Hi! I’m Ranjana.😃 Thanks for stopping by!
I’m from Bangalore, India and I have an abiding love for the city, its people, and South Indian food. I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and I learnt the art form for over 20 years. Learning an art form for as long as I did starting at age five shaped some qualities that I think are the cornerstones of who I am such as intentional work, empathy, and self-expression. I’ve been a vegan for nearly a decade now and it’s an important part of my identity. It has helped me become more connected and compassionate towards the planet and everything in it.
I have a background in pure sciences and management. I loved studying Physics and Mathematics in my undergrad. MBA was a whole other story – a part of me still laments all that wasted time. I learnt way more about business by actually starting businesses. From age 24 to 30, I worked mostly in sales, always in startups. Along the way, I co-founded a sales tech startup, a roller coaster of a ride that I will always cherish. My professional journey helped my introverted, timid self become more extroverted, confident, and resourceful. Post age 30, I’ve been a writer, book designer, and publisher. It’s been fun to learn a whole new skillset and give expression to the book lover in me.
For as long as I can remember, I have been into personal growth. In my teens, my mother introduced me to the works of Norman Vincent Peale, Dale Carnegie, Steve Pavlina, and others and that got me started on the journey. The way I choose to dive into personal growth changes with the season of life I’m in but it’s kinda cool to see how thread of personal development has been a constant throughout my life. There’s something about changing for the better and learning to handle challenges with a better toolkit that makes life more meaningful and fun.
My social circle is my proudest accomplishment yet. I’ve painstakingly curated it and I truly feel supported, loved, seen, and inspired by it. My friends are both my biggest cheerleaders and role models. They mean the world to me and I don’t take any of them for granted. I love nurturing these relationships and give myself a 10/10 in this department of life.
I’ve had a life-long struggle with my mental health. There’s a genetic component to this from my dad’s side of the family. My own struggle has been the most with anxiety. So now I make my mental health and well-being my top priority. Nothing else truly matters because when my internal world is okay, I show up as a better and a more useful version of myself in the external world. I go to therapy, I read books, I meditate, I walk, I take medicines or supplements as prescribed, I maintain a good sleep routine – all in service of my mental health. It’s so worth it.
There’s a woo-woo side to me. I have my spiritual beliefs. I believe in a higher power. Why? Simply put, it helps me lead a better, more meaningful life. I used to find it hard to reconcile my spiritual beliefs with the more scientific side to me. Over time, that has shifted. If light can be both waves and particles, I can certainly understand and love science and have my own spiritual beliefs.
I love travelling. I discovered the joys of travelling in my late 20s and it rocked my world. I love spending extended periods of time in various countries and soaking it all up. I love talking to people from backgrounds and cultures very different to mine. In fact, my social circle is an eclectic mix of people from across the world and I love it. So far, I’ve travelled to 19 countries. I’m starting to feel like a citizen of the world.
I love reading books – both fiction and non-fiction. I don’t watch much Netflix but I read a lot. There’s nothing better than burying my nose in a good book and disappearing for hours on end. While I love personal development (non-fiction) books, I think I’ve grown and learned just as much from fiction books. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without The Magic Faraway Tree, Malory Towers, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, The Golden Compass, The Alchemist, Brida, The Kite Runner, Dune, The Stormlight Archive, The Name of the Wind, The Day of the Jackal…I can go on forever.
More about me:
I have deep control aversion. It actually creates physical distress in me when I feel like I’m being controlled or (god forbid) oppressed in some way. I rebel against authority and seek autonomy in every area of my life. I stay away from hierarchical structures that are meant to create a sense of subservience. By extension, I’m a feminist.
I love having deep conversations. It energises me. I am empathetic, find people and their stories fascinating, and am innately driven to go deeper than the surface-level when interacting with others. The social circle I’ve created presents plenty of opportunity for this.
I love solitude. I love my own company. I love time alone in reflection. I love a sense of spaciousness in my days. I love long walks especially in nature. They are meditative. They fuel me and connect me to the greater whole.
I think a lot about my core values and my actions are driven by them. While I love achievement, that cannot come at the expense of my values.
I like understanding myself through personality tests. While they don’t present a comprehensive and 100% accurate picture of a person, they can still be quite useful in shedding light on various traits and tendencies. With that said:
- my MBTI type is ENFJ
- my Enneagram type is a mix of Type 2 and Type 7
- my top 5 ClifonStrengths themes are Empathy, Responsibility, Futuristic, Developer, and Restorative.
If you’ve read through this (long) soliloquy, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to say hi.