Anna: My guest today is Naina Adhikari. Naina found her way to the river when she was just 13 years old, a young girl from Nainital. What began as play soon became purpose. She became one of India’s first female kayakers, carving her path through uncharted waters and challenging traditions that told her this wasn’t a place for women. Her paddle has since carried her across continents — from the wild turquoise of Chile’s Futaleufu to the mighty Zambezi, the icy flows of Iceland, and the Alpine rivers of Europe. Along the way, she has represented India at the World Championships, World Cups, and the Olympic qualifier in kayak cross. She’s won the Ganga Kayak Festival twice and received the Best Indian Paddler Award six times.

But beyond medals and miles, Naina’s deepest current runs towards creating change. In 2023, she founded Ganga Girls, a project that introduces underprivileged girls in India to kayaking, giving them not just a sport, but a space to find strength, confidence, and freedom through the river. For Naina, kayaking is more than a pursuit — it’s a connection with nature, a journey of resilience, and a reminder that the river, like life, flows strongest when it’s shared. Through her work, she hopes to open more rivers for girls, just as the Ganga once opened the world for her. Welcome, Naina. It’s really great to have you here. I’m so excited.

Naina: Thank you so much, Anna. I’m also pretty excited.

Anna: I’ve had the privilege of paddling with you a little bit in India, which was so fun — amazing place, amazing country, amazing rivers. So when I say discomfort zone, what comes up for you?

Naina: Discomfort for me, I think, has been kayaking. When I started, it was not something I knew about or was used to. It was an environment that was hard. I constantly kept questioning myself and judging myself. I was a teenager, so I used to become very self-conscious. Kayaking started as my discomfort, but then I realized how I was growing in the sport and as a human, and that discomfort zone became my favorite place to be. Choosing kayaking has been my discomfort — only to realize it’s the place where I feel the most alive.

Anna: When you say choosing kayaking was uncomfortable, what were the different discomforts for you as a teenager getting into kayaking — as a girl in a very male-dominated sport? What were those discomfort zones and how have they shifted?

Naina: Initially, when I started at 13, the biggest discomfort was just being drenched in water and being watched by boys around me. As a little girl, I felt very uncomfortable. I used to swim a lot, and when I got rescued I felt very self-conscious. I didn’t know how to swim, and I had never stepped out of my hometown, Nainital. Rishikesh was the only accessible place for kayaking — around 300 kilometers from home. Being stared at made me very conscious. But over time, I learned to feel normal with myself being in the water and in those uncomfortable situations.

Anna: How did you work through that? Was it just time in the water, getting used to being the only girl? Was there a strategy you relied on?

Naina: I’ll be very honest — it was me feeling very different from any other girl in my school. Nobody else was kayaking, and it made me feel very cool as a 13-year-old. I thought, wow, I’m doing something nobody else is doing. That kept me going back even though I didn’t like it at all in the beginning. I used to feel very uncomfortable in the helmet, the life jacket, the spray deck, the whole process. And I remember once, when draining water out of my kayak, I got my first period during my first kayaking session. That was very embarrassing and stayed with me for a long time. Periods were a taboo and not commonly talked about. I wanted to go back to my mother. I didn’t want to be noticed by everyone.

Anna: There’s so much in what you just said. You had to travel 300 kilometers, you were the only girl, and then getting your period on top of that. I wish I had talked about this more publicly over the course of my career. I talked about it with clients, but more publicly — what it felt like. If I got my period during a competition or a filming day, I’d tell some of the guys and they’d just roll their eyes. For me, the first day of my period, I never felt good and kayaking usually didn’t work out well. In your situation, where it was taboo — what did you do? Did you just stay? Did you have period products you could use?

Naina: I was just wearing a wetsuit. I wasn’t aware I was going to get my period. When I got back to base, my uncle was helping wash my wetsuit and the bucket water turned red. I didn’t react, but it has stayed with me. I called my mom and did get help, but as a little girl I became very self-conscious. And I had to come back from kayaking because I was in school and my parents weren’t in favor of it — not because of the period situation, but in general. They were asking, what is this sport? We can’t send you so far from home. It wasn’t considered safe for a 13-year-old girl to go to Rishikesh alone back in 2013. My uncle used to come with me initially, but once he left after the first week, I had to find my own way — back to school, and trying to convince my parents to let me keep going.

The only thing that kept pulling me back was wanting to be able to roll on my own and not be rescued by anybody. I didn’t like being pulled back into my kayak by someone else. I really wanted to learn how to roll, so I went back and started things again.

Anna: You also said you were the only girl kayaking and you thought that was really cool — that pushed you to keep doing it even though you didn’t like it at first. I think that’s an awesome example of how our egos can actually push us in a good direction. There’s that fine line in adventure sports — you don’t want your ego to run you and make poor decisions, but there’s also such a benefit to the ego pushing you forward to do things that scare you. It’s great that you had the support of your uncle. How was it with the group of boys you were kayaking with? Were they supportive?

Naina: I could not have managed anything without the support of the boys around me, my uncle, and my dad. My mother was very skeptical and angry during those days — we used to fight a lot. She was the first person to say no because she had concerns about safety, career, and school. But when I was in Rishikesh with my initial instructors — Gappu Bhaiya, Ayodhya Bhaiya, Laxman Dai — I had an amazing support system from them. They understood where I was coming from and I had a very brother-like relationship with all of them.

I also gave them a very hard time in the beginning because I used to cry a lot. I was a crybaby. I was like, my God, what is this kayaking? I didn’t do anything they asked me to. But whatever I could do was because of the support I got from them.

Anna: That’s awesome. Is the industry more supportive now? Because it’s only recently that there have been women guides on the Ganga. Sadev and Manish, who were on our trip, seem very supportive — but it still seems slow.

Naina: It depends on the intent of the person — what intention is behind the support and whether there are any expectations. Over the years, I realized it’s not about getting support from men or women. It’s about anyone who wants to support with the right intention. That changes the entire narrative. If someone is supporting you on the river, they should not expect anything in return. There should be no strings attached.

I’m saying this in a very specific context because that’s something I had to face. I was very naive in my late teenage years. I don’t know if this should be on the podcast, but once a Spanish kayaker came to India and said, if you don’t sleep with the boys, they will not take you kayaking. I was like, why are you talking like that? These guys are so good and supportive on the river — they give me T-rescues, they helped me whenever I swam. That was my innocence.

But later, as I transformed from a young girl to a woman and started having a voice, people saw that change. I had to be in situations where I had to say no — I appreciate everything you’ve done for me on the river, but that’s it. No extra expectations. And it took me time to understand that process. It put me in shock because I didn’t have anyone to go to. I’m also talking about abuse in general, pressure, being sexualized because you’re the only one and you get that unwanted attention. I was scared that if my parents found out someone was misbehaving with me, they would ask me to come back and leave kayaking. That was what I was most scared of.

I kept things inside me and never shared those bad experiences with anyone. I thought maybe it was my fault. But over the years I realized — no, it was wrong. And it was very hard for me not to talk about it. For my parents, it would have been the hardest to know.

The support system changes a lot over time, and over the intent of the people involved. That is what I realized and learned over the years.

Anna: Thank you for sharing. That’s a lot. I went through a lot of emotion just listening to you. I don’t think it’s stupid that you didn’t tell anyone — at the time you had no female mentors, no one who had done it before. You truly were groundbreaking and pioneering. That takes so much courage and self-determination. I just want to acknowledge you for that.

Naina: It became very heavy for me to think about all those things. I haven’t talked about it in a long time.

Anna: I know. I can feel it. And thank God for you and for the path you are forging for other women and girls. The woman who said that to you — that was probably her experience and it felt normal to her, but it’s not normal. She must have gone through things herself. As women, we have different experiences. And there’s so much more for women and girls to deal with getting into a sport like kayaking beyond the water and the technique. I think it’s important to have this conversation.

Interestingly, when I was starting out, I didn’t flirt with the guys, and I felt like fewer people wanted to take me out kayaking because of that — until I found female mentors who said, yeah, come on, let’s go. There’s so much social stuff to navigate.

Naina: I want to mention one thing about that example. I think the woman who said it said it out of frustration. She was angry. She was asking, why is it like this? At the time I didn’t realize what she was talking about. But later, I was like — she was right. I feel her now.

Anna: Yeah. And things here in the US and Canada have changed quite a bit. I know you’re creating change with the Pravahini Foundation and Ganga Girls. And I just want to shout out to all the guys listening who are still with us through the period talk — kudos to you. This stuff is important and it affects all of us who paddle with women. So my question is: since you had that experience as a young girl, how do you set a supportive container for the girls you’re now coaching and training?

Naina: The first thing I started doing was talking about it. When I talked about it in the first Ganga Girls Expedition in 2023, the girls weren’t comfortable talking to me about it — forget getting support from anyone else except maybe their mothers or friends. The initial stage was creating a space where girls could talk about the problems and how I found my way to navigate those situations. That was very important — making them feel like this is a place where you can talk about things you haven’t been able to talk about with anyone else.

Now we talk about a lot of things. It makes me feel good that the girls are thinking about it, coming back with questions, asking if they can buy a menstrual cup and whether it’s safe. I can share how I feel, and the best choice is up to them — what suits them and makes them comfortable. They will discover it through their own experiences.

Anna: And are your parents stoked for you now? Are they still questioning?

Naina: My dad never questioned. He was just scared for me in the beginning. My mother is still cautious because I come from a very traditional family where the system is school, college, job, marriage. But my parents have changed. They have tried to break their old mindset and grow with me. When they saw their girl living a very different life than they ever imagined, they got the confidence that she can do these things. That helped them grow and get a new perspective. I’ve seen a major transformation in my mom especially. I’ve made such a beautiful connection with her now. I don’t think that would have happened if I were living a very traditional life. I’m very grateful for that.

Anna: That’s cool. Tell us about Ganga Girls — why did you start it, how did you start it, and how is it going?

Naina: First, I want to say — a lot of people think it’s ganja girls, but it’s Ganga Girls. I started it in 2023. Before that, I was in Chile with Brooke and Haley. Because of them I got the chance to do an all-girls paddling trip, and I thought — if I can do this in Chile, why can’t I do it back home? Why can’t I have girls around me on my home river?

I started feeling lonely. I started feeling left out. I didn’t have friends my age or people to talk about my problems with because I was always surrounded by boys. Maybe I did it because I wanted to create a space where I could feel like I had a tribe — like-minded people. And I felt like whatever I’d experienced, where I had nobody to talk to, I wanted to be that one person who could help someone else. That’s why I started Ganga Girls.

It was hard because I had no knowledge about doing these things. I just took a big dive into it. After three years, I managed to register it under the Pravahini Foundation. It’s very new and I’m still learning. Over the last year and a half, I stepped back from my personal kayaking and gave more time and energy to this project. I’m very happy about what we’ve been able to do in the past three years. It’s pretty cool to see girls kayaking now, living a life they never imagined they could have, rather than simply sitting back inside a system that tells them what to do.

And this year’s project is going to be even more special. I’m going to be working with five girls from human trafficking. I wanted to do it for these girls because I always had to go through situations where I felt trapped and didn’t feel I had any help. When I imagine the girls who actually get trafficked and go through all that pain and abuse — I just want them to experience freedom in a way that may be very different from what people think it is. Kayaking.

Anna: Yeah. And how does that work?

Naina: The last three years, we did expedition-style Ganga Girls. We trained together on the Ganga first and then went on a self-supported expedition. I got really good support from the community with logistics and gear. This year I want to do the actual project, because now the foundation has been laid. There are girls who can now help me in this program — girls who’ve grown up on the banks of the Ganga, who’ve been introduced to expeditions and kayaking and are getting better, so they can be part of this change and be an influence on the girls who are coming now.

We as a team are pretty ready. We can now welcome the girls who need more attention, care, and energy. It’s happening in October on the Ganga River in Rishikesh. It’s called Project Shakti. I’m very excited and also nervous.

Anna: The theme of this podcast is the discomfort zone. You’ve shown so much resilience and self-determination. What are some strategies you use to keep yourself motivated when you face resistance — from other people, bureaucracy, lack of resources? How do you continually find your voice and strength to move forward?

Naina: When I look at my own journey, it’s crazy how I’ve been able to travel to places I never imagined I would through kayaking. When I think about what I’ve been able to do — coming from a traditional family, no background in swimming, navigating the environment, the patriarchy, the system — it makes me think that yes, I can do other things too.

I didn’t start this to get two or three girls and call it done. I have personally felt those problems as a girl kayaking, and I’ve also felt the power of kayaking change my life. That is what makes me want to do something that can help someone — especially someone who really needs that support.

I’ve had a hard year, not being able to kayak as much for myself because of this project. But that hasn’t made me feel any less. I know I also want to push myself as a kayaker. I have desires and ambitions and I want to work on my skill. But now the foundation has been laid, and I think if I got this far, there’s nothing that can stop me now. That’s what I’d like to believe.

Anna: I hear it in your voice. I believe it. For sure. I know for myself, when I competed and pushed myself, I had good success. I didn’t love competing — I loved everything around it. But when I started teaching and empowering women and creating spaces where women could come and be themselves, I really felt so passionate. Not because women are meek or can’t do it — it’s just a space, an affinity space, where like you said, you can talk about things you don’t want to talk about elsewhere. You see people who look like you, who’ve had similar experiences. I can hear something really deep inside you driving you forward, and I can relate to that.

Kayaking doesn’t have to look like paddling the hardest stuff all the time or competing all the time. That’s what gets a lot of attention, but there’s so much more. I love how you talk about kayaking as your discomfort zone — and how you keep choosing it and how transformational it is. Kayaking gave me so much on my journey too. What is it about kayaking that helps you find your voice?

Naina: For me, it’s forgetting everything else and just being there on the river with my kayak. We get swept away by so much worldly pressure outside the river, but when I’m on the river I have that time for myself and for something I love.

And I really like connecting it with life. When I screw up my line in a rapid, I like to think — that was in the past, Naina. I had a pattern of worrying about a bad line and then letting it affect the next rapid. But I started thinking, I need to start living in the present. That’s how it should be in life too. Kayaking really makes me stick to the present situation and not worry about the next rapid coming. At least I try.

Anna: Love it. Do you have a question for me, Naina?

Naina: When are you coming back to India for more kayaking?

Anna: I’ve been telling folks we have to go back. I’m thinking in a couple of years — it’s so far away, I want to give myself some time. I’d love to talk to you about maybe doing a different river or a few rivers. I loved where we were — the Ganga is so fun, big water. Those of you listening, get in touch with Naina if you want to go kayaking in India. Big water, big waves, the Bhagirathi, the Ganga — it’s really, really fun. I also want to paddle the Upper Alaknanda.

Anna: So, if y’all are listening and you want to go paddle in India, connect with Naina. And in a couple of years, I’ll be ready to go back. What’s your favorite thing about paddling the Ganga?

By the way, everyone listening — I invite you to go to my Instagram feed because I have awesome video of Naina giving a river talk before we put on the Ganga, talking about how important the Ganga is to her. It was a really powerful place and I appreciate her sharing all of that. I love kayaking because I can travel and kayak — the connection with water, with cultures, rivers and humans.

Paddling into the confluence was super cool for me. That’s where the headwaters of the Ganga begin — a very sacred place where the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi meet. I used to think I would go to India on a yoga retreat, because I’m a yoga teacher. But I’ve always combined so many things — yoga, Ayurveda, kayaking, personal growth. Paddling into the confluence gave me a real affirmation of following my own path. Combining all of that doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s path. That was a strong message for me.

Naina: It’s a very special place to be. It’s my favorite place.

Anna: It was also very cool to paddle the Confluence Rapid with everyone cheering on the sides. So what’s your favorite part of paddling the Ganga?

Naina: My favorite thing is that the river offers you a platform where you can try so many things and the consequences are less. I love big volume water, and obviously because the Ganga is my home river. But it’s more than that — it’s like my second home. Whenever I’m in Rishikesh, I have to go on the river every day. Even if it’s five o’clock in the evening and I haven’t gotten a lap in, I will go. It just makes me feel I’m doing the right thing.

It’s beyond just kayaking and thinking about what the water level is today. For me, it’s about feeling alive on the Ganga. I found my medium, which is kayaking. And every day is a new experience — there are so many rafts, so many rafters, and something is always happening. It never gets boring. I like to try things and push myself because that’s my safe place.

Anna: Okay, Naina — are you ready for rapid fire?

Anna: What is a morning ritual that sets you up for success?

Naina: Morning ritual — cleaning my stomach well. If I feel good in my stomach, I feel good. I don’t like being constipated.

Anna: No, being constipated sucks. It’s bad for kayaking. And that’s number one rule in Ayurveda. Bowel movement is important. I love that you are not afraid to talk about any of this stuff, Naina. Okay, what’s a non-negotiable self-care practice for you?

Naina: That’s a hard question. I don’t practice a lot of self-care, but I think just kayaking and being happy and not stressing — because I stress a lot sometimes. If I can go kayaking as much as possible, that is the best self-care I can do for myself. Everything else is stress.

Anna: Love it. What motivates you these days?

Naina: These days what is motivating me is staying healthy. I had a health issue last month. So taking care of myself.

Anna: Maybe not so much stress. More kayaking. What do people get wrong about you?

Naina: I think people underestimate me. They think she’s some random girl — which I am — but I know I want to do a lot of things and I’m here to stay.

Anna: Love it. Throughout the course of your life, have you felt like the underdog or the favored to win?

Naina: The underdog.

Anna: Hard moves in easy water or pushing into something new?

Naina: I really like doing hard moves on easy water, but I also like going into sections that challenge me where I can push myself and think, what’s coming next? Being a little scared and excited with something new and hard.

Anna: What’s one word that describes your comfort zone?

Naina: Thoughtless. If I have no thoughts coming, that means I’m very comfortable — I’m not doing anything. When I’m thinking, even if it’s overthinking, I know something is happening in my mind. But if I’m not thinking anything, just sitting at home doing nothing — that’s when I feel I’m too comfortable.

Anna: Freedom through discipline or I do what I want?

Naina: I don’t think I’m a very disciplined person.

Anna: You get a lot done though. You go for it. I bet there’s some discipline in there. In one word, what do you hope your legacy will be?

Naina: Revolutionary. I really want to work for women in India. When I look at the headlines every day about abuse and rape cases, it creates a lot of pain in my heart. I hope that through my journey, something can change — bring a shift in even one person’s life. I would like to call it revolutionary, because it’s important for a big change to happen.

Anna: Yeah. Powerful. Two last questions. How can listeners support you and the work you’re doing?

Naina: Thank you for bringing that up. The first step right now is connecting with me, because I’ve recently registered the foundation and there are a lot of procedures to go through. They can connect with me over Instagram, email, or WhatsApp — that’s the easiest way right now. Or through the website.

Anna: I’m going to put all of this in the show notes on my website. The show notes for every episode with guest contacts are at mindbodypaddle.com under Podcasts. It’s easy to find single episodes and I put all the contact info there — Instagram, the Pravahini Foundation website, all of it.

Is there anything else you want to say to our listeners?

Naina: I hope you enjoyed it.

Anna: You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I could talk with you for a long time. Thank you so much, Naina. I feel so blessed to have met you in person and gotten to paddle with you. I look forward to paddling with you again. Thank you for taking the time to come on the show. Thank you for everything you’re doing and for being your revolutionary self. You are amazing. Thank you so much for being you.

Naina: Thank you so much, Anna. I had a wonderful time and it was so nice reconnecting with you.