Welcome to Kadam - the small steps podcast
where we try to showcase individual
perspectives of recent graduates about
different pathways of life.
I am Arjit Singh and I am Hemansh Bhatia,
and together
we will try to uncover what it means to
have a traditional career.
Thank you to everybody who has been
listening to us and has been giving us
feedback for the past few
episodes. We are listening to all of you
very carefully and hope to produce
even better episodes from now on. For now
we are very excited to bring on our guest
today,
so...let's start the show!
Our guest today started off with english
honors but dropped out mid way to then
pursue her love
for the japanese language. Since pursuing
that she has
not just studied japanese herself but
taught it to others. She also worked in
sales
at a business processing outsourcing
firm where she talks with japanese clients.
She believes to have been happiest when
she broke out of a loop of toxic
patterns
and understood the importance of her
mental health.
she also practices witchcraft, something
we are eager to get into...
but before that let's welcome our guest - Vrinda Batra.
Welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you
for having me.
Yeah, we hope we've given the audience a
little something to stick around because
we believe this is going to be a very
exciting episode. We are very excited
to
to have you on because you know we think
that we're going to be able to prove
or you know just even get a little or
get a step closer to
to proving that a traditional career is
pretty much a hoax.
So I'm going to let Hemansh ask you
the first question and we'll go from
there.
All right, so you know, coming from a
commerce with multimedia and web tech
background - why did you choose to study english
honors?
I honestly have been very bad with
numbers
especially, so i did not really have any
other option that i could get into. BBA and BCOM you know - they're all numbers
accountancy, economy
mathematics, so that's...that's something
I cannot really do.
So i needed a degree of course, so the
only option i was left with was english
honors -
and yes i went for it.
Yes, you wanted a degree but but then you...
then you switched and kind of dropped
out of that.
Could you maybe give us a little bit of
an understanding of what happened there?
Why you chose to not completely go for
it or...or
was there something in your mind where
you were like okay you know...if i do this
it's probably going to get me to a
different path. What was going on?
Okay so right after my school right
after my grade 12,
I was pretty sure that i wanted to do
something related to language.
I had German back in school. I, in fact,
almost filled up a form for german. You
know, as in
to pursue it as my...like a
speciality but i don't know what happened and this
cousin of mine she's always been
studying japanese it's been like 20 plus
years.
So she guided me further for it - she's
like you know indian economy is you know
really getting into japan
and they're sort of having a good
connectivity right now in the japanese
relations.
So like, yeah sure why not, let's give
japanese a try.
So i knew i wanted to get into language
but
i think we all know you know there's
nothing without a degree that you can
actually work someplace, so i needed a
degree.
So just for the sake of it okay i
thought let's do english honors
but i had no idea what the syllabus
exactly was.
So it was all novels and all you know
really old writings which i could not
do - it wasn't my forte. I tried to get
through the first year
but i somehow could not clear all of my
exams. I
went into second year - I failed.
I really, legitimately failed my second
year
so i was really scared you know how my
how is my family going to react?
So i went up to my dad and he was really
pissed. I had to repeat the year
but during like this duration
uh my dad went with me to a japanese uh
firm so the guy there the the person who
handles the company is my dad's friend.
So i spoke to him in japanese and he
really complimented me...
and my dad was really proud you know at
that moment
because what the person said was like i
haven't heard anybody speak japanese
like she's speaking in India.
So i was really happy and that, you know,
sort of made my dad
relaxed. Again, the year i repeated, my
results came out - english honors - I failed again! So
that was a drastic change in my dad's
reaction where he did not
really get mad at me because he knew
that i am focusing on my language
so i decided to drop out of english
honors then because i knew that no
matter how much i keep trying to do it
it won't happen because it's not my
interest
so i've just been focusing on the
language since then
i think that's something that rarely
happens with at least an indian
household
from from what i've heard. i'd not expected
my dad to be so cool!
So that's awesome, that's great!
You know I am, and I think Arjit too, we are
trilingual. We know Hindi, English and
punjabi.
And i know a little bit of german as
well!
So yeah so he knows a bit of german and
you do too so
hindi english german and now japanese
safe to say you're a polyglot so how
hard was it for you adding japanese one
of the hardest languages in the world
to your repertoire? ah initially
i did not know that it's going to be so
difficult i was just very intrigued that
oh a new language let's go for it
so i started and i was learning it from
two places simultaneously one was an
indian teacher and the other was a
native japanese
neither of them started teaching me you
know
like they would not guide me in hindi or
english
they just would not use a third language
to help me understand
japanese it all started in japanese and
i feel that was really good suit for me
because it made my base
i do not have to think in another
language to start thinking in japanese
then
so i think i did pretty good as far as
where
my scores are considered or where i am
right now i think i did pretty good and
i'm very happy
it's the second most difficult language
in the world yes
that's awesome that's that's that's so
great um you know it reminds me of
my teachers back when i was studying
german in auburn um
and you know i took it for two semesters
and you know since then i've just been
doing it on my own but
but the first teacher i think did not do
that as much so did not really like
talk and talk in um german just in
german like he would he would use a lot
of the
a lot of the english and just to like
kind of help us with that but then the
second one
was more of like okay she would just say
things and you were just expected to
know them
which was in sense a little bit harder
but i think it worked a little bit
better just because
you know you start picking that up and
it does take a little bit longer but
then you know you're expected to do that
homework and then
and be ready for that and of course she
wasn't using anything that was going to
be too hard but definitely something
that
that makes you you know understand that
yeah you know it is
it is going to be difficult but i'm
ready for it so it was it was a great
time and so that's
very interesting that you mentioned that
going off of that i think
you know now that you are studying
japanese and
you know not really focusing on anything
else
um and you've been in this for how long
now
um almost four years okay so so
you know it's it's a good time to ask
you whether there are enough
opportunities at least available in
india
or whatever you've been looking like
what kind of jobs are available in the
industry
you know and and how do you
get along with the industry you know so
like what all is going on
um how do you find those positions how
do you get to those
and how do you settle in that
uh as of now the majority for
jobs in the sector of language are there
all BPO's
you know sales for bpos they're all call
centers nothing besides that like eighty
percent at least
not just japanese they're also looking
for german french etc but they're all
BPO's.
so there are also like the sector right
i am working in right now is a
hospitality sector
so what we do basically is we provide
service departments to people
okay so there's like a lot of japanese
companies in india right now say maruti
say honda
so you know those native japanese people
come here for work
and they need a place to live in so what
we do is we provide them apartments they
stay there
you know eight months a year or so like
that
but as as far as i know there's a limit
to the language
in india that's basically sales and call
centers and as far as you can get is an
automobile company
and any technical support basically
that's all i can think of oh so okay
so are you you didn't even know
how hard this language was going to be
so did you know about the career before
you even
started studying japanese um did you
have anything in your mind or
was it just something that you just
wanted to do and just wanted to get into
and
it was just out of love at that moment
i was aware that indo-japanese
connections are going to get better and
there's going to be good business
but i wasn't really still you know
very decisive that what exactly do i
want to get into what field
so i was like okay let's just do the
language and we'll see later on you know
what field am i suitable for so i just
went for it
great i mean i've heard like with
languages that you know people
of course like want to travel to the
country and just immerse themselves into
the culture and into again
you know a place where people are not
speaking any other language so you're
kind of forced to learn that
did you ever think of that have you have
you ever been to japan do you
plan to go in the future and where do
you see yourself
taking the language i have always wanted
to go to japan in fact i even planned on
doing my graduation from japan
you know after dropping out of english
honors and still pursuing the language i
was like okay why not give it another
shot go to japan
you know just master myself in the
language and do something alongside
but it hasn't really you know the plan
hasn't
really worked out yet but i really want
to go to japan it's beautiful place
and it's actually you know like the
place where i'm working in right now we
have to deal with like i know the
japanese people so the language
comes naturally those japanese don't
really know english
so you know i am forced to actually
speak to them in the language
so that really helps me there are times
when i'm stuck
and i obviously do not understand all of
the words that you use you know
so that helps me learn better actually
okay so if you did go to japan like
do you have something in mind if what
you want to do or
is it something yeah do you want to just
explore
um you know what it's what the culture
is all about there
what's going on with you what's your
mindset
like because you know like now that you
know the language a little bit and
initially that was your plan right so
initially you wanted to go there and
maybe immerse into the language and
study a little bit of that of course you
know you're still going to be learning
that like you said you know you don't
understand some of those words
but but like what do you intend to do
when you go now like do you intend to
maybe like study something particular or
do you think that
you know you're just going to go out and
then explore that
is it just a travel thing or do you want
to live there?
something like that. i haven't really
thought that far
but i did have you know this idea of
living in japan once
but one of my friends lived there for
some time and
she advised me did you know what culture
in japan it's really hard
to avoid staying there you can go there
for a visit or a good vacation
don't stay there for work purpose i was
like okay so since then you know
i've sort of diverted my roots and
if i ever actually go you know get to go
to japan
i would love to get to know the culture
more because it's actually a lot like
uh hindu culture or like indian culture
if i may
but it's really beautiful and they're
actually one of the kindest
people you might come across - the japanese.
yeah um you know as you mentioned the
work-life balance
in japan um
i've read it's like they're working for
like 11 to 12 hours a day uh
it's pretty common there to work that
long but
working in india with japanese companies
still what's the work, or
what's the work life balance for you right now
uh so the company that i'm working with
right now is not a japanese company it's
an indian company
but say 80-90% of our clientele is japanese
so that goes according to the indian
schedules but of course japanese
like need their work done in the spur of
the moment so
there are days when even sundays aren't
really an off for me because i work in
the guest relations team
so you know any complaint or any issue
that the guest is facing
we need to have it resolved so it can be
like a midnight call that a guest is
facing issues and we need to work at it
so i'm like working 24 7 basically
yeah so i mean and and you know i bet
that the
pandemic has done a little bit more to
that right so i've heard that
people used to just go to the office you
know where 9 to 5 i mean that's definitely
broken down a little bit more now you
know now that now that people
you know are pretty much either living
on their own schedules um and it's
become more of a deadline based
thing than a time based thing i think
that definitely kind of plays into what
you are doing now right so
would you like to talk about that a
little bit and how that has changed from
before?
It's actually been like a complete turnover
you know when i used to go to office i
knew that you know i get my
lunch break i get my fixed working hours
and if i'm out of the office you know
just like a natural washroom break yes
nobody's gonna disturb me okay because
they know i'm out of the office
so here when i'm home okay i'm taking a
shower i'm getting a call i need to
answer it it's my boss
i'm you know i'm sitting i said i quit
for lunch i'm getting a call i need to
answer i can't just say okay i'm sitting
for lunch because he does not know and
he does not care for that
so it's really messed up actually
the sleep cycles especially you know
you're like okay it's chill the office
starts at 10 i can wake up by 8:50
but then i'm just lazing around in bed
receiving the calls doing my email work
but then like i tend to doze off midday
and it sort of
messes up.
It seems like it's quite complicated
right now your work-life balance again
but do you have any regrets or if
like it's a question that we ask a lot
of people here and it's something that
you know really tells us about the other
person's psyche.
um if you had the chance to go back and
do some things differently
what would those things be for you
either that or you can also take it as
an as something that you did and you
would like to do that
more off right so so if you did
something that you really like would you
do that more or would you change that
and maybe
a lot your time to different things that
you haven't been doing maybe
okay so that's sort of conflicted for me
um i i really love sports
and back in school if i go back there
i was in the school basketball team i
was the captain
and there was one thing that made me
really happy okay i love sports even
until today
so due to some reasons i had to quit
back in grade 11 i think
and after that i met with an accident my
knee was messed up
so i couldn't really run again like as
much as i would require for a sport
but if i could go back and i would not
quit my gaming like
i would definitely not quit basketball
at least because that is one thing that
generally brings me happiness
besides that if i think there is nothing
that i
regret because my dad actually sometimes
says - 
even if i'm looking forward for my
master's degree on my undergrad like if
i have to start again start over
he sort of comes up saying randomly you
know that if you would have studied
those
three years in a proper way for english
honors you wouldn't have to face the
situation you're in today and i'm like
dad i am fine i am not regretting it i
am
like happy where i am today so no i
don't regret anything
i am very content with what i am right
now what i have right now
that's great that's great and and you
talk about
basketball let's say as a hobby as well
you know
and so i'm sure you still maybe hoop
around a little bit
whenever you get a chance if you see a
basket if you get a ball or whatever it
is you know
but but you do also have a couple other
like unconventional if you may
um things that you do and so you
mentioned witchcraft right
um and spirituality and that's something
that you really have got into but
also i think
as of what i know it helped you kind of
get through a couple of those different
things that were happening in life right
so
what do you maybe want to talk about
that and and what you do with that
um okay so it was i think maybe
three or four years back i wasn't really
in a good mental state
after all of this college thing and then
i had a rough breakup phase
you know the usual cliche teenage things
but
i had to get out of it in some way and i
found
a way like i got into meditation
initially
and then it sort of guided me to search
new things and discover
what spirituality basically is you know
you need to get off the religion side
and you
look to the bigger picture so initially
after like say maybe a year and a half
i started learning new things and i
learned about crystals
and i learned about that's where it came
from - witchcraft
and according to people like you use the
word unconventional
people really have a bad image for
witchcraft okay so it is not
bad that that's satanistic shit that's
bad okay witchcraft is not bad
it helps you do good it's not just you
know spell casting
Witchcraft is also learning about
yourself doing the basic
shadow work going inside you know
healing
it's all of that yes you cast spells of
course you do but there's also good
spells there's difference between a
spell and a curse no yes if i want to do
some harm to you i can cast a curse
but i wouldn't
so i'm basically like you'll learn i am on
the very beginning of
you know of it i am there's a lot of
research required in it
you can't just jump into spellcasting
you really need to know the basics
it really helps me get out of the normal
day-to-day
you know life and that's something
that's really intriguing
i love the reading about crystals i love
buying crystals for myself
and they help me heal as well so yes
that's that's a whole
vast topic to talk about hey we love to
get into it
yeah we can talk about this you know
after the call so
yeah that's something we can get into i
guess we've got the time
and as Arjit mentioned
the witchcraft really helped you with
you know your personal life your social
life as well
so other than just that aspect like
what are your biggest achievements
according to you um
and not just in the career but also your
personal life
and does this witchcraft or any other
hobby play a role in that
um it depends how we actually classify
achievements
as you know do they have to be medals do
they have to be trophies
but if i talk about achievements for
myself i wouldn't really base them on
that
uh yes i do have those typical
trophy achievements that to categorize
specifically in sports
but if if i have to talk about that now
i will think about coming over a
specific phase of my life was a very big
achievement for me i
have been in really you know darker
situations or darker days i've seen
and i've made it through that and i
think that's one of my biggest
achievements for me
i have had a bad you know series of
anxiety attacks panic attacks
and i think what i've come out of
has really made me who i am today and
in a bigger picture if you see i i like
to call myself as
as a healer or a light worker maybe and
what i
think you know if i come across people i
i feel the urge to you know give them
lots of love
and heal them in any possible way that i
can
yeah i know that that makes a lot of
sense um you know it's
it's been i think i think it's a
it's getting to a place where it's a lot
of people's
mindset is to not just work for them but
help others and whatever they
whatever way they can right and and and
that's very very nice of you to of
course think of other people as well
um whether that is in a way that they
think is unconventional or doesn't work
for them or whatever it is and i'm sure
you know
i'm sure that there's people that you do
that for and then they say something and
you're like you know maybe i shouldn't
have done that or whatever it is and
whether that is family or whatever
i'm sure there's backlashes of course um
you know that
that make you maybe not even feel as
good about what you're doing but
as long as you're happy with that i
think that's what matters most so
oh yeah there's been like so many times
you know when you're actually
genuinely being nice to someone or kind
to someone and they in turn you know
just turn out to be real
rude and then you're like uh excuse me i
was being really nice to you and not
just for the sake of it but that's who i
am and then there's times i feel like no
Vri, you you gotta be
you know you really have to stop being
so nice to everybody and then i realized
that's not me
i am actually nice that's how i will be
i don't have to change it
yeah you know and we'll keep sending
memes to each other um to continue being
nice to each other of course
so that's that's definitely part of part
of being nice i think
it's sharing that laughter so
talking about positivity um i can see
that you have a rise tattoo on your
wrist
so what's how important
is that tattoo to you and like uh i mean
most of the listeners
you know are listening to this podcast
and not watching it on youtube
we are on youtube but like can you
describe that tattoo and like
how important was it and what kind of a
role that plays
for you what does that remind you of you
know i have two tattoos actually one is
shantiheen
and that's rise so they're both for
different situations for whenever i am
in there are times when i feel like i'm
sinking down
and you know there's nothing that i you
know even if i do something it's not
going to get me up
but i have been in worse situations and
i know that no matter what situation i
am in i can rise above that
so hence rise.
that's awesome okay so i think it's i
think it's incredible that people
go against what other people's views are
or whether that's their own parents, the society norms basically yeah
yeah and do things that you
have been doing right so whether that is
witchcraft whether that is
getting tattoos which today is is a
very normal thing in in most of the
world but
i know being in the US too, in parts of
the US they're still looked down upon
right it's it's a thing that not
everybody can do
because they have to go against one or
two if not more people
to do that um and so it's very important
for us
at least as a community to push that and
i'm glad that you are doing that
and i hope that some of our listeners
also kind of get to do that
um because i think if they get that
little bit of power
to push through i think that's the
lesson for today maybe you know
is doing something that really makes you
happy uh really makes you
you know push through those boundaries
that people have set for you
and go out into the world and and
explore different things
without having to worry about what the
society is going to think and what the
norms are
so uh you know how brown families are
right like
indian parents especially so my dad's
always been against my tattoos
like i got one i got two and then like
you're not getting any more of them Vrinda, do you get it? i'm like dad that's one
thing that gives me happiness
and you cannot stop me from that so this
is one topic that my dad and i always
argue upon
i have like quite a lot of tattoos just
besides these so
there was this one time he did not even
know that i got a tattoo and he got to
see it after like a month
and he did not speak to me but of course
i did not stop getting tattoos because
they really make me happy
so sometimes you have to push beyond you
know what your
family also says because yes they look
out for you
you have that all thinking that you know
tattoos are bad
but it gives you happiness you go for it
like you know who you are see i guess
that's
a very good point to end our show for
today um
be yourself yeah that's great and when
they can let the listeners know where
they can find you
you can always connect with me on my
instagram uh my handle
is okay i sort of stole Arjit's handle
idea so his is @tooarjittoquit and
my handle is @toovrindatoquit so
the credits go to Arjit yes but i'm
always available on my instagram too.
yeah and we'll put that in the
description for for all the viewers here
today um
to make sure that you know you're
getting the spelling right and
everything like that
this definitely again like i said has
helped us
maybe take a step towards proving that a
traditional career is always
untraditional so
you know thanks for listening thanks for
being on the show thank you so much for
having me
this is your host Arjit Singh and
I'm Hemansh Bhatia
and you've been listening to kadam the
smart steps podcast
if you found value in this episode
please like share and subscribe and as
always
let us know how we can make this better. "A traditional career
is always untraditional." Thanks for
listening.
