Atmachetna was born in year 2007. Those of you know me well – know that, it was the year when self awakening happened for me and that’s how I named the organization Atmachetna (meaning self awakening). The past two years have been filled with numerous experiences- experiences mostly pleasant and enjoyable. The transition from a high paying corporate job to that of every month survival planning was mostly smooth. The credit largely goes to my family – Shilpi (my better half), Sanchit (my scientist son), Udita (my loving daughter).
There was a period when we had to struggle for few months in year 2008; there were all kind of advices by people - go back to working in corporate; you did not think before deciding etc etc. Probably many of them may be right too in their own perspective; but on hind-sight it looks a real fun. Most of the friends helped morally to keep us on track; even if we deviated a little. Friends like Piyush & Giten have specially helped me cope up with accounting and website issues. I am really amazed with the kind of sincerity and support of all my friends. (though there were some who could have helped but backed - no issues that too is learning!!)
The journey of Atmachetna till now is smooth and filled with lot of enjoyment. The real fun comes when I am inside a hall conducting workshops. There have been instances wherein I have just slept couple of hours previous night but I really feel energetic and charged during and after the workshops. The feedback from parents, teens and teachers and many corporates has been very encouraging. Though we are not able to scale up the work and increase our earnings through Atmachetna to what we thought, but the real satisfaction is in bringing a positive change in someone’s life. God has been real kind to us in smoothly managing our work without much hassles.
Apart from this, there has been tremendous learning about life as a whole; about true friends; about family; about nature; about hidden creative talent in me; about relationships; about society; about real purpose of education; about challenges of people; about living with peace of mind; about thinking beyond money; about the difference between living & meaningful living and many more.
It looks I have lived a different life in last 2 years. I am more close to my family than ever before; I have better understanding of feelings of my wife and kids and my mom and many others.
The only low at times for us at Atmachetna is that sometime we feel we should have made changes to many more lives. Hopefully this coming year 2009-10, we would be able to extend the reach of Atmachetna across India and may be beyond! Best wishes to all of us at Atmachetna!
