Spotlight on Kanishka
You may know Kanishka as the new English teacher at Khan Lab School, but did you know that she loves gardening, swimming, and jewelry crafting? Here are some fun facts about Kanishka outside of the classroom!
Outside of school, she enjoys gardening and plants, veggies and herbs. She has a garden in her patio where she grows tomatoes, basil, and sunflowers in the summer. She is quite active, enjoying running and swimming, “swimming 3 - 4 times a week”. She also kayaks very often, and takes interest in jewelry design, claiming it to be quite interesting.
Kanishka grew up in Hong Kong and is new to the Bay Area. She said that if she could have a superpower she would teleport to see Hong Kong on the weekends. “Everyday when I wake up, I miss Hong Kong. Everyday I take the CalTrain, I remember how good the transport was. But I mean, I don’t hate the Bay Area, I just like Hong Kong more than anyplace in the world.” She speaks Hindi, English, and Cantonese, extremely fluently and “business” Mandarin
She also has some cool and unique food preferences. “My favorite food? That’s a hard one. I like food too much, but I think it has to be hummus… Yeah hummus, like hummus [works well] with pita bread, with salad, with falafel. Mediterranean food overall, I really love it.” She also despises pineapple on pizza, claiming it to be “just not right,” as the flavors contradict. Her favorite ice-cream flavor is mint chocolate chip, and she prefers limes to lemons as she eats more limes.
Her strategy to survive a zombie apocalypse would be to run and hide, but also suggested the strategy of joining the zombies and leading them; “Eventually that would happen, I mean if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, I think that’s a really good approach to life, you know, but, I’ll try to survive.”
Along with her quirky and cool hobbies and opinions, Kanishka’s favorite cartoon character is Patrick Star, a goofball from Spongebob Squarepants. They are polar opposites, and she believes “if I were to teach Patrick that would be hard, but if I just had to hang out with him, that would be really fun.” Her opinions on social media also might teach you a thing or two. She says, “not everyone should have free access to it because some peoples opinions are purely inappropriate, and therefore, I don’t think it will ruin society, but it has not made us smarter, in any way.” Staying on the topic of technology, she believes that Khanmigo is “a work in progress” but does provide aid to her English students.
Her dream vacation is the Serengeti in Tanzania, or Maasai Mara in Kenya, which are protected reserves. She wants to see all the animals. It is one of her top priorities due to climate change killing all the animals. If she could time travel, she says she would revisit a moment she shared with her grandfather two years ago. She says “It was my grandad’s birthday after COVID was kind of settling down, and all of us showed up to our family home in India and surprised him.” Her grandfather sadly passed away a few months later, and she thinks it would be nice to visit him at a time before his death. Speaking of family, she is the middle child, with a younger brother and an older sister.
Outside of her deep passion for teaching, Kanishka has a busy life: she follows her hobbies, has quirky preferences, enjoys nature and the outdoors, and she treasures her memories close to her heart.