Sometimes the life that you’re living,
is a dream for many!

The Philosophy first

Above is a thought provoking quote which instantly makes us look at our own life in comparison with others and makes us realize the number of facts, achievements, opportunities, experiences and incidents that happened with our life but we are not aware about it at the moment, we’re not paying attention to some of the best things that happened with us which we had not thought of otherwise or dreamt of and which for many is still a dream and for whom these things are still in their life as “Once I achieve it, I will become happier than ever before”. But you, with whom these things have already occurred, you who are among not many but a selected few who were chosen to have those opportunities which is a dream for many, but you’re not at all paying attention to it but cunningly focusing on the things that are there in your bucket list and hence instead of feeling gratitude, satisfaction, love and joyfulness for the good things that happened with you, which are not so common to happen with everyone and instead you find a reason to be unhappy by looking at the things that are still making you chase them and most of the time when you feel like you have reached almost there, the next moment you find that it was just an illusion of yours and in real they are hard to achieve which seem very easy in imaginations.

And instead of following the ultimate purpose of life which is to be happy, we tend to find all those reasons which are more than enough to diminish our earned happiness by replacing and covering it totally with unreal and illusive thoughts, goals and dreams which bring sadness, frustration, anger and ultimately unhappiness.

Hence today, I feel like having a recap of awesome things and experiences that happened to me for which I should feel not only proud but extremely happy as well and such things that were bestowed upon me which can be a dream for many.

The first such awesome thing that happened to me

….. is this award winning Blog SpeakBindas.com.

What’s so awesome about this blog that it brought experiences in my life for which I should really feel happy?

• First and foremost thing it brought me is the opportunity to be able to meet and know many a people from different walks of life, be it a celebrity or otherwise. Regardless of their social status, there was one thing in common in all of them, they were interesting in some or the other way. It’s due to SpeakBindas.com only that opened up the gates to reach easily to destinations where otherwise to reach would require much more effort. If it wasn’t the platform of SpeakBindas.com, forget about meeting and spending great time with people, even approaching them and getting replies could had been tough.

I know that it may be a dream for many to meet their favorite celebrities, spend good time with, get acquainted to, take photographs with but they sometimes fail to achieve it in an easy way. A tone of requests may be required which was not the case with me. As I was and am SpeakBindas, otherwise who would give a damn about me, right?

Me with different people I interviewed

Over the period of time, I have received comments from people that how lucky I’m to have met and interview so many people! This tells me that somewhere deep down they too wish to be me! And let me tell you that my photographs with celebrities and all other interesting people I have met during the interview have played a vital role in making people comment that way. And not to forget videos of interviews too have made an impact in people’s minds.

• You don’t receive a Limca Book Award just because you are kind-hearted or helpful in nature, right? More than 200 interviews (which now are more than 300) became a reason for Limca Book of Awards to register my name in it. I know that not everyone gets it just like that. It either requires exceptional talent, awesome work or unique work to get it, which I did. Shouldn’t I feel happy about it? I’m asking myself this question. Answer comes like ‘I should for sure’. And not just once but twice I’ve won Limca Book of Award.

Limca Book Award

• SpeakBindas Publications: It is a brain child of SpeakBindas.com. Idea of writing books and publishing them and earn money too came as a next step of blog. Through books I could even further reach to people who are not internet savvy. Having published six books before the age of 30 is an achievement, isn’t it? It may be a dream for many writers which has become reality for me. I should feel happy for it. Shouldn’t I?

Books by Devang Vibhakar

Foreign visits to Scotland, England & Germany

And I was selected for all these international trips!, meaning I did not have to pay for them. Now just imagine that who wouldn’t like to visit other countries that to duly invited? Don’t tell me that when you see someone’s photos of foreign trip you don’t feel like visiting other countries yourself! You do, I do, almost we all feel the same way, mostly when we know that we don’t have enough money to fulfill that dream! That’s why it’s a dream.

As a child even I had a dream to visit the world. A portion of that dream got fulfilled through two of my international trips.

Visit to Scotland and England in 2012

In Scotland

Rotary International has this vocational & cultural exchange program called ‘Group Study Exchange’ under which they send a team of four people, each from different vocation, to another country (in a particular Rotary International District of that country), for a period of four weeks, i.e. 30 days, to know and experience how their profession in native country is practiced abroad. All the expenses are paid by Rotary. When I say ALL, I really mean all, including international airfare, transportation, accommodation & food. All you have to do is get selected in this team of four participants for which more than 30-60 participants are competing!! I had failed to get selected in GSE in the year 2011, but succeeded in 2012 and was selected for Scotland (I got selected as a writer and book publisher and my work of SpeakBindas.com).

I spent there 30 extraordinary days in the scenic Scotland. It was a red-carpet vocational and cultural exchange trip! Every single day I felt like king of kings. I mean why would someone be giving such a grand experience to me?! Who am I after all? I used to have such thoughts in the first week and was feeling surprised and happy together. But it wasn’t a dream but a reality that I cherished for all thirty days. I gave presentations to Scottish friends(members of Rotary Clubs in Scotland, RID 1230), enjoyed visits to awesome places (Glasgow, Edinburgh), grandiose cultural evenings and met prominent writers & publishers, stayed in palace like homes. Money can’t buy such an experience.

Just imagine that you enjoy for such thirty days and not just enjoy but experience and learn about a new culture and all that come with respect and friendship. Money isn’t primary here. (yeah, I seem so much obsessed with money, I know!). That feeling is indeed heavenly. No matter how many times I have expressed my gratitude and thankfulness to Rotary, I always feel that it’s not enough, it’s not enough.

Now tell me that shouldn’t I feel happy about this once in a life time trip instead of being bothered for things that I’m still chasing? What am I chasing now? You will find it as you read on!

Visit to London and Bath

In London

After spending thirty days in ninth cloud, I mean Scotland, I went to London. It was a pleasure trip, a personal trip, an extended UK trip apart from G.S.E. But there as well I remained blessed! I was to spend there a weak. I wanted to see London, all of it. And I was invited to stay at a friend’s place who knew me for my work of SpeakBindas.com!(See, it’s everywhere!). He came to receive me at railway station and I happily stayed at his place for 3-4 days and saw most of London. Then I went to stay with my cousin for rest of 3-4 days and saw not only more of London but the beautiful city of BATH as well. I traveled most of London on my own as public transport is great there and I saw all that there was to see including British Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Buckingham Palace, London Eye, Madame Tussauds Museum, London Bridge, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, ISKCON temple, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and many other famous and infamous places of London.

Don’t you think that I should feel awesome happy to have spent such a great time in London?

Visit to Germany – Frankfurt, Mainz

In Germany

This was in the year 2013 when I was selected as a part of a volunteer group of AFS India for Volunteer Exchange program to Germany for two weeks. Again, a selection! Please don’t envy me for this! Even I had not expected it. It came as an organic return of hardwork that I had done happily as a volunteer. Two weeks in Germany was altogether a different kind of feeling than I had felt in Scotland. This was my second visit to Europe so excitement of international trip was obviously not as much as it was when visiting Scotland in 2012 but experience was indeed different. Staying with German families, visiting schools, meeting AFS Germany volunteers, enjoying leisure trips were some of the memorable experiences. It was totally a cultural exchange program where I discussed and shared about Indian culture and in return learnt and experienced a bit of German culture.

They say that you never remain the same after you visit another country. So true it is!

Recognition, Identity – SpeakBindas

Mark me if I am wrong but we all are looking to create our own unique identity so that we get visible even in the crowd. Other than our initials, we do look for something which we can cling to represent ourself differently, something that provides us with recognition, something that we can use to introduce ourself proudly, Something that others introduce us with proud.

For me SpeakBindas has become such an identity. I get recognized because of my work of SpeakBindas.com and all that including Limca Award Winner, author of Books, been to abroad twice etc.

Shouldn’t I feel happy for this unique identity?

Media Appearances

In 1996-97, I had come from a small village to Rajkot, a city of population of a million then. Despite that, I had secured 1^st rank in entire class of sixty students in both the exams of year. I also had won 1^st prize on Teachers’ Day then. And still I was not in news! Just kidding.

But after SpeakBindas.com, I have been in several media number of times. News can be about my selection in G.S.E., winning Limca Book of Award, making a short-film, release program of my books, about Documentaries that I made etc.

Do not we get excited finding our photo or mention of our name in Media? We do, right? And as I have a big file of my media coverages, shouldn’t I feel about happy about it?

What is my dream now?

Despite these achievements by the age of 30, what is still there which keeps me chasing and making me feel not so happy? What is it that is a dream for me which others are living in real?

It’s MONEY honey. That’s my dream as of now.

I have realized the fact that despite what I love the best which is to keep meeting new people, interview them and share their stories on SpeakBindas.com with many like minded people, I won’t be able to earn through SpeakBindas.com. And moreover I’m living in the culture where creativity or work that influences society, is not appreciated monetary as there are other things at stake first such as poverty, illiteracy etc.

I had this bizarre thought once that SpeakBindas.com is crowd-funded with one crore rupees(approx $166666) by like minded people who believe in the cause of SpeakBindas.com and supported me once and for all so that I can continue doing what I love the most and what has helped others as well, and what others do enjoy (There are thousands of comments on various interviews and articles on SpeakBindas.com as a proof enough to say that work of SpeakBindas.com is cherished by many world-wide). But this is like a dream for me. This is indeed a bizarre and unreal thought, isn’t it? Or not? Or should I setup a crowd-funding campaign so that people can contribute and support work of SpeakBindas.com?

I think, this is a very dreamy thought. Mark me if I’m wrong. I’m all ears to listen to you then!