Remediation, Environmental Vlogs, and Living Simply with Indrayani Thakare

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Indrayani Thakare, a Environmental Scientist dedicated to sustainability and environmental remediation about Remediation, Environmental Vlogs, and Living Simply.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes:
2:53   Nic & Laura talk about being stuck in the mud
11:41  Interview with Indrayani Thakare starts
16:05  Remediation
28:29  Environmental Vlogs
32:51  Field Notes
37:48  Living Simply

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Indrayani Thakare at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ithakare/

Guest Bio:

Indrayani Thakare, a spirited Environmental Scientist, orchestrates a symphony of sustainability and environmental remediation, a passion kindled over three transformative years. Her journey, rooted in childhood, bloomed from her parents' sustainable ethos. She fell in love with hiking since the first nature camp she attended with her younger sister, where she realized that nothing would make her happier than working outdoors to preserve Mother Earth. She insists on embracing the cradle-to-cradle philosophy in one’s lifestyle and experiencing the bliss of simple living. 

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

Laura  
Welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental nerds Nick and Laura, on today's episode, Nick and I talk about being stuck in the mud. We interview into Dockery about remediation, environmental blocks and living simply and finally playing in mud makes you happier. I have no sources for this other than my own childhood but I also found it on the internet so it must be true. There we go. That would be Nick. Yeah. I have to have shoes on and socks. I don't like to be dirty or have dirt on my hands or feet. would not make me happier.

Nic  
That's fine like half of your career Wow, we're not gonna do things even now. How about that

Laura  
right now even when we got on the boat like after sampling I do like pushes back on.

Nic  
Yeah, it's funny. That's funny.

Laura  
Alright, so that hit that music

Nic  
South Carolina of any PE is pleased to announce their next Lunch and Learn on the US Army Corps of Engineers section 408 program. The Army Corps Christopher Mims, the section 408 Program Manager will be the featured speaker. Topics include what the program is, what are the civil works projects in South Carolina? What permissions are required to alter a Civil Works project? How does one apply for Section 408 permit what is required and successful for a permit applications and what are some section 408 permitting examples in South Carolina. The event will take place on March 8 at 11:45am Lunch will be provided but there is no virtual option for this event. Attendees must register by Friday, March 1 2024. Please visit www.na p dash sc.org to register.

Laura  
And now it's time for our 32nd sponsor. Fun Time with Nick. Ready,

Nic  
cool. You know, everything you can do a corporate event and you're like, what's the thing we could all do that we're all terrible at but nobody cares. And it's bowling right? And you think oh, this will be fun. Nothing bad will ever happen. But no matter what, whenever you do it yeah, the next day your shoulders hurt. Well, that bummed me out. We actually provide you bowling insurance. That's right. We're gonna give you insurance for when your arm falls off. Two days. After the event. So it's just 17 payments and 99 and I promise you that we will repair your arm. Maybe it'll be robotic, maybe not who knows? But we will give you a new one and that's how bold meow.com And yes we also have cats.

Laura  
Hey, 30 seconds on that dark. Blue. Oh.

Nic  
Also Seriously, my arm hurts from Bowling.

Unknown Speaker  
So it was a bit of truth.

Laura  
Let's get to our segment.

Nic  
I think we've talked about getting stuck in the mud before but

Laura  
like since we literally or figuratively I mean literally.

Nic  
Literally, maybe we can do both. I don't know. I think we both have stuck in the mud stories. I think I've got two. And I know you've got I think you've got at least one

Laura  
well, I'm a Gen X person. So when you talk about stuck in the mud, my brain immediately goes to our tax and the sadness. swamps of sadness. That's like, you know,

Nic  
the darkness in there is yeah, my age

Laura  
was traumatized by that.

Nic  
What is that, by the way? For those of you I love you for that same? Yeah.

Laura  
Neverending Story was like my mom used to yell at me watching that again on repeat in my house if it came on if it came on was it like Turner network channel or something showed movies you would just watched it? You know, like, it wasn't like before we like on demand. It just it came on and you were like I'm sitting on the couch. For the next two hours. And yeah, when the horse our tax is is not the kind of thing we're like. Our tax is supposed to get out of the swamp where he's thinking but he doesn't and like the first time you saw that as a kid you're like ball. I mean, I still cry when I see it

Nic  
now but even thinking about it is very sad. Yeah,

Laura  
yeah, but as a kid, you're like, Isn't he supposed to get out of there? Didn't get out. Is he gonna show up later?

Nic  
He's gone too sad to continue. Yeah, yeah. So moment and movie history. No kidding me but every kid you know you get those moments I Bambi was like one of the originals where he's asking for his mom and he's just like, Oh, no. And yeah, it's crazy to do that. How do we get here by the way? I'm gonna cry already. I can't do this. It's too early. Yeah. So do you have a lighter month story than that?

Laura  
I mean, my second place my brain goes is seagrass monitoring, and there's just some of the seagrass beds you can walk in and then there are some in estuary where you're like sinking to your knees. And yeah, and it's just it's like, you know, it's in there. And it's kind of scary and gross and but it's just interesting how the different substrates are, are different but yeah, that's the one stories and then oh, no, I've never actually like got stuck. I don't recall like in a truck or something like that. Doesn't mean it didn't happen. I just don't remember it.

Nic  
Yeah, block out the bad, right. But you, I mean, what are you talking about the salt marshes and you know, esterase like that is like the monkey is my theory is that I have seen someone literally not just down to their knees, but all the way down to their waist. So to one step and then shoot. Like we had to, like, get two people to pull this person out because it was so stuck. But now I mean, I'd say the power of safety protocols, right? I remember, as a grad student, you know, when you're young, you kind of like I don't need people to be with me. I could do all this by myself. I don't need help, blah, blah, blah. But I do remember my advisor, one of my advisors telling me, if you ever get stuck in the mud, sit down. And I'm like, why? He's like, sit down. He's like, and then try to get air underneath your booth, which you can't do when you're standing because you're putting all of your weight on that spot and say like, it's just gonna sink further and further and further. So you could displace your weight and you lean back and you can start working your booth out and then you'll hear the air go. And then it will come it'll come right up. And that was actually like disturbingly accurate I don't know how I did that was so and that's exactly what happened to me. So I actually was trying to find there was always one turtle when I was doing my turtle research that literally would cross the swamp and no matter which side I picked it was always wrong. And they would do like, I would do it three days in a row on one side and three days and on the other day, day four is definitely gonna be over there and then he'd come over I'm like you, you know. So yeah, this one particularly is like, you know, I'm gonna find the narrowest part of this swamp and I'm gonna walk across it, and I can do this I believe in myself. And it's, you know, data of summer. Human is all get out and there is no no trees. This is just a swampy, gross mess. And I am like, I start to get across and I'm like, halfway across and then stuff by myself again for this. And then like, I'm like, Oh, I can't get my foot out of this thing. And I'm like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta do what he said. See if that works. Otherwise, this is my home. And yeah, sure enough, it worked. I sat on my butt and wiggled myself out and then crawled back. About a third of us, I could have been cursing that turtle even more than I was already, you know, so that was a life lesson. You know, there's a reason you don't walk across the pond. Which I should have known right, but I was just really frustrated. I was like, how did he do it again? How was he on the other side again? And so yeah, me. Maybe that's my testosterone got the best of me that day. I don't know. I'm like I'm walking across this. No one stopping me. Oh, except this one. I'm so sorry. So sorry, small.

Laura  
Turtle was on the other side. Yeah, right. Just laughing

Nic  
It's too funny. And so yeah, that was a good life lesson. And you know, you gotta really do you need to be out there with somebody else too. Because if I couldn't have gotten out of there, like, it's, you know, bad reception, and people know that I'm out there, but they don't know where I am out there. Could they have found me probably, but you don't know how long it'll take. And that's kind of scary to think about truthfully. Yeah, it was really, it was a bad decision that I made that day. So

Laura  
yeah, I used the simple single armies turbidity monitoring sites when I first started working at the government and like, I was adamant. I was like, No, we're going to bring to people this is ridiculous, because we were like climbing up on things and on solid banks. And I'm sure you know, I'm like, I must have stuck in the mud stories that are just blocked because it's kind of like, I feel like I remember losing shoes. I remember like getting on the boat in the boat is full of muck on the bottom of the boat. So people are traveling around and muddy spaces and get back on the boat. And like, yeah, so I was just like, blocked this out of my brain because I mean, it's kind of like no fun also to lose your shoe fall over. Covered everyone. Yeah, but hey, good times. You got to do it for science, right? Yeah, exactly.

Nic  
Exactly. And that was really fun. I mean, even being stuck was kind of funny. I was mad at the time but like not really. You know, it's a good time. It was just kind of an amusing story. For later. I was like, I got stuck in the mud today, guys, you know? I look terrible. I looked like I had been through a war. Yeah, that will happen to you. We

Laura  
can tie that back to the figuratively part where you know I'm down in the box stuck in the mud. Just you know, you can laugh about it later.

Nic  
I mean, you know, it's funny you say that, like, that's the kind of thing when you get stuck in the mud. Like literally, you're supposed to take a sacking don't panic, and sit on your butt and think about and that's a good advice. Actually. It's not good. Theater ugly, so there you go. Yeah. But yeah, it is interesting. I think a lot of times we get no point or what do they say every like seven years or something like that. You kind of need to do something different because your brain has just kind of moved on. Even if you have and you're done with it. You know how to do the thing you know the rhythm of the job. So you need a new challenge. That kind of keep yourself engaged and invested. And sometimes that's where people will get stuck is like, Hey, I'm doing the same thing over and over again. And even even if it's different, it's still the same. I know how to do it. It's kind of funny. It's like I was in a call yesterday and you know, one of our leaders at Dawson it's like, just trying to take a call from a different place. Trying to take a call from like if you're working from home, go to a coffee shop, go to have some play, you know, go to a park and just take a call from a different spot. It's gonna give you a different perspective. Different angles, the

Laura  
mayor under your shoes. Yeah, right.

Nic  
So call that man with the let go of you. You know, that's how you now look at that. Life advice you know before noon.

Laura  
Interview cool. Welcome back to EPR today we have Andrea Safaree, a dynamic environmental scientist dedicated to sustainability and environmental remediation on the show. Welcome.

Indrayani Thakare   
Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Nick. Thank you for having me here. Awesome.

Laura  
I'm super excited to chat with you today because we were just talking behind the scenes about how you know your boots on the ground person and your first podcast. I'm super excited to chat with you and learn more about the work that you do. But also super excited about our conversation about how you got your name and then that ties right into our first question about how did you get such a passion for eco conscious living?

Indrayani Thakare   
So my parents are a nature lover and they try to inculcate that in me was growing up my grandparents are farmers by their occupation. And they told us though value of every single grain like I literally remember picking up grains after the harvest, to make sure that not a single grain is wasted. And that's how like that inculcated the importance of every single food grain in my life at a very young age. And then I remember like a prominent stage in my life was a camping trip that my father sent me and my younger sister, and it was like completely in nature. I guess it was the first time that me and my sister were all on our own, without our parents and with complete strangers. And we were we were in this hilly area, and that helped us bond with each other for sure. And then when I was like hiking and taking a little lead role in managing the group, I love that.

Laura  
Were your brother help? How old were you?

Indrayani Thakare   
I was in my middle school.

Nic  
No, yes.

Indrayani Thakare   
So and I was like, Yes, this is what I want to do. And yeah, that was that my like route to have to do something in my life, which is related to nature for sure. Maybe not initially, but I found my way. I found my way to enrollment ultimately. That's

Laura  
cool. So from there, did you start taking classes in school? What did you do next? Or do you just work camping?

Indrayani Thakare   
So after the camping trip, where I decided that this was what I wanted to do, I started getting enrolled in my schools and more mental clubs, and things like that. In India, that national animal is tigers, there was a safe Tiger petition going on. So I participated in that. And that was super exciting. So wherever I went, like kept going in my high school or in my undergrad, I was always part of an enrollment club. And that's how I tried to keep myself related to the enrollment activities. And then when it came to planning a career in enrollment, that was really when I was actually working in corporate. And then I was involved in the corporate social responsibility activities. And they were like big on their CSR activities where they were emphasizing electronic waste recycling, because the IT company is one of the largest contributor of the E waste. So they were emphasizing the E waste recycling. And I was like, This is great. I mean, and I asked them like how can I be part of the CSR like full time? I don't want to do the IT staff I want to be in CSR completely. And they were like, Oh, you gotta take education degree for that. And that's how I was like, Okay, I went through a lot of school programs in India in the US and other countries, and I found a great program at New Jersey Institute of Technology. I did my masters there. It was really great. It was during the COVID time though, so I missed out a little on the campus time, but I wouldn't say that I missed out on any of that my experiences there. So it was great. And then after my graduation, I started looking for a job that will give me field exposure. And that is how I landed in my current job right now. As an unknown scientist.

Laura  
That's great. We talk a little bit about what you do. So why don't you share that with our audience? So tell us like this morning you were out in the field. So what we're doing so

Indrayani Thakare   
I was conducting Stormwater Pollution Prevention inspection. So basically, there are sites which have been redeveloped or which have not been redeveloped. There is always a source of water on those sites. And that water needs to be protected from the soil erosion from the soil getting extended. So, there are some barriers which are like setup on the site. And you need to like after every rain event you have to make sure that the soil erosion barriers are working properly. So I was literally today I visited Kearney and then Staten Island and another site in Jersey City all morning to make sure that everything is functioning properly. It was raining a bit in the morning, but that's part of the job.

Laura  
Also awesome. So tell us now that you've gotten this far in your career, what are some do's and don'ts for people who are just starting out?

Indrayani Thakare   
So yes, I would love to share that. Oh, whenever, like I'm imagining myself and my day one. I was given a site where construction activities or like heavy construction activities were going on. It was a demotion in process phase of the project. And I'd never have been on a commercial construction site before. And then that was a little bit like scary to hear all those like buildings coming down and like trust me it is being undertaken under the safety measures, but when you're on a site for the first time, it is very scary to see all those building coming down and you are like very scared to even walk near Red of God. Yeah, so don't be scared about any huge are super commercial things that you see on the site, reached out to a lot of people for environmental professionals like I mean, I think you guys are doing a great job through this podcast. And like there are some groups, which are like I'm part of New Jersey. swip which is like Society of Women, environmental professionals. So I would recommend connecting to as much and woman professionals as you can not just for jobs, not just for the job. It's for any kind of seminar, conferences paper presentation that you can be part of. It's always great. So yeah, those are like do's and don'ts make friends on the site, that construction, the construction contractors, most of the construction contractors that I have worked on, where they're like 60 year old, 65 year old and they come with that experience, or 40 years in the same field. So it's a little hard to convince them that this is how the project manager wants you to do things. Because they're like, Oh, we've been doing this for a long time. Don't try to tell us but we have to tell them that this is a scientific and engineering way and yeah, it is a lot about collaboration. Any environmental job is a lot about collaboration between a lot of teams.

Nic  
That's fine. Is that what do you say? It's like you're speaking with a lot of joy in what you do, which is really really cool to hear. Is that what you say is your favorite part about it? Is it that kind of collaboration both on the job and off? Yes,

Indrayani Thakare   
I mean, the last project that I was working on in Staten Island, really gave me an amazing experience taught me even life lessons, I would say like how to really approach to people that you might be scared of some time. But then, like some of the people that I was super scared to talk to, because I always thought that they had bad tempered are one of my best friends in life and they're like, 16 year old. Yeah, they're really super, super awesome and they taught me a lot of things and you can make use of their experience to be honest, like, whatever they have experienced all their life. They have a lunch, they just pass on their lessons to you and that is great. I just think you should keep your mind open. And yeah, like make friends on the side. That's very important.

Nic  
Yeah, I love that. I love hearing that. And it's funny you say that too, is I think we've talked on the show about you know, people have a perception of what other people are thinking about them. And so does everyone else. So we're all thinking about other people are thinking about us instead of you know, really like the issue you think you have may not be the one that you actually do. So that's pretty fun, but like so so what are you learning from from these people that you've met? What are some of those life lessons?

Indrayani Thakare   
First of all, they are trying to Americanize me a lot. I had an apple pie they will tell me like 30 year old movies. Yeah. Which and they try to like that really try to tell me very funny stuff and it's hard to decide when they are pranking me and when they have things. But it's fine. Like my friend just told me to try watching the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang movie. Like, turn me into an American who's like 30 year outdated letters this like 21st 22nd century. We can help you with that. And we barely get along with our nephews and nieces. And

Nic  
yeah, so yeah. So we have like a you know, like you. You're getting great life advice from some folks in the field. But you also are doing a whole lot as well. So last year, you helped organize and participate in New York City's EDC press conference. So what was the purpose of that and what was your involvement in so that

Indrayani Thakare   
was for our client, the site I was working on, and the NYC EDC was like handing over the project for the offshore wind. So I like to give a little brief information about the offshore wind project so, you know, how all the environmental organization or the energy sector is trying to maximize the energy production and how efficient it could be. And when wind energy is one of the greatest source for the energy which is required for producing electricity or in any form of energy. So, basically, the offshore wind wind project is trying to establish this huge windmills in the middle of the sea or along the ocean, because the wind is strongest along the coolest are in between the ocean and that gives the windmill like a better efficiency to produce electricity. This has already been implemented in some of the European countries which are actually spotted from my flight trip. From India back to us. And like, I wasn't sure what it was, and I didn't notice that. This looks like a windmill. I didn't know how close we were flying from the ocean level. But I did notice it and I tried to find it on the Google Map and there is a offshore wind project out there in the ocean. So yeah, so yeah, so NYC EDC was on the site to hand over the project or part of the project on my client side, and it was great like I got to talk to so many City representatives and members of NYC EDC and I have not imagined that like through my client site work, I'll get an unfortunate talk to them. Great. And they also talked about how they are starting some initiatives in the Staten Island College for students so that they can encourage students to get training in the offshore wind or the wind energy production engineering and start training them and the jobs will be right there in Staten Island. So I thought it was great. And I was really impressed with the whole press conference feel it was

Nic  
great. That's really cool. And like Were you nervous to speak to people so many different people that are really important and prominent was it didn't even cross your mind or is it just like hey, I'm gonna go out there and say hi. I

Indrayani Thakare   
want like, I wasn't sure what I'm gonna say but like, you just have to ask them, like, what are they feeling about that? That thing that we are having a press conference about? They always have something to tell you about like, hey, what do you think about this or not super fast to base questions, but just to start an interaction. You can just ask them how they're feeling about it or what they like the most of this project and there you go. That's your icebreaker right there.

Nic  
Perfect. That's exactly. I love that. I love it. And it's like I say the curiosity you have is really, really fun. And I love to see it. One of the things we do on the show too is we love to talk to our guests about who they are as a person, not just the work that they do. So you love to read and we love to ask difficult questions. So here we go. What's the book he would recommend to our listeners, maybe something you're currently reading or something you've read or maybe an old classic whatever it is, but if it is a book from like the 1950s, maybe more current, maybe recommendation

Laura  
from one of your old construction guys.

Indrayani Thakare   
I don't know how much like they will recommend a book. I use my friends. They're like the only super construction guys in the I don't want to bust. What's their secret but they make fun of me while I'm trying to use sunscreen on the side and I'm like guys, this is this is serious and sunscreen is like just Yeah, so that's the generation gap that I face or experience on the side. They don't believe in sunscreen. But my current read is it's actually right here. Do the hard things for us to buy. Scott Allen I am not a huge fan of self help books, but I'm trying to read this because I just wanted to try. Like what this book is about like it really the title itself is very intriguing and I'm halfway there. And it's a great book about like some quick tips that you can implement every single day in your life to make yourself more productive. And I think it's growing. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. But otherwise, I love fiction books. I'm a huge fan of The Hunger game. Like it's it's an old trilogy, but they're actually they're a prequel movie just came out. So I'm waiting to watch it. So yeah, I would recommend hunger game a lot. So yeah, I don't have a lot of educational reads on my list. But my site remediation professor made us like gave us an assignment to read silence spring. I have Rachel Carson. That is like an environmental classic.

Nic  
Oh, yeah, that is that is straight up the environmental book. Pretty much. Yeah,

Indrayani Thakare   
yes. Yeah. I would highly recommend that book to everybody. It's going it's a great site. Yeah. Evolutionary actually. Yeah,

Nic  
it really really is. And it's incredible to think when it came out. There's a joke about your construction friends here but we'll we'll pass through that. You're also a self proclaimed rahmer And you're you're talking to two travel nerds as well. And you have about what 100 Hello People blog some other place you've visited since 2014. So okay, wait, what is so now you're teaching me something? What is it hello blog, people blog? What is that?

Indrayani Thakare   
So like, you know how the YouTuber era bloomed? When I was in my undergrad in from 2012 and like the YouTuber and I was blooming not Instagram that much during 2012 Right definitely YouTube era and there were so many YouTubers around. And like I always love traveling my parents, like made sure that we make a family trip every single year. And my both parents actually love taking photographs. But just like I just started like just with the photographs you wouldn't be capturing as my friend moments, definitely beautiful moments, but not as much fun moments like which which you can do with a video. So I started taking Hello People videos, and they actually say like hello people I am today. So I will say like what day it is and how's the weather like a little bit like a weatherman but Oh, that's awesome. Yes. And then I'll tell a little bit about this is what we have for breakfast are like so stupid, so silly. But then we this is what we had for breakfast and now we're doing this just do
_____________________________
Indrayani Thakare   
A little bit about this is what we have for breakfast. Totally so stupid, so silly. But then we this is what we had for breakfast and now we're doing there just to capture what we are feeling in that moment. But then later on, I kept doing it and I was like, okay, I can mention this. This is a fun fact about this place, but I'm never gonna publish it. I'm super embarrassed about how I sound in those videos. Oh, no, no.

Nic  
I don't listen to the podcast. Yeah.

Indrayani Thakare   
And I recently got a drone to like, make my like, obviously, I cannot do the hell of people. But then in drone. There are a lot of features that you can like just take an overview. So yeah, like that how people video has evolved into drone videos. Very recently, and I'm having fun. It's

Nic  
funny to say that I literally was at the beach the other day and there was a like, there were dolphins everywhere, just going go on bananas, but I couldn't see what they I mean, I'm assuming they're eating something. Right? If I only had a drone, if we only met a few days earlier, you know, I could be drunk but

Indrayani Thakare   
ya know, it is fun. I mean, I recommend non disturbing other people's privacy. Make sure that drone is on. Yeah, realizing what you capture after coming home is just awesome. Yeah,

Nic  
and maybe like 20 to 30 years from now. We'll see the videos that you made and that'll be really fun. Was still released. Okay, but before we could after that, you have to tell us some of your favorite locations and something to give us one nugget of maybe not the video but like just something that you liked, like what's a place that you really love to really enjoy? Okay,

Indrayani Thakare   
my lighthouse. My favorite log is definitely from India because I recently moved to the US like it's been like four years or so. And two years was COVID so wasn't traveling a lot. But my favorite drone shot is definitely the Vermont fall and it was just amazing. To get to record the world one fall in at its peak this last fall 2023 And yes it was mesmerizing. The colors and I have not seen like perfect fall like in Vermont and New Hampshire before that. So polar seas begin to the road. I was like, Oh, this is national geography right here. Yeah. And my favorite V log is with my family trip where I'm like I'm meeting everybody say hi, you're on the video say hello people like I was trying to teach them and my dad recorded something that was very funny when I was trying to teach them how to be in my video Love, which nobody's gonna see but they cooperate so

Laura  
that's wonderful, super fun. Well, now it's time for a little slot on our show called Field Notes, which you should be familiar with the part of the show where we talk to our guests about memorable moments doing the work in the field and encourage our listeners to share their stories using the hashtag field notes so that we can read them on a future episode. Did you have something fun or interesting scary that's happened to you since you first started doing this work?

Indrayani Thakare   
I have a very funny story from my side. So when I started on my side job that your company obviously tell you what are the safety precautions and what's the proper PPE that you should be having and carrying with you all the time, I think and one of my side was like super muddy, not risky, but super muddy, which is part of the job and like users have to forget everything and get the job done. So at that time, I had not like I forgot my readers at home and I was supposed to do a sampling which was like a lot of muddy area. And I remember being stuck till like deeper like till about my knees in mud and my colleagues trying to like really pull me out of the mud and we were like trying to do everything while keeping all the samples secure, which we had like collected. And yeah, it was it was very funny, but I was so nervous because I think it was like my initial first two months. And I was super nervous, like what my project manager would say and what they were paying that she's not capable. But on the contrary, they made sure if I was okay. All the we all laughed about it after they were like this. These are a few things something is not safe. Just make sure that your manager knows like nobody's in the environmental field. Nobody's gonna force you to like just get the job done even if it's unsafe safety. First all and monitor professional definitely should preach this, especially the managers to preach this that safety first. Whatever you do, make sure that you're safe. And I think like they were super supportive and I was like, hang on like this is this is great. This is what you want to make a

Nic  
reference to that. Yeah. I've been there. That's all I'll say I've been there. Back in the month. No joke. Oh no. That's scary.

Laura  
I mean, we've all at least lost a shoe. You know, monitoring, cigarettes monitoring but that's mud under the water. And I cannot see where it went.

Nic  
I mean it gosh, I had a person in front of me literally take a step and then their entire leg just gone like they went they went from being five foot five to you know 345 Like, instantly it was it's like oh, well don't stop there. I got it. It's crazy. That was a

Indrayani Thakare   
lot of snow and you you're not sure. Like what is underneath on a new site. Like you haven't done the complete inspection. And you're not sure where where to step and where not to skip the step. Oh, this is one more funny thing like when you keep going to a site so often, you understand this step and non step spots on so when it's freshly snows and the site is new, it's so hard to so what you mentioned Nick, like when somebody just took a step and then just went down that yeah, that is very about to

Nic  
happen. Yeah, that's why you always have to be friends. You know, that's why it

Indrayani Thakare   
makes a difference.

Laura  
Oh, okay, that makes me think of another question because I'm picturing you're from a warm place in the world. And now you're talking about watching every step in the snow. So how's that been for you? That change?

Indrayani Thakare   
Honestly, I mean, I love all the warmth. But I was I was getting tired of getting the suntan every single time and I also like, I think I enjoy the winter in the US. Not so much when you have to go on the site every day because I just like the component and cleaning the car and cleaning your work truck because like all that snows sitting on your truck and then you have to start at 5:30am for your site. So you're waking up at 4:30am cleaning the truck first cleaning all the making sure that it is safe to drive. So that is not super fun FIDE but yeah, I love. I love the code. That's

Laura  
great. All right, one more question for you. You mentioned in your profile that you are living simply so what does that mean to you? So

Indrayani Thakare   
sim simply leaving or leaving simply like you said, Laura, like I think it is really about making very mindful decisions about whenever you're purchasing every single thing, even if it's a paper napkin, making sure like its source properly, how it was produced and how sustainable it is. I mean, I said paper napkin but that's a wrong example because even paper napkins are like getting used once and they can they will be thrown out. So they're like living simply is I believe in living a minimalistic lifestyle like not having a lot of stuff and honestly it has helped me a lot like living clutter free. And when there's not a lot of things around you. It helps me to like direct my flow of thinking. So yeah, and I tried to implement it in my lifestyle as well. So using simple things, and I mean, I would, I would say that you can just make small changes to start with and once you get in the cycle, you start. Once you get into that thinking or that mindset, you started looking at everything that you buy or everything you use from that perspective. And that really helps and I think like if a lot more people start doing it which I see is happening a lot more nowadays. And it feels great to see that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Laura  
Do you have a question that I had not thought of putting on this list before the I don't know if you want to answer or not. But when I'm career coaching, a lot of times I'm asked by people, a lot of people from India actually, how can they get a job in the US after graduating? Do you have any trouble getting a sponsor or finding someone who would hire

Indrayani Thakare   
and yeah, it is tough to get like to find employees who will sponsor you but like there are a lot of tools that you can use in job search nowadays, which will like show you a list of employers who has sponsored before. So that really helped but yeah, it is tough to get sponsorship because the employer wants to know that you will be here after three years. If the sponsorship is completely it's like a lottery process. So it's not up to your qualification or anything. It is like literally, ATK people submitted the application. And sorry 800k people submitted the application and only 65k People get selected. So yeah, those are the numbers and like, more international students are coming to the US for their education and then they want to obviously take the work experience with them. So yeah, it's it is tough to convince the employer that you will be with their company, and they should sponsor you. You will have to you'll have to show your efforts. And then, like, even my employer didn't apply for sponsorship in the first year. They were like, Oh, we would like to see your work. And then they sponsored me and I luckily got the sponsorship now. Alyssa I'm on my HNB visa now. I'm not on my student visa anymore, which is a great relief because I can be in the US. I can be working in the US for a very long time now. But yeah, it's though Yeah, you picked up right. It's one of the most stressful part of the job process. Like along with being qualified for the job. You also have to kind of show them that you are you deserve the sponsorship.

Laura  
Right. Well, thank you for sharing that. Yes. I

Nic  
hate to say we're running out of time, but before we let you go, is there anything else you want to bring up before we do?

Indrayani Thakare   
Yes, I like to leave a little note that I think that we should all try to have a cradle to cradle approach to our lifestyle, which means like whatever you're buying or using, it should get used again and again. And even when you're disposing it, it should help something or someone out and that could include eco friendly purchasing, focusing on how you can reduce the waste, how you can be more energy efficient, and try to save water it's very important. Thank you

Nic  
very, very cool. Last but not least, if people want to reach out to you and ask you any or just connect with you since you know it's one of those things is really important you what's the best way for them to do that.

Indrayani Thakare   
I'm available on LinkedIn so I can my name is in writing tal Cray and my LinkedIn profile can be searched at linkedin.com/in/i T Hak care. So that's me on LinkedIn active on LinkedIn. And I can be reached out here if anybody wants to talk to me. I would love

Nic  
to connect. Very cool. Thank you so much, and I really enjoyed it.

Indrayani Thakare   
Thank you so much, Laura. And thank you so much, Nick for having me here. This has been awesome. Thank you. That's our show.

Speaker 1  
Thank you. Thank you for joining us today please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe rate and review. Biting see everybody

Transcribed by https://otter.ai