The Power Series

Purpose-Passion-Power

I have a young friend (all of 22 years) and while visiting my home, he sat down and said, "I am so confused Priya, I dont know what to do in my life. There are so many options, opportunities and openings, I am confused."
I guess this kind of confusion hits many. Even though this young man is at the start of his career I have seen many seasoned executives often standing at the crossroads of their professional dillema wondering, "What do I do now?"

In my opinion, if there was a life changing question, the answer to which would put your actions, your thinking and your future towards progressive evolution, then that question is "Why?" Why is a question that will compel you to look for that reason, that motive behind what you will eventually choose to do. And that reason is your purpose; the purpose behind what you do.

So before you ask yourself "What should I do? Or How should I do it?" Stop and ask yourself, "Why should I do that at all?"
"Why should I write?"
"Why should I work?"
"Why should I exercise?"
"Why should I risk in love?"
"Why should I marry?"

The answer to The Why must give you goose bumps. The answer must make you stand up. If you feel the electricity flowing through your body, if you feel the surge of energy and a sudden burst of well being, then you have hit the correct why, the jackpot that will turn your life around.

"Why should I write?" - Because I have nothing better to do - Is not The real Why. It does not excite you. It does not enthrall you. It does not inspire you to get to your table and start playing on your key board. Continue for reasons until you jump out of your chair with the spirit to change the world with your writing!!!

Finding the real PURPOSE behind your actions is the real source of power. Purpose will ignite you, it will strengthen your spirit, it will spark your soul, it will fuel you with energy that will prevail for eternity in all the tasks you do. When someone witnesses your work, they will not help but be touched by your purpose. That is power, real power.

Stop for a moment, put your pen to rest, put your phone back on the reciever, take your fingers of your blackberry, and think "Why am I doing what I am doing?"
Purpose=Power=Life.

Passion&Purpose, my speech on TEDx Bits Pilani,7th October in Dubai

I am going to do today what I have never done in my 12 years of being a corporate trainer. I am going to read from the paper that I wrote out last night. I am a speaker and man… I can talk. But since my speaking slot is only 18 minutes, THAT needs a skill I have not yet mastered.

If there was one after thought that I would leave you with today, then that would be the power that passion and purpose hold. When you bring passion and purpose into your job, you create realities that earlier seemed impossible.

So how does one become passionate? See, you touch passion, when you have access to it. If this is your job and this is you. And by the way students, home makers and anyone who does not yet earn money is also doing a job. You touch passion when you move ahead of your job. A lot of people hide behind their jobs. You know someone is hiding from responsibility when they tell you, “That’s not my job!” And because they hide behind their jobs, they can never access the passion that is actually innate to human beings. It is only when you place yourself beyond the job and open yourself to the entire spectrum of responsibility, then you have immersed yourself in the ocean of passion that will drive you, that will propel you, that will sky rocket you to the life of your dreams.

Let me take you on a little journey here: Mine. I have done three jobs and been an entrepreneur at all. I was at a seminar once and there was one lady who made a comment, she said, “Priya you are very blessed and lucky. I cannot even dream about being in your position, I am just an ordinary tuition teacher, teaching 8th grade students. To even think of reaching where you are, is unimaginable.”

I don’t know if she really wanted to be in my position, or was she merely justifying her current reality.
See I started my career as a tuition teacher in 1989. I used to teach French to school children, while I was still a student. So even though I had taken a very enterprising step to earn my pocket money, I was doing the job of a teacher.
See a teacher’s job is to teach the student. That’s all. But passion becomes evident when the teacher not only teaches the student but also takes responsibility for the student to study.

In doing my job as a teacher I realized my students were sent to me because they did not study in school in the first place. I had to go above my job of teaching and get the students to study. I figured that one cannot study if their mind is occupied with other stuff. When I was upset so to say that my head had stuff in it, the teachers words bounced off. Isn’t it true? When you have things occupying your mind, the words fly in front of your eyes without making any sense. I figured that for my job to last, I needed to deal with the stuff in my students heads. I needed to go beyond my job and touch that place which I now know as passion. When I cared enough to look, my students’ heads were full of the same things that fill most people’s heads, they were full of longing for love, waiting to be heard, dying to be acknowledged, worried about the love of their life, anxious about their pet, the bills to pay, the money to receive and so on. How can any one study or for that matter work or do anything when one’s head was full. I learnt that to teach them anything I had to empty their heads first.

I remember I used to start my class by serving my students lemonade, playing a song on the guitar, to make them cheerful. When people become cheerful, the stuff in their heads temporarily unravels. During the class if they hesitated or looked lost, I asked them what was wrong. And when they told me what was wrong, I shared some of my own ‘that’s wrong with me too’ story and they emptied their stuff. Not that I offered any solution, but that I understood and I acknowledged was all that was needed to get them back to study. I baked a cake, for every students’ birthday. I taught 1900 students in 9 years and practically every day was a birthday. I watched movies with them. I took them out for picnics. I organized social service activities. I promoted their talent. I cried with them, they laughed with me and they knew they could count on me for anything that the world threw on them. My first class used to start at 8am and my last class would end at 11pm. And even though the tuition teacher would wind up the class, the friend was available twenty four hours. When there was a black out in the area, I was on a call with my student who was afraid of the dark. When things got nasty at home, my house was open for those who needed to get away. When someone’s little dog was sick, I looked after the puppy under my chair while I taught a bunch of 8th graders who also joined in the mission. I was doing a job of teacher and when I moved beyond that to encompass everything that remotely was connected with teaching; I became passionate about my job.

My greatest compliment still remains when one father of a student called and said, “My son has high fever and he wants to come for tuitions. He says, when he comes for class, he feels better,”

Being a tuition teacher changed my life. My first job taught me lessons I could never have managed to learn on my own. I carry those lessons to date. You know when a person’s phone line is engaged, you cannot reach him. It is true for everyone, whether you are a manager taking to a client, whether you are a lover talking to your loved one, that you can’t reach them, you can’t talk to them and be heard, if their head is full of stuff. If you could care enough to disengage their head from the stuff that they cannot seem to silence, you not only touch passion, you touch their soul.

I started my second career as a speaker in the year 1998. It was a historic transition from tuition teacher to motivational speaker. And in two years of doing a job at speaking, I fell flat on my face. Nothing seemed to work. People said the passion was lacking and mainly that my words didn’t hit home. Something was terribly amiss and I was almost falling into the trap of “My job sucks. I am not lucky like the other speakers I had admiration for. I spoke loud, I dressed well, I said exactly what I had learnt to say but something seemed amiss.” And then one day in December 2000 it hit me when half the class of my participants walked out and never came back. I was in the rest room during the lunch break and I heard one of the participants say outside the door of my cubicle, “Why should anyone listen to her? What has she done with her life? Who is she to tell me what I should do with mine!” I stayed in the cubicle till everyone had walked out. I did not have the courage to walk out in front of them and own up to the truth they had just said. And that’s when I realized that words don’t inspire, actions do. From that day, I had one purpose, to put into action all that I was telling others to do. I had attended seminars that gave me the certificate to practice as a corporate trainer, but I had forgotten to earn my ‘right’ to motivate people. It was from December 2000 that I spent every waking hour of my day in self improvement, in self betterment, in applying every little law of success I had ever read about to my life, and conducting my seminar from THAT reality. And when I did that, my work became magical!!!! I guess when one spends one’s energy in constantly improving at one’s job, one touches passion. I had to move beyond my job of speaking words, to actually do with my life that which I expected others to.

In moving beyond my job as a trainer I realized that words really don’t change anyone’s lives, they may bring a temporary sense of well being, but the only thing that changes lives is your own application of all that you know is right. In my seminars, I only share from my life. I have nothing to teach anyone, because that would be pretty arrogant to even imply that I have lived ‘my’ life for 37 years and I know more about ‘yours’!!!! Passion is not in leading another; passion is only found in leading oneself ahead every day. It’s been 10 years and I am still ahead of my job as a trainer and I still live my life daily in self improvement, and when that works for me, I have new stories to tell in my seminars.

Anyone can be a trainer, as long as they realize that people don’t need you to tell them what to do, they need you tell them what you did when you didn’t know what to do. They need to know what you did when you hurt when you failed when you were lost and had nowhere to go. And when you tell them THAT truth, you become the greatest trainer in the world.

And then a lady comes along and says, “Priya you are very blessed and I am just an ordinary tuition teacher, teaching 8th grade students.” In my long career I know of many ordinary trainers and many extra ordinary tuition teachers, and what sets them apart is not the work that they do, but how far they go to get their work done.

Now coming to my 3rd job. In 2009 I started a new job as an author. A few weeks ago I met a gentleman at dinner and I was introduced as, “This is Priya, she is an author,” And the gentleman said, “How nice to meet you, I am also writing a book.” And I love it when people say that, I said, “No, Sir. You are not writing a book, you are talking to me.” He was a little puzzled and said, “No. I AM writing a book.” And I said, “NOOOOO. You are talking to me!” You see, he was not getting it. Finally I had to tell him. You don’t have a pen and paper in your hand right now. What kind of statement is “I am writing a book” when you clearly aren’t!!! When you don’t put a time line on your job – you dissipate passion and you invite frustration. When you don’t align yourself on the start and finish line, you are not even in the race, forget in the job. And if you are not in the job, then passion is not even a necessity. You have to make time for your job first, and then to go beyond it for passion to even exist.

In doing my job as an author, and by the way, it’s a job of great responsibility, I can say that yet again, I have discovered a BIGGER and BETTER me. A journalist asked me one day, “So how did you create this story?” And she left me speechless for the entire interview. I had to call her back after 2 days to finish her questions. See all I knew was that I WROTE the story. HOW? I don’t know. All I knew was that I went off alone, gave my office authority to my manager and said, you are the boss, I kept my phones off and I just wrote. How did I create the story? That answer changed the way I have lived ever since. See, up until then I thought passion was enough to create legends and it was here I learnt, that purpose is superior to passion.

Let me explain this. You see, I created a story. I knew I wanted to write a story that would add great value to the life of the readers. So the purpose of the book was created first. I wanted to write a book which very subtly, very gently, through a thrilling adventure persuaded people to wake up and stop complaining and take control of their lives. After the purpose was set, the characters were created. I knew there was a lead character of a lost soul. I then created the master, the wise person who had the answer to all the questions ever asked. Then I created a lot of obstacles and put the lead character through tests and turmoil’s and traumas. Then I also created all the characters who would pose problems for the lead character. I then created realizations, solutions, passion , victory and wisdom that the lead character discovered about herself to over come all the challenges that came her way and emerged glorious at the end of the fable. Those 8 days of my life, I lived a parallel life literally. I lived as each one of the characters individually. When I wrote about the hero, I became the hero. When I wrote about the villain, I became one. When I wrote about the master, I could only do that by becoming one first. Those 8 days I stopped living my life as Priya Kumar the corporate trainer and I started to live the life of all the characters, which by the way were totally created by me from start to finish. The lost, the wise, the evil, the good were all my creation, an extension of my own thinking which all eventually came into alignment with my original purpose of writing the book. How the book would end was evident from the purpose with which the book was started, isn’t it? I can’t have the purpose of writing a self help book and then ending it with failure! For those 8 days I lived a life that I had created. Do you understand what I understood in telling you this?

We all create our lives with or without passion by virtue of the purpose we assign ourselves to. Let me give you a more plausible example. A wrong example of misplaced passion fuelled by misplaced purpose. If you have ever told a lie, then you have attempted to alter realities. Ask the woman who cheats on her husband. She now must tell a story to her lover to mislead him into believing her justification on why it is ok for her to put her marriage to shame. Heck her story is so powerful that she almost builds reason and respect in her action. She then by her actions leads her lover away from the truth. She also guards her husband from finding out the truth. Her actions and words and intentions are all focused on creating a whole new world of lies and deception. And does she succeed in creating characters out of the people in her world, yes!! Does she succeed in creating circumstances that lead her and others into her lies? Yes!! Does she succeed in creating challenges and struggles and momentary victories in all of this? Yes!! But sadly, the end of her story is a disaster because the starting purpose was a lie. And though creation of a reality needs passion but if the purpose is misplaced, disaster is inevitable.

No matter what job you do, know that you create your own confusion, that you create all the characters that then by virtue of your creation become a part of your life, that you create your own challenges and circumstances, and in the end you create your own victory or failure. Its all self created. I create it when I start with a clear purpose, like how I started my book with a purpose. Without a purpose the book becomes a deception, where the writer thinks he is writing, but the reality is that he is nowhere even close to a pen or paper. Without a purpose a person’s life becomes a deception, where the person thinks he is living life, but is nowhere even close to the glory that life holds for him.

No matter what job you do, if you care enough to care for people you deal with, if you constantly focus on self improvement, if you keep your purpose expanded towards service then you connect to a degree of passion that will raise you to heights beyond your wildest dreams.

The true test of purpose driven by passion is “Did your job change your life? Did you emerge bigger? Did you make a contribution far greater than you will be ever be compensated for. And if your answer is a hesitant yes,,, then my friends you have taken a leap beyond passion, you have touched and fulfilled the purpose of life itself!!!!”

Emotional Atyachar

Emotional Atyachar

Underneath most professional disasters I can see unresolved personal emotional distress. As much as we have agreed on the professionalism at work we must not forget that we after all are emotional beings. And the word motion (action) is contained in the work Emotion (feeling). Which simply means that we will behave in accordance to how we feel.
When employees don’t ‘feel’ emotionally positive then don’t deliver expected results. People who are suffering from emotional distress are likely to make errors, be forgetful, be irritable, indifferent and would even break down if you confronted them. On many occasions that people fail to deliver results not because of a lack of ability, but because of a lack of ‘emotional control’. It is very important not to make your emotional mess a professional atyachar at work. Emotional stability is an art and a discipline that can be followed. Here are some things for your to remember next time you bring your emotional baggage to work.
1. Know your role well. I once asked one of my employees why he looked so ‘down’ he said that he was having problems managing time with his children at home and his wife was accusing him of being a bad father. Well, we all fall trap to accusations as a result of other people’s bad moods at home. That does not mean we bring the bad father or the bad husband to work. We need the good employee at work. Know your role and be that role. At work be a good employee and at home attempt at being a good father. When you bring a bad father at work, you create a bad employee too.
2. Know your purpose well. I was once visiting a colleague at work and he looked really ‘low’ and he was not the same ‘cheerful’ person I knew. When I asked him if everything was ok, he said that he was really shattered because he was having financial problems at home and I almost yelled out to him, “I’m having financial problems too, and that’s why I come to work!” I guess what people don’t understand is that when they bring their personal worries to work, then will create worries in their career too. You come to work to create better possibilities of a better life. When you mess up your work space with your emotional hang ups you certainly lower your chances of prosperity.
3. Know your commitment well. When you signed the dotted line and came into the organization you committed to deliver results in exchange for the salary you get. When you come in sulking like a school boy you will create professional blunders. I once had an employee who hung out more in the corridors smoking away his worries. Instead of putting his head to his work and creating the results he was getting paid for he was burning his heart outside over his girlfriend who was marrying an old rich man. His emotional indulgence during work hours did not bring his girlfriend back but sure turned his career in. Your company and your colleagues do not deserve your bad mood and subsequent negligence. Just like you did not bring a foul temperament to the interview you must keep it away every day of your work life.

If you have a problem solve it at the place where it exists. You can’t solve problems with your wife while you are at work. While at work, put the personal problems at hold and solve them after work hours. Similarly when at home put your professional problems at hold and solve them at working hours. When you carry foul moods to places where they don’t belong you will not only lose your stand on the problem you were in but you will also create a new problem in the area you neglected as a result. Most people cave themselves in because have mixed up their emotional baggage so much that everything personal has become professional and everything professional has become personal. Such people become a professional liability and personal failures. Keep your professional space clear of emotional clutter, that by far is the fastest route to success and prosperity and a clearer and happier state of being.

Home Coming

Its been really really long since I blogged. Everyone has been literally on my case since a few months and every time someone says, "Why havent you posted a new blog?" My usual defensive reply is "yes yes I will!". And since I never did, I became more and more defensive when anyone brought it up.

See I started the blog because I liked writing my thoughts and sharing it with the world. That was the start of my journey towards passion and love. And somewhere along the line my passion crossed the line and moved towards commitment which I think I was not ready for. And so many times I have seen talent wither away because people were not able to make the transition from passion to committed contribution. A master is a master because he is committed to contribution... and then there are people like me, who want to remain in the realm of love at my our convenience.
But..... I have figured that when I write somehow learn my own lessons. My second book is evidence of that. And so I am pushing my love for writing to committed contribution !
Thank you everyone for irritating the living daylights out of me.
I will grow more and I owe that to your persuasion.

You Are The Voice

You’re the voice

In my workshops I am often encountered with people who say they are lost. They feel they need direction and want me to show them. “I hate my job and I want to quit, what do you think I should do ?” “My husband abuses me, I want a divorce, what do you think I should do ?” “I am not happy with my life, what do you think I should do ?”

At some point or the other we have all felt lost. We found ourselves at a junction where we didn’t know which turn to take ! We have all been at cross roads of right/ wrong/ compromise/ follow your heart. And it is in times extreme stress and despair that we look for a person who has the answers to our questions. We look for that voice outside which will give us those magical words of wisdom to set our world right.

What I am proposing is this. There is no answer outside. All answers are within. You are more than you give yourself credit for. If you asked me my age, and if I said, “I am 63” you would laugh at my face. You asked me a question and I gave you an answer, but you didn’t buy it ! I move on to tell you “I am 42”, you still won’t believe me. Then I say “I am 32” and you would go “hmmm that could be possible, but you look a bit younger”. The point I am driving at is this, in asking me the question you already have an estimate of the answer. You are merely looking for a match in my words. In other words, when we have a question or confusion, we already know the estimate answer. Why not act on our own answers anyways. When we seek answers from others, what we are actually seeking is companionship and re assurance that we are understood. When we turn to others to sort our world we are actually calming our own loneliness. We really want to be heard and understood than to seek advice. The greatest frustration of counsellors is that their patients don’t follow their advice. The truth is the patients just want to be heard and understood. They didn’t pay the money for advice, they paid the money to be understood. And that feeling of being heard and understood gives them enough sanity to move on with their own decisions.

I do workshops where I get people to walk on fire. Now there are many theories why the coals won’t burn you. I can quote from physics, from biology, philosophy and even spirituality. All this data helps in understanding one’s fear and one’s power. But believe me, when you are faced with the gleaming hot coals and you are next in line to take that step on the fire, you won’t remember a word of what I said. Fear does not understand science. Fear does not understand faith. Fear only understands your perspective. When fear is knocking your power out, it is what you tell yourself that will decide whether you will step on the coals or not. By the fireside, there is an intense conversation happening, between you and yourself. And finally when people walk across the coals without getting burnt, I ask them “How did you do it ?” ! And every single time I get this answer, “I told myself ............” It is always what they told themselves that took them across the coal.

Advice is good, opinions are good, knowledge is good. They give you a broader view and perspective on the world around you. But end of the day you are the one who knows your reality best. You are the keeper of your own truth. And the only person who can take you across your firewalk is your own voice.

At the fireside, there are only two options; to take the step forward in faith or to step back in fear. And that step is propelled by your own voice.

You will never know ‘how to walk on the fire’. You will never know if you will find love in your life again. You will never know if your next boss will be a better person. You will never know if you will burn on the fire. But one thing you will know for sure; when you make up your mind and take the step forward despite your fears and past failures, your entire system will support you because that is what it is designed to do. And no matter what the consequence, the place at the end of the fire bed is far more exhilarating than the place you were before.

So next time you find yourself at cross roads, consider all facts and opinions but in the end listen to your heart. People love to experiment with others lives by advicing them. And somehow all of us are experts in what is best for others. Only you know the real truth about who you are you and what you do. Only you can really sort your life. Make up your mind in the direction YOU know is right, and you will succeed. I have absolute certainty that we all know what the right thing to do is, whether we do it or not.

We belong to a culture that thrives on opinions and moves on approvals. When you open up your problem book to another, you are turning away from your own power. Listen to your own voice before it drowns in the noise of others.

Destiny is a Daily thing

Each one of us has our fair share of ‘potential’ destiny, just as the seed has the ‘potential’ of a tree. Unlike the seed, which is at the mercy of its environment to grow, we are blessed with the gift of choice, which gives us power over our environment. In other words, what that means is, we can create our own circumstance.

Life is a perspective. When you change your perspective, you change the way you think. When you change the way you think, you change how you feel. When you feel better, you perform better. And when you perform better on a daily basis, you see magical results.

A lot of people feel that the past shapes the future. If you look carefully, today is a result of your past. Today will be the past for tomorrow. So in a more intense perspective, it is today that will eventually equal to your future. Don’t use your past mistakes and mishaps as the foundation of an unfortunate future. You fail tomorrow if you fail today. You don’t fail tomorrow because you failed yesterday.

You can have a shot to success everyday. A lot of people quit on their lives because they feel that their past has been too messed up. Success eludes them because they continue to live their life ‘everyday’ in the same mindset of helplessness. At some point or the other, we have all made mistakes, we all have been beaten, we all have been cheated, we all have all fallen short of our own expectations. At some point or the other, we have wronged ourselves and wronged others. But the only point where destiny is shaped is the point where you stand now. It is ‘now’ where you choose what you will do about all that has happened to you and all that you can make happen for yourself. It is in your choice today, that you will set a whole series of events and intentions in action for the future. Today is a chance for you to set your past right. Learning from your past is a smart thing to do, but only the ignorant live their past everyday.

I do personal breakthrough workshops and use the firewalk as an analogy to make this point. I often tell people that just because they got burnt in the past does not mean that they will burn today on my firewalk. Burns like accidents happen when one is not paying attention, when one acts out of ignorance and when one lacks intention. When people do walk on fire, they do so with full attention, awareness and intention. Is it then magic that they did not get burnt ? Certainly it is magic. There is magic in paying attention, there is magic in awareness and there is magic when actions are done intentionally. So what role does a past burn have to play in the decisions you make today ? Every burn, every loss, every hurt teaches you one lesson: “responsibility”. If you learn to take responsibility of what happens to you, then you become a powerful person. Destiny is not about what happens to you, destiny is shaped in what you do about it here from.

All people who rose to greatness had pasts they were not proud of. They have also had their share of misfortunes. They became great because no matter what happened to them, they made choices of greatness on a daily basis. Whether it is Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Gandhi, your next door neighbour, or you, all alike, have some parts of their past that could potentially destroy them. And all alike, have equal opportunity to create a better life. And that opportunity knocks your door daily in every choice and in every decision you make.

You too can create your own destiny, and you can start today. As long as you are alive, you have your shot at creating your world the way you want it. Your destiny is giving you a chance daily. Grab it.

I have a great life

I have a great life, and if only I would tell myself that everyday, I would have a great life everyday :)

Im here in East Grinstead and just being here is an indication of a great life. I landed at Heathrow and the madness I left in Bombay picks you up right at the airport. Its as busy as life can sometimes be. I had to walk a mile with my suitcase (thank God for trolley bags) to the Central Bus Station. People pass you by and everyone has somewhere to go, no one is really there. Only bodies present in the airport, the mind is always somewhere else, either at the place they left, or the place they were headed for. I tried my best to be "there" and I found I was alone.

The Central Bus Station is not a fancy pick from the Bollywood movie. Its pretty cold with just alleys for buses to stand. Unlike in India you have vending machines near the benches while you wait. I was hungry and I was cold. Its funny how cold and hunger go together. I have never found myself saying "Im hot and Im hungry", thirsty is much appropriate. I dont know what the English were thinking when next to the bench at the bus station, out in the cold, they have vending machines selling ice creams. I was cold and I was hungry and the only thing I could find handy to eat was ice cream. I dont know what the selling psychology is here, but I headed for the machine. Atleast after eating the ice cream I wont be hungry anymore, only a lot more colder. I put in a 10 pound note with the queen side up, and the machine swallowed her with delight spitting out some wasted change in disgust, and out popped a "Caramel Cream" cup. I ate it with sadistic pleasure my teeth and oesophagus (the canal that takes your food from the mouth to the stomach) shivering in a musical rythm. By the time I finished my cup, my tongue was numb and when the ticket collector asked me "Where are you getting off my lady" I could only babble "South Terminal". He gave me a puzzled glance and shrugged his shoulders "hop in" was all he had to say.

East Grindstead is a pretty small town. And Forest Row is a pretty place, true to its name, with Forests everywhere.

My first few days were mainly a focus on my health. "How can anyone make themselves so sick ? You have done a great job at that !" Is what my teacher had to say. I felt great already. Whenever someone compliments me, I feel great, even if the compliment was directed at me making myself sick. I guess in my delight that "I did it", I also realised "I" did it. And now I didnt want to do it anymore. "How can I undo my sickness ?" I asked alarmed. "I was beginning to think you would never ask" my teacher said. I always thought she was too pretty to be a teacher. All teachers I had since then were bland, unattractive and yet very wise. I always thought wisdom and beauty dont stay in the same place, but G changed that perception. She was a stunning teacher.

I was sent to a chiropractor who would tell me how to undo my sickness. Its funny how I created sickness without any instructions and now I had to be taught how to undo it. "Whatever" I muttered to myself "I will make myself well".
The chiropractor was an Italian guy. Massimo. Nice name I thought. Instantly in image of an Italian hunk, long hair, golden skin, dimpled cheek, shiny white teeth came to my mind. And before I could complete my mental sculpture the door to the consulting room opened and out walked a lean man "You must be Priya" he said in a twist almost biting his tongue. It sounded like my name in some strange language, but since he was looking at me with a smile, I nodded.
Massimo was Italian. He wore pants shorter than his size and a white shirt like the ones that sailors do. He seemed like a man who was so passionate about his work, that he had no time to dress up...er... like an Italian man. He sure had a set of shiny white teeth but the huge mole on his lip took your attention away from that. He had a dimple alright but everytime he smiled the mole almost touched the dimple. "Lets set you right" he said in a very Italian Accent, and I was ready.
A chiropractor works with your bones and aligns your body. When he finds your spine out of order he can also point to the disorder in the organs that are related with that point on the spine. One tickle down my spine and he figured that I had a colony of parasites in my stomach and intestines and also some that were causing me allergies and headaches. Wow. Italian men are smart. The first step was to set my spine right.
He lay me on a table and asked me to fold my arms clutching my shoulders. Then he twisted my neck on the side and said that he would raise me from the back, pull me in an embrace and crack my spine. "Good Lord ! If he makes a wee tiny mistake, I will not need this body anymore." I closed my eyes and Massimo put his hands under me raising me from the back in a one short "huh" cracked 6 bones on my back. "Thats good" he said. As I straightened my self on the table feeling a distinct relief in my back I realised that my long time dream had come true, of being in the arms of an Italian man, even if he was a chiropractor with short pants and a mole in his lip, genuinely interested in the vertebrae of my spinal cords and the energy imbalance of my body.

I must say that the spinal correction worked wonders on my body, though usually the hug would suffice, and I quite look forward for more wellness. ....

(to be continued) (only on special request)