I am an Indian from Gujarat, born in Bihar, brought up in Mumbai and now settled in Dubai for the last 24 years post marriage.

I am the 3rd female child to my parents before my younger brother was born. Back in seventies a normal Kathiyawadi household was seeped in orthodoxy to a large extent. My family was not very different, as girls we were trained to be good housewives in keeping with societal norms and expectations.

My grandfather, a teacher advocated education and independence of the women of the household but my grandmother abided by the societal boundaries and could not muster courage to evolve and progress.

My father, walked in his family footsteps and adhered to sexist society norms. It was my mother who was a strong personality and made her own choices by questioning the rituals and archetypical practices in our household. She somehow managed to stand up for herself and us. When it came to life changing decisions like education or taking a logical stand on discriminatory practices based on sex of an individual, she knew how to draw non-porous boundaries. My father learned, very early in their marriage, to let her be.

My mother was not only talented and strong of resolve, but she also instinctively identified our latent potentials from our early childhood. My mother had a foresight to do something about what she understood, knew, or felt intuitively. She created opportunities for us and faced her struggles with grit and determination. ‘Education is not for girls’, was one of the unsaid rules in our universe at that time. I do not know the details but my mother broke this barrier and made sure that her three daughters (including me) got education on par with my brother.

She may not have realized or may not have been given credit for it, but for me it was a social reform. By ensuring education for us, she opened the doors of choice for me and my sisters to be housewives or professionally successful women. Many other women followed my mother’s footsteps and encouraged their daughters to get educated breaking the pre-defined molds and barriers.

Today a woman can be a home maker, corporate honcho or a successful professional or whatever else she chooses to be. She is and will always remain my hero.

I hold a Master’s degree in Management. I have worked in the corporate sector for a good 15 years. The predictable sexist molds and barriers surfaced here too. In spite of adequate qualifications, experience, enviable body of work; unprejudiced evaluations, fair appraisals and thereby well-deserved promotions always eluded me.

It was frustrating. Ultimately I realized the futility of my stint with the corporate world. I resigned. A new expanse of life opened to discover my true calling.

The absence of routine and financial independence created a lacuna difficult to fill. Not the one to give up easily, I soon began trying different things through what ‘I knew’ and ‘was good at’. Spring /summer camps for kids ages 7-15 years of age, crochet classes, home-made low fat- low calorie sweets, teaching English language and computer skills to women were all dedicated efforts to do something constructive with myself and my time. These lasted a few years but all of them eventually failed. I wondered why.

It was then I realized what my efforts lacked: PASSION. I had forgotten what enthused me from within. What excited me; interested me. I had buried them long back in my past. They were nothing more than a blur. My family helped me not only resurrect them, but reinstall them in my day to day life.

I enjoyed meeting, helping and guiding people. I recollected that most of my acquaintances came to visit me when they faced challenges in their lives. Making someone feel better, relieved and energized with positivity and hope gave me a lot of happiness and contentment.

This got me thinking that I could live this passion as a profession. I found myself taking baby steps and going with the flow, eventually taking bigger strides.

Today I can say with lot of satisfaction that this journey has not only helped me find myself, but has connected me with many beautiful and inspiring souls.