All of us come at a crossroads in life at some point or the other. That is when the tussle between the head and the heart, the reasonable and the unreasonable begins. Here are stories of five young people who chose to listen to their heart and pursued an unbeaten path with their heads. Did they find success? What drove them to take the route of the heart? What strengthened their resolve? Are these choices that you can make too? Find out!
Pooja Venugopal, Yoga Instructor, Ex- Business Specialist
I loved my job in Kuwait. I had been in the petrochemical industry for seven years using knowledge from my management and engineering degrees. When I took a break to explore yoga as a career, I was a business specialist in a leading petrochemical company. I felt like I was part of something big. Before that, I was teaching yoga and meditation on the side. Reaching out to officials in embassies, victims of abuse, substance users and general masses. The smiles and relief of these participants at the end of these yoga programs always touched me deep inside. I wanted to devote more of my time to this. I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of yoga. When I decided to take that break, I was not exactly clear how my journey would spin out and my family was concerned as they foresaw the huge financial dip of the decision. But I was determined to follow my calling. I knew if I did not do this because of fear, I would have regrets for the rest of my life. Today, I am studying advanced yoga and teaching yoga across cities and states in India and I have never been so happy.
Pradeep, Co-founder, Swarg Foods, Ex-Bosch
I was a project lead in Bosch, working almost for 20 hours a day. Then, Sudarshan Kriya happened and my efficiency doubled. With more time in hand, I wanted to start something on my own. I was not sure what. A silence program of The Art of Living helped me find an answer. In one of my silent moments during the program, I got an intuition to do something in food. My friend, Swetha who was also doing the same program received the same intuition. After some experiments, we started Swarg Foods, a company that delivers A2 milk and products and other traditional food items and sweets. Our hallmark is our strict use of only organic ingredients and a no-sugar and refined wheat policy. Starting and running Swarg is a series of adventures in itself. One of our first adventures was to find indigenous cows who could give A2 milk. Once we found them, we realized no one really cared about them any more in the villages. So we spent a year and half reviving their value, showing the villagers how their yield could be increased without injections and the value of their cow dung in farming. We are now proud to say that 2,000 farmers work with us at double the rate of the milk of Jersey cows. We transformed a tiny food ecosystem and everyone, our customers and our farmers are happy.
Hari Bala Krishnan, Healer, Ex-MBBS student
I was studying MBBS when a spinal deformity made it impossible for me to sit for long hours. I would experience severe backache for hours. Somebody recommended Marma therapy which gave me immense relief. I grew more interested in alternative healing sciences. And so I quit my medical course and began my journey with healing sciences. Marma, meru, acupressure, Craniosacral Therapy, Yoga therapy - I learned it all. Meanwhile, I enrolled myself in a distance psychology course and I started traveling to heal others. The journey has been the most satisfying one. In the future, I want to combine my learnings in the healing space and Psychology. I feel my regular meditation practice since childhood helped me go through those bygone severe backaches with some kind of calmness and strength and I was able to carve a route of my own instead of succumbing to the anxiety of things not going right.
Krishna, Farmer, Ex-engineering student
For years, my district was dry. Farmers have switched professions and parents in my village want to send their kids to cities for jobs. I too like others wanted to bag a degree and go to cities with tall buildings and 24*7 running taps. Getting into the construction industry was my dream and getting a degree in civil engineering was my big ticket.
But life seemed to have a different plan. In my final year of diploma studies, I came across natural farming in The Art of Living’s Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP). The Art of Living was working to revive the water bodies in Latur and was also teaching natural farming to farmers and youth. I was inspired to take up natural farming. I started my farming experiments on a 4-acre land that my family had leased out. In one year, the farm yielded food worth 5 lakh rupees, a jackpot amount compared to its earlier farm yield of fifty thousand rupees. Nobody thought farming could give so much money. My friends in cities were earning half this amount.
I also joined the river rejuvenation project which had filled borewells that were empty for years with water. It was inspiring to see the impact of the project. I was beginning to think that perhaps, my generation will not run to the cities for the 24*7 running taps. My happiest moment during the project tenure was when our team revived a pond that had been dry for 25 years. The villagers were so overjoyed that they wanted to name the pond by Krishna, my name! I don't think engineering could have given me so much name and money in this span of time.
Sakshi Kandya Nowlakha, Founder & Fashion Designer, Quaint
I come from Bhopal where growing up I have seen my community value the things they own. So before anything went to the bin in our house, we asked ourselves if it could be re-used. When I launched my line of women and luxury wear, I followed the same principle. We tried to reuse everything that was about to go to waste. But we still could not succeed 100 percent. I also observed that my customers were ready to dispose of a dress material which is in perfect condition only because it was too old or has been used several times. It was not that they wanted to put it in the bin. It was just that as per them, they did not have any other choice. That is when I got an idea for Quaint, a sustainable fashion line which uses old clothes and makes a brand new dress or accessory from them. But then the pandemic hit and overall the fashion industry took a hit. Yet, the initial good response to Quaint and the emergence of conscious customers give me hope. As a meditator, the idea kicks me because it is a tiny step to save the planet. And as a Bhopalite, nothing feels better than saving that piece of beautiful cloth from going to the bin.
As told to Vanditaa Kothari
