Black Belt and Marathon: Serial Achiever Sheetal

We start the new year off with someone who has accomplished goals with a dogged determination and ones that took some dedicated persistence over long periods of time. With unflagging practice, Sheetal Rawat has followed her childhood dream of earning her black belt at the age of 42 after working on it for 5 years. She then went ahead ran a marathon.

Yep.

I’ve known Sheetal awhile, and only over the past few years have we gotten close enough for me to watch her with an air of awe and wonder. I can’t walk fast for nuts (coz of my knee) and here she was running marathons and kicking ass (maybe even literally!).

For the most part, thanks to Facebook, there is enough and more of everyone’s accolades hitting us at super byte speeds every time we open the app. It’s reached masochistic tendencies for some. To open, watch someone be happy for something they’ve achieved or celebrate and then instinctively look back on their lives and well, you know how that goes down the drain. It’s morbidly entertaining when you sit back and watch!

So, what we do see is the icing on the cake. The final ‘aha’ crowning moment. The tip of the iceberg. What we don’t see is the huge massive amount of personal effort and struggles that laid the foundation for the tip to shine through to you.

Is it worth it?

Heck yeah!

How do I know? Well, I know just like you do. You and I will together learn in this very space what it takes to become the very best that *you* want to become.

I sat down with Sheetal (over a period of time) and this is what I have for you.

Read on.

Get inspired. Fan that fire within.

Spread the joy and inspiration.

Rhythmaya And Nirathi: Bollywood Dance

Continuing on with the Wednesday feature - interviews and showcasing influential women of our area, today's spotlight shines on Nirathi the Director of Rhythmaya 

Ive known Nirathi since she moved into the area, fresh out of college and went to the same Indian dance school to learn Kuchipudi. She is one of those who leaves an impression on you when you meet her. Vivacious and always smiling, Ive never seen her tired or down, and is always up for a challenge, outing and some talk. When I think back, I doubt Ive ever seen her angry, upset, with anyone or anything and always seems to be in control or at least in ever adapting mode to the changing world and situations we are thrown in. Patience and bigger picture acceptance and recognition form the pillars of how she runs her life and company, and I have always admired her through the last 13 years Ive known her.

She is inspirational, from the way she charts her course and how she manages and juggles home, work and how determined she is to make it through her goals to get to where she wants to be. To turn a passion into something tangible takes more than just talent and a dream, and Nirathi definitely has it figured out, for the most part, at that young age!

The interview below is long, but I assure you is worth every bit, so do read on!

Nirathi Rao: Director of Rhythmaya

Contact: Rhythmaya (Website)

...AND We Are Back In 2015!

So we are 20 full days into the New Year and am not sure about you, but am still tingling with the excitement of the newness of it all. Helps that it's winter, coz the cold air always spelled freshness and gives me goose pimples.

I know what you thinking!
No, it is NOT because of the cold, but it's because of the anticipation of achievements, goals, and the possibilities that can be achieved by our dreams that we dare to dream!

Don't you think?

The old one is gone. 

The checklist is withered and scratched off.

The choice of whether one wants to carry over some goals and not is entirely up to us to decide. 

That's incredible. Just in itself, without any of the other fanfare or the societal conditioning that we would love to lay this on. 

So, long story short, am back. 

*waits for the round of applause to die down* 

*grins* 

Yes! 

I shall continue bringing you some exquisitely ordinary woman who wield the power to harness their best. They are women who you will pass on the street or carpool with or will share a gym bike with. They are women who look just like you do. 

Suburban. Wife. Mom. Careers. Dreams. Sweatshirts. Kids. Juggling. Dreaming. Achieving. Mourning. Whining. Groaning. Gritting. ..and some more. 

These are the women who dare to follow their dreams, make the wisest choices under the circumstances and stick with it, despite all odds. They wear their invisible cape on their shoulders, and are always conscious of the ever so slight tug at the neck when things get rough and the wind is blowing strong and when the body teeters, but the strength of their mind holds them steady, while that cape gives them that anchor to keep sailing. 

Lots of exciting things to come your way, so hang on, coz that's what am doing!
..and if you are new around here, and have no clue what am talking about, here are some previous posts and ladies that are worth reading about.

Nirathi. 
Lakshmi and Aruna 
Karen 

Inspiring in the simple ways they talk and teach us, I hope you will tune in weekly to read and share and draw from the words and the people that I introduce you to, right here.

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Monday. 

Every Monday with a post that will make you think. 

And I'll introduce you to an inspiring woman every other Monday.

..and that is a promise! 

<3
Radhika