My first reason for teaching ‘Leadership and Selfhood through Creative Writing’ is that I have had the best teachers in my life. They are generous. Wise and witty. They are healers. And I am a dedicated learner. I am a deep listener. Sometimes I feel like a there is a robot in my brain that is constantly mapping and organizing everything about people I meet - visual, verbal, unspoken.
My teachers have been professional gurus. Therapists, coaches, facilitators. I have met them in workshops and therapeutic spaces, I have assisted them and I have absorbed their wisdom and tools.
My teachers inspired me to go out and teach. They offered me permissions. You are important. You are enough. You are made of stardust, you are precious. I believe them.
The second reason that prepares me for this is my students. I have learnt everything I know about teaching from those I have taught. From everyone who attends my workshops. From them I learn the power of trust. Trusting yourself to open up in a new space, among others who were strangers till you came together in a cohort. Trusting the process, however unstructured and unpredictable it may be. Trusting the facilitators - letting their words, their expressions liberate oneself from hidden fears and shame that isolates us and stifles our voice.
Now, about the course itself. Why am I teaching “leadership and selfhood”? My entire quest in life has been to seek wholeness. To put back the scattered pieces of me into the jigsaw puzzle of the self and admire the view. To integrate the various roles we play as adults. After all, their energy stems from the same source within us.
This is a deeply felt personal need. It is also a universal need. We want to thrive. Not just survive. Efficiency is a great virtue, yet we need something more to feel fulfilled. We need connection. Connection to the self, first. That’s where the wisdom and tools to connect to others are honed. This is an essential ingredient of leadership.
Here’s where creative writing comes in. We need access to our stories to rediscover where our power and wisdom lies. Words are the ladder we throw into the deep recesses of our consciousness where abandoned stories lie. Words are the kite string that sways with the breeze and soars towards the sky, both grounding us and setting us free.
We are all made up of stories. Data too, but it is the stories that have been neglected for too long. Why do they matter? Isn’t it self-indulgent to bring the self into everything we do? Who cares what my authentic truth is?
I live with these persistent questions every day. I know the answers. I forget the answers. I pin them down again. I have navigated these nuances in all the work that I do. As a writer, a film-maker, teacher, and workshop facilitator. As a parent. A person.
In the courses I teach and workshops I facilitate, we practice showing up. We listen with radical honesty and acceptance. We collectively build new habits. We surprise ourselves with the uniqueness and quirkiness that emerges from within us. We step more into ourselves.
“But you didn’t teach me the craft,” a participant will sometimes complain, half-jokingly.
“And yet you got better not only at writing but everything else that you do! How did that happen?” I reply in mock-surprise.
I teach Media Studies and Creative Writing at Ashoka University and it was a natural choice to design this course with and for them. It is part of the
program and open to all adults. , the incredibly creative writing coach and poet, will co-facilitate the workshop sessions with me.
Starting from 8th June, over 5 weekends, we will write from our life, from the body, from silence. With specifically designed prompts and writing exercises, we will explore foundational stories from our own lives in a new light, gaining insights into our experiences and strengths.
I have been a coach and mentor in boardrooms and broadcast studios, and I teach at University, but I will say with confidence that it is in spaces like this—safe, intimate, brave—that I’ve witnessed the most meaningful transformation. We won’t know how it happened, but we will recover a sense of humour and playfulness, thaw the stagnant energy within us, celebrate how far one has come, and gather resilience and ambition to go further.
Join us to experience the healing and empowerment that comes from allowing ourselves to write without apology. Discover a community you didn’t know you could belong to.
Share this with others. Write back to me. Let this newsletter be the catalyst for change today.
Course starts from June 8, 2025 | Detailed program schedule is below.
Register Now: https://x.ashoka.edu.in/creative-writing/
To Apply directly, click here.
