Ambika is the Co-founder and Director of Kubernein Initiative. She is geopolitical analyst and water security specialist with close to 15 years of experience in the field of governance and foreign policy. She has led track two diplomacy efforts and consulted with several governments and international organizations in the MENA region, Europe and India, and helped shape their policies in the field of conflict resolution, water diplomacy and security. She has lived, studied, worked and travelled in several countries and thinks that curiosity is a great leveller. Her varied experiences helped in understanding some of the spaces she works in and that while global problems might be diverse and have different effects, there are a wide range of solutions and experiences to be gained from sharing knowledge and open dialogue.
I’m sustainable
Growing up in a city in southern India that frequently experienced water and power cuts, I learned from an early age the importance of conservation and not to be wasteful. Water was precious and it was easy to live with less. We also had severe cyclones during the summer with flooding an annual feature. I had my bike float away at 11 and it was devastating. It was my fault: I did not secure the bike properly. While I learned my lesson, the city, like many others in India and around the world, still constantly floods; it appears as a human population we have not learned our lesson. We build and grow indiscriminately with little thought to green spaces, water, nature and how to achieve a balance between what we need and growing greed. As I aim to better my life, decreasing my impact as I can, I work with others to do better for our cities, our nature and environment and for a more pleasant future for all.
The future I want
I vacillate between wanting to live in the mountains, surrounded by greenery and pets, cool weather and clean air, and a bustling city life. And while I strive to find a balance between the two, I want to make our cities a little better to live in and our mountains and nature a little more safe, secure and sustainably developed. Perhaps then, selfishly, I won’t have to choose.
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