Learning and teaching!

This is how i feel today...motivated by purpose, inspired by dreams - inevitable, indescribable. There are words for the future and previous pages of my life are helping me contribute today - in terms of educating others and also inspiring some. I am dreaming, believing, learning and sharing. I have spread my wings for this new phase in my life...and i want to fly...fly high!

I remember the first time when i heard about the Atlas Corps fellowship program - it seemed to be just a perfect program for me as a development professional at my age. I sat and pondered about it all and asked myself - why not take this professional dive. Then followed the filling of application - set of interviews - and the overwhelming mail informing me of my selection. And here i am today, completing 2 months as an Atlas fellow and writing my weekly blog.

A belief is growing within me that there i so much to try...so much to explore...so much to learn...so much to contribute... and the belief that if it's your own destiny then you can create it. I feel so privileged to be placed with an organization like Free the Slaves, which is helping me grow every day and making me a stronger professional in my area of work. Every person in my office inspires me - to dream big, fight for what is right and never settle for less. I know i am learning to be daring and differently bold...things are unfolding...and it is just the beginning!

I remember being asked by my Supervisor just last week about my work plans when i get back to my country. And honestly every time i hear this, I am taken back to my experience of working with and for the victims of human trafficking. The innumerable questions the victims had for me - "Can you take my hand and lead me out of this place - this place full of suffering and never ending grief? Can you lead me to a better land where love rules, where love can be real and where love is not just a fairy tale? Can you get me out of this sadness?". All this while, i have been trying to do something or the other for these survivors of trafficking and every time i get a feeling that there is so much more to do. From prevention issues of fighting poverty, illiteracy, unemployment to rescue of more and more victims out of the exploitative situations, to a 'LIFE' after rescue. I am lucky that Free the Slaves is helping me answer some of these questions that i have for myself - for what can be improved and what needs to be introduced.

With all this professional excitement, i am also experiencing the American culture, festivals and the ways and means. My weekends have been very exciting and this week i enjoyed the pumpkin carving 'pre Halloween party' with Gargi (another Atlas Corps fellow and my friend). Each person's imagination had gone wild with pumpkins - each one trying to carve different faces - showing a variety of emotions. Looking at the carved pumpkins i felt as if the pumpkins had life!

As i close my blog today, i want to share a beautiful thought that i remember reading somewhere sometime back - "Our lives are made of seasons and some will make us grieve, but if we just have faith, we will never be without our leaves."