I was born into a small and simple family – with a disciplinarian Art director father as my role model and my mother and sister the drama queens, providing amusement and distraction in an otherwise focused and career oriented family set up. In our own humble means, I was always encouraged to pursue my dream of becoming a film maker. While I despised tables, spellings and rote-leaning all through s
chool I found deep joy in observing people around me. Some people are born with an exceptional voice, others with a flair for art I, quirky as it sounds was born with a natural ability to read between lines! Whilst I struggled with reading fluently, I could effortlessly almost magically analyse any hand-writing specimen in front of me and thereby get a 360 degree view of the writer’s personality. It seemed as though words and pictures made conversations with me! Not knowing how to deal with this endowment, I began my quest to find answers. I read almost every book on graphology and finally made better sense of my abilities! This didn’t go down well with my father, who strongly opposed my unconventional choice and in a surreal movie like baritone said “Iss ghar ke darwaaze tumhare liye humesha ke liye bandh ho chuke hai!” (Out you go and don’t ever set your foot again in the house! ) I actually moved out of my house and comfort zone at the coming of age of 18. In spite of never going against my father’s wishes, I faced his wrath and mustered the courage of walking on the road less travelled to make a career in graphology and human sciences only because I believed in myself! I knew I got this one! I started off by analysing handwriting for friends and family at a local coffee shop. I decided to test new waters and approached the 5 Regional Heads of Café Coffee Day. Just one round of studying their handwriting and I got invited to set up shop at the prestigious chain of coffee shops across Mumbai where I could charge Rs.50 per session. Curiosity and intrigue built around me and before I knew I had an interesting client base of students, professionals, businessmen and house-wives! Word of mouth publicity landed me umpteen opportunities to deliver lectures in colleges, management conclaves and industry forums talking about handwriting as a tool to study human behaviour. By the age of 22, I also had my own show on Radio City! However, something was amiss. While on a personal front peoples’ acceptance was tremendous, it was on a corporate level that I struggled to establish myself. Understandably so, how was the HR Manager to believe that with just a passing glance of handwriting, I could know the inside out of all his employees! But as they say “Sabra ka phal meetha hota hai”(The fruit opf patience is always sweet) I got my first corporate break by none other than HR Head of IBM India! It was at one of the HR seminars that I was attending where Mr. Busrai over heard my conversation and asked me to analyse his wife’s and his handwriting. And the rest as they say is history! I came back home with not one but two corporate assignments from IBM and JSW (now ISPAT). I had the attention of more than 200 HR Heads present there and overnight I became a darling of the media. Many mainstream television interviews and and articles in newspapers followed, giving me the much needed recognition! It was also during this time when it dawned to me that my natural gift was not only reading between lines but comprehending and working with human psyche. The coaching program that I had introduced for corporates made me aware that my skill to objectively identify psychological constraints and provide result-oriented corrective measures was as natural as analysing handwriting! It was one of the most liberating moments of my life! Probably, the same feeling that Spiderman got on discovering his powers! During this phase, I worked closely with Indian and international CEOs, CFOs and COOs of large multinationals. My ability to work on complex intellectual constraints and bring desired change was highly respected. I re-designed company logos to create a positive shift and foster multi-fold growth. I was being referred to as a Transitional Expert of Corporate India! While professionally I felt magical with my Midas Touch, on a personal level I felt a void in my life. I wanted to make a bigger difference than what I was doing. So, I decided to take a sabbatical to introspect. During this course I acquired a Yoga Teacher Training certificate, dabbled into theatre and chanced upon Transcendental Meditation. With a fresh outlook I began my journey building an interesting portfolio of possibilities for me. I experimented with assignments, broadened my horizon, out-created myself and delivered the impossible with my talent. While my career reached a new altitude, my personal life took a battering. I lost my father and my husband to divorce in a span of less than 2 months. It was at this vulnerable point in my life when I decided to end my sabbatical and start the work again. When all the options around me turned hostile, I, through tools and techniques (learnt and taught), beckoned my best option – Me! I took various courses, travelled all through Europe and South Africa to learn and delve more and discover a sense of deep joy first hand. I chose to be a certified facilitator of Access Consciousness and a facilitator of the Being You program. I’m one of the very few facilitators in the word to do the Maestro Symphony of possibilities sessions and probably the only to take the Being You program on an all India tour! In all these years, I’ve travelled places, met people, held classes, delivered sessions and used my talent, skill-sets, knowledge and tools to allow people to maximise themselves. The future looks bright, promising and full of possibilities for me. I intend to use my in-born gift of connecting with people, Graphology, Access Consciousness, research in the area of relationship coaching, and Graphotehrapy, in tandem to mobilise that energy in people that allows them to make everything work for themselves! It is such a beautiful feeling, hard to describe; simple shifts in energy that make mountains move! So dear reader, please consider this an invitation to life that you always knew could happen but didn’t know how! This is a completely different toolbox that will help you create a completely different life. The only person who knows if you can benefit from writing to me or calling me is you! Beckoningly yours,
Aditi Surana
