Courage. Resilience. Empathy.

2020 was a year of many unknowns! With the world adapting to new ways of living due to the pandemic, people were locked in their homes for days and weeks and some for months to avoid coming in contact with the virus. 2020 was the year that people showed the courage to stand tall and face the pandemic. It was a year of resilience for people trying to adapt to this new way of life with almost no external help. Many people learnt how to cook, how to clean and how to take care of your own chores without outsourcing it to their maid. It was also a year of empathy - empathy for healthcare workers, doctors, scientists, the labour class and many more who were trying to make the ends meet. Many households continued paying their external help inspite of them not having to work during the lockdown. For me, the year was different and unique. What started off as a really tough year transformed into something life changing due to the time and opportunities at hand.

There were awards and recognitions that poured in, there was loads of time for fitness and healthy eating, there was quality time spent with friends and family and there was time for reflections. The year was the most defining for me because I discovered my values, my purpose and my career drivers to live life with happiness and hope. I also promised myself to live by my values not just for the year but for the times to come after that too.Yes, the values I chose were Courage, Resilience and Empathy and that's how the title of this post was born. There are many people who were instrumental in bringing about this change but here are few moments which were 2020 highlights for me!

1. Receiving the Women in AI Leadership Award by Analytics India Magazine at Rising 2020 was something I least expected. It took me a lot of courage to fill in that application after seeing distinguished winners from the last cohort. But that moment of courage led to great things going forward. Here's a link to the prize distribution event.
2. Being selected by Shenomics for the "Lead Like A Girl" Fellowship program was blissful. I couldn't make it to the cohort last year because of conflicting work priorities but with everything going virtual this year, I experienced this life changing phase through the fellowship. The lessons, the mentor chats and the coaching sessions added layers of maturity in me over time. The Shenomics team, my wisdom circle, my buddy, my mentor, my coach were all strings to this instrument of mine which created some amazing magic through the year. Living my Ikigai by conceptualising, strategising and executing "Prayogshaala" was a moment of pride and gratitude for all the work that I have been doing for the past couple of years.
3. Having received the Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2018 at Google, I mustered courage to apply for the Women in Corporate Awards 2020 by Women's Web. Based on my work and experience, I nominated myself for the Emerging Diversity Champion Award. There was a corner of my heart saying I will win it and it was a moment of happiness when I received the award! The secret to any recognition is to have a promising application stating data and the impact you have created through your work.
4. The month of May was liberating in many ways. I had the opportunity to work with 35 passionate, self driven Women Techmakers Ambassadors to pull together one of the largest virtual women in tech events in India, #IWDIndia reaching 11k views over the 4 days of the event. Working for around 16 hours over three weeks was refreshing with new things to learn right from scaling confirmation emails to writing app scripts to finding creative ways to generate certificates for all attendees. Project managing this event, empathising with the team's commitments towards home and work in addition to community and working with these amazing people from 20+ Indian cities was enriching and presented a great opportunity to grow, learn and share together. Yes, #TogetherWeRise! Here's a Google Keyword blog capturing our learnings and experience with the event.
5. Through the year, I wondered how are all great things coming together in one year. I got an opportunity to give a TEDx talk at IIIT Bangalore. I spoke about what I know most, "Leveraging the power of communities". Speaking at an event hosted by your Alma Mater is always special. But what was more memorable was putting together the script and identifying stories to shine a spotlight on people who have benefited from communities. It was heartening to hear the session while it was launched and I ensured to share the link with family, close friends and well wishers for playing a huge role in all that I am today.
6. With no travel and working from home, I developed a good discipline for fitness and healthy eating. I would bucket this as resilience since it must have taken something to sweat it out once a day instead of staying at the comfort of my blanket with the work from home advantage. With food ordering and restaurants being forbidden for the fear of coming in contact with the virus and with no help to outsource cooking, I began cooking and eating healthy. The year was special in discovering healthy alternatives for eating what I liked. Calorie control and workouts on weekdays was a discipline I followed almost through the year! This was a personal achievement that I am happy about!
7. 2020 was also a year in which I have probably done the maximum talks and workshops ever in my life. With everything moving online and having invested in a good setup at home, it was encouraging and fun to teach and learn through tech and applied skills workshops and talks for colleges, communities and organisations, through participating in IIITB Alumni Council Discussions/Webinars and doing a 2 hour session at IIITB Winter School on Fairness in Machine Learning and above all, working with 90 students over 6 days (10 hours per student) in the last 6 months of the year through Prayogshaala to inspire and up-skill them on tech or otherwise. You can check out the bootcamp testimonials here. I am planning to do more workshops this year, so stay tuned!

There are tons of things I can do better in 2021. I would not like to call them resolutions. I would instead call them inculcating tiny habits to live a more enriching life. I want to work on being able to read more, being able to up skill myself on tech and applied skills and sharing it with my readers on a monthly basis and most importantly, continue my healthy eating and fitness rigour in 2021.

My intent behind writing this article is multi-fold. No, it's not for bragging about my achievements. Through my work and network, I have been exposed to the various opportunities that exist for passionate individuals across all career levels to up skill and learn based on their interests. And this is my way of paying it forward by spreading awareness of many of these opportunities. I am happy to chat with you to know about any of the above mentioned opportunities and how you could apply to them. My hope is to inspire one and all to exhibit courage, stay resilient and practice empathy in all that you do. You can reach out to me through www.lakshyasivaramakrishnan.in for any questions!

Pic Credit: This masterpiece is created by Aananya T on my request as a part of her #100DaysofArt challenge.