Dear readers, I was born in Spring- Summer 69 in the city of the Taj and love , to Rajput parents. My father an army officer with Greek God looks and an Irish accent because of his St Columba's schooling. My mother with natural grace, attraction and the sweetest voice with an endearing Chennai accent because of her Queen Mary's education . I changed as many schools as classes and toured my vast , incredible and diverse India because of the transferable nature of my father's profession. In 1975, God blessed us and gifted me a pretty little sister, now a doctor in the US. I look back and wonder whether she was basically a quiet baby or I was so talkative and interesting that she preferred to listen. Family, schools, college was a breeze, enjoyable and pleasant. Before I realised, I was 21. That's when delicious , yummy , hot chocolate fudge ended and good for holistic health green tea started. 21 Love is like Bollywood. 21 and marriage is not like Mills & Boons. A heady cocktail of passion, possessiveness, protectiveness, persistence, power, patience and personality changes. The only P missing is ' practicality ' and then overnight you jump the Q , and add R for ' responsibility'. From then on that's the rhythm of your heart and soul. Key verb is responsibility. Key adverb is resilience.I picked up a sales and marketing job for financial freedom , kept taking on the most challenging assignments possible and haven't taken a break from that till date. I continued educating myself in various disciplines, and haven't taken a break from that too for mental and academic growth and freedom. I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in my twenties and am nurturing with pleasure. For a fiercely independent girl it was beautiful to nurture him and bring him up. Nothing in the world is more fulfilling than experiencing motherhood. I lived in a joint family for a decade to polish my rough edges and it made me socially well adjusted . Immense conviction to press on despite the odds is what kept me going in personal relationships. Some of this is covered in the Tedx talk . Fortitude has allowed me some room for success and recognition , to materialise in life. I grew to hold senior most positions in the best organisations in my industry thru hardwork and grit. If at 22, life was temporarily a scary roller coaster, at 44 it was a suddenly a terrifying rocket launcher. There are these monotonous , stable phases in our time line interspersed with reset shock buttons. It happens to everyone but we only feel ours. Ageing parents and the pain to see them unwell, children moving out for education and work and the emptiness in your nest, managing your own energy levels and fitness goals for fear of lifestyle diseases, coping with millennials and enjoying them at work, seeing your loving grandparents permanently part when they still want to enjoy life, getting more spiritual and philosophical and accepting the new you etc etc. I realised that dance, music, education, hobbies and friends are good navigators when you are in the driving seat and entering autumn. My motto and suggestion to you is : 1. Not dwell on past success but channelise your energy to focus on achieving future challenges and goals .2. Happiness comes from promoting harmony . Prosperity comes from spreading love. 3. Face your fears and learn everything you are particularly not good at. You will shine. Dr Ananta Singh Raghuvanshi
