School, Indology Katta इत्यादी ठिकाणी झालेल्या व्याख्याने दिली आहेत.

भारतीय कला परंपरांचा प्रसार करण्याच्या उद्देशाने त्यांनी कलापुष्प ची स्थापना केली असून, त्या द्वारे त्यांनी गोंड, मैथिली आणि चित्रकथी शैलींवर आधारित रंगभरण पुस्तके तयार केली आहेत. त्यांची रामायण आणि ज्ञानेश्वरीवर आधारित चित्रांचे प्रदर्शन पुण्यातील बालगंधर्व कलादालन आणि राजा रवी वर्मा कला दालन येथे भरली होती.

त्यांच्या कार्याचा गौरव ‘समर्थ पुरस्कार’ (२०२४) आणि ‘रणरागिणी पुरस्कार’ (२०२३) यांसारख्या सन्मानांनी करण्यात आला आहे. एप्रिल २०२३ मध्ये Indus University येथे आयोजित G20 परिषदेत ‘Sustainable Lifestyle’ या विषयावर त्यांना विशेष आमंत्रित वक्त्या होत्या.