Niteesh EliasWhere are you from and what's your last name? In India, your response reveals your religion and caste. Niteesh's answer was complicated. His experience of mixedness began at home with his Catholic mother from the coastal Portuguese state of Goa and hs Protestant father from the Hindi heartland of Madhya Pradhesh. He grew up Catholic, a religion that comprises only 1.5 percent of India's population, in bustling Mumbai. Catholics were the minority even in his missionary-run Catholic high school. Growing up in Mumbai, he spoke English at home and Marathi and Bambiya Hindi with friends and people in his community. He celebrated Christmas, Diwali, Holi, and Eid. He and his friends spent summers playing cricket in the maidans (ball fields). Cricket is the one religion that unifies India, even in its current divisive era. Still, Niteesh remembers walking home from a cricket game with a school friend who said, "I'd invite you over if you were from my religion/caste."Niteesh enjoys seeking meaning and cultivating creativity at the intersection of diverse cultures and domains. Though trained in computer science, he followed his passion for human-centered design. He's conducted ethnographic studies in rural Indian villages and American manufacturing plants and designed business models and products for healthcare, safety, energy efficiency, and other markets. In his directorial role at Honeywell, he coaches managers about how biases get in our way and how empathetic listening can connect us more deeply to both customers and employees. A visual artist, he enjoys combining watercolor and digital design to create stunning book covers. With almost two decades spent at the intersection of visual design, enterprise, and human-centered innovation, Niteesh is currently interested in how innovative business models can help creativity to thrive in the artistic world. Through Freedom Tunnel Press, he hopes to help bring a diversity of stories to readers and give writers the freedom to explore their identity (or not) in ways that feel authentic to the stories that they want to tell. Read More Read Less
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