Forget boardroom advisors and gilded titles, wisdom rarely comes with a resume. On Guru Purnima 2026, ten trailblazers across fashion, food, sports, and culture share the unconventional guides, quiet late nights, and unexpected encounters that reshaped their lives.
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Known for her bold screen choices and unconventional charm, actor Adah Sharma has always marched to her own beat. Before she speaks on guidance, she looks away from human counsel entirely, urging us to step outside and observe the effortless wisdom unfolding in the wild.
“My biggest mentor has been nature. Every time I think I have life figured out, I watch an ant carrying something ten times its size, or a tree standing through storms without tweeting about how difficult its week has been, and it makes me realise how nature is gloriously unbothered. Flowers bloom without asking for validation. Rivers don’t argue with rocks, they just find another way. Cats nap without guilt. Birds sing even if nobody claps. They don’t compare their songs. A crow doesn’t wake up wishing it sounded like a koyal. Nature has been my Guru since I was a child. It just hasn’t sent me an invoice yet,” she says.
Bestselling author of ‘The Zoya Factor’ and chronicler of modern Indian life, Anuja Chauhan is known for keeping her finger on the cultural pulse. Before reflecting on mentorship, she flips the age-old dynamic on its head, pointing toward the fearless new generation redefining quiet conviction.
“When I look for inspiration today, I find my greatest teachers in Gen Z. You know, I thought this trait of standing up for yourself and fighting for what’s right had skipped a generation. But our freedom fighter spirit has suddenly resurfaced in this generation. Fashion and culture move in cycles, but the way these kids stand up for what they believe in—using pure irreverence, sharp humor, and unfiltered conviction—has been incredible to watch. We’re used to looking up to elders for wisdom, but the script has flipped. The kids have become our gurus now, and if we’re willing to pay attention, we have a thing or two to learn from them,” she says.
Renowned Kathak maestro and Padma Shri awardee Shovana Narayan has dedicated her life to classical arts. Before recounting a pivotal memory, she takes us back to a quiet afternoon at the India International Centre, where a casual question from a philosopher unlocked a profound lesson on humility.
Carrying forward his family’s legacy as President of The Earth Saviours Foundation, Jas Kalra spends his days caring for the abandoned. Before sharing his turning point, he candidly unpacks the walls of assumption we build against strangers, and the single evening outside a hospital gate that shattered his.
“For as long as I had been old enough to form opinions about strangers, I could look at a man sitting alone on a pavement and tell you his whole story before I had heard a word of it. He was part of a racket, or he was an addict… I held these conclusions with real confidence, and the confidence was convenient, because a man I have already explained to myself is a man I do not have to walk toward.
Art collector, philanthropist, and cultural icon Shalini Passi is known for her disciplined approach to creativity and life. Before opening up about her guide, she looks to epic mythology, finding an anchor for modern integrity in an ancient warrior’s quiet sacrifices.
“For me, that person would be Bhishma Pitamah from the Mahabharata. While he is a legendary figure rather than someone I could have known, his life has deeply influenced the way I think about duty, discipline, and commitment. What I admire most is his unwavering dedication to his principles and the sacrifices he made for what he believed was the greater good. His life is a reminder that true strength isn’t only about power—it is also about self-control, integrity, and the ability to put responsibility before personal gain. The biggest lesson I have taken from him is that every promise carries a responsibility. At the same time, his story also teaches that even the noblest intentions must be guided by wisdom and moral courage. Duty should never come at the cost of remaining silent in the face of injustice. That balance between commitment and conscience is a lesson I try to carry into my own life,” she says.
Celebrated fashion designer Nachiket Barve creates wearably artistic pieces rooted in deep heritage. Before explaining his creative compass, he invites us to step away from modern trends and step into the quiet halls of history.
National cricketer Anaya Bangar has navigated intense public scrutiny and personal transformation with steady grace. Before speaking on what guides her journey, she pivots away from traditional coaches toward an unseen, governing force.
As Executive Chef at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mukesh Kumar crafts culinary masterpieces for world leaders. Before revealing his ultimate teacher, he strips away the high-stakes pressure of state banquets to paint a scene of solitude when the kitchen lights go low.
“When I think about my biggest teacher, it’s not a person, it’s just 1 AM in the kitchen. The service is over, the crew has headed out, and I’m finally left alone to practice. At that hour, there are no tickets coming in, no titles or ego. Just the sound of my knife hitting the board. These boring moments are the key to mastering any craft, not only cooking. Having some time to reflect and reset before tomorrow’s madness has also completely changed my approach to cooking. It stripped away the extra noise and has inevitably made my food so much simpler,” he says.
Globally acclaimed mixologist and co-founder of Sidecar, Yangdup Lama is a stalwart of Indian bartending. Before sharing his life-changing lesson, he takes us back decades to a young bartender listening closely across a hotel counter.
“When I think of an unlikely mentor, I remember standing behind the bar at 23 or 25 at the Hyatt in Delhi, watching a guest, Mr. Ron Somers, walk in at 6 PM for his daily beer. He was this high-powered American corporate executive, and I was just a young bartender. Over the years, we’d talk across the counter, and one evening, after I told him I’d managed to save up a little money after my first year on the job, he looked at me and said, ‘Yangdup, don’t just hold onto that cash or spend it. Go invest.’ As a young guy, it would have been so easy to take that money and blow it with friends. But I took his advice, bought a small plot at the foothills of Darjeeling, and five years later, built a home for my family that still stands today. Decades have passed, but I always come back to those 6 PM conversations across the bar counter,” he says.
Anti-rape activist and founder of the NGO PARI, Yogita Bhayana has spent years fighting for justice on the streets. Before describing her childhood spark, she recalls an eight-year-old girl in a fancy-dress competition who already saw the world with fierce, uncompromising clarity.
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“Every time I hear a patriotic song, I end up dancing, singing and sometimes crying—at the same time. I think it goes back to my childhood. Manoj Kumar’s films were from a generation before mine, but songs like Mere Desh Ki Dharti were a huge part of our school performances. I still remember being asked what I wanted to portray for a fancy-dress competition when I was around eight years old. I said, ‘Bharat Mata.’ I even painted bruises on myself as part of the look. When someone asked why I had chosen to show her that way, I replied, ‘Because that’s the reality.’ Looking back, I think that was where it all began,” she says.
Team Analysis
“If I had to choose a teacher outside my family, friends or coaches, it wouldn’t be a person at all. It would be spirituality, especially the ideas of energy, the art of detachment and karma. Over the last few years, I’ve realised that not everything in life can be controlled. There are moments when you can do everything right and still face rejection, loss or uncertainty. Spirituality taught me that while I can’t always control what happens to me, I can control the energy I bring into the world and how I respond to it. The idea of karma has made me less interested in revenge and more interested in intention. I try to focus on acting with honesty, kindness and integrity because I believe what you put into the world eventually finds its way back to you. It’s also taught me patience. Some chapters in my life didn’t make sense while I was living them, but looking back, they shaped me into who I am today. Instead of asking, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ I’ve learned to ask, ‘What is this trying to teach me?’ For me, that’s what a guru really is ,not always a person, but something that quietly changes the way you think, live and move through life. Spirituality has been that guide for me,” she says.
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“I remember sitting with Ramu Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and a philosopher who wrote seven dance plays for me, at the India International Centre. Out of the blue, he asked, ‘Do you know who Rambha was?’ I said, ‘Yes, the celestial dancer.’ He smiled and said, ‘You told me you’ve read my grandfather’s autobiography. Go back and read about her again.’ In it, Gandhi speaks of Rambha, the family maid who cared for him as a child. When he was eight or ten, he was terrified of snakes, thieves and ghosts. He couldn’t confide in his brother, who laughed at him, or his parents, who dismissed his fears. So he turned to Rambha. She simply told him, ‘Whenever you’re afraid, take the name of Ram.’ He followed her advice only because he believed she could never be wrong. Gandhi later wrote that this good woman sowed the seed of faith in him. What moved me most was that he elevated someone as ordinary as a household maid to the pedestal of a guru because she had profoundly changed his life. We are always looking for great names, but sometimes our greatest mentors are the most unexpected people,” she says.
This was a few months into taking over my father’s work after his passing, when I had inherited the responsibility without any of the instinct that was supposed to come with it. Coming out of a meeting near Safdarjung one evening, I saw a man outside the hospital gate, thin and tired and clearly alone, holding a folded paper. I decided I would set myself a rule: walk up and ask once whether he needed anything, and if the answer involved money, leave without guilt. When I asked, he held the paper out and wanted to know whether it said Tuesday or Thursday, because he could not read English and his daughter’s surgery had already been moved once. He had been sleeping outside that gate for nine nights… When I offered him money he refused it, twice, and told me his son-in-law was sending some on Friday. I have never felt smaller than I did walking back to my car. Certainty about strangers is almost always a story we tell ourselves in order to be excused, and the moment I feel most sure I understand what someone is doing on the side of a road is the moment I know the least about him,” he said.
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“An unconventional source of mentorship for me has always been museums. Every time I step into one, it’s incredibly humbling because you’re reminded of how humankind has lived for centuries, even millennia. You begin to notice the common threads between people then and now—the way they lived, dressed, what they aspired to. It puts your own existence into perspective. Museums have taught me humility, discipline, and the importance of looking beyond the present moment. They continue to inspire and guide my work, both aesthetically and philosophically,” he said.
