Tamara Van Well came to India for the first time in 2014 through a volunteering program, staying in the villages of Uttar Pradesh — far from the tourist trail, deep in the heartland of Indian life. It was not the India of postcards. It was better: a real encounter with how people live, what they value, and how warmth can coexist with hardship in ways that quietly reorder your assumptions about what a good life looks like. She has been going back ever since.

What makes Tamara's perspective particularly rich is the intimacy of her access. Living in a Mumbai joint family with a husband from a Jain background, she has had to navigate not just a new country but a new philosophy of living — one where the default is we rather than me, where love is not conditional on performance, and where a great-grandmother's daily purpose fills a room with more vitality than anything a wellness industry could manufacture. Through her retreats — restorative yoga, deep dives into self-remembrance, yoga philosophy courses, and silent Vipassana collaborations — she now brings other Western women into the India she has come to love: not the chaotic surface version, but the profound, generous, endlessly alive version underneath.

Tamara in Her Own Words

What brought you to India for the first time?

I went to India the first time in 2014 because of a volunteering connection I had. I really wanted to explore a country in real, not just seeing the touristic places but really experiencing life as it is. It brought me to Uttar Pradesh, really the countryside — staying in small villages, exploring village life, creating schools, developing the educational side, seeing how we could support hygiene. It was a beautiful way to be in India for the first time.

How did yoga and mindfulness first enter your life?

I used to work in youth care — with children with ADHD, autism, trauma. A mindfulness teacher came to where I was working and introduced it. I was very intrigued: what is this, and how can I integrate it in my work with the children? And at the same time, I had a deeper calling to travel to Tibet. The moment I set foot in Tibet, I really felt like I was home. From there, yoga philosophy, the yoga sutras, Buddhism — they all came onto my path. I started reading, studying, putting it all together. Now that is what I love to share — yoga beyond the physical part.

Why do you choose India for retreats specifically?

Because I have lived in India so closely and experienced the Indian way of living with a joint family — I have seen yoga principles actually lived. If you live in India, you experience that people are so tolerant, so warm, always welcoming, there is always space for one more. Here in the Netherlands, people put their yoga mat down and it is their space — no one should come too close. Come to India and you lie mat to mat and it is okay if you touch the other, we are just sharing the space together. That is the me culture versus the we culture. And there is Jugaad — making things work whatever you have. That is also a mental way of viewing things. Are you going to put resistance to the obstacle, or are you going to move around it like water? That is yoga, lived in everything.

What happened on the overnight train from Varanasi?

I woke up six or seven hours later and asked where we were. They pointed it out on the map and I thought — this is exactly the same spot where we were when I fell asleep. The train stood still the whole night. And everyone was so relaxed. 'Yeah, it happens.' And I was like — I had just been experiencing the stream of life at the Varanasi ghats, life comes and goes, and here I am frustrated trying to fix a situation that everyone else was completely at peace with. So I thought: what if I also just lean back, make the most of it, drink some extra chai? If you are talking about spiritual lessons, that was one of the biggest ones.

What did living in a joint family teach you?

Understanding the wisdom of every generation. We even have the great-grandmother living in the house and she is so active still. As long as you have a purpose in life, you can do so much. The moment you lose your purpose, I see here in the Netherlands how people fall apart mentally. She has purpose and she does everything wholeheartedly — that is beautiful to see. And then also the unconditional caring. No matter what, if we don't agree, if there are discussions, that love is there. In the Netherlands, even between parents and children, it is kind of conditional — if you act like this, you get my love. In this joint family it is different: everyone makes their own decisions but still we are one organism and that love will be there, whatever the choice.

What would you say to a Western woman who wants to come to India but is scared?

It is not as scary as you think it is. I would recommend starting from Mumbai rather than Delhi. Mumbai is way more westernized and I feel a little bit safer there. And there are always people that want to help you navigate. Use your gut feeling, read a little bit about the culture, know what to expect. I feel more safe walking on the streets in Mumbai at night than walking in my own town in the Netherlands, because in my town there is no one on the street and that is actually scarier. In India there are always people. Just go with an open heart, and India will show you that everything is possible.

What are the biggest misconceptions Westerners have about India?

That eating with your hands is dirty. There is so much tradition and science in it — using all your senses with eating, you are truly nourishing yourself. Everything has a logic behind it. What we see as dirty or weird often has a deeper reason. And then: India is very poor and women are not safe. India is warm, loving, beautiful. Nature is mesmerizing. You see places you have never seen before. India has everything when it comes to nature. See beyond the images you get on the internet. India is not only dirty and scary. Open yourself up to travel there.

What is your approach to the retreats you lead?

The retreats I really love sharing are really about self-remembrance — taking off the layers we have put upon ourselves through the experiences we have come across to. We are so stuck in living a certain way and many times we are not given another perspective to life. Once that is given, something can really beautifully open up. I want to give people an opening to a different way of viewing life. And in India especially, because the yoga principles are lived in everything around you — you don't just practice them on the mat, you see them in every interaction, every meal, every moment of stillness.

What upcoming retreats do you have?

I am hosting a yoga and hiking retreat in Maharashtra — connecting with the hills, connecting with nature, connecting with your own inner nature. And there is a retreat in the southern part of Goa at a secluded beach — I'm not going to mention which one because otherwise people will go there. That retreat is a deep dive into the ocean of self-discovery. We are going to use the elements of nature to start viewing everything a little differently. Can we allow the empty spaces to be there again? Can we be comfortable with emptiness and simplicity? It is seven days, from the 27th of December to the 3rd of January. There is one spot still available.

Conclusion

Tamara Van Well arrived in India with volunteering tools and an open heart, and India gave her something no training manual could have prepared her for: a direct experience of what it looks like when an entire culture quietly lives what the yoga books teach. The tolerance, the warmth, the three generations sharing one roof, the stranger at the Delhi station who steadied her friends and said don't worry, they're just curious — these were not spiritual highlights. They were the ordinary texture of a country that has been practicing connectedness for thousands of years.

What this episode of India Calling offers — and what Tamara's work carries forward — is a corrective to the fear-based narrative that keeps so many Western women from ever setting foot on Indian soil. India is extreme, yes. It is alive with contradiction and chaos and beauty. But as Tamara says simply and finally: "India is full of extremes. Everything is there. And that's also why India is so alive." The aliveness, the love, the felt sense that you are never truly alone on an Indian street, in an Indian home, or in an Indian shala — this is what people carry home from their retreats with Tamara. And it is what India has always been quietly offering to anyone willing to arrive with an open heart.

As Sabin closes the conversation beautifully: "India isn't just a destination you see with your eyes. It's a vibration you feel within your soul." Tamara Van Well is living proof.

Listen to the full episode on the India Calling Podcast by Smukti. Explore Tamara's retreats, yoga philosophy courses, and upcoming Goa retreat at tamaravanwell.com. For guided temple tours and spiritual journeys in South India, visit Smukti.