How Do I Celebrate Life?

Malvika Singh, publisher

For me, the joy of life and living it with abandon, is to follow one’s infinite dreams and many passions. The more one does, the more time one finds to do it. Chasing an idea and then sculpting it into a tangible reality, to be shared and experienced by a larger universe of people, known and anonymous, is hugely intoxicating. I have always felt inadequate and wanting when boxed in by restrictions and constraints, an anathema for me that define mediocrity. Multiple passions invariably compel one to extend beyond the comfort zone, out into the unknown, to explore the vast treasury that surrounds us all, a treasury of people across generations, young and old, with much to offer and share, all bound together by ideas and initiatives that connect diverse interests, professional skills, new and cutting edge ideas, and more, making life worth living. Passions and people keep me ‘young’ and make my small world happy and joyful.

Ayaan Ali Bangash, sarod master and composer

Music is my celebration of life. In the times we live in, it seems that we are celebrating almost everything, including a National Peanut Day, but it seems that we forget a basic and yet most empowering celebration called life. I grew up on a very famous quote that stays with me quite effortlessly, and that is ‘what we are today is god’s gift to us and what we make of our lives is our gift to Him.’ I think, today in the process of wanting to achieve the world, the need to fit in, the need to show who you are, the need to ‘check in’ on social media has made us forget the basic pleasures that make us happy internally. Do we care about our internal peace? What the soul quests for? The voice within is indeed who we are. I think that there is a need to celebrate everyday and every moment. Gratitude should be the attitude. We are all victims today of stress for tomorrow and yesterday; in the process we forget the importance of today. We forget a moment when a loved one has just landed safe, when your kids have just done their first homework or that you are blessed with so much love around you. One indeed takes things for granted, but we must celebrate that every day is a new beginning.

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Maylis Chevalier, social entrepreneur

I remember celebrating Diwali at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Despite being a stranger I felt one with my Indian fellows. This is my way of celebrating life, deeply rooted in both my feelings of love and freedom. I experience it through a sound, a flavour, a sight, a touch or a smell. I love listening to crows while gazing at a Himalayan peak or to my own breath as I dive into the Mediterranean Sea. I enjoy the sight of my audience when I catch their attention or the taste of a gorgeous red wine sharing a deep conversation. I am also delighted by fresh powder snow cracking under my ski boots on a winter day. The magic of those moments is fuelled with my deep feeling of love to others, one self and the freedom to live them. Not always have I been able to recognise the beauty of life. I feel like on a learning path where my loved ones, acquaintances or strangers are precious teachers.

Kalyani Saha, entrepreneur

No matter what happens in my life, I have never shifted focus from my responsibilities, read work. Crumbled I may have had internally but accepting defeat is not me. I am like a crazy ball, the harder you hit me, the higher I bounce. My eternal mantra that helps me celebrate life and my own self is rather simple: this too shall pass. I look around me and I feel only gratitude for everything I have managed to achieve. My grandparents who pretty much shaped my ideologies and taught me values that I try and imbibe. My father’s words remain true everyday with so much of discontent around “waste not, want not.” What makes us unhappy? Heartbreak? Not necessarily in an intimate relationship. It could be at work or someone you trusted who betrays you and all of life’s little battles, which every single person fights, just that it varies in degrees. I know from experience that something positive always comes out of every negative area. One of my greatest qualities perhaps is the fact that I can laugh at myself. My weird and quirky sense of humour keeps every ridiculous thing that happens almost daily at bay. Today, I am happy in my space because I did not let emotions take over my life and always shifted gears towards my work. I don’t have the luxury of running away from my personal or professional responsibilities. And I am glad for that — both these spheres give a sense of self achievement today. Bringing up a daughter on my own, and to see the person she is today, who I am so proud of, has been my best achievement and investment. And the joy and happiness that she brings me makes everything else worthwhile. I have made the most amazing friends, having left home decades ago, who are my family here and form this support system and a protective wall around me that I am so thankful for. God sends his little miracles my way more often than not. My mojo, at the end of the day, is only myself, and I tend to keep that a happy place.

Akshat Bhatt, architect

Live life as a series of anecdotes: as much as it may sound like a cliché, I have managed to structure my work around all the things I enjoy. So, the nine hours spent at the studio are not a chore, they are an important part of who I am. My place of work becomes my space of recreation and reinvention. I insist on doing at least one thing every day that I have never done before. I indulge myself with my guitars. They are mine to use, not for display or a performance. It’s my not-so-secret space disconnected from everyone and everything. You could equate it to meditation.

Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney-General of India

In order to celebrate life, one must have reverence for it and that makes life worth living. For fully celebrating life, we must ensure that the world is not too much with us. We should pay heed to the sentiment of compassion so beautifully expressed by poet, Emily Dickinson: “If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.” Remember the advice of the great US Judge, Felix Frankfurter, according to whom even for a lawyer it is important to cultivate his or her imaginative faculties by reading good literature, seeing beautiful paintings, listening to fine music and to widen and deepen one’s feelings by experiencing vicariously the wonderful mysteries of the universe. This truly is the life worth living and celebrating.

Abhinav Lohan, golfer

As a professional golfer, celebrating life for me is all about making my country proud. The satisfaction representing and winning medals for your country is second to none. The rush I felt when I wore the Indian golf team’s blazer for the first time was surreal. The high point was winning the silver medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010. Life as a sportsman is full of its ups and downs, but the high that I derive out of playing overshadows the dark moments, and fuels the urge to get better each day. The feeling of competing relentlessly, pulling off shots under pressure, and the joy of coming out on top is what drives me. I hope life gives me a lot more reasons to celebrate by adding more wins in the future.

Ambika Pillai, hair and makeup artist

For me, life has always been about breaking rules and taking chances. With my never-say-die attitude, I have always managed to pull myself up every time I hit rock bottom. Nothing really worked out the way I envisioned my life to be. Honestly, it wasn’t a well-planned road. I think it all happened by default.

All I ever wanted as a child was to be happily married with four kids and a husband, who loved me unconditionally and of course two dogs. But, life doesn’t always turn out the way you want it to be. I was married at 17 and divorced at 23. I could have chosen to stay under the safe and comfortable shelter of my family. But I chose to go to Delhi to try and be independent.

It wasn’t the easiest situation to be in, especially when you are from an extremely orthodox family, where my father didn’t believe in women working. So, I left home with a two-year-old daughter in my arms with every intention of doing a beauty course and heading back home to Kerala to open up my own little salon. Of course, it didn’t happen that way. It was the foundation of my life as I know it now. I got my first job and was paid ₹2,000. I probably would have carried on being a small time parlour girl if I hadn’t been thrown out of my second job for a huge misunderstanding. I decided I didn’t want to work for anyone anymore. I opened my first salon with a partner and worked as a shadow behind a very talented hair stylist. Once that partnership fell through, I opened yet another salon with another friend who was a billion times worse. Basically, I jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The partnership lasted for 13 long years and it took me forever to find out that my best friend was swindling all the money.

But this is the time that other great things were meant to happen, the ones that would determine my path and take me to heights that were actually the beginning of my brand becoming a household name in Delhi. You may ask me what the turning point was. I would say, it takes a lot of struggle to finally make something of your life. But if I was asked to pinpoint one incident then I would have to say it was winning my first national award for an ad film where I did the then ruling miss world Aishwarya Rai’s face. The press gave it everything they had and it became every girl’s dream to sit in my chair for their hair and makeup.

In the last four years, I believe, life has come full circle. I have gone back to my roots... Kerala. My daughter has grown into a beautiful, talented woman who runs my chain of salons that gives me time to do a lot of things I have always wanted to do.

I keep myself busy making skin and hair concoctions that I give away to friends and family. The new joint venture I am in today allows a lot of my dreams to come true. The new baby in my life is Kaytra, my hair, skin and makeup brand that was launched recently.

Aman Nath, hotelier and architectural restorer

I’m not sure if I am the right person to talk about ‘celebrating life’. I have never shown visible signs of celebrating — be it festivals or birthdays. Why should we suddenly wake up one day and pretend that we are happier because it is a birthday? It’s like any other day with the same sunrise and sunset. Such celebrations are contrived and even fake. But these are on the rise. Suddenly 364 days are not for mothers or fathers — only one day is! For me, celebration is life itself — the act of continuing breathing and sharing happiness from one day into the next, of travelling out from the city to any of the Neemrana properties which are both my places of work and rejuvenation. There, I interact with the locals, who work for us and learn of their basic level of contentment and gratitude, which we have lost in the cities. I agree with the dictum that it is better to be in love with the changing seasons than to be hopelessly in love with spring. So, celebrate each day like there is no tomorrow.

Poonam Bhagat, fashion designer

We live in chaos. Hurtling, stumbling, falling, crashing. Weaving through traffic and building blocks in real time and in our minds. Always rushed, sometimes crushed by egos and lost opportunities. Trying to stand on shifting sands. We spin out of control.

That new green leaf that springs up on the tree outside our windows often goes unnoticed. So does the bird song celebrating the birth of day. The skies go from pale to dark, but we are far too busy counting the hours and racing against the sun to bother to look at those large cotton candy clouds that once reminded us of bunnies and other animals.

For me, the biggest joy is that of being with nature. I long to get away to the source where life emanates. Where waterfall cascades down cliffs and bounce off rocks bursting into a myriad crystals. Where the moss under my feet grows slippery and where hills turn grey as they distance themselves from me while I yearn to touch and climb each and every one of them. Even in the stillness of life disquiet grows. There is always a box to tick. There is always a benchmark to cross. There is always something that must be done before we can be still.

Jumping off 1,000 metre high hilltops and soaring like an eagle makes for a great story and drives the adrenaline forever. So, does rafting through rapids that ominously cross grade 5. I am with nature, nature at its fierce best. Nature can nurture or destroy with one deft stroke. I have challenged myself and defied nature thinking I have fulfilled myself. Chased my dreams and caught up with them. I have many stories to tell, stories that grow and swell. I have celebrated life by defying death.

Time by Pink Floyd has been on the top of my playlist for 40 years, and it’s only now that I have become cognizant of the lyrics as they ring in my ears like alarm bells. I need to slow down, I need to look at that tree outside my window where the furry squirrels scurry up and down the branches and the birds come to nest. Where the leaves turn brown and wither away only to come up again, renewed and refreshed. I need to look around me at my friends and those I nurture and discover with utmost astonishment that I can literally count them twice over on my fingers.

I need to look inside me and find that person who is now content and done with the endless hoopla and brouhaha of running around in circles like a silly dog chasing its tail. I need to curl up with my dogs and discover pure bliss as they snuggle against me as if I am the centre of their universe, which I probably am. I need to be still and I need to be joyful within. That’s when I will truly celebrate life.

Nikhil Mehra, fashion designer

I celebrate life by living my dream every day, which for me, means I get to do the things I do best. Be it design, or a sport, or getting to know people, I don’t do it in spurts. Whether it is to go out and be fearless, or the collection we make, celebration for me happens on a daily basis. The moment I wear my band which has pins on it and come to work, the moment I step foot into my office, it really gives me joy. I get to create new ideas and new thoughts, and incorporate them into garments and more. I often take experiences from my travel and put those notions into my clothes. So, that professional matrix spurs joy. In fact, the next level of joy comes when I see someone wearing the clothes I have designed and are happy and content. Celebration to me is very, very intimate. I don’t necessarily party as much to celebrate a success. Instead, I celebrate with my team. We go out together, as a family. I love celebrating small successes, just having close people around, and have a great time with them. That’s my idea of a good time.

Dilip Cherian, communications consultant

A very popular hashtag on Instagram is #FriendsLikeFamily. In a sense, that sums up my personal philosophy of the celebration of life. Friends are often the family we get to choose. Some are acquired spontaneously, some an inheritance, others painfully as growing up happens. For me, as a family, celebrations have always been about friends, not so much about the specific occasion or about grand choreographed spectacles. It’s always been about making sure that everybody comes together in a happy union that always involves food and laughter. Sometimes it unwittingly elevates, if you throw in a pinch of informality. Planning, which often obsesses people about celebrations doesn’t rouse me. For me it’s always been the spontaneity, the quality of random interactions and the enthusiasm to ensure that everybody leaves with a happy memory in their heads. Too many pictures, loud music, interlopers are mood spoilers. After all, with #FriendsLikeFamily, only togetherness matters.

Bobby Aggarwal, product designer

The lapping sound of water in the gentle breeze on Kamshet Lake is a reason enough to celebrate. Lately it’s the little moments in life that I have started to notice, appreciate and celebrate. It could be our newest product in the factory or a movie that we just enjoyed thoroughly or a live concert we attended. The full moon, that amazing cocktail your friend just made and the sight of the early morning sun through the trees, all need to be celebrated like the birds and the flowers do. Beautiful handwriting, a stunning painting, my dogs. Life’s little moments. There was a time one celebrated the big moments, a birth of a child, winning an award, or a trophy in a race, buying your first music system or listening to Kishori Amonkar live, seeing NSD plays in my younger days, these were bigger moments then, now I am thankful and touched by the smallest gestures made by people around me and the universe as a whole. And this is what I celebrate.

Raseel Gujral, lifestyle designer

A malady of our time is that ‘life’ has been submerged in the term “celebration”. It is overused and abused and has become associated with ‘events’. For us, a celebration truly denotes significant milestones as these are markers of miraculous journeys. An upcoming anniversary for me personally marks three decades in lifestyle design. I marvel that it’s actually been that long and gives us a chance to engage with so many intersecting lives by hosting a celebration. The monotony of daily life and obligations are peeled away with the excitement of orchestrating the perfect ingredients to create magic for people. That’s why I love Diwali. The weather turns and you feel a new surge of joy. The festive regalia is just the affirmation needed that there’s heaven within your home, with family and friends.

From the October 2017 issue of L’Officiel India.