“Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”
– Tahir Shah.
Storytelling is an Art. Every time a story is shared, for a brief period, history is being made. We today speak of one such artistic storyteller named Reshma Kurup, who, in her early forties, has several feathers in her cap. Reshma Is an introvert with a warm, social, and approachable demeanor. Due to her Father’s Army Job, her family shifted their place of residence once every four years.
This lifestyle instilled an adaptive mindset in her and a broader outlook towards life. She was less talkative among friends, and loved people, and had empathy for them. She was constantly observing the whys and hows of people’s behaviors and attitudes. Nevertheless, she did not quite feel at home in these circles or society.
Reshma Kurup notes that she did not have a particularly religious upbringing – her family did not emphasize the need to visit places of worship to feel one with God. Today she considers herself a deeply spiritual person.
She has always felt like an old soul and couldn’t relate to the world she was in. Faith has been her greatest strength. Faith that things happen for a reason, and there are no coincidences in life. Faith that, however challenging the road ahead, you have to show up and walk that path to know your true path. Nobody can do that for you.
Architecte Reshma Kurup
Reshma Kurup was never a fan of the Indian Education System. She was good at her studies, and that was her saving grace. She had no clue of what to do in life growing up. Her sister being someone she looked up to in life influenced her to choose a creative field like Architecture than technical subjects when everybody was going for Computer Science.
Reshma Kurup ended up completing a five years Bachelor of Architecture program from Bijapur in Karnataka. Bijapur was a challenging time for her which she says has had a lot of impact on her mental and emotional health. After working for a year in Bangalore, where her parents had moved and settled, she decided to do a Masters in Architecture program.
During this one year in Bangalore, she came in touch with her Spiritual Path and Guru, which changed her life moving forward. Her life completely changed after this point. Words such as Yoga, Meditation, Pranayam, Guru, Spirituality, Satsang, which she had never heard in life till then, started becoming very familiar. She Felt awakened to the many facets of who she was and the Bigger understanding of life and her role in it.
Reshma Kurup opted for a Master’s Program in the USA at a unique school started by one of the most Futuristic American Architects of his time- Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright. She was one of the 3 to 5 Indian Girls who have ever come from India to study in this school. It is now an 80+ years old school. Mr. Wright was a visionary, much ahead of his time.
He founded a gurukul-like school with two campuses in Arizona and Wisconsin state in the USA. Individuals from all backgrounds came to study at this place. Even during her program, she had friends from Venezuela, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, and Nigeria. She completed her master’s program in 2.5 years and recollects this being the best time of her life. The program exposed her to community living, hosting events, Minimalist lifestyle, singing, pottery, woodwork, hands-on construction, theater, and so much more besides the Architecture studies.
She proceeded to work in the US post her graduation for a year. During her days in the US, she was part of her Spiritual Path and its activities. One sudden day much to her father’s disappointment, she decided to return to India for good. Reshma Kurup started in a small-scaled architectural firm in Bangalore, where she worked for four years. Her community volunteering work became more intense during this time. She felt this pull to serve the underprivileged. She realized her deep love for children and passion for teaching. She began visiting boys hostels, children’s homes, Later Slums, and Government Schools.
Reshma Kurup would teach, conduct various community activities for mothers and children in the Slums and schools in underprivileged communities. She recalls that being in those places felt safer and this deep understanding that destiny wanted her to walk that path for a while amidst opposition from home.
Reshma Kurup learned Kannada to be able to converse with them and connect with them better. Through her sevas, she met her husband. They ironically clicked over their mutual disinterest in marriage. It was as though destiny brought them together. They decided to spend the rest of their lives together with their like-mindedness and shared goals, thus getting married.
Uden Ki Asha
Around that time, Reshma Kurup realized that she wanted to pursue her seva full-time. From 2010, she left her architecture job to teach in slums and do many such Educational Works. She lacked clarity in what her future held. She went through a phase of deep depression as well. Through these challenges, she felt she needed to start her trust. She registered a Trust called Uden Ki Asha. She initiated an evening after-school center in the slum for above-average children focusing mainly on Life Skills. She took money from her trust to cover her bare basic needs. Naturally, her parents, especially her father, were distraught with her.
Challenge after challenge, she faced them valiantly because she followed her gut. She had an unshakeable feeling that her Intuition was hardly wrong. To everybody, she seemed to be taking one unsound decision after another, which was not lucrative. But she was devoted to her cause. She raised a lot of capital through her trust. Officially the trust stopped its operations in 2017, and she plans to dissolve it this year.
Parallelly she was facing several issues in her personal life. She was unwell, and her sickness worsened with time. By 2016, her health too became very bad, and she underwent surgery. Her marriage was also on the rocks. In 2017, her journey took on an entirely new turn. She started using social media and YouTube. Listening to some fantastic people online helped her immensely to gain her mental clarity and inner strength. She knew that destiny wanted her to once again choose a different path.
She began designing niche services called Decluttering and Organizing, much like the Netflix series Marie Kondo. Marie Kondo is a Japanese woman who became famous in the US for her decluttering and organizing techniques. Ms. Kondo helped several families bring down their chronic hoarding habits and adapt a minimal lifestyle. Reshma also had a similar service, but it did not just stop at houses – she helped her clients declutter their minds and lives as well.
She met with a couple of contacts and offered her services – they became her first clients. She would visit their homes, pore over their areas of concern, sometimes spending days where she would remove unwanted articles around the house. She would then bring in her architectural acumen, ushering in concepts like Vaastu and beautifying homes. She then followed it up with a deep dive into their emotional and spiritual wellbeing. With that, health became a big part of her work. Reshma Kurup indicates that even the most famous people with abundant wealth are unhappy. There is a dire need to inject humanity into the lives of human beings.
Be Kind Project
During her stint with government schools, she was the torchbearer for the concept of kindness. She initiated a program called the Be Kind Project in government schools. Children would do random acts of kindness for 30 days and document it in a book. By the end, they would be given certificates. During that month, the school noted that the children showed more respect to their teachers and even changed how they settled their disputes.
Reshma then did some soul-searching in the year 2017 by going on solo trips. Once refreshed, in 2018, she decided to initiate the Self-Care program, a consultation featuring one-on-one counseling and interaction. Reshma Kurup takes her clients through a month-long process of self-care, full of activities and introspection.
The program has many dimensions, and the endpoint was to bring out the authentic self of her clients. She remarks that while her clients are majorly women trying to straighten out their thought processes, Ego and the Masculinity of Men probably stops them from taking up the program.
During the Covid pandemic times in 2020, through Youtube, Reshma got introduced to Vedic Astrology. She felt this huge connection to Astrology. She is learning it now and firmly believes that everyone must know the basics of astrology. It will help them understand themselves like no other tool in the world. It was a new addition to her diverse portfolio of undertakings.
Reshma Kurup also has a social media work on igniting inner creativity among adults. She remarks that creativity is a virtue that people should not lose sight of. One of the tools she uses to help people know their Creative side is through the Art of Doodling. in 2018, she self-published her first Doodling and Colouring book. And this January 2021, she has released her second Doodling and Colouring Book.
Reshma Kurup says the secret to her success is that she is constantly working on herself. She does not preach anything that she doesn’t practice herself. She is currently very active on social media after having developed her storytelling skill. Storytelling is her passion, and social media is her platform. She undertook consultation and assisted a few clients in starting their social media page, which helped them put their work out in the world. She also loves to listen to the stories of people and has done more than 40 interviews available on her Facebook pages.
Self-awareness, self-care, self-discipline, sincerity, and self-respect are the Foundation of her Life. Life has never been an easy ride for her. Yet, she wishes to walk the Path Less Travelled always and inspire others to do so and help others live their most authentic self. She is honest to themselves and nobody else to Celebrate their presence.
To be Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Spiritually, and Socially Healthy. No money, Fame or Job, or Person can give you that but yourself. Invest in YOURSELF.
Today she is no more part of the structured Spiritual path. Her Life is her Master. Every single action of hers from morning till night is her Sadhana and the people she connects are her tribe and her Satsang.
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