Wine Wisdom, Life Lessons: Namratha's Inspiring Journey from India to France in the Wine World! Pt. 1

Welcome, welcome to the best 5-minute wine podcast with Forrest Kelly. Our guest is the author of Vineyard Melody, a powerful memoir about her journey from India to France and her life in wine. In fact, she's traveling from France to New York to promote the debut of her book, and we're excited to help share her story and sell some copies. To celebrate the launch, she's offering an exclusive giveaway. I'll have the details and links in the show notes. Let's get into the conversation with the author of Vineyard Melody. Hi, I'm Namrita. I'm the author of Vineyard Melody. I'm a wine merchant and a brand owner of Solicantis. My name means obedient, which I'm not at all. So I'm just the opposite of my name. So it means obedient. Now, when you say you're not obedient, That doesn't necessarily mean that you're on the other end disobedient, but you're very adventurous and an individualist. Absolutely. I mean, I don't follow the rules. There's no rule book. There's a lot to unwind here. You are the author of the book Vineyard Melody. Just give me a two sentence explanation of the book So Vineyard Melody is my memoir of being an abused Indian housewife in India and moving to France and becoming a wine merchant all this while struggling to bring my daughter to France. So, I was born in Bangalore in India. It's a very cosmopolitan city. So, I was born into a very modest family in Bangalore. And as any child growing up in India, It was the same cultural setting, a lot of hierarchy, patriarchy, going on to school and college and, you know, getting married, different cultures. I love my country, but at the same time, you know, there are, it's a vast country and there are so many contradicting situations when you live life over there. Typical upbringing for you being a female in the household. What were your duties as far as school and chores and things that you had to do? Well, my family was pretty nuclear family when I was growing up. We just had like my grandfather living with us. Chores wise, I was always hands on with my mother in the kitchen. I used to love cooking with her. I had actually burnt my face when I was five years old because I was so curious about, you know, what's going on in the kitchen. I had put in my hand into a pan of boiling oil and the whole pan fell onto my face So I had quite some adventures when I was a kid because of my curiosity But I was pretty hands-on with my mother in the kitchen while she was making her meals. And I grew up with those aromas, amazing Indian food aromas. So I'm working on pairing Indian wines with, you know, Indian food with French wines right now. So, yes, that was my childhood, and I'm excited about it. So, growing up, how many brothers and sisters? So, I have one older sister. A relatively small family in India, then. Really, really small family, yeah. And your sister, her personality, opposite of yours or similar? No, my sister was the most obedient one. Exactly opposite. You know, we are like two peas in the same pod, but, you know, completely different from each other. She became a dentist eventually and she started saving animals. And now she's also launched her own tea brand in Canada, which is distributing across the world. And I'm doing the wine. So I think a little bit of entrepreneurship runs in the family. I was also very adventurous So I used to take my motorbike and I was I would ride across the city One day my sister and myself we went to see a lioness in Bangalore which was being taken care of by a veterinary doctor And it was a wonderful feeling to see a lioness sitting in the midst of the city in a household. So we've been pretty adventurous. Did you go to school, to higher education? I took up biology, and I failed terribly in that. And then I realized that's not my calling at all. And then I said, you know, what I love the most is cooking and, you know, something to do something to do with food. So when I went, then I chose hospitality. So when I went to hospitality school, I just immersed myself into it. So I was one of the best students in my school. I had amazing teachers. I had a great, you know, beverage professor who taught me about wines. I had a teacher who was teaching me baking and, of course, production and front office and all of these things. But what really interested me was, you know, being in the kitchen cooking. So and becoming the best chef in the world. That was my dream at that point of time. The best five minute one podcast. Don't forget my favorite part. Please, please, I can follow. Thank you.