Meet Your Guide
Radha Melis
Founding Director + Guide
For the last two decades, I have centred my life around yearly sojourns to India, the only place in the world where I feel truly at home. Throughout innumerable visits to India’s most exotic regions, sacred temples and ancient villages, I’ve discovered a country that has a unique power to transform even the most lost or hurting parts of our souls. It is this innate magic and beauty that brings me back year after year, and that inspired me in 2016 to share this experience with other Western people through Make a Difference Tours.
While many people have an intrinsic desire to know a world outside of the comforts of their own, they are daunted by the idea of total immersion in a land as foreign and unfamiliar as India. So I developed a trip model that accounts for common fears, anxieties and misconceptions about India, bringing ease and comfort interwoven with fun and connection: small tour sizes, two Western guides, several local guides, and plenty of personalised, intuitive insight to help this trip meet you exactly where you are on your individual journey.
I’m distinctly honoured to have been let in to so many stories of individual transformation on each previous MAD Tour, and I would love to walk alongside you on your journey to self-fulfilment and actualisation.
Why Make a Difference?
Of course, if the story ended there, this would not be called Make a Difference Tours. In dreaming of what this operation could look like, I dreamt of simultaneously making a difference in the lives of those who joined our tour whilst also supporting the Indian people, communities and organisations I have come to know and love.
Through a variety of eye-opening experiences in India over the course of the last two decades, I have learnt that helping without first listening and learning often hurts those communities that we care so deeply about. Thus, MAD Tours is committed to ensuring that every dollar of your support goes directly to aiding family-based solutions, female empowerment and educational opportunity which have long term, sustainable outcomes that benefit both the individual and the community as a whole.
By aligning your journey with that of our vetted partners, you are Making a Difference.
Our Team
A B O U T
Michelle Cassidy
Yoga Teacher
Founder & Operator of 'Essence of Living Yoga & Pilates Studio' - Gold Cost
After first discovering Yoga and Pilates at the young age of 16, I knew, with every cell of my being that I had found my calling, and wished to share both the spiritual and physical benefits of the practice with others.
Having taught retreats at exotic destinations all over the world, there is something uniquely magical about practicing yoga in the ancient heartland of the Yogi. Therefore, each year I run a yoga retreat in India with MAD Tours, where we are able to honour both the yoga of Asana (posture) and also of Seva (service). I am looking forwards to sharing this life changing journey with you, lets breath, bend and blossom together.
Jannine Gearon
Yoga Teacher
Teacher at 'Essence of Living Yoga & Pilates Studio' - Gold Cost
I have always felt that yoga brought me closer to source. It was this feeling which lead me to become a yoga teacher in 2013, so that I could provide a space and the opportunity for others to experience the same.
India had always been on my list, I felt it an essential pilgrimage for any Yogi, but I also felt intimidated by the country. Radha showed me an India that cracked my heart wide open and changed me forever. So, once again, I feel a calling to share the gifts I have received with others. As Radha guides your journey through the ancient land, allow me to guide you, breath by breath, through the journey of your body and soul.
Michele Varela
Tour Communications
My whole life I have been passionate about health & fitness and the way it can transform someones life, not just physically and emotionally, but also by creating a sense of community and belonging in an age where we are losing connection. It was for this reason that I become a personal trainer and yoga teacher, so that I could facilitate connection and make a difference.
When I discovered Make A Difference Tours, I immediately recognised the same passion and mission in Radha to make a difference in peoples lives. So, when the opportunity came up to work with this project, I was on board straight away!
Mahadev Kashana
Tour Guide
Founder & Operator of
'Splend India Travel'
Mahadev assists with some of our tour logistics and is also our local guide when we are traveling in Rajasthan.
Having grown up in village Rajasthan then going on to work within the tourism sector of elite hotels throughout India, Mahadeva has unique insight that only a person who has straddled both traditional and modern India can understand. This rare experience and perspective makes him an exceptionally knowledgable, fascinating and personable guide.
Mahadev is a true gentleman and it is an absolute honour to see India through his loving eyes.
Michele Varela
Tour Communications
My whole life I have been passionate about health & fitness and the way it can transform someones life, not just physically and emotionally, but also by creating a sense of community and belonging in an age where we are losing connection. It was for this reason that I become a personal trainer and yoga teacher, so that I could facilitate connection and make a difference.
When I discovered Make A Difference Tours, I immediately recognised the same passion and mission in Radha to make a difference in peoples lives. So, when the opportunity came up to work with this project, I was on board straight away!
Mahadev Kashana
Tour Guide
Founder & Operator of
'Splend India Travel'
Mahadev assists with some of our tour logistics and is also our local guide when we are traveling in Rajasthan.
Having grown up in village Rajasthan then going on to work within the tourism sector of elite hotels throughout India, Mahadeva has unique insight that only a person who has straddled both traditional and modern India can understand. This rare experience and perspective makes him an exceptionally knowledgable, fascinating and personable guide.
Mahadev is a true gentleman and it is an absolute honour to see India through his loving eyes.
Shivram Sahani
Adventure Guide
Founder & Operator of
'Shivram Adventure Tours'
Shivram was born and raised in the ancient, holy hills of Rishikesh. The river runs in his blood and he loves the land deeply.
Shivram is a trained mountaineer and thrives on adventure. Being a lifelong yoga practitioner, he is deeply spiritual, with a heart of gold, a willingness to help and great sense of humour, Shivram will guide us through the mountains like no-one else can, he knows the trails and secret corners like the back of his hand.
You can follow Shivram's adventures on:
Facebook @ Shivram Adventure Tours
instagram: @ shivramsahani5