Transcend your inner universe to conquer your outer world.
[Applause]
bourgeois toulouse
namaste everyone let’s start with an
experiment
i request you all to kindly close your
eyes
imagine that we are sitting
on the top of our favorite mountain
gently go inside your heart
and imagine a source of light
within illuminating your heart
breathe calmly
gently open your eyes
what we just did is a quick check in
with self
that i swear by it has helped me
understand
how transcendence works in life
to me just living wasn’t enough
i had to transcend my reality at every
stage of my life
now let’s go back in time to understand
it better
i was born in the central part of india
in the city called bhopal
my sister and i grew up seeing our
mother prepare for her law school
help our dad with his business and be a
homemaker
all at once she also found time to help
others
provided monetary funds tried to provide
awareness about education and secured
employment for numerous women
she used to say we can always help
others
no matter what we have and where we are
my father worked two jobs often 16 hours
a day
and more he never had a day off
we did not grow up in the fanciest of
the neighborhoods
often suffered with sleeplessness and
fatigue due to the noises outside in the
night
but we had to live with it fortunately
we had the liberty to study in an
english medium convent school
with amazing teachers facilities sports
and competitions education
was a luxury for us i wasn’t born
with a golden spoon but my parents sure
gave me an intelligent one
when i was 11 years old we were blessed
with a baby brother
prakash prakasha’s health was fragile
and he needed intensive care my parents
were always chasing doctors
for better treatments we loved him
he was a bundle of joy
and one day we came back home
to face a horrifying reality
he was gone
i was in a deep state of shock as i
could not understand
and assimilate what had happened
we had been already through a lot of
pain and this tragedy
added another layer to the endless
melancholy of life
i began to think how fragile is this
life
death was the only certainty and maybe
just living was undermining life’s worth
because it was precious
after some time i talked to myself
and said i have a choice do i want to
continue
living this sad life or transcend
this depressed state to a happier one
and remember him with sweet memories
i began to read spiritual books about
life and death
and began my heart fullness meditation
practice
it helped me see things differently and
deeply
for instance society was largely
conservative
and there were deep-rooted traditions
and norms that everyone blindly followed
typically all girls were believed to
grow up
and get married before a certain age to
preserve their youthfulness
whatever that meant to a package deal of
a man
tall handsome well settled well educated
with a great family
and to be a good match the girl must
satisfy certain criteria
great cooking skills mastery in chores
and traditional beauty standards
i felt shackled and troubled seeing all
of this
but these traditions and conditioning
were deeply rooted in most of my
surroundings
i had the urge to break these boxes and
stereotypes
and feel the freedom called life
on the other hand i found my peace with
my books
at school and with my friends i loved
stars
and i also loved aircrafts and trails
watching them in the sky was the most
fascinating
thing for me fortunately
my parents were supportive of our dreams
but they had to sacrifice a lot
because of the lack of finances that we
had and we had to listen
to a lot of noise from the society for
being different
i remember once it was almost impossible
to gather finances
for my education and my dad told me
okay beta if i have to i will sell my
kidney for your education
his words pierced my heart and i felt so
helpless
i pledged to overcome this but i didn’t
know how to
i had nobody to look up to as an example
so i chose to follow my heart i listened
to it carefully
as i was good in studies and i loved
learning
i gave it everything i had inside
i chose to excel in every subject of my
choice
i loved science english horse riding
karate and dance
and no matter what i gave it all
i had to succeed then i learned about
abbess
and its humble origins made me really
feel inspired
but how simple it was for me to dream a
career in the aviation world
it appeared even more difficult for the
others
who were ready and more than eager to
tell me that i was being unrealistic
about my dreams
just because i had a socio-economical
background which did not satisfy the
criteria
but nevertheless i listened to my
convictions and they were
pure calling of my heart i followed them
i began to prepare myself for
to be able to be ready for the
engineering entrance examinations
that i consider the most difficult in
the country as there are millions of
young minds preparing for the limited
seats in the university
i had no plan b i worked hard
unfortunately my hard work paid off
i got a seat in the one of the best
universities in the country that taught
aerospace engineering
i again had several challenges to deal
with but
by now i learned to thrive with the
hardships
i remember the words of my mother a
lotus
sure grows and blooms in the mud but
stays unaffected by it
i continued on my journey and then came
a turning point
i had secured a seat in izai superior in
france
with a french government scholarship
and i felt such a relief inside because
now
my parents didn’t have to worry about
any finances anymore
everybody was appreciative of us
all those who had mocked us over the
years
for being unrealistic and whatnot were
all recognizing the power of education
this gave me confidence meeting with the
prime minister of my country was a big
deal for me
and my family the felicitation ceremony
by the ambassador of france to india
was a big deal for me again
and more than that the assurance on the
face of my parents
was my gratification i came to france
with more lot more confidence than
before
and it was a big change i loved toulouse
right from the first cab ride from the
airport to my student apartment
now i had different challenges and a
different journey ahead
i was in an international atmosphere
with a fast-paced
french education system which can be
very demanding and challenging
i was discovering a new life new culture
new language
and of course bureaucracy
as i spoke no word in french you can
imagine what sort of a gala time i had
at prefecture
and other government offices they were
making me more stronger than i believed
i was
of course it was hard to withstand all
these challenges
these changes and simultaneously be good
at my studies
i recall calling my mother and saying
mommy it’s just too much i cannot
sustain all of these changes
i don’t know what to do she said
if it is too much pack your bags and
come back home but don’t stand in
between yourself and your dreams
and i was shocked i realized
that of course it is hard and it is
worth
expressing your emotions but
is it more harder than what you have
already lived
just imagine how many people would be
ready to be in my shoes
and live the life i was living
and that gave me a sense of gratefulness
and i learned to live through my pain
and find
powers within so every time i fall
i sulk a little eat ice cream and get up
again
looking forward towards my goals
finally i bagged an internship at abyss
and this was it my first desk
amidst the planes in the abbess
corporate jets
i was living it for real now
and since then i never looked back i
have been working at
airbus at different capacities and today
as a youngest industrial architect
this has been such a learning experience
the woman i am today feels proud of the
12 year old girl
who did not succumb to the painful
circumstances
she chose to live she chose to smile and
that’s why i’m standing before you
no girl in my family had ever come so
far and struggled so much for her career
but today one example is enough
for the entire community and entire
family
to have hope and assurance
my own younger sister is living her
dreams
in her own terms and the way she wants
and i’m proud of her the freedom that i
have today the freedom to make my career
choices my life choices
and to be independent in every way is
such a contrast from where i began
when i went back to india last time we
were around 40 people gathered for a
family dinner
yes we can be that many
i saw the look in the eyes of my cousins
they were so confident and motivated and
happy
that now they feel that they can if i
could
even their parents have an example to
look up to
and they vouch for education more than
ever before
imagine these girls who are supposed to
have a good marriage as their result the
eth
are now determined to move to mega
cities and pursue their dreams
the fact that they have a choice is the
biggest fulfillment for me
now imagine if all of us here make our
lives bigger than our own selves
transcending our limitations
for a greater good just how beautifully
will this community
this planet and this universe can emerge
out for an agri-gore of higher
consciousness
transcend your limits and weave a
collective force for this world
so that the future generations can live
with peace
we say in sanskrit vasudeva become
which means world is a single family
connected by the power of love
my purpose is to do something larger
than my own self
transcending my limits every single day
so that when i look back the future
neelum can tell
well done young neelam with a cooler
hairstyle for the efforts you made
and for whatever you did to make this
world a beautiful place
lastly i would like to recite something
in hindi
for my prakash mosaic
so
ladies and gentlemen transcend your
limits have a good time namaste
you