Care for a cause .. to completion!

Stories of Role Models

I quit HP to start my second innings.

I had worked in the IT industry for 25 years. It had been a fun journey. I felt good not only about my own accomplishments, but also about how I had helped my teams to shine.

Personally, it was now time to do something different. I did not want to keep repeating my previous years at work, for the sake of a fat salary.

I had put aside my love for music and fascination with psychology to pursue engineering and career.

 As a child, I had sung bhajans at Swami Chinmayananda's gatherings. My parents had introduced me to Swami Ji when I was an impressionable teen. 

I tried singing now. When I sang, my voice would give up after just a few songs. So pursuing my passion for psychology seemed more apt.

I had first hand experienced the benefits of good guidance (Sw. Chinmayananda). 

Maybe because I was a good listener with an open mind, relatives and friends would entrust their young wards to me, from time to time, to have crucial conversations with.

I knew I could be useful here.

Youth is a time of opportunity, but not when you are confused. Young people do not understand their own strengths and weaknesses, because no one teaches them how to. When failure hits them, they take it hard and do not know how to come out of it. Most of them have difficulties adjusting to the changing environment.

I joined Prasanna Counselling Center for a 6 month training. It gave me valuable exposure to counselling. I could figure out what works and what does not. 

I began to do counselling for young people. I was happy to help. My own cup was full and my needs all met - so to this day, I continue to do so, as an unpaid volunteer.

Along with that, I also joined a MA program in Psychology.

During the pandemic, I started helping out with the grief hotline and then the suicide prevention hotline.

My computer science background came in useful. Apart from helping with analytics, I also began to see patterns, as I did counselling every day. 

An attempt to decipher them was the next logical step.

This led to the insight that if I can equip parents with simple tools, they can address many teen challenges, with simple interventions, early on. A stich in time and all that .. :)

If you are a parent yourself, consider using my GAPS framework to help your child. 

GAPS is Goals, Action, Practice and Service.

• With Goals, set the ball rolling. Parents embrace goals in their own working lives but often fail to bring them home for the kids. The only goals that schools set are for homework :)

• For Action, planning is essential. This is a great way to teach young ones to plan as well.

• The plans must lay down a practice regimen. Practice is essential to make change into a habit

• Finally Service. Community service builds self-esteem and integration.

I wrote a book with scientific methods that can be applied easily to address behavioural issues using different cases studies.

I had tentatively shown it to a few parents. Their encouragement and feedback was so positive that I decided to publish it.

This was new ground for me. A friend helped me with the ropes of publishing and here is my baby! Check it out.

On the outside, I have come from being a student afresh in my 40s to now a senior counsellor at the Prasanna Counselling Center. 

On the inside, I sing a song and serve daily with joy - because that is the best way to embrace life, for all of us.