Soulful

Hello beautiful souls, Welcome to a new chapter of Soulful , a space that has held bits of my journey over the years — scattered reflections, thoughts, and emotions shared whenever life allowed me to. Until now, this blog was a quiet corner for my random posts. Today, it becomes something more intentional… something closer to my heart.

Sometimes, the most powerful leadership lesson doesn’t come from a keynote — but from one awkward, honest question asked with kindness. I was excited to attend  Leadership School 2025 with the Ministry of Justice, it was a unique experience that I looked forward to attending in person for a long time. During a session led by  Sam Conniff , we were asked to “ask an awkward question to your neighbour.” My group facilitator, Mark Buttanshaw , turned to me and asked, gently: “How does it feel to be the only non-white person in the group?” He seemed to sense a quiet discomfort I hadn’t yet recognised in myself. So, it took me a few moments to even process what he meant. I had noticed my own minority presence and the striking majority in the room, but in my group, I just saw people — their energy — and my own. Only after he asked did I realise that yes… I was the only brown person in that small circle. When I asked him in return how he felt about it, Mark said...

"love the sanctity of wildflowers, hundreds of them sewn together on ground,

 ‘Ram’, I suddenly called my colleague in a group call as I struggled recalling his preferred name. I confess I am poor with remembering names and worse when I am not attentive enough to talk. It's a weakness that keeps people like me much to themselves. I am sure many would relate to this predicament. But that’s not the point here. The point is I called him Ram because out of his full long traditional Indian name which contained several small different names, that’s the only one that stood out for me when I quickly gazed at the screen to help myself out. And the real point of this story is I love the name Ram. Simply because I love Ram. 

Whirling waves in the heart of oceans, Trembling thunders in the dust of clouds , Violent volcanoes in the depth of mountains, And yet, surrendered all sounds to the joys of quiet.

I have been listening to this piece of ‘naam ramayan’ for quite sometime now. It makes me, umm, simply happy. But I actually read about it today.