Hi,
I’m Anjali Soares, founder of Kali. I created Kali because I know what it feels like to live between worlds.
I was born and baptized Catholic in Goa, and I spent my early childhood in India. My dad’s career moved us often to places like Colombo, Hong Kong, and the Bay Area. After college in LA, I did a brief stint in Ohio, spent over a decade in NYC, chased love to Tuscany, then followed him to Alabama before landing in Maryland. Moving so often, especially during my formative teenage years, was hard. I was often lonely, constantly adjusting, and always aware of the parts of me that did not quite fit.
For a long time, I thought belonging meant editing myself. If I could just soften this, hide that, explain less, or be a little easier to place, maybe connection would come more easily. Shape shifting is exhausting.
Kali was built for women who know what it means to feel torn between cultures, expectations, identities, and versions of themselves. Women who have learned to code switch, smooth edges, laugh things off, and keep moving. Women who are tired of feeling like they have to choose one world over another. I want to create a space where we do not have to choose. And to be clear, I mean that broadly. I did not even fit neatly inside the label of “Indian,” as many people outside India do not know about Goan Catholics. Even in my own family, I am an Anjali in a family of Chris, Roger, Maria, Julio, and Edith. Confusing? Yes. Character building? Mostly yes.
Kali exists to create belonging, build collective power, turn access into opportunity, and empower the next generation. We celebrate ambition, identity, culture, impact, and service. We rise, reach back, open doors, and build pathways forward.
This is a platform for women across ages, industries, and stages of life and career. It is for the woman still building, the woman at the top of her field, the woman changing direction, the woman starting over, and the woman ready to help others rise.
Kali is rooted in my Indian experience, but not limited by a narrow definition of it. If you are of Indian descent, partnered with or married into Indian culture, or someone whose lived experience aligns with these conversations around culture, ambition, identity, expectation, and belonging, you are welcome here. If you have ever tried to explain yourself to an Indian mother, mother in law, auntie, or frankly anyone with strong opinions and no shortage of follow up questions, you are probably in the right place.
This first phase starts with the newsletter. From there, Kali will grow into interviews with women in the community, conversations with founders, executives, creators, and cultural voices, features on brands and businesses, a blog, a podcast, a marketplace, and gatherings designed to connect commerce, culture, community, and cause.
This is the first round, and we are building it together. I would love to know what you want to see. What conversations are missing? What kinds of women, stories, brands, and topics should we spotlight? What would make this space meaningful, useful, and worth returning to?
If you would like to contribute to the newsletter or get involved in a deeper way, I would love to hear from you. If you know someone who belongs here, please send them the link below.
Thank you for being here. You are part of the foundation.
With gratitude,
Anjali, Founder (She/Her/Hers)