Teaching tax law and skin care

When she"s not in the classroom or grading papers or out exploring New Orleans with her daughters, Anu Varadharajan is building her brand of homemade organic skin care products.

It"s an admittedly busy life for the Tulane University lecturer and assistant director for the Master of Accounting program in the A. B. Freeman School of Business. But busy, for Varadharajan, is good.

“It's a question of how you spend the 24 hours.”—Anu Varadharajan, assistant director for the Master of Accounting program

“It is a lot that goes on,” she said. “I guess it"s a question of how you spend the 24 hours.”

By day, Varadharajan teaches tax law, a subject she loves but one she knows can be intimidating to her students. She says she tries to show them how tax law can be a creative outlet — figuring out how to balance the clients" wishes within the confines of the law.

She"s been at Tulane University since July 1, when she and her husband, Gans Narayanamoorthy, an associate professor of accounting at Tulane, came together from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“I genuinely enjoy teaching,” she said. “I learn every time I teach.”

At home, she"s a mother to two daughters as well as an entrepreneur. Just before moving to New Orleans from Illinois, she launched Sona Organics, an all-natural skin care line. Her recipes for products like hand cream, deodorant, lip balm and baby butter come from food- and herb-based tips passed down through generations of her and her husband"s families. She co-founded Sona Organics with her health-conscious cousin who lives in Philadelphia, who also has young children.

Raised in Singapore, Varadharajan grew up hearing the virtues of all-natural solutions — yogurt and honey for face masks, and ginger and cumin to help digestion.

“It"s how I was raised and how I"m raising my kids,” she said, pulling lavender-scented cream out of a drawer and rubbing some onto her hands. “I just incorporated these into the skin care.”