Hello everyone! Welcome to the series, Impact Stories with The Peace Stories Initiative, where I bring to you inspirational figures from across the world, people who work with a purpose and their stories impact us to script our stories and carve our names in this world.

Today our guest is Surabhi B Das, a Single Mother, an Educator and Author. Surabhi’s story inspires us to build our own paths without expecting a hand to hold. Moreover, in this insightful conversation, Surabhi also shares some life lessons that she learned in the tough way but she wanted to share her experiences with us so we can also learn from them.

Let’s impact the world with stories, because stories inspire, stories empower.

1. Hello Surabhi! Please tell us something about you.

 A. HI! I am Surabhi B. Das from the sprawling city “Guwahati” which is beside the beautiful Brahmaputra River in the northeast Indian state of Assam.

I am a former Educationist, Home Baker, Author, YouTuber, Parenting coach, founder of parentingwings.com, and connected with an Early Child NGO. Earlier, cooking and writing were my passions and I have written since my school days.

I love to explore new places and spend time with my daughter. I had worked in the IT sector and after marriage, I shifted my job sector because it was not possible for me to work from 10 am to 7 p.m. and my in-laws were very conservative and against their daughter-in-law to go outside and they didn’t want that their daughter in law continue her previous job schedule from 10 am -7 p.m. So I decided to shift my job sector and I established myself in the field of education.

I think this is women’s empowerment is one of the most important factors for prosperity. Now I have completed my blogging journey of almost 5 years and I am very satisfied with my job which has turned my passion into a career.

2. Is there any memorable story from your life that you would like to share with the world? It might be a story where you have learned a precious lesson in life. You can share any kind of story that brings positivity all over. 

A. There are many remarkable stories in my life but it was a special remarkable story from my college life, which taught me a lesson and deep impression on my life.

There was a day when I was a student in B.Sc (Botany) 2nd year and in the middle of the year, all the students were busy collecting ferns to prepare herbarium sheets. Our educational excursion was near in the middle of the year and all the students were very excited about that exam. A few days before the excursion, the professor announced that now there is no need to collect ferns because whenever we go on an excursion, we will find a lot of ferns there and this excursion is mandatory for all B.Sc 2^nd-year students.

But I was the only sad student that day because my father didn’t allow me to go on an educational tour. So I asked my friend and requested her to collect extra ferns for me. After all, at that time also I had my herbarium sheets; there were not enough ferns to collect.

After requesting, a friend of mine agreed to my request and told me not to worry I will bring you extra ferns. But when they came back after a day, all the students got busy preparing their sheets and at that moment I asked my friends for ferns, but all refused to give me and one of my friends asked for charged 50/- per ferns.

Again, she refused to give it to me, and then I understood that he did not want to give it to me and finally made up my mind to collect as many ferns from my local areas as possible and at that point, I promised to collect the whole number of ferns for myself.

There is no doubt that at that time I was struggling a lot and could even go to some dirty place where I didn’t want to go in any way but the only thought in my mind was going on somehow I had to collect everything by myself. Finally, I did it.

That’s why, I want to say that if possible then do everything by yourself because this incident taught me that nothing is impossible for you. There is nothing in this world that you can’t do. Just make up your mind and go ahead with what you need to grow.

Sometimes we want a lot without any struggle or we expect someone to come and help us, but it is wrong. As human beings, we need someday for any kind of help but keep in mind that first work hard and be honest with yourself about any kind of work, it may be your studies, whatever your achievements may be, and wait and see how it becomes possible for you.

3. Please share your love for writing. How do you feel inspired by your everyday life to write more? 

A. Writing!  It is my favorite word. When I start to write on paper it is like magic for me and writing reduces my upset and brings more energy to my mind. Still, I follow the old version for writing and I write first on paper and then after I transfer my writing on the laptop. Writing on paper, it’s a different feeling, which I don’t get on my laptop keypad. But now something is different and a lot has changed. In the old writing system, the earlier paper was everything and now it has completely changed.

When I look back at my ten-year job career I think yes, it’s been a while since to caught my sanity, but it’s not too late everything I have achieved over the past two years and I am satisfied and happy with that, because if I continue with my previous educational job, I may not get the satisfaction that has got in the last two years.

4. What is peace for you? What gives you peace?

A. Peace for me is the art of being calm.

If I talk about peace, I think it is not the absence of chaos and problems, but the art of remaining calm, focused, and united even in the midst of them.

If I say one word about my peace then it is “writing”.

5. Would you like to share your healing story with us? That would be an honor for us. You can share how your soul heals and how you find peace.

A. I don’t have a too-long story about my healing but I want to say it when I think back to my last two years’ sweet and sour blogging journey, it’s amazing and like healing my all pains and dreams come true.

6. One beautiful realization about life that you want to share with us. 

A. I think there is no single person who loves every move of one person. So the same thing has happened to me many times.

Sometimes some people don’t like some of my activities and they try their best to harm me, but unfortunately, it always becomes a better opportunity for me.

I have realized this fact many times in my life. Now, I firmly believe that there is no need to get bothered with these kinds of things. I know I am always on the right way and never try to go the wrong way. There’ is one beautiful theory that I follow in my life.

If I do well with others and give them my goodness, then someday for sure, they will return to me with all the goodness of life.

7. Tell us about something that you feel like your personal winning moment or your achievement in life.

A. Right now I am on my track and now I follow my intuition where I should have been ten years ago, and in the end, I escaped my puzzle path and it’s no less than winning for me. because C.S Lewis said- you are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

8. If you are told to write a letter to your younger self, what would be that one thing you would love to tell her? 

A. The child is always like a flower and also a very pure and clean sheet mind. That’s why I want to say in very simple words to them: Try to do your work on yourself and always be self-reliant.

A message from Surabhi to the world:

I want to say that all women should know their strengths, become strong, inspire other women, and help them to become stronger to fight any obstacles in their lives.

Surabhi B Das

10. What are you grateful for in life? Or, name the person or the people you are grateful for in life. We will add your gratitude notes to our Big Gratitude Jar, where we collect all the beautiful things we are grateful for in life.

A. I am always grateful for all my hard times. Because life always gives a different way of teaching us different valuable lessons. sometimes we learn it easily and sometimes we have to go through a lot of pain to learn that lesson. Time always taught me a new lesson and helped me to take one more step towards my goal.

(Thank You, Surabhi, for your contribution to The Peace Stories Initiative with your Impact Story. We wish you more power to your future endeavors. May you continue inspiring, empowering, and impacting more people to shine with their own light. Gratitude.)

(As received the response from Surabhi B Das and edited by Swarnali Nath.)