ANVANI… As we came to be

Atma Namaste, my dearest Anvani soul,

Getting back to writing after so many years feels like coming home. It’s as though I went on my travels, and after gaining all this experience and knowledge, I’m back home, wanting to speak again, through writing!

Today, I thought I’d like to share with you why and how we came to choose the word Anvani for our centre. This is a question that is asked far too often, so it seems fitting to finally put it into concrete words, rather than trying to explain the profound experience with the limited vocabulary I had at the time.

While choosing the name for the art studio, I sat down with my family for a brainstorming session, and we came up with some truly incredible names. While each of them had a certain magic—that quality I resonated with—it soon became clear that I couldn’t finalise any one of them. We actually spent quite a few days, if not weeks, on this project… a meeting every evening, leading to almost nothing.

This was more than a year after my accident. I had completed my Pranic Healing courses and was exploring abstract art that would soon require a space of its own. It was before one of our evening brainstorming sessions that I felt an inkling to go back and read the diary I had written while recovering from the accident. And it was as though I was guided to that exact page, which had just three names—and the one that went straight to my heart and calmed me down was Anvani. I still remember mumbling “Oh my God, oh my God” as I ran towards my parents, almost shouting with joy by the time i reached them. I looked at them and said “Anvani,” and there was a collective sigh—the feeling of finally finding what we had been searching for all along.

Anvani, in Marathi, means barefoot. At that point, I was regularly travelling solo across the country. So, naturally, the meaning of Anvani for me symbolised breaking free from trauma (of the accident) and setting out on a journey that would bring me back to myself. In many ways, returning to the authentic self remains a huge part of how I resonate with it now, after almost five years. But I cannot deny the many layers of truth this name—Anvani—has revealed to me in my journey as a business owner, a healer, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.

Anvani not only means awareness and freedom—it means fearlessness, empowerment, and liberation. It’s about gaining more control over the self while, at the same time, surrendering to the higher power with confidence and love. About breaking patterns that have shown up in your life for a long time, and finding—or even inventing—new patterns to replace those that drain you with those that uplift you.

It’s about connecting with the version of yourself that is yet to come and pulling that version into you through joy, strength, and faith.

So, welcome to The Anvani Centre, where we explore the world outside and the universe within.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your Anvani journey.

With love, Arundhati

P.S.: What does "barefoot" mean to you today? We'd love to hear your own Anvani moment.