Hi, I’m Lata! I’m a lover of journeys:

• Journeying slooowly to different lands, immersing myself in local ways of life, and thriving on conversations with new neighbors while feasting on (vegetarian) delicacies. 

• Journeying from trial attorney to serial entrepreneur to angel investor passionate about supporting other women founders’ journeys.

• Journeying through the third phase of life – embracing the freedom of time, thought, and travel and the changes in your body, mind, and spirit. 

I've been roaming the globe since the '80s and, to date, have explored 55 (and counting!) countries spanning 5 continents. I sold my house in January 2020 to fully embrace the digital nomad lifestyle and have an ever-expanding list of countries I want to visit! 

 

LataUnleashed is about mid-life adventures on the road less taken. About slowly immersing myself in the local culture instead of waiting in long lines at “must-see” tourist sites. Come on board as I uncover unique, intimate places where you dine and kayak with your neighbors and shop as the locals do – all while working as a digital nomad from weekly or monthly rentals around the globe. 

 

However, LataUnleashed is not just about our earthly travels but the journeys we take internally to re-discover ourselves. Blossoming into middle age has been both rewarding and challenging for me, and I want to talk about all the things that affect women in their third phase of life – changes in health, newfound creativity, expanding free time, aging parents, loss, being an empty nester, nanny guilt and the impact of our lives on this planet. 

 

So how did this all begin?

 

In my earliest memories as a young girl, I remember the excitement I felt when my family and I moved from India to the US. I was eager to explore new cultures and meet new people. Yet, I also felt a strange sense of discomfort and loss: in hindsight, it was the feeling that I would never again fully belong anywhere. 

 

I was raised in a strict South Asian, vegetarian, Kannada-speaking family that prayed daily for a son – as, according to Hindu tradition, only sons had the authority to light their parents' funeral pyre so their souls could transcend to heaven – and believed that daughters were to be married off to start families of their own. As you can probably guess, I had a hard time fitting in with my homogeneously white, midwestern classmates. I marveled at the freedom they had to choose their own path in life and wondered why, like my mother and her mother and the generations of women before her, my only life option was to marry young, settle down, and have children. I knew in the deepest part of my soul that there could be more to my life than this and vowed to discover what it was. 

 

Fast forward almost half a century later… and here I am!