Komal Shah Kapoor, Ph.D.
Founder | Editor | Consumer Anthropologist | Social Scientist
Cultural wellness through story, memory & meaning.
The most sacred forms of wellness are the quietest ones.
A Personal Beginning
Green Sea Shells was never just a digital publication — it was a quiet calling I carried for years. A way to gather all the threads that have defined my work: a belief in culture as medicine, storytelling as memory, and rituals as anchors in chaotic times.
My journey into wellness began not in a yoga studio, but in research rooms and kitchens. At SpaFinder, I was part of the team that co-authored the very first Global Spa Economy Report with SRI International — work that would become foundational to what is now the Global Wellness Institute. Around the same time, I published the first India Spa Trends Report — a piece that merged data with cultural insight and led to features in Forbes Traveler and global publications.
I wasn’t chasing trends; I was trying to understand them.
Culture, Identity, and the Kitchen Table
That same yearning brought me to Cook Aunty — a labor of love I started in New York City, long before platforms like Shef or Blue Apron. It was built on a simple truth I uncovered in my doctoral research: for many immigrants, food is the last thread of cultural identity to unravel. Cook Aunty was a celebration of home-cooked meals, of aunties who carry centuries of wisdom in their spice boxes, and of the joy that bubbles up from a stovetop when you're not trying to be anything but yourself.
I’m not a doctor, nor an influencer — I’m a researcher who listens deeply, a writer who cares about nuance, and a woman who has always believed that the most sacred forms of wellness come from within.
Building Bridges That Matter
As the founder of SpeakerPost, I also work to bring real-world voices into classrooms — helping students, especially those without traditional access, imagine what’s possible. That same spirit — of meaningful connection, of bridging experience and care — is what lives inside Green Sea Shells.
Here, you’ll find more than wellness tips. You’ll find stories that remind you where you come from. Recipes that taste like memory. Travel that restores your sense of self. And practices that ask you to slow down, not speed up.
Thank you for reading — and for being part of this. Truly.