Falguni Desai begins the conversation by immediately addressing the role of gender in her vocation and how things would have been different had she been a male architect. She notes the support her father provided her while pursuing architecture but mentions that maybe she would have pushed herself harder as a male professional. She also remarks on the challenge of being a part of the builder circuit, especially for women practitioners. She describes working with government bodies and facing a struggle there as well. Interestingly, she also recognizes a kind of independence she was afforded to pursue whatever she wanted, which she feels men can’t, because of the societal pressure of having to run and provide for a family. 

She then goes back to her younger days, when she was beginning to wonder what she wanted to study and notes how she wanted to get away from her native city. Since one of her cousins had married an architect, and the course was available away from Surat, she decided to enrol into CEPT University. She then goes on to describe the amazing journey and excitement of studying there and everything she learned along the way. Describing her professional journey, she lists a few projects that she worked on and described the pace of work that she undertook. She then goes on to describe her engagements with and against the government, some strong positions she took against riverfront projects, and creating awareness on heritage and resources. In 2014, she became the Director of the Laxmi Institute of Architecture, and more recently, she undertook a masters course on landscape design. Subsequently, she goes a bit more in detail about her professional engagements in recent years, client relationships, and her evolving approach towards design and building. She also mentions her engagement with the Tapi Utsav in Surat and continued collaborations with students and colleagues.