If one is open to new things and if one has a passion for doing something and keeping oneself busy, life always gives you chances and opportunities to make the best of it. A similar opportunity knocked on my door, and I decided to grab it with both my hands. What exactly is the title of my blog post today, and what does Urja mean? Urja means energy, your inner light, that deep voice within which guides you to do good things to keep you happy. And that's precisely the name of our new venture, which I have started with my friend, Sarwari. It's a platform for women where we encourage and motivate them to come out of their houses and do something for themselves. I will tell you more about it as to how did we reach here and what brought Sarwari and me together in this.
I met Sarwari at a swimming class in Durlach, Karlsruhe. The Saturday classes suited me well. It was an afternoon batch where there were 3 ladies in it, and we all were Indians! We hardly spoke in the beginning, but later, when we were just two of us, we often sat and talked about different things that bothered us in Germany. I was going through an awful phase myself, and I felt good after talking to her. She was also sailing in the same boat and often felt lonely and depressed here. She had a job, a baby to take care of, a nice husband, but still something was missing. She mentioned that she knows many other Indian ladies who feel the same as us as if something was missing though we all had all the comforts, clean and secured life in Germany. We often talked about it and left the discussion without coming to a conclusion as to what could be done to improve our situations. Sarwari was thinking about changing the condition of women she knew since then, I suppose, and the time just flew by. We completed the course, decided to keep in touch and meet, but then couldn't meet once after the class.
In February this year, she approached me again, asking me if I would be interested in helping her start an activity for women once a month. She had a lot of ideas, and she was very clear about what she wanted to do. We could do many things for women. Different workshops on career, entrepreneurship, books, movies, nature walk, writing a resume, applying for jobs, various tips on cooking, baking. The sky was the limit, and we started with our groundwork. We approached a cultural center at a convenient location that promotes different cultural groups and gives them resources, rooms to meet, and helps them to get integrated into the German culture. The directors were women, and they were gracious enough to see our presentation and give us the necessary opportunity to host our first event of Urja. The charges for the rooms were nominal, and we decided to take it by keeping a small entrance fee for each participant. The name Urja came to my mind like a simple thought! What better name could be given to our platform, which was, in fact, to help the women to provide them with a chance to find their inner light, which somehow gets low or extinguished in the day to day life.
Women are always busy, working at home and in the office to keep the family happy. She gives herself the last priority. And feels neglected, lost, lonely, and less critical in the family, especially if she doesn't earn. I have been through this phase myself, and that was the lowest ebb of my life, where I would never want to go back to, and I sincerely hope no one ever falls in that trap of self-deprecating thoughts and feeling useless and unwanted. I bounced back on my own, and so did Sarwari. She had her personal struggle too. She also found a way out on her own. We both wanted to help exactly such women, who are clueless. They don't know what to do, where to go, whom to approach. We wanted to give them all the resources, help, links, collaborations, which would help them to regain the self-worth which they had lost somewhere down the line.
On 7th March 2020, we inaugurated Urja and invited an Indian lady who works as a Cardiologist in the hospital in Karlsruhe. It was interesting to know about her journey with a small kid and a wonderfully supportive husband. Around 20 ladies came for this event, and it boosted our morale. We all realized that though we are all different personalities, we all have been through ups and downs, and we seek help and support in each other. The ladies who came were from different walks of life and were happy that such a platform was going to be for them where they won't be judged or criticized for who they are. Acceptance, Love, Sharing, Caring are going to be the four pillars of Urja, and we really look forward to the different workshops lined up after the Corona Virus Pandemic dies down. In the meanwhile, we all are connected on WhatsApp, and we regularly send messages to each other to boost and cheer each other up. We are soon going to do an online meetup session, too, where we would share things that everyone has taken up to pass through this challenging phase.
We are on Facebook:
Join us if you feel like it. Tell other women in Karlsruhe whom you think might be interested in coming together with like-minded ladies for self-improvement and merely being able to be your own self!
So that's, in a nutshell, our journey till the inauguration of Urja. We will keep you posted about the individual workshops and upcoming events of Urja!
Till then, stay happy, stay safe, keep smiling, keep inspiring, keep motivating!
स्वतःच स्वतःचे मित्र होण्यासाठी काय करु शकतो यावर एकादे सेशन करा.
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