Rama Toshi Arya

It all started with a business model drawn on a tissue paper in a coffee shop.

I have always been in communication. This has ranged from running my own PR agency and publishing house specializing in public-private-partnerships and inter-governmental communication in Southern Africa to a re-branding exercise as lead communication officer for a World Bank founded program in New Delhi.

But I wanted to do more. I wanted to take what I had learnt in my Bachelors in design and Masters in PR, and my years of experience to a more meaningful level. And bingo, it dawned on me in that coffee shop in October 2013—the why, what, and how. I knew I wanted to build capacity in communication skills, share knowledge, and empower Indian professionals.

And hence, The Communique took birth in February 2014, in Mumbai. Since its inception I have run on-site tailored programs for FCA India Automobiles, Aditya Birla Group, Wildlife Trust of India and Value 360 Communications, amongst others. For open programs I run a Certificate Program in Development Communication in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, workshops in business communication skills for the Confederation of Indian Industry, and teach presentation skills at the Indian School of Communications and Reputation.

I have been travelling all my life. Born in Frankfurt, I grew up in Kandy, Tokyo, Delhi, Accra, and London. I have worked in Botswana, South Africa, and India.

Through my adult life I have travelled solo for weeks in China and South Africa, explored the nooks and crannies of England, unravelled Bombay, my current home, and taken the roads less trodden in Israel, Iran, and Bhutan. My first independent travel was from Abu Simbel to Alexandria in Egypt. I was mighty proud I could afford it on my own!

The truth is I have learnt more about life, myself, humanity, and spirituality through travel than through college or a textbook. And what I have definitely learnt is that travel is not a check list or a bucket list; the journey is never complete.☺

In an attempt to hold on to and express my learnings, I write about my travels in my blog and through travel features in the media. The latter include Hindustan Times and Druk Air’s in-flight magazine Tashi Delek.

My blogs are journals of my learnings.

I’ve been blogging since 1999. Yup, it has been a long time!

In July 2016 I consolidated all my personal blogs and created ramaarya.wordpress.com. In August 2017, I renamed it ramaarya.blog. I blog about travel, contemporary Indian art, and giving back initiatives in this—all my pet passions.

My second blog titled 'Rama Arya's Little Black Book on Communication' is at ramaarya.tumblr.com. Here I share tips and techniques from my programs to help one become a better communicator in the workplace.

Please note: I do not do Collaborations or Fam trips or Reviews or Sponsored posts or Affiliate links or Contests. My blog is deliberately not monetized. My blog and I are also not on any other social media, by choice.

Once an art student, always an art enthusiast. I did my O-level, A-level, and Bachelors in Fine Art. Art has, thus, stayed a part of me since. I did not take it up professionally but that has not diminished my love for it. A Van Gogh can still make me teary-eyed. J.W. Waterhouse, the modern pre-Raphaelite, will always remain my favourite artist.

Contemporary Indian Art and I were introduced to each other in 2012, when I moved to India. It is a fascinating mix of experimentation and Classical Indian Aesthetics, entwined to create a visual language unlike any other.

My many a weekend is spent browsing through an art gallery, or deep in conversation with an artist in an attempt to connect with their art empathically and deconstruct it logically. If enamoured enough by an artist and their visual language, I translate the meeting of art and my appreciation into a blog post.

Philanthropist: A person who seeks to promote the welfare of others. My attempt at philanthropy started early. I was 12. With a couple of childhood buddies, we created a free library with our story books. When I was 15, I was reading out course books to a young visually impaired to help him sit for his O-level exams.

What started off first as volunteering, got combined with random donations after I began working. In 2019, when I became a LivingMyPromise signatory, this evolved into a full-fledged, structured, long-term philanthropy with a Will leaving all my assets to charity. In March 2022, I launched my personal philanthropic initiative titled Communication4Development Bootcamp 1000, in which I run pro bono capacity building workshops in communication skills for NGOs. The plan is to empower 1,000 professionals working in this sector.

Let’s just say, I “enjoy” philanthropy. Whether it be playing carrom with the inmates of Nirmal Hriday, Mother Teresa’s centre in Kolkata, or sponsoring a dignified life for the homeless elderly, or running a pro bono workshop for young leaders in a village. I enjoy it, and there has been no dearth of opportunities to gratify this pursuit.