On March 21st, 2016, Santosh, Co-Founder of Bangalore Hikers received an email from Vellore Institute of Technology, where Bangalore Hikers was invited as a chief guest to inaugurate their VIT trekking club 5th anniversary. The Board members of VIT requested a member form Bangalore Hikers to give a guest lecture on Empowerment of Women in Trekking. Perfect theme, I would say.
VIT Events
Since the guest lecture is about Empowerment Women in Trekking, Santosh felt I should drive this. I spoke with one of their board members and understood their expectations for the talk. The students want us to share our passion for trekking through inspirational talks and presentations. They requested us to focus on women empowerment, since they felt the number of women in their club was eventually less when compared to men. So, my lecture was mainly focused on encouraging women towards trekking and made them understand that trekking is not a male ruled passion.
VIT Trekking Club 5th Anniversary Agenda
Though trekking undoubtedly needs a lot of stamina, throughout my speech I carried a message that trekking needs more of will power than stamina by sharing my real experience from the past trekking events. I explained the problem women face during trekking and how to overcome them. I displayed the beautiful pictures clicked during Dudhasagar trip and all the students got impressed with the Serene beauty and got glued to the screen. At the end, they requested us to arrange a trip to Dudhsagar for them. They have also organized many events like Triathlon, Treasure hunt as a part of 5th anniversary and requested me to distribute the prize for the winners.
During the Session
The students requested me to do a workshop on camping and their highly positive spirit did not let me down from sharing all the experience. After the lecture and workshop, I met few of the students and explained them that women are no less as trekkers. One of the Adventure Freak reminisce the formation of VIT Trekking Club and how a group of adventure freaks started this club on 9th July, 2010. It was great to meet the students of VIT University who was very passionate about trekking.
Discussion on camping
Camping Workshop
I had a request from students to stay with them for a night camping and share the experience of Night Treks, horror stories and memorable trekking experience. I stayed with the students that night and taught them the basis of camping and tents.
All the facilities such as stay, food and travel was arranged by VIT. No doubt, this event is a feather in cap for Bangalore hikers. Written by:Deepika
Muthusamy
My Experience Participating in the Neeya Naana Show: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Thought-Provoking Conversations
The journey began when I received an unexpected call from Vijay Television inviting me to be a part of an upcoming episode. Excitement and nervousness coursed through my veins as I prepared myself mentally for the intense yet enlightening discussions that awaited. The topic for the episode was "Health or Beauty?"—a subject close to my heart, considering the significant impact it has on our lives today.
Stepping onto the set, I was immediately struck by the vibrant atmosphere and the anticipation buzzing in the air. Meeting the other participants, all of whom had their unique opinions and life experiences, further fueled my eagerness to engage in meaningful conversations.
As the cameras started rolling, the charismatic host Gopinath introduced the topic, setting the stage for a lively debate.
As I reflect on my experience, I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Neeya Naana show.
With the successful female entrepreneurs like Rajashree Nambiar, Naina Lal, Manisha Lath Gupta, Chanda Kochar, Priyanka Aggarwal,..Etc. it’s evident that women are overcoming the obstacles and reaching heights than anticipated. The situations are getting improved when compared to the decades and the percentage of women in leadership roles are substantial increasing. But does that not mean that, all women are proving themselves?. There are women who still settle for less or give up in the middle of their career journey.
How can organizations develop an environment to Empower women? Here are my views:
Revise the organization goals:
When the organization goals are scrutinized, it’s obvious that they focus only on the financial goals and customer satisfaction. On the other hand, an individual success are measured based on the individual deliverable. This needs to be revised. For a manager, the success factor has to be determined on how far they motivate their women sub-ordinates towards leadership goals. And for an individual, it should be determined based on how far they are preparing themselves for the leadership progression.
It’s a sad truth that men don’t prefer to work under a female boss. And the saddest truth, even women don’t prefer to work under a female boss. Female bosses are considered as dominant, vengeful and at times an assassination. Just because a person has had a bitter experience with a women leader, it’s not necessary that all the women will be the same way.
Organization should highlight the pros of having a female leader to both the genders and should train their women leaders to deal with employees. They should be taught that “Leadership position” is a highly influence position for others.
Organization can tie up with other organization and can appoint a mentor who would help and guide the women leader.
Re-define the definition of success:
Most of my friends believes that success of a woman is only when they have a good understanding life partner and kids. They are in fact tagged with the below formula.
Understanding Life partner + one caring daughter and one lovable son +financially well-settled = 100% success of a women.
Most of the women do not have a separate dimension for their professional life. A woman needs to be taught about the values of success in their career as well. They need to be trained and motivated towards leadership skills
Reasons for failure:
Every woman when born is so ambitious. Even when I joined the corporate, the corporate success journey of my Managing Director from an ordinary woman to an extraordinary leader was my inspiration. I aspired to become like her. But as the journey moved on, I tend to give up.
Women tend to give up their ambition easily due to the politics and criticism. Women are imposed to many myth from the childhood such as,
"Success in corporate means No personal life."
"High achieving women don’t respect their husband and family"
These myths make men to take a back seat in encouraging their women at home towards career ladder.
Also, we are tuned that Men are credible, focused and can handle situation and deadlines well when compared to women. Whereas women are too emotional and tend to give importance to family than career. Though these stereotypes are getting changed, men don’t acknowledge women and leadership traits that easily. The mindset of both male and female needs to be changed.
Finally, to all my dear sisters overs there, don't settle for less. Try something new every day. Keep experiment yourself everyday!!!
Nature gifted women with the bliss of Motherhood not only to nurture and inspire their own children, but to inspire and nurture many people through the Leadership...
Be an inspiring woman that every men would look for...
Written for #EveryWomanIsALeader campagin.
There is an exciting competition conducted by www.shethepeople.tv. It can win you an all expense paid trip to exciting destinations. Hurry up! Take part, pack and leave.
If I share my disappointments, desires, hurts or pain, people conclude that I am just saying it to gather their reaction or taking some survey for a new post.
Whenever I say “I am not feeling good" or "I am down", instead of asking the reasons or convincing, my friends always trigger a question, "Was it your next novel title?”
Few of my friends will be always extra cautious in sharing their personal stuffs. They don’t speak, since they fear that I may pen down their incidents in my blog.
Below is the one of the screen shot of a chat, with my so-called-Idiotic-friend.
Chat History with my Friend
I will be cornered with my writings:
Friends tend to give advice from my own writings, when I look out for their advice or support. You can’t ignore their advice since it was my own writings.
Let me share an incident. I was very confused in choosing a decision. When I was looking for my friend support, he said "Follow your heart" as you said in your video. This is what happens if you are writer :(
There were extreme ends too, People trust me blindly and turn towards me for advice. They share their problem and expect me to offer a solution as well.
Expect to be a literate in English
People expect me to be perfect in English. When I do a mistake, I could hear the below Statements,
How did you manage to write such a big novel without knowing this word?
Don’t you know this basic sentence of grammar?
Don’t you know the meaning of this small word?
Must be her Story:
Though it’s fictional, People will think it happened in my life. 75% of the people asked me, whether the love between the protagonist in Touch of Mist was my life incidents. It’s absolutely fine. You have the rights to ask any question. But they don't believe, when I say "No" and educate them it’s an imaginary story.
If I write about a kissing scene, "Oh yeah, she must have kissed a guy."
If I write about a dating scene, "oh she must have for gone for a date."
I have written about committing suicide, “So I must have committed suicide :P ”.
I re-iterate, A person who writes about terrorism need not be a terrorist. I don’t have to be in love to write a love story.
On a funny note, I don’t think Mr. Perfect like Gowtham exist in the world. Mr.Perfect or Mrs. Perfect exists only in dream world and in movies.
Approach you for editing their content:
She is a writer. She should be able to write/Edit an article for me. I always write only when it makes me happy and if any incident touches my soul. I enjoy taking part in contest and that’s the reason I participate in contest
Writing is not my passion, I enjoy writing and its one of the thing I love. When people approach me for editing their content or to help them in writing out something, I really can’t do that. I am being forced to write. In that case, definitely my quality won’t be good.
OMG!! You are an Author:
All my friends whom they knew me before publishing a book, say “My friend have published a book.” For them, I am still Deepika with the same old tag “my classmate”, "my room-mate", "my college mate", "my colleague". It feels good to be in that zone.
But the people whom I meet new, there came lots of embarrassing situation.
When they stumble across my post or book and when they understand that I have written a novel they say, “Deepika, I never knew you are an author. Was I talking to an author? “
People don’t stop there. They ask, why are you so simple, being an author?
But Yes, thanks to all my readers and Friends. This is my 234th post and it would have not been possible without you. I thank each and every person/incident who has been my inspiration in writing.
14 January, 2015 is a fansatic day in my life. I got an appreaction from my onshore manager for a presentation and I was nominted for a very inspiring blog award by UK.
As a part of this Award rules, I need to state 7 things about myself and below are my answers:
I enjoy long walks in Nature and love to explore more places.
Fear should be a crucial element in everyone’s life. Success: If a student does not have the fear of “Failing in a subject” he/she will not prepare hard for the examinations. Sincerity: If an employee does not have the fear of Termination, they won’t be sincere in their job. Punctuality: If a person does not have the fear of missing a Train or bus, then they won’t be on time to the spot. Self-control: If a diabetes patients does not have the fear of “Sugar Level“, then they won’t limit themselves from taking sweets or taking medicine at proper time. Discipline: If a men does not have the fear of getting Humpty- Dumpty, then he won’t hit the gym or exercise to keep him FIT.
If a driver does not have the fear of accident, then they won’t be wearing helmets or follow traffic rules.
If we don’t have the fear of break-up, then there won’t be any genuineness in love life.
So, Fear is very much needed in-order to keep us dynamic towards the positive traits of life. It’s in our control to decide whether we can seizure those fear to a constructive growth or use those deadly fear to destroy ourselves.
When we are a kid, we did fell down from bi-cycle numerous times. Though we had the fear of falling down again, every time we fall down we got up with the willpower. We are an excellent drives today because we were not scared of those hurt. If we are perfectionist in any field today, it means that we had once overcome those fear.
There was one incident - a turning point in my life;
I had been killing myself from NOT chasing my passion due to fear.
"One has to take risks in life to succeed", My dad keep repeating every second and I did overcome that fear and achieved that Passion.
That Passion was to publish my novel. I want to see me as an Author. But I had so many Fears
Fear or Rejection from Publishers
Fear of Critics
Fear of facing audience during book launch,
Fear of Appreciation
Fear of choosing cast and People for work
Fear of my English Language.
Fear of Failure and the list goes on...
Fear of Rejection from publishers:
This fear was my major road blocker that was stopping me from pursuing my dream. At one stage, I pushed myself hard to face any kind of rejection from publisher.
All I wanted was “at least” a reply from any publisher. Even if it is a rejection with harsh comments, I decided to work on those comments. JK Rowling and Chetan Bhagat had many rejections initially. My target was to make a publisher accept my manuscript at least in the 50th attempt. I started counting my rejection list First, second….third :) Hooray!!!, I was so lucky that, my novel was accepted by the third publisher “GoodTimes Reads”
Fear of my English Language
My manuscript was rejected by 2 publishers initially for my English language. They were afraid that my manuscript did not follow any rules that a novel should follow. At First, I was taken back. But, then I decided to improve my language. I went for profession help. I did a proof read to gain my confidence. Now, I am actively participating in all Indiblogger contest, writing more post and short stories, reading more books to understand the language style used. Proof Read is must for any novel, but my motive is to reduce the number corrections in the future.
Fear of facing audience during book launch:
This fear stopped myself from having a book launch. I firmly said “No” to the publisher for book launch, dreading that I would not be able to face audience questions and my chief guest.. For me, that complete atmosphere would be an alien world. But after continuous request from my publisher and from my friends and family, I decided to prepare myself for book launch. I saw all the Book launch videos and prepared myself for the big day. I voluntarily participated in a “Speak-on” Forum (A forum that inspires people for public speaking), gave numerous guest lectures in non-profit organization and trainings in my organization to overcome the fear of public speaking.
I also had a fear whether someone would turn up for a debut author’s book launch. To make my book launch a hit, I launched photo contest competition and also give away contest in good reads. My book launch went successful.
Fear of Appreciation:
I get embarrassed when people talk something good about me. If someone says, my outfit is fabulous I don’t know how to react. When my book cover was released first, people cherished me in front of others. That was the most awkward moment. Later, to overcome this, I took the appreciation as it is for someone. In that way, I always reminded Miss. Cool.
Fear of choosing cast and People for work:
As a part of my contract, I promised my publisher that I would be making a video (book Trailer) for book promotion. I was terrified to choose my cast, shooting location, cinematographer, Editor, back ground music. I was not confident to play a fair role in picking the best ones in all. Then I put so much time in researching. For choosing a cinematographer and Editor, I invested my time in reviewing their past works and collected the feedbacks. I googled and learned lot of things about Editing and photography. It took a long duration, since I was an amateur in taking a video. Twice I failed in editing. But instead of screaming about it, I looked in for reasons and rectified. I keep a feather on my hat, whenever I see my debut video, because it taught me valuable lessons like confidence, approaching a stranger and appointing them for work, forming a team, creating a friendly atmosphere. For everything the base was to crack the Fear and get into action.
Fear of Critics:
Whenever a product is launched, a lot of people would be out there just to look the negative characteristic of it. It’s their money and it’s nothing wrong to expect it to be worthy enough. I did had that fear.
People will not give another chance considering I am a debut author. If it goes to world, it will be compared against debut authors as well as top selling authors. But this fear, craved to standardize the content of my novel. Before my novel goes to the world, I took few professional critics help. I sent my manuscript for critics review and got mixture of both positive and negative remarks. This in fact boosted my confidence and decided to take each critics as a positive milestone in my author’s journey.
I requested few authors to review my book. Sincere Thanks to all the authors Prasanta Mahanta, Arjun Deep Singh Pahwa, Arpit Vageria, Mehek Bassi, Samarth Prakash and Robert L. (Rob) Bacon who invested their time and gave a wonderful review.
Fear of Failure:
It’s always the fear of failure push us to the next level and in fact teach us a valuable lesson. All I could recollect was, a decade ago I don’t know what is writing. If my dad request me to participate in a writing competition, I would just whizz off.
Before 6 years, starting a blog itself came with a package of surprise. I keep screaming that readers would post destructive commentaries. I postponed creating a blog. But yes, I quit that fear and created a blog one fine day. Thanks to my first post. Though it was damn, damn crap but that was definitely my base for my author building today. My friends says my writing is getting matured day by day. So, Even if I fail today, after 5 years, I will be definitely a successful Author.
We can always find 1000 fears in life to reason for not doing something. Take down a paper divide into 2 columns. Write down all your fears in one column and in the next column try to write down “The ways to overcome it” (Even Excel would do)
I am sure you will enter a new destiny, which will be FEAR FREE :)
P.S – This post is not for the girls who avoid junk and oily foods for the fear of “PIMPLES” and fear for the huge insect C….C…..CO….COCKROACH. (:P)
I recently saw this Mountain Dew ad in TV and simply loved it. The making was awesome. This video conveys Rise above Fear to achieve your desire. Its lovely. Click on the below video to watch in Tamil. Arya's Die hearted fans "Dont miss it". The back ground lyrics "Achamillai Achamillai" written by "Mahakavi Bharathiyar" gives goosebumps. Here is my Embedded Video for the same.
Liebster award is an appreciation from fellow bloggers and your chance to introduce yourself to other awesome bloggers. If you receive this award, you are expected to:
Post 11 facts about yourself
Answer the 11 questions the tagger has given you
Tag 11 more Bloggers (with no more than 200 followers; no tagging back) and make 11 questions for them
Tell the people you tagged that you did
11 Facts about me :
I love to dance in the rain.
I go crazy on seeing puppies.
I hate people who lie and avoid them abruptly.
I don’t like reading, I hardly read 4 novels till now.
If I like someone, I would love them from the depth of my heart and will fight for their well-being.
I love to drive car alone
I love to be spiritual
I like to carry a smile on my face :) but I hardly do :P
A Tester without ISTQB certification is like a Computer without CPU???.:P He He.. I dint mean that certification are the heart of Software Tester or any other professional. But it do adds value to our profile. If not atleast to our Resume :D
Many people do say "Certification exams do not measure the quality of a tester." But I feel,It adds a tag to the Tester. I do felt that Cherished moment when my results for the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) Certified Tester - Foundation level exam was out today and was the second topper in my batch.
This is not my End. Yup, I have miles to goooo.=D>My next milestone is to crack the ISTQB Advanced Level and then ISTQB Expert Certification.
Fear in my heart and dreams in my eyes I got up at 6.00AM. My parents was also ready by the time.I touched their feet and received their blessings. Ramya akka Said "All the best".
My Sanju kutty Kissed on my cheek and said bye bye.
The company cab came sharp at 8:00 to the hotel.
To my surprise, I met a Tamil person in Quality Inn working for UHG. He helped me in getting Temporty ID card and properly guided the direction to the HR.
Hmmm, Another suprise, I met an IBMer(I dont want to add EX-IBMer) from bangalore who is staying in Quality Inn. Both our Client, Last working day, Building was same. !!!
Everything was comfortable. Since, it was Friday they said my induction Will start from Monday.
We both roamed all over UHG, and meet another Ex-IBMer.
I remember the next day I joined IBM was a national holiday(Independence day). Similarly, Its a holiday tomorrow :) :) as it is Saturday :)
Planning how to spend the weekend in Hyderbad with my family members :)
A milestone passed, new things begun, dreams as shining as the sun, a goal achieved, a victory won! That’s post graduation. My results of Final Semester MBA has announced today. I have Completed MBA with the score I expected.
I was dis-appoinment as my total score was 69% when the result was out. Later We came to know it was a data entry by our study centre.
I am double - happy as I completed MBA and scored the percentage which I targeted.
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it" - Oscar Wilde
From Many days, I hatched the idea of starting a blog. Finally I started :)
My aspiration is to write about the things that have inspired me the most in my life, and I hope that my readers will also find my blog posts enjoyable. I believe that in the years to come, it will be wonderful to look back at my blog and see how much I have grown and evolved over time. In my opinion, writing a blog is an excellent way to share knowledge and experiences, as well as to preserve them for future reference.
I believe after many years, it would be wonderful for me to glance through my blog to know how I've been and how I've grown.
Today is a memorable day in my life.
I successfully Completed 1year in IBM(1 year of IT exp). Surprising thing was my dad and mom remembered this day and they wished me.
I wished all my colleagues (i would like to say my MS Class mates rather than colleagues) who joined with me.
Could you guess what is my Gmail status ???
Deepika Muthusamy is an author, an ‘outdoorsy’ person, and a fitness enthusiast. Her passion for exploring new places, staying active, and living a healthy lifestyle is evident in her writing.
Her debut novel ‘Touch of Mist’ has been well-received by readers. The novel is a fictional love-story that explores the complexities of relationships and the power of love.
She is a Software Techie by profession and began her career with the IBM. Her expertise in technology has allowed her to create compelling characters and plotlines.
Deepika is also the co-founder of Bangalore Hikers and has organized several treks in and around Bangalore. Her experiences while traveling have provided inspiration for her writing and have helped her to create vivid, immersive settings for her articles.
Apart from her outdoor adventures, Deepika is also a fitness enthusiast. She has been participating in the TCS 10K Bangalore run, Coimbatore Marathon, and Pinkathon 10K run since 2012. Her commitment to fitness and a healthy lifestyle is reflected in her writing, as she often incorporates themes of physical activity and wellness into her novels.
Reena was all set to swallow the entire bottle of tranquilizers not to just drown her sorrows, but to END her life. She took out her high-end cell phone and scrolled down through her contacts in search of any possible guidance. As it was already 2:00 a.m. she was hesitant to seek out help at this late hour. She stood near the window and gaped at the electrified snaky road which seemed to beckon her towards heaven – the ultimate peace. But, on second thought, it seemed as hollow and dark like her life. She dragged herself inside her master bed-room, slid open the wardrobe door and took out a wooden framed photograph, which was taken about 20 years ago. It was a memorable sight of her family, where her dad was giving her a piggyback ride. She caressed the photo lightly and breathed a morose sigh. Crystal tears rolled down her eyes and fell onto the photo frame. She wiped off the droplet that had blurred out her dad’s picture and started wondering, who would wipe her dad’s tears away after her death. Still, her thoughts selfishly and stubbornly remained in favor of her decision to commit suicide.
