Founder’s Why
Founded by Vandana Gadia, an IT consultant with over 20 years of experience in the industry, Vandana started The Inspired Indian to fulfill her lifelong dream of building a venture that celebrates purpose-driven success
The imbibed connection
The quest to lead a meaningful life — fun-filled, joyful, happy, successful and fulfilling, invariably leads us to our cultural roots.
Living abroad exposes us to a wide range of cultures and helps us look at our own with a whole new lens. We explore, celebrate, propagate our Indianness in a way we have never done back home. At one end we are filled with pride and fondness for everything that’s great and good about India, white at the other, we loathe, cringe and sometimes, deeply care for the not-so-good aspects of India.
The Inspired Indian celebrates while it cares — meaning we celebrate the success of purpose-driven change-makers, and give back to those who need care. We showcase success of the do-gooders of the Indian Diaspora in North America with a clear purpose of inspiring other fellow Indians. We hope to inspire not only to achieve success, but to create impact, to be leaders of long-lasting, sustainable, well-visioned change that makes this world a better place . In other words, our hope is to Inspire for Impact.
We do this by bringing together Indians at events that are high energy, celebratory , beautifully designed and most importantly, inspiring. A part of the proceeds of each event is donated for a cause in India. And this is why we call our venture a social enterprise, a for-profit initiative that generates profits while curating social change
Why celebrate the success of Indians?
Any success is inspiring, but we often catch ourselves paying extra attention to the success of our fellow beings. When an Indira Nooyi or a Satya Nadela makes headlines, we cannot help but experience the old fashioned twinge of national pride. Their success tells us that we have a lot to give to the world because knowingly or unknowingly, we bring something about the Indianness ingrained in us to the table.
It is also a tad easier to believe in ourselves and what we can achieve if someone with similar roots as ours has “been there and done that”. There seems to be an extra layer of meaning and inspiration associated with celebrating the success of our own kind.
A closer look at what we celebrate
To say we have a rich culture and tradition is truism. What fascinates us is the extent to which this treasure house of ancient Indian wisdom is now a part of the huge repertoire of knowledge available in the self development, coaching, psychology, therapy and counselling fields.
Our ancestors were thought leaders who delved deep into understanding the meaning of life. They preserved their contemplation and deep pondering in the form of our scriptures. It’s fascinating to go on a journey to understand the treasure we have and discover that the knowledge that neuro scientists are gaining today from scans and sensors was already acquired by our ancestors through the sheer power of heightened self-awareness and intuition.
Being Indian to us, then, is truly about reconnecting with that vast repertoire of knowledge, not in the look how-great-we-were sense but as a curious seeker of knowledge and wisdom, putting on the hat of an explorer and connecting it all to the quest of leading a meaningful life in the modern times.
We often ask ourselves. What part of this knowledge appeals to the many successful people in our community? What is it about this culture that we bring to the table in our careers ? What should we retain? And most importantly, what is it that we should perhaps look at a bit critically?
Staying connected with the evolving culture
And this takes us on a journey to also stay connected with the modern India and the evolving culture impacted by the media and the arts — including the all-pervasive Bollywood influence. Whether we like it or hate it, It is where we have let ourselves land. And making sense of it all is also a big part of our journey.
Are we worried about the parts of the culture that are “deteriorating”? Heck yes! As explorers of the rich wisdom of our scriptures, we are also harbingers of change — we retain the beautiful and invaluable and propagate the positive without a focus on denouncing the negative.Once we uplift the positive, we firmly believe, the negative will not have room to stay.
Giving back is key
And while we are uplifting the positive, we do not lose sight of the many problems and issues that plague India. We feel that we owe something to the motherland that gave us the resources and wherewithal to succeed in a land away from our birth places. There is a lot in India that needs to be set right. There are a lot of people reeling under poverty and illiteracy that could use a little help and support. And we at The Inspired Indian are deeply committed to offering that support. It is this aspect that makes us true social entrepreneurs.