Because giving up is not an option!

The secret to success is a combination of a few elements.

First, it’s your own level of expectations. You have to learn to be happy with certain things you have achieved so far. It’s almost impossible to accomplish all the things you aimed in life; so you have to learn to be happy with what you have achieved, even if it’s half of what you had in your mind at first.

“Life happens to you, when you are busy making some other plans”. You always expect certain things, and something else along the ways comes by and you have to alter your path accordingly again.

If you can learn to live along with that, if you can be practical like that, success is easy, maybe! It’s good to have a plan and you are working very hard and you are walking up against the door and you can’t go through that door, you just have to find a backdoor or find a way around it!

That’s how life is; you won’t get exactly what you had in the back of your mind. It’s important to have a good work ethic; no one gets anywhere without hard work. You have to learn to deal with setbacks, failures, get yourself together, because quitting is never an option.

Life is a roller-coaster ride, you will have ups and down, but you will remember only the ups. The fact of the matter is you have to have passion. You must really, really, really and badly want something in life and you must be 100% devoted and dedicated towards it. That way, you will accomplish anything, I mean anything!

To do so, you have to be a bit crazy. You need to be possessive about it. If you commit your entire life to your dream, 2 things will happen:- either you will achieve it or you will die trying.

Dreams, goals, ambitions are important as they drive our life. 

"I am in this phase, and I am sure many too are feeling the same. I wrote this post because it’s a reminder to myself that it’s ok – If things don’t go as per the plan. What matters the most is how you fought and how you live."

Eternal Love!

It’s not a perfect love story. 

In fact it’s an incomplete one.

Left to be never completed in this lifetime.

It was a dream and near to impossible.

But as it entered my life, I started chasing more dreams.

God grants you things when you need them the most.

Deep in sorrow, fakeness,

Lost, confused and buried in questions I was.

And the Eternal Love just came as a slow wind.

Which shook my fundamentals,

Moved me and I became a new person.

That’s what it does.

So, for this Eternal Love

I will never fear this world.

Be authentic and real.

Will value my time and other time too.

Keep up my word at any cost.

Will speak up, even if it’s suffocating.

Expose my vulnerabilities and face my fears.

I will stay beautiful as this Eternal Love.

Alive and meaningful.

I will go global and make you proud.

Will smile even if I live in pain.

Because I got more than what I asked for.

It gives me a safe nest to breath.

Protected arms when I am scared the most.

Wipes off your tears every time I am hurt.

Walking in the crowd all alone, never did I felt lost.

You walked besides me and I never wanted any one more.

I live everyday with this eternal love in my heart.

Long overdue ….but here I am.

Thanks BG for this Eternal Love.

This is what you have left me with….. never ending Eternal Love.

Water + Fire = Love

Love is the water of life and the lover is the sole of fire.

Universe turns differently when fire loves water. 

A life without love is of no count. 

Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek.

Spiritual or material, Divine or Maintained. 

Love has no definition or labels. 

What makes you perfect?

Well, I am not perfect and I carry all my imperfections as a medal.

I accept and celebrate my imperfections and yes that makes me also vulnerable.

Does it pain?

Yes, it pains. When those imperfections lead to failures, setbacks, and losses.

I don’t know what being perfect is like…but I have found my way to be perfect.

You are perfect when you can make someone smile.

You are perfect when you do well for someone.

You are perfect if you can empathies with someone.

You are perfect if you can accept people for who they are.

You care perfect if you can feel someone’s pain.

You are perfect if you care less of what others would think and be you.

I live with pain, don’t ask why.

Ask how does it help.

I rejoice my pains everyday…ask why?

Only if you are in pain you can feel someone else’s pain.

When you can feel others pain you can truly connect.

Only when you are in pain you value happiness.

I call “Pain” as a blessing in disguise.

Even if you are living in pain…don’t forget to smile always.

Smile because you took a breath now.

What’s the point of being perfect, when pain and imperfection are enough to live in gratitude?

Don’t die before your death.

Try doing good and changing someone’s life, that’s when you are living.

Break out of the routine and do your bit of goodness.

And if you feel you are imperfect in anything don’t worry my friend, you will be ok. That’s how we all are and we need to stop trying to prefect our self’s, instead be grateful of this life and make the most out of it.

Cheers to our imperfections.

The very Indian in me says this….

Today back home, we are celebrating our  71st Independence Day in India. For me it was an emotional roller costar day. I was missing home, was happy seeing the flag hosting pictures, school celebration social media post and our leaders inspiring talks etc.

I have been living away from India for more than 2 years now, and after so many years of living only today I wondered what 15^th Aug means to me or for that matter for my fellow Indians. Yes, it’s a day to celebrate the freedom we got after fighting so hard and sacrificing so many freedom fighters lives. The question I have is, what are we celebrating for?

Our freedom fighters fought for a free nation, where we are no more slaves of anyone and have all the freedom we want in this life. But what’s the point of this freedom and celebration I wonder again. Our minds are not really free!

https://www.ifundwomen.com/projects/halfthestory

Religion: How easily today we categorize people based on their religion and cast. It starts right from the birth, when we label a child – Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian in his or her birth certificate and they land up living for that tag forever. We divided our own free land into religious minds and we are subconsciously fighting a mental war against each other, is this Independence? When can we stop dividing ppl based on their religion? Well, I have no answer for this? I am personally fighting my own war and hope no religion wins, but humanity WINS.  I wish I embraced true independence in my mind.

State Divisions: Oh Yes! This is classic, How many times in your day u say- “She is a tamilian”, “He is a Punjabi”, “She is from Bengal” and how strong our stereotypes are related to people from different parts of India. Isn’t it funny? So did Gandhi or for that matter our leaders fought this freedom war just to wake up from their grave and see fellow Indians talking ill and segmenting people based on which part of India they come from?

No matter how educated or smart we are, we lovely Indians can’t stop diving people. I guess it’s our skill set.

Language War: We might be the only country, which has no National Language, however for us English and Hindi are our official languages. Why u ask? Well because we speak close to 18 different languages, and how can one language win? Thus, if you are living in a particular state and if you don’t know the state language, it’s a disgrace, you will be made to feel like an outsider. So independence is not about which language u wish to learn and speak. When will we liberate our self from this languages war and say fuck everything… lets make respect, honesty, and kindness mode of communication and not Kannada, Bengali etc.

Well if I can communicate to Chinese people using these languages, I am sure it won’t be that difficult for we Indians.

Gender Equality:  This is a huge topic, and I know lots of things are changing. But still, when will we stop objectifying women in India. A woman is supposed to do this and that, is this what Independence means to you or us? Why can’t u give every woman this Independence of letting her make her own choice, out of love and not out of society pressure?

Status Quote: To explain this point, let me narrate you a story. I was waiting at this Delhi airport and a mid age woman shared my table and started telling me about her son living in US and passed out from IIT. She must be proud of her son, which I could see, but it took a twist in the story when 2 other girls joined our table. One was doing her MS in US and the other girl was doing her media studies. Guess what? That woman started giving more attention and respect to the MS girl. So here’s my question to the entire well educated and highly classy Indians – Was Independence gifted to us so that we treat people differently based on their social, financial and educational status?

Why is that we have this mental barometer, when it comes to respecting people coming from different walks of life and class.

Did our great freedom fighters fight for India’s Independence to see all that’s boiling up in India? My dear friends, as you end your today’s day and head back to a normal routine life from tomorrow, I want you guys to ask yourself, how full of double standards and a hypocrite life we are living in spite of this blessed freedom. This is not a national war, it's a fight with our selves. Fight to free yourself from the thoughts, which divide our own land.  I wish we all WIN this war soon, so that if I ever have kids, help them breath is a truly Independent India.

Happy Independence Day!

Jai Hind!

Debuted on Medium

Hi all,
I debuted on Medium today, with my first post called, "Brand Stories".
You can follow me here: https://t.co/lsGHZeCQvw

See you there :)

To all the Internet haters.

To all the Internet haters,

They say, “I lack Indian Values, have no Indian Culture, Are you really an Indian?”

I wonder why they feel it’s ok to slash someone openly on Social Media without even making an attempt to know them?

This couldn't be more far from the truth and from my intentions and values. Yes I, come from India. But, does that mean I can’t take up global roles or create social media content that is universal? Just because I am an India, does it mean I always have to dress up in ethnic attire? 

I love Social Media; it’s my bread and butter. I love being creative and experimenting with new content even if they are not conventional. I used Social media at work and personally. Yes, my profiles are public. I love this space, but today I want to address few things, that I think is not OK. Few people sitting in a room, going all out abusing content creators and when they them self have no point to prove apart from calling people racist, sexist, boosting their egos.

My FB, Blog, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter accounts are all public. You know why, because I want to share my content, stories and I tell them in unique ways. Yes, I am putting myself up there for lot of criticisms, inviting hates comments. I am ok to show that I am vulnerable. Any other way would be inauthentic. The truth is, I do dress up in all the fashions, just because you thing my pics are revealing, does not give any one the rights to judge me by saying I lack India culture.  

I'm really proud of my ethnicity and skin colour. I'm even more proud of my parents and the life they've created. I love dosa. I love pani puri. I love speaking Hindi and (poorly) Kannada, Marathi. I also love dressing up in clothes from the motherland. I love the family values I've been raised with. I love Bhangra and Bollywood music. In other words, don't get it twisted. I'm brown and I'm hella happy about it. And whatever colour your skin is, you should love it too.

I am an Indian, but I would love to be called as a Global Citizen.

What's the real deal about dreaming?

Today, I did post on Instagram my picture with a quote saying, “I am grateful for each breath in and out”.

One of my Insta friend said “Life in every breath”. As we started conversing he also shared one of his readings, which goes like this – “Think about your goals and dream in life and think how your actions are helping you achieve this dream. All your actions should only be in service of achieving this dream.”

So, we all have dreams – don’t we? Some dream of having a family, some dream about their career achievements, for some it’s their startup, product, loved ones, traveling around etc.

Types of dreams are endless; the point is having a (Short term / Long term) dream first and then taking actions towards achieving it. That made me think. Most of us have dreams, but then how many and how often do we work towards achieving it?

Isn’t living about living to fulfill our dreams?

So, what actually happens? Let’s take my example, one of my long-term goal is – before I die I want to build a school/ shelter for orphan age kids. Say even if I am able to give minimum 15 kids a home, family & education I will feel that I accomplished my dream.

This has been my dream, the time when a kid I adopted from an orphan age died due to AIDS at a very early age. He made me realize, what it means to give shelter and a family for an orphan.

After speaking to him, I realized I do have this dream and I believe strongly about it. But what am I actually doing about it? Absolutely…..Nothing.

At this stage I don’t have a plan where I want to start this school, how much will it cost to buy & build a school. How will I raise more money & how will it sustain in the long run.

Let’s not get lost in my dream & it’s planning complexity. The question we need to ask is…what’s the purpose of our living? What gives us that motivation to wake up & concur our days?

They are dreams because they are not going to be easy, so we need to put in every day some effort so that we fulfill our dreams. We need to invest time so that we get closer to our dreams. Else we will find yourself going as the wind blows, living a meaningless life & when we will look back….we wont be happy about how we lost control over our life.

Let me end by asking you to practice 10 mins act. Spend min at least 10 mins to work towards your dream – let it be researching, reading, posting content, or practicing… anything related to your dream.  With this you will slowly bridge the gap between making your dreams come to reality. If we can dare to dream, with our daily efforts we can for sure make them real. 

Cheers to all the dreamers! Good Luck!

Never stop dreaming and more importantly don’t forget to keep working towards it on daily bases.

Happiness?

It’s such a simple word and equally difficult to triumph.

Why do I say so?

Well, because I wonder

Is it something that I need to chase?

Is it something with in me to feel?

Is it something that I need to pursuit?

Is it something that I need to do to feel it?

Is it something that certain acts can assure you?

Is it a movie, hobby, music, people, as few quotes say?

Or

Is it just something you can just keep aspiring for?

So, is happiness a question or an answer?

Well I might sound a bit confused, lost or profound at this moment. That’s because I am searching for answers and trying to kill the debate that’s going on in my mind.

So, if you think you are happy and you are blessed with happiness… try answering the question for me.

Nothing guarantees happiness – money, love, family, friends, good job, health none of them. You know why? Because, I have all of it. More than I want. Still I am here wondering….

Seth Godin says “An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you've got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you're gone and most of all, doing important work.”

How do you balance gratitude along with the greed to be the best & have the best?

I think I have encountered happiness very often, but when it’s gone… why does it leave me empty? Tell me why, having such a blessed life I am still conjecturing about happiness. Is it normal or I am I missing out something?

Is it too much when I am asking nothing more, but to be happy, as we all wish?

Love Yourself!

Women's Day Celebration at MEIZU 2017

Be You! Happy Women’s Day

This women’s day I only have one message to all the wonderful & the beautiful souls out there:

Looks, Fame, Beauty, and Money all fades off.

Authentic power is the personality you carry within.

What are we chasing?

Why are we trying so hard for others to accept us?

What is being perfect anyways?

Why are we hiding our vulnerabilities?

Why can’t we….

Express the truth irrespective of what people think…

Speak and be the truth of who we are…

Being able to open up our soul so that the other person can see us.

Let no one else define you..

If they say you can’t ….show them that you can.

Face your fears… and one day you will be so proud of yourself.

I just did.. faced my Camera Phobia Fear.. This is how I feel now :)