You Can Become Anything You Want, They Said!

By Anandini Valluri

You can Become Anything You want , they Said ! is a strikingly inspiring tale that provides the reader with abundant joy , balance and the power of understanding our deep inner voices. It tells the extraordinary story of Vidhi.Sharma , a travel writer ,whose life was trapped between the expectations of the world and forcefully imitating the crowd . Confusion is the beginning of thinking. Restlessness is the search for answers to your confusion. Frustration is the beginning of implementation of the rough plan that undergoes massive editing in the mind.

On a life changing decision that she decides to take ,at a point , when the world declared her to be a failure makes this ordinary lost engineer to one of the most sought after speakers at the University of Auckland.

The story unveils the fact that Everything has an expiry date, be it even taking wrong career choices and each of us has the genius within us that visits once in a while to tap our true self

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Aug 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482837254

Anandini Valluri

ANANDINI VALLURI : Writer by heart and an engineer by accident! Devoted to the mission of “liberated existence” . Author of “Celebrating Life” and a post graduate student (Communication systemsEngineering ) .

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Anandini Valluri.

ISBN:         Softcover            978-1-4828-3726-1

                   eBook                 978-1-4828-3725-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Partridge India

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www.partridgepublishing.com/india

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Anandini. Valluri (Author’s Note)

Chapter 1 This Morning

Chapter 2 The Beginnings

Chapter 3 The Best Gift Ever

Chapter 4 The Shift

Chapter 5 Another Transfer

Chapter 6 The journey

Chapter 7 Back to Hyderabad

Chapter 8 It all started here

Chapter 9 The IIT bug

Chapter 10 Travelling was my savior

Chapter 11 Parents joining the fun!

Chapter 12 What was I Searching for?

Chapter 13 Take it as it comes!

Chapter 14 I needed to know

Chapter 15 Destiny decides most of it

Chapter 16 Welcome

Chapter 17 Everyday Lessons!

Chapter 18 A new world

Chapter 19 Twists and Turns

Chapter 20 Reality check

Chapter 21 Degree Drama

Chapter 22 Weekends

Chapter 23 Back into Time

Chapter 24 The opening of a new chapter

Chapter 25 The milestone

Chapter 26 University of Auckland

What is joy without sorrow? What is success without failure? What is a win without a loss? What is health without illness? You have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other. There is always going to be suffering. It’s how you look at your suffering, how you deal with it, that will define you.

These were the simplest, yet greatest words of Mark Twain that lived in my heart when I first read it and made me draw a parallelism with the life of a girl whom I came across leading a life which is quite different in this modern century.

It is a warm Sunday afternoon today, February 9th of 2014 sitting in my cabin beside the window and penning down a story for the first time ever since the release of my first book Celebrating Life.

The success and confidence this book has given me is beyond words and I can only credit it to my dear readers. What took me three years of struggle to pen down every sprouting feeling in my book had got its highest appreciations in a matter of 3 hours. Those three hours may have looked glorious, defined me as a genius and many more heart filling words from my well wishers but the journey to bring it out and present it to all of you, always remains dearest to my heart.

I cannot just conclude it as my first book as an author but it was my voice, the anger and the years of humiliation that I went through in a world filled with critics and confusions.

As I already said When you want something really bad in your life the entire universe stands by you and it is for us to play the game and heart fully win every desires and dreams we have constructed over the years. Running on these lines here I am on this beautiful Sunday afternoon to pen down an experience with a very fascinating human being in whom I could relate my life’s experiences and also discovered something new in me in this journey.

Dedication

I f I were to dedicate this book to any one person, it would be an impossible task. As I wouldn’t have penned down this massive piece if I hadn’t reacted to the feelings of comparisons, marks and most importantly the feeling of god dam exams moreover if it wasn’t for my neighboring aunties, relatives and the the judgmental attitude that has been deep rooted in our society, I don’t think I would ever be able to find myself writing this piece of work.

Most importantly, I dedicate this book to the divine energy that was instilled in me to never lose my consistency and interest over this creative piece of work, if it wasn’t for that I do not think I would ever discover a subject like this to ponder upon.

Though writing this piece of work had been a challenging journey emotionally and mentally, I wouldn’t have been able to successfully complete it without two of my best friends support.

I am a very uncomfortable person to be with when it comes to facing my deep emotions and understanding relationship, yet if I were to conclude, I whole –heartedly dedicate this book to all the MOTHERS in the world, who are the most impossible subjects to pen down in words.

Acknowledgement

I t would be incomplete if I hadn’t acknowledged the support lent to me by my publishers and my agents for publishing my book and marketing it. Also constantly believing in my work and making my dreams come true most of the time. Their smoothness in work and management is admirable for a beginner lik e me.

Also, most importantly I have to whole heartedly acknowledge all my friends who readily agreed to be one of the characters in my book, considering their magnanimous outlook towards life, had inspired me to opt them as one of my most important characters to bring a meaning to the journey of my protagonist Vidhi. Sharma.

If it wasn’t for you people and I do not think this story would every find a destination or a profound inner meaning to it.

Thank you once again, for always having the belief in me and never giving up on me.

Anandini. Valluri

(Author’s Note)

T his is not much of an author’s note, what I have printed in this book is my take on what my protagonist goes through in a stereotyped and a chained form of education, that titles her to be a failure. The various people that have been in her life play the game changers to bring her out as the most influential writer’s of t oday.

Chapter 1

This Morning

T he event manager had called to check my availability for the sound testing and my requirements for the e vent.

Here I am in my apartment, a three bedroom pent house in the suburbs of New Zealand, a place that I fell in love with for its constant refueling scenic beauty. As I woke up to the bright sunshine and the overflowing positive energy within me, I could still feel my inner self dragging me on to my yoga mat for my meditation time in the morning. Though I could not manage to do it regularly I was able to successfully reach my target of doing it 5 days a week, being a 25year single woman, life seemed to go smoothly.

As I finished my morning rituals I head to my studio where I noticed my manager Edna had brilliantly placed my outfits for the event tomorrow. It was the release of something very dear to my heart in the University Of Auckland. It was the most awaited moment and I felt a deep sense of responsibility towards this job, as I was being taken as a role model.

I decided to go to the venue. I sat in my car preparing my most awaited speech for tomorrow’s ceremony. It was a long two hours drive along the countryside. As I sat in my car I was just thinking to myself on how creatively can I keep my speech small and interesting, most of all I wanted it to be an empowering event, as this was the release of a book on a very interesting person in my life.

As I was penning down it just made me smile to myself, the one word Choice a small word that had changed my life from becoming an engineer to more than what I prayed for.

The fact is We plan and God laughs.

These were the pleasant thoughts running inside of me. Though my car stopped occasionally at one or two crowded places for signing a few autographs and greeting some of the people who adored me for my work and me as a person. I enjoyed this kind of love showered on to me on a regular basis.

I was living my Dream of Happiness at that very moment. These were the perks of me becoming a writer, though I don’t stamp myself successful, as I feel there is more to these layers of life I have chosen.

There were lot of hands into the making of what I am living today but then my happiest realization was When opportunity calls you to live an extraordinary life you have no right to decline it. It was a calling that changed the real person within me, who had excuses and regretted at the last hour of my day for having wasted my potential on nothing worthy.

It was a call to shut those cynics’ mouths who echoed their hollow opinions.

That was that one day I can never forget, that helped me shatter my fears!

Today I feel it’s a privilege to just sit back and rewind this one life changing story before I head to this event.

Chapter 2

The Beginnings

I t was on the 4 th of August at 7p.m when my grandmother and father were waiting for their first glance as the first baby of the house was going to arrive. It was filled with anticipation and the questions on whether it was a boy or a girl.

After a lot of rush and waiting for about 4 hours the doctor comes out with a huge grin over his face and says Congratulations Mr. Vishwanath Sharma it is a girl.

Yes! That was my entry, I am Vidhi. Sharma and August 4th was my first day on this planet.

My entry on this planet was something special as I was the only girl in a family filled with an army of boys.

I was born at my maternal grandmother’s house, a town near the coast of Andhra Pradesh, which had a lot of delightful experiences with truckloads of memories at the beach. Life was comparatively easy and felt like living in the moment.

The luxury of eating in restaurants and best hotels may be one aspect of life but nothing beats the amazing summers on the terrace where the mangos were dried for making the staple and delicious Avakai (mango pickle) which was treasured for an entire year, in my perception I consider it to be a total art to make a pickle whose popularity never vanished. The best way to be eaten is by mixing the fresh made Avakai in hot boiled rice with a proper spoon full of ghee and mix it properly before eating, it’s a dish only the people of Andhra can connect with. The craft of making it is very fascinating right from choosing the proper mangoes, the chilli powder, the quality of salt and oil, and every bit of it is a skill of its own, only grandmothers rule it.

This was a time where almost every kid in the house would participate in whatever the elders of the house did, unlike these days where kids are glued to their Xbox, PSP’s, game boy’s and