Monday 18 November 2013

#18: Chandigarh Aashiqui to Photography!

Meet Chandigarh ki kudi, Simran Jagdev Gulati, who loves to shoot. OK, don’t get me wrong. She’s a fabulous wedding photographer who has no Diploma in photography, but is still making a lot of noise in this industry. “I am actually Masters in Finance and Investment from the University of Nottingham, UK and was working at a MNC in Gurgaon from 2007-2012. I quit my job in April last year, to pursue photography full-time. Honestly, it fell right in place with my wedding that took place in November 2012. It has been over a year since I took it up full time,” she shares. 

It’s true that your true love can spot the potential in you faster than you, yourself. In 2009, her then fiancé, (now her husband) Mohit Gulati, gifted her a Photography Workshop in Delhi. Since photography was the only stress buster she enjoyed during her hectic work schedule, Simran took it up without giving a second thought. 

Simran never planned on becoming a professional photographer, until she got her first break. “I have always been taking photographs whenever and wherever I travel, but doing weddings is a different ball game altogether. I have been shooting for a few years now and I enjoy every bit of it, even when it's not easy. The whole process from capturing something, working on it afterwards and satisfying people with the end product makes me happy. I love to take photos and am lucky enough to make a living doing so!” she exclaims.



Simran shares that being a woman; initially shooting weddings was tough. “I felt extremely awkward holding my camera and shooting people. I also got stares from a lot of people. Now I am much more confident. I feel that the brides feel more comfortable around a lady photographer, especially during their makeup session.


Having done more than 50 photo shoots (weddings, engagement, babies, and couples) for Simran it has been a crazy learning experience. “I've never gone big on envisioning setups or photos that I may want to create – it never, ever turns out even close to what I may have thought. I just go into the location and immediately see what I want to do and where and how I want to do it. I really don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be a wedding photographer– if you have talent and a unique style, you can get your work out to the world much faster than ever before,” she says.


Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of criticism. But criticism can come out of love. It is important to see what is invisible to others. – Robert Frank.

To view more of Simran's work, click here: Simran Jagdev Fotography.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

#17: She's CReating Enlightened Awakenings!

Meet Deepti G Gujar, founder of CRÈA (CRÈAting Enlightened Awakenings) which is her initiative for healing, spiritual growth and transformation, to help you CRÈAte the life you desire, dream and truly deserve. 
“Little did I know though when I picked up Dr. Brian Weiss’s book, Many Lives, Many Masters in 2006, that my whole life was on a brink of whirlwind transformation. Through an inner calling I delved into past life regression therapy – at first for my personal healing and to seek answers that had plagued me since childhood which eventually led to helping others like me to find their answers through their own stories buried in their psyche. A breakthrough came through Dr.Newton’s Inner Child Work workshop that helped me tap into parts of my childhood that were almost entirely wiped out of my memory. This workshop unleashed layers of anger, turmoil, and anguish accumulated since childhood, and through the personal care of Life Research Academy, I was able to heal, let go of ages of trauma and start a new journey towards wholeness.”

“With a degree in Computer Engineering and working as a software professional for 5 years, I realized I was missing something. Around the same time I began the journey to heal myself. Somewhere in me, there was a voice that kept rebelling against this very term because I wanted to feel more in control of my life without having to control it. This was an awakening call that drew me into spirituality. Enroute this spiritual pilgrimage of the past five years, life took me to exploring other spiritual pathways like Angel Therapy, EFT, The Work, Rebirthing-Breathwork (both by Dr.Newton and Leonard Orr), and self-inquiry thanks to lovely friend and guide, and another spiritual teacher, Nithya Shanti. I now use a combination of these intuitively to help fellow seekers dive into their consciousness and empower themselves. As I progressed in this path, life transformed. Since then, every day has been a fresh new breath of life. Along with doing a lot of certifications related to healing, I also started writing actively, at first for my spiritual teacher, Dr.Newton's magazine, and later on branched out on my own,” she shares.

“I had a vision after one of my meditations - and the word that flashed said it had something to do with Christ and sounded like the Sanskrit word kriya. The vision kept getting strengthened and I just let it without interfering much. I just sat down and distilled the word CRÈA and my mind expanded it to CRÈAting Enlightened Awakenings,” she explains.

CRÈA in its essence imbibes CRÈAtion. As an inner calling, Deepti started CRÈA with the intention to guide people to their true potential as Light Beings awakened to the power of their Consciousness. This initiative includes workshops, seminars, sessions and awareness get-togethers. Through CRÈA she also wants to share information on how to integrate spiritual knowledge in one's daily life based on her own personal experiences.

“The basic principle is that everyone seeks a union with God, universe, or life. This need for union is so powerful that once it comes up in a person's awareness, the person will endlessly seek to perpetuate his/her union,” she adds. This path calls for transformation - transforming every lie, society, parents, culture, past lives have taught you into the Truth of your being - a non-verbal Truth that can only be lived, not expressed. Often people who come to me are not just transformed once, but they realise the value of staying in that zone of Eternal Love. Whether they continue this journey with CRÈA or not, the wheels are set into motion and they begin to find love within their own selves,” she elaborates.

On asking about her journey so far, she quips, “For me more than the external events taking place, the inner state of being that I carry, is more momentous, more eternal. Last year I witnessed a slow-burning transformation with someone I was connected to for lifetimes. This phase taught me to relate as Osho talks about, it taught me what it means spiritually to be a woman, to be in a space of love, to trust your own intuition over anyone else's opinion and how one can create this Inner Space of love without having a lover. That was a sacred insight for me and I am still applying and unravelling the mystery of this insight in my day to day life.”

The highlight of my Deepti’s work 'happens' when a person sees what is possible. “That for me is real or tangible. When we get a sense of "I CAN" then we call from within us the power to manifest our greatness. The miracle is to see that you were innocent where you thought you were guilty, to see you were powerful where you thought you were helpless, and to see that there is nobody on the other side, when you were spending your time blaming someone or yourself,” she beams.

Deepti shares that her aspirations for now is to surrender more to the divine flow. Osho once said, “Unless you accept yourself as a blessing, unless you accept and welcome yourself, unless you accept yourself in deep gratitude, unless you love yourself, you will never become an overflowing energyThis is my next goal - to push myself into that high of self-acceptance and break the barriers of trust with myself and others. I see this overflowing into a space which people can look up to as what they are capable of. Maybe that space will manifest into a healing center  a book, or something else. That I leave open to the universe to decide. Surrender is a state of active vigilance to what your inner being tells you. It makes you act radically, with thoughtless, pure action. That is my aspiration for now,” she ends.

Wishing Deepti luck in all her future endeavours!