Late last year, I had shared the news of my nomination for the Rex Karamveer Chakra awards with you guys. These awards are given by iCONGO (the International Confederation of NGOs) in partnership with the United Nations to people creating social change through their work.
I am so excited and happy to share that I was awarded a silver medal in late-November at the awards ceremony in India for my work with helping spread awareness about highly sensitive people!
The awardees for this year represented several countries including France, Mexico, Belgium, China, Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the United States.
It was amazing to have my husband Rohit there as my plus-one. Rohit made a short and hectic trip so he could be there at the conference (a 3-day conference with TED-style talks precedes the awards ceremony). It takes a complete day — 24 hours, including layover time, to fly from San Francisco to New Delhi, so it was quite the trip!
It was so wonderful to meet so many amazing people from all over India and the world. As a writer, I am used to working on my own, in my own head, in a silo. It was humbling to come to a forum and meet so many people doing such lovely work.
One of them was the truly amazing Taru Jindal, a doctor who left Mumbai (Bombay) behind to go and work in a hospital in rural India.
Check out her amazing TEDx talk here. She transformed a hospital that was in shambles into an award-winning one, in the process saving thousands of pregnant women and children. She is a true heroine!
Another amazing woman I got to talk with was Geeta Sahai, a filmmaker and writer whose touching film on Alzheimer’s I remember made me tear up when I watched it after the conference. I remember is available on Amazon Prime, if you are interested.
Rohit and I got to hear so many amazing talks and learn so much together.
There was a talk by an engineer who after studying at an IIT (India’s MIT) decided to become an organic farmer. There were two different people who had climbed Mount Everest, and the woman had, if I remember correctly, climbed the highest peaks in EVERY CONTINENT.
The awardees included more recognizable names like actor Deepika Amin, part of India’s MeToo movement; Dr. Deepa Malik, the first female para-athlete in India to win a medal at the Asian Games; and Emmy-winner Dr. Kaizaad Kotwal. There were also so many amazing people doing grassroots work in the far reaches of India and abroad.
These were social workers, artists, educators, business people, and sportspeople doing work that is creating positive change in the world. It was a truly enriching and enlarging experience!
And to top it all, I was one of the people who spoke at the conference.
The 3-day conference featured talks on different topics. Just like the other nominees, I had gotten the opportunity to apply to be a speaker. And lo and behold, my talk about highly sensitive people got selected and I made the final cut!
I spoke on Day 3 of the conference, just before the awards ceremony and was one of the last speakers at the conference. I was very, very nervous beforehand. This was a BIG jump for me — I have NEVER spoken to a crowd of 500 people before, and most definitely, not people like these.
In fact, until a few days before the conference, the biggest group I had spoken to about being highly sensitive (a topic I feel very exposed and raw discussing with actual, real-life people!) was a group of 30 creative writing students and being highly sensitive hadn’t been the main topic of discussion with them.
But I am happy to say that I both made the jump AND I landed. I got a really great response in the Q&A session after my talk. And a lot of people came and spoke to me personally afterward.
I am so glad I said Yes to this opportunity. And I am so glad that I got this exposure to people doing such amazing things.
It has nudged me to think of ways in which I can have more impact and really work from a spirit of service.
That is the spirit I want to work from, but sometimes, it gets clouded in my feelings of self-doubt. The Empath’s Journey, especially, is a book that I think is part of my bigger purpose. It’s my homage to the little girl I once was, even though I don’t really talk about her in the book. By learning how to speak about my experience, I feel like I am giving a voice to that little girl.
I think I will go on to write other things, including the fiction I have always dreamed of writing. But this book is part of my beating heart in the world. And hearts create connection even though it feels really vulnerable to share them with the world, as I felt before my talk.
My hope and intention for this year is that I will keep on connecting and find ways to be vulnerable while taking care of the little one inside. I hope to find many more kindred spirits on the way.
The conference showed me that there are lots of good people out there doing amazing work in a world that sometimes feels very unpredictable and scary to me. But they are keeping on going on and displaying courage that I, as yet, don’t have.
But maybe, courage is also built in increments. This year, I hope I build some more of it. And I hope the same for you – that we express more of who we are and our true voices this year. Cheers to that and cheers to the people we are becoming!
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