#LetsWalk, an initiative to promote health and fitness

An invitation to participate in a beach walk to promote health is honestly something I never saw myself agree to doing. #LetsWalk - Beach Walk, the initiative "your health in your hands" to promote health and fitness got me out of bed on September 2nd, that too on a Sunday; the day I refuse to get up early.  I landed up at Juhu Beach and found myself  enjoying a great morning at the beach and even more so because I found myself screaming out in joy. Everywhere I turned, I found a friend was there too and that was truly uplifting and awesome. 

The walk was organised by Moushumi Pal founder of Woodpecker Media, a consulting company catering to conceptualised events, transformational digital marketing strategies and creative brand design and Dr. Bhavi Mody, a postgraduate with over two decades of clinical experience in providing Holistic Healing and Founder and Director at Vrudhi Holistic Health Care. The event had a participation of over 150 health enthusiasts, started with a round of Yoga (me and yoga. Wow! I did that too), was followed by a 2 km walk on the beach. Fun childhood games such as tug-of-war, passing the parcel and thumbs-up that we have all played as children were a part of the event to bring back that magic into their lives.

I love to interview people and talk to them about their initiatives. so it was obvious that I found myself interviewing these wonderful ladies live on face book. Talking to me about the initiative, Moushumi said "We want to touch lives. We want inclusion. What Dr. Bhavi Mody advocates is making things very simple to follow, like eat less, sleep less, breathe well, things we forget in mundane routine of today's life styles we have. Then gradually I started thinking how can we make it more engaging and that's is why we thought of organising the first walk. We wanted everyone from all walks of life to come out in the fresh air. We want to do it at different locations now. First one was a nature walk and this our second one which is the beach walk."

Dr. Bhavi Mody adds, "This initiative is to help you stress on little changes that you can get into your everyday life to make your life more healthy. Mission #StayHealthyStayHappy is what we believe in. We started out in December last year. As Moushumi mentioned, the first walk that happened was a nature walk at Sanjay Gandhi National Park and today we are on the beach. Next who knows where. Maybe the mountains".

The first walk organised by them was on June 3, 2018. It was an educational 2 km walk around Borivali National Park and I must admit  even though I was invited to that one too, I was just too lazy to get out of bed. What I missed was an opportunity to learn about various species of flora and fauna along with the environmentalists there and more importantly an opportunity to click loads of photos (which is my passion).  I am never missing another walk ever again for sure.

At the end of the walk the participants were given refreshments and goody bags. Each one of us had been given a T-shirt too before the walk.  Eminent power women such as Pinky Rajgharhia (Mrs Universe Business lady 2017, Mrs Asia 2017, Mrs Fitness 2016, Social Activist), Gehna Mehra (Writer & Entrepreneur), Nabomita Mazumdar (Businesswoman  and Speaker for Future of Work, HR, Startup, Women and Business, Social media and Technology), Nidhika Bahl (Celebrity Life Coach), Savneet Kaur  (Vice Chair,  ALL) and Daulatbi Khan (Acid Survivors Saahas Foundation) participated in the walk to support the initiative.

I must admit that I am not much of a health freak,  but the walk did not help me to realise the value of being outdoors. I realised that morning, that I had also bonded and shared so much more with my friends there and even though I could not walk for long (I have painful knees, you see), it was lovely to be out breathing in the fresh air. A big thank you to Moushumi for inviting me to join and cheers to you and your team mates, Ridhi Doshi and Sonu Bajaj for a well organised event.  

I can happily say that the event was not just  #LetsWalk but a lovely #FriendshipWalk for me and that I am looking forward to the next one too.

Connect on FB page for joining the next walk: 

www.facebook.com/groups/vrudhihwc

#BeHappy wins the Radio City' #CityIconAwards 2018' in the NGO category

#BeHappy wins the Radio City' #CityIconAwards 2018' (a Jagran initiative) in the NGO category  in the NGO category at Thane/Navi Mumbai. Shalini Thackeray M'am and her daughter Muskaan are invited on stage. Shalini M'am invites the entire team on stage to receive it along with them. The team thanks her  for the honour.  The award is given to us by stalwart and actor, Ashok Saraf. 

#BeHappy, a first of its kind community togetherness initiative in Lokhandwala Complex  is the brainchild of Surjeet Dadalia, a businessman by profession and eminent Ms. Shalini Thakerey, MNS, Mumbai North West and ably supported by Prashant Rane, MNS and a team of enthusiastic committee members (one of them being me). #BeHappy today is successful concept where irrespective of their standing in the society, residents come together as as a team to organise the event to encorage community spirit through entertainment, art, sports and health programs and more importantly, to celebrate life itself!  The initiative provides a platform for a family to come together in a car free zone from 7 am to 11 am to spend time together and participate in activities as a family. #BeHappy also offers stalls and a stage to people to showcase their talent.

BeHappy, has been spreading smiles and bringing the neighbourhood together for more than a year every 3rd Sunday of the month. The event has a footfall of  8000-9000+ adults and children and is graced by film stars and celebrities, all enjoying a morning of family fun such as art craft for children, sport activities like badminton, football, cycling, food & activities stalls and on-stage performances such as Yoga, Zumba,  dances and song and much more. #BeHappy will be back soon with its next season after the rains.

Connect with us to participate on https://www.facebook.com/BEHAPPYMumbai

Me, Sugar Mediaz and an afternoon with Mookdhwani School* for hearing impaired children

It is said that some connects that you make become lifelong relationships that go beyond the unexplainable. Many many years ago, I had read an advertisement and learnt the art of voiceovers with Darrpan Mehta, a leading and respected Voice Actor  at  Sugar Mediaz. Thereafter, I truly have lost count of the years or the many times, I have shared happy moments with Darrpan, Janvi and Kiran.. and this time was no different. A phone call from them is all it takes to get me scuttling to their office with a happy smile.

You may wonder why? Simple. What I love about Darrpan (apart from the friendship) and Sugar Mediaz is that despite the traditional role of being an audio content production house, they choose unique and different activities as part of their social responsibility initiatives, such as *surprise X'mas party for 150 kids of Prayas Street School, *Buy a Diary-send a child to school project, *campaign to collect books, stationery and musical instruments for prisoners of Indore Jail and my favourite of all 300 paper bags containing packets of wheat flour, sugar, rice and pulses sent to family&friends in Diwali (including me) with a request to pass it on to less privileged people.

The initiative this time!!! An afternoon to celebrate Teachers day with fun and games to create a bond between teachers and children at *Mookdhwani School* for hearing impaired children.... and as always, I was ready to be a part of their initiative. 

September 6th, 12.30pm and we and the volunteers were all ready to have fun with them, but wait !! let me first share a bit about the school that Sugar Mediaz was bringing happiness and joy to....*Mookdhwani Vidyalaya*, managed by Utkarsh Mandal, situated in a by-lane at Vile Parle, is a Marathi medium school, established in 1982, providing free education to the hearing impaired children as also parent counselling, guidance, rehabilitation supported by teachers, speech therapists and social workers.

I cannot even start to explain the overwhelming feeling that came over me standing in the school hall and watching 100 children of all ages walking in and settling down in front of us. At that moment, I realised that all the "dumb charades" talent in the world would not be enough to communicate with them or would it? It made me wonder that when they were looking at me doing the talking, was it like what I felt while watching a silent film. Maybe not, because you needed to be there to hear the laughter as the children communicated with each other despite living in a world of silence themselves...as  did team Sugar Mediaz with them. Dividing the children into groups with a few teachers in each group; that was easy!!! but conducting the games was no easy task, believe me. You will not believe the number of times, stupid old me, out of force of habit said "suno" on the mike completely forgetting that "suno" was a word that did not exist in their lives. Starting off with two minute games such as poking straws in the hair, bindis on hands, balancing coins holding biscuit in mouth and so on were received with much exuberance. Simple games like musical chairs and more, especially conducted just for the teachers made them so happy that we were surprised to be told that in past years, no one had ever thought about conducting games for them. A balloon tied to the ankle of each teacher and letting them loose to burst the other's balloons while saving their own had them in splits. I cannot even get to down to expressing the amount of laughter and noise the teachers themselves were making. It was hilarious to actually have to tell the teachers to 'stop and listen'. Darrpan dressed up as a clown making an entry with chocolates and little toys which he threw to catch, had children screaming, scrambling and grabbing as much as their little hands could. Amidst many more such fun games, the afternoon ended with prizes for games, and gifts & snack boxes for everyone.

I realised by the end of the afternoon, the true meaning of "my world may be silent but I can hear with my hands". I had completely forgotten about the disability as the eyes, the heart and the hands spoke volumes and no one was needed to translate anymore. The one thing I learnt today, is simple. No one is really deaf or dumb and all we need to do is respect each other's intelligence and communicate ...... and as the tag line of Sugar Mediaz says, let us just "communicate better" with a dash of understanding and a sprinkle of compassion ... So  the next time I think of turning a deaf ear, I will think twice !!