Hi, I’m Yuvarekha Sampath, Yuvi to most people who know me. I’m a mother of two and the founder of Paramparā.
I grew up around people who knew how to make things with their hands. You don’t learn a kolam by watching someone draw it. You learn it by drawing it with them. Paramparā is how I make sure my children get to do it, not just see it.
Years later, while raising my own children far from India, I began wondering: what will they truly know? Not just what they will recognise in a photograph or see once a year at a festival, but what they will actually know how to do.
That question became Paramparā.
I created Paramparā to explore India’s living traditions in a deeper way: not just as things to admire, but as knowledge to understand, practise, and pass on.
Where it begins
It begins at home, at festival time, when children are most curious. Our first book, Navratri & Dussehra, is the kind of book I wanted for my own children: stories that explain why we celebrate, and activities that end with a Golu they make themselves.
Alongside the books, I am working on something slower: Param Kala, Volume I: Kolam, made with the people who still practise it, so a child can learn not just what a kolam looks like, but how to make one.
Why I’m sharing the journey
Paramparā is being built in the open, one tradition at a time. I write notes from the journey as it happens: what surprised me, who I learned from, and what I got wrong and changed. If you are raising children far from where you grew up, I hope some of it feels familiar.
Because sometimes what we inherit is not an object.
It is knowing how.
Yuvi Founder, Paramparā · Seattle
I read every message myself. Write to me at founder@parampara.foundation, or join the founding families to hear when something new is ready.
