Rummaging Through Life

“Digging through old photographs and videos can be a great break from the monotony of the daily grind. Do it! It is one of the BEST stress busters,” says Swati M.

There is someone infinitely more powerful who is placing the dots and creating a roadmap for all of us. Most of us will enjoy joining these jots if we stop worrying about what will come next.

With a career spanning 18 years, Swati describes herself with these adjectives, which closely and succinctly define her journey. A disruptor, teacher, coach, friend, mother, and a change agent, as a child, she was vivacious and an extrovert and always ready to learn and push herself to the limit. These have stayed with her, and she hopes they continue right till the end.

Her parents were teachers, and she feels fortunate that she has wonderful stories to tell about her childhood.
Parents, teachers, and friends all of them have contributed in building these stories, which she uses in her training.
One such story always helps her to bounce back from whatever is troubling her.

A couple of years ago, rummaging through a box full of papers, Swati came across a long-lost pen, a couple of “I love you” notes from her children, and her horoscope (her husband calls it a “horrorscope’!).

“Yes, I do like to know about people’s star signs, and though the Sunday horoscope predictions do sometimes bring a smile on my face, it hardly ever comes TRUE! All this doesn’t that I run to a fortune teller every time I need advice. I am agnostic and know that there is someone up there joining the dots, but that’s about it.” So says she.

“A couple of years ago, during a low phase, I was driven to an astrologer. My body language was unyielding, a conflict between ‘I need to know versus Do I HAVE to know’ being all but evident. The astrologer, a kind old man, smiled knowingly.
His opening statement was, “You are very strong!”. Was my distress so apparent?” She recalls fondly, “one statement that the wise old man kept repeating was “aapko raj yog hai” (you have the luck of a king).”

“I know horoscope reading is contextual and can have many interpretations. I smile at that memory always.” She knows astrology is a robust science, and some people do not move an inch without consulting an astrologer. To this, she likes to quote a young friend who answered so many questions in one line “astrologers can be wrong, astrology cannot be wrong.”
Raj Yog again is an attitude. Don’t kings go through trying times? Don’t they experience defeat, separation, and lack of resources? It finally boils down to how one deals with the trials and tribulations in life.”

A positive soul that Swati is, she describes her “Raj Yog” as follows.

1. Meeting, in most instances, good people. Those who weren’t, she guesses she erred in her judgment despite several warnings.
2. Having good, rock-solid parents who gave her the right set of values of the kinds which are NOT contextual and negotiable.
3. The strength to get up and get going every time she fell
4. Being positive and never letting hopes die
5. The ability to laugh, even at her own self
6. Enjoying extended periods of solitude. And having the luxury of experiencing it in the first place!
7. The ability to offer love, money, advice, a shoulder to cry on, or even one’s favorite possessions without attaching the need to get things back any returns.

As a change agent, she works with people to build their skills. Sometimes she does so merely by motivating them, occasionally by pushing them, and some times by just holding their hands and listening to them.

She firmly believes every experience is a teacher, and one should NEVER forget the learnings from each such incident.
She conducts regular training and motivational talks at various corporates and colleges. Her participants particularly like her ability to connect with people across ages and the ability to bring the BEST out of them.

She sums up our conversation by going back to the wise old astrologer.
“The astrologer’s version of “Raj Yog” is still unclear to me. Who wouldn’t mind a couple of more zeros in their pay-cheques ( just like the king has his “सोने के भंडार”) though I do know they don’t come without strings attached. There are, after all, no free lunches in life. Hard work and self-belief are two qualities that can take an individual to great heights.”

She signs off by humming a line from a song….. कहने को वैसे तो सारा सुकून है . फिर भी यह दिल है के इसको जूनून है .
“I shall continue to read the Sunday “horrorscope,” smile a little more and hope a lot more!” she says!