Rashmi Venkateswaran

Dr. Rashmi Venkateswaran 

Storyteller, Canada Celebrates Folklore, India 

Rashmi Venkateswaran was born in Syracuse, NY, USA to a very traditional family with roots in  Tamil Nadu, India. Due to their cultural upbringing, Rashmi’s parents, Dr. Ananthakrishna and  Smt. Indira Venkateswaran were very spiritual and had a tremendous sense of hospitality, which  they passed on to her. Knowing that she would be growing up in North America and that she  would have many questions about her cultural background, her parents took exceptional pains to  study the reasons behind all the traditions that they followed. Whenever she would ask a  question, instead of saying “because we told you”, they would explain the reason behind the  tradition. As a result, Rashmi grew up with a strong foundational understanding of Sanatana  Dharma and a tremendous love of stories. She has used this story-telling background as the  basis for her life and work, and applies the use of stories to explain difficult concepts in her  teaching of chemistry at the University of Ottawa (where she is a Senior Instructor and  Laboratory Coordinator in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences) as well as  Carnatic music (in which she has a BA and MA) to her many students in both areas.