The Global Goals.

Namaste.

I fold my hands in humility before you all because I come from the land of culture, of shastras and Vedas, who believe that they are not above or beneath any individual.

From the land of Snake Charmers, to the land of Mangalyaan, the journey has been incredible – it has taken 70 years for this vibrant nation, with 1.2 billion people to beat back poverty, hunger, unemployment, corruption to propel itself on the path of unprecedented growth. It has been the blood, sweat and toil of the people of this country that has transformed, every burden, every disadvantage into a nation, that has become greater than the sum of its parts.

The world’s governments have formulated a set of Sustainable Development Goals for the period 2016-2030. The SDGs focus on ending extreme poverty, hunger, and preventable disease, and are the most important global development goals in the United Nations’ history. The SDGs are fighting not only against extreme poverty, the challenges of ensuring more equitable development and environmental sustainability, and especially, the key goal of curbing the dangers of human-induced climate change.

So, fellow Indians, can UN goals actually make a difference?

The messageof the SDGs is powerful and encouraging. These 17 goals have become the centrepiece of the development efforts for developing countries, like India,all around the world. So, yes, they really make a difference.They bring forth a path for marked progress and help galvanize a global efforton poverty reduction, disease control, and increased access to schooling and infrastructure everywhere.

These goals are important for many reasons. First, they are essential for social mobilization. The world needs to be oriented in one direction to help achieve sustainable development. The global goals help individuals, organizations, and governments worldwide to agree on the direction – essentially, to focus on what really matters for our future. Secondly, the goals make our political leaders accountable as they areconstantly questioned on the steps they were taking to realise the goals. Finally, the goals matter because they help create a network of expertise, knowledge, and practice into action around sustainable-development challenges.

A strong beginning has been made, a promising future awaits us. It is ‘We the People’ who make India strong and resilient for the future. We walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together and together we take this country forward. Give us a place where we can stand – and we shall move the world. So, fellow Indians, it is our duty, to continue to realise the Sustainable Development Goals and put India on the map for being a nation that shall continue to charter a sustainable future.

An Ode to Travel

Those endless beach fantasies.

All my fantasies begin the same way; my messy, unkempt hair has been coloured by the sun, my skin is slightly burnt, marked by multiple tan lines and my toes are digging into the hot sand as I make my way across the beach. What can I say? I’ve always felt like I belong at sea.

The gorgeous Amalfi Coast in Italy.

I spend so much of my time imagining that I am anywhere but here.

There are days I am sat atop a camel crossing the Great Pyramids under the scorching sun, there are days I am in Italy licking the sticky Gelato off my fingers as it runs down the ice-cream cone, there are days I am in a Buddhist monastery at Sri-Lanka searching for a version of myself that I can finally be at peace with. I simply cannot count the number of times I have woken up at 3 AM from a dream in some exotic destination only to realise I have College in a few hours, and that I probably shouldn’t fall asleep after binge watching shows on Fox Traveller.

This Summer however, I have decided to become a girl who travel.

Travelling is an education that we all should attempt at some point in our lives; it might not come with a Master’s Degree, but it sure does open our eyes. I’ve spent my whole life convinced that the world was an intimidating place, where travelling was reserved for the people who could pay, both the cash and the risk of taking that call. However, in the past few months that I have worked at AIESEC, I have been privileged enough to meet people, brave people who have seen the world beyond, people with interesting stories, people with so much enthusiasm to foster change, people with a purpose.

They aren’t extraordinary people endowed with a special ‘travelling gene’, they’re College students like me! They’re ordinary people making extraordinary choices because they refuse to settle within their comfort zone.

So, now I have to travel, once, a least once while I am young to learn what it means to be free. I think to teach English in Italy, or to foster Sustainable Development programmes in Sri Lanka for a few weeks will teach me more than 3 years of graduation ever will. I want to make new friends, I want to find unexplored corners and more importantly, this summer, I want to find myself. I want to find a version of me that is more involved in global issues, more aware of the UN Sustainable Goals, and mostly become someone who cares enough to make a difference.

I want to be extraordinary too.

So, join me and let’s find our calling together dear readers.

Let us find a story, an experience, a version of ourselves that isn’t anchored to our beds at home, but sailing across the ocean wide. Let us become, dear readers, brave new explorers of a world unexplored, let us charter a new course for the ships of our lives.

I’m traveling this summer, I want my fantasies to see the light of reality. I hope I’ll find you there too, at the place where dreams manifest themselves into a map, a bag pack and the will to be more.