Happiness Matters!

So this started a couple of months back. During the end of my internship, I started feeling very low and stuck and was not able to do anything productive, rather than just waste my days. It had already been 7 months and I could not afford more. So let’s go into a flashback from where this all started.

After completing my studies at Al Jamea TUS Saifiyah, I was allowed to work in a huge real estate organization, which was completely different from what I had studied, and I was up for the challenge. I was really happy to go and work there for some months and learn a lot. But slowly as time passed and I spent a few months over there, the only job I was given there was to observe things happening day in and out. And the mindset I had come with was to learn and work too, but unfortunately, nothing went in my favor. I wanted to learn new things and work on them.

But as I said, I was just asked to “go sit and observe things”. Eventually, I lost interest and started wasting the time I wanted to spend on something meaningful. And 2 months passed doing this, and I had done it enough and wanted to work on things and achieve something. I gave my senior secondary exams and decided to take a serious call because this was not what I had come here for. I came back to Pune back home! Back to ground zero! I was interested in understanding our family business and had a dream of taking it forward one day. Through some family friends, I got to know about the Enterprise India Fellowship program in Pune, and I felt that this is an opportunity to learn something which I have wanted for a long time and I am interested in. “This is a year-long part-time business and life mentoring program for youth from business families”.

I joined the June 2022 cohort with a bang of an event called Jamboree. This event was really special and I have some wonderful memories of it. On the first day, I was introduced to the Enterprise family and that surely was a very awkward moment because you open the door and there is a group of people you don’t know anything about shouting out HELLO TAHER. Slowly as the day began it all started falling in place and I started feeling comfortable. The first activity that we did was a curiosity walk which was to observe things, and here’s where the happiness began. This activity taught me to not always look at things from a negative perspective, the world is much more beautiful than one thinks of it. So do not overthink things and just do it, which is our Enterprise motto #KARO! The next day we all went for a nice morning walk and it was refreshing. And then we started our preparations for the networking event at night.

This night was a really special night and a big increase in my confidence and happiness, and trust me this is the best thing that happened to me in a long time. I met wonderful new people from different backgrounds, and it was so lovely having a conversation with them and knowing about them, and how they reached this stage in their lives through different struggles and challenges. But in the end, one thing everyone said was “IT WAS ALL WORTH IT”. I slept happily and was excited about what was going to come up the next day. The next day we were taken to a hospital and everyone was thinking that what will we do here? But trust me it was fun! Usually, people have a very serious approach when they hear the word HOSPITAL, but honestly, it was nowhere near being serious. We were here to understand how a hospital works and manages it. We were sent to different departments to understand their work and continue our curiosity observation process to help the hospital find out new ways to enhance their work and serve their customers in the best possible way. It was a new experience and a different perspective of the hospital.

Before joining the Enterprise India Fellowship program, I was very nervous about meeting new people I didn’t know anything about. It was a huge blow, but I felt I did pretty well in breaking the ice, and this Jamboree event was a great start to this Enterprise journey.

I started working on my first project in July, it was a Service Design Project (SDP) for Monginis Pune. And to be very honest this project was great learning. The group was fun and we enjoyed the whole process. We were a group of 4 and things worked out pretty well for us. The client was awesome and supported us throughout the process, his inputs were great, which helped us give our best. We visited shops in and around Pune, We even drove to Satara to visit a few shops. After this project, I felt content and happy. I worked on a real-life project went on the field got my hands dirty, did the hard work, and as it is said: “HARD WORK ALWAYS PAYS OFF”.

Then came the month of Muharram and we had to go to London UK to attend sermons. This is an event towards which we have immense spirituality. Going to the UK is a dream for many, and I am lucky enough to visit this beautiful place a few times. After the sermons got over our family finally had the opportunity to go and enjoy ourselves and spend some quality time together. We went to Scotland and drove through the highlands and came back to London. It surely was a great experience and a dream come true. Everything was just falling into place for me, and I was cherishing every moment. And after all that started happening in June 2022, this UK trip was a “JOY OF JOYS FOR ME’.

We came back home after an incredible journey and now it was time to get back to work. The state I was in a couple of months back was completely different from what I am in now. I was ready for challenges in my way and ready to do the hard work. I think coming back to Pune is the best decision that I took, I feel much lighter and much happier in terms of work and personal life. I know that it is not going to be as easy as it sounds, many obstacles will come across, again I may start feeling negative, frustrated, angry, and clumsy, but I am just ready for everything. Because this is what I had wanted and a place where I want to give my 100%.