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 Dr. Ali Khwaja

A Montessorian, an engineering graduate of Institute of Science and IIT Bombay, MIE, MIIM, with a Ph.D in behavioral sciences — he has always carved out his own path and been a free-lancer, ensuring that work is joy every day.

He is invited regularly to conduct workshops or lectures for Defence, Central Government, prestigious National institutions, schools and colleges, but he prefers to be informal, learning while he teaches, and being honest and congruent in whatever he says or does.

He is the founder and Chairman of Banjara Academy, a unique institution committed to enriching life though empowerment.  He trains people from all walks of life to reach out to others and provide emotional support, and leads a large team of counselors who give free service in person, on phone and through email.  He conducts a very popular and practical one year part-time Diploma in Counselling Skills, 4-month Certificate in Child & Adolescent Development, and other online courses.

He has written over 30 books and 80 booklets on all practical aspects of day-to-day life, and writes regular columns and articles in many reputed publications, and edits a unique newsletter, ‘Banjara Life’.  His videos on Banjara’s website and YouTube get thousands of viewers from all over the world.

Notwithstanding all that, he loves all human beings alike, is willing to listen, and his prime focus is on empowering individuals to help themselves.

Address:

Banjara Academy

418, 1st Main, 1st Blk, R T Nagar, Bangalore 560032

Phones: 8861421666  8861792260     

www.banjaraacademy.org

Professional Member of International Association for Counseling UK, and Member with full voting rights of World Federation for Mental Health, USA.

A graduate in law with a Masters in Management, she started her career with a reputed business house of Mumbai known for its integrity and ethics. Working closely with the top management, she acquired the skills of handling different types of people and maintaining a pleasant and harmonious atmosphere wherever she was given responsibility. Moving to Bangalore she took a major decision to keep away from the corporate rat race and armed herself with a Diploma in Counselling Skills while pursuing her Masters in Psycho-therapy. Subsequently she took the plunge to become a full time counselor, trainer, coordinator and mentor to those who either seek emotional support or wish to become part of the counseling and life skills world.

Purnima Ganesh

Coordinator and Director

Having had a varied successful stint as an entrepreneur Indu decided to commit herself to meaningful work and was one of the founders of Banjara Academy when it was in its infancy a quarter century ago, and she also armed herself with a Diploma in Counselling Skills. She has smoothly taken over the functions of administration, personnel, finance, and ensures that the institution runs efficiently despite the financial constraints of not having business income. She ensures that there is a right balance of work, philanthropy and services to the needy by keeping a check on the overall functioning.

Indu Kamal

Director Administration

A qualified Advocate, she realized early in life that her calling lies in helping children improve their quality of life and their future. She underwent extensive training not only in counseling but also in child development, assessments and special education. Her passion made her commit full-time to Banjara’s Gurukul, of which she is the founder and driving force. She oversees a wonderful team of highly committed, compassionate and humane teachers, therapists and counselors who are willing to take up the cause of any child with any types of special needs or emotional support.

Sonal Patel

Director and Chief Counsellor of Gurukul

Transitioned from a very successful technical career in the IT sector, rising up to very responsible positions in MNCs in India, USA and the Middle East – to the human world of Counselling one decade ago, He found his calling as he was genuinely interested in understanding human beings and reaching out to them for their emotional needs. He used to identify the need for raising awareness of EQ, especially among the youngsters who were joining the corporate mainstream right after college. After completing his Certification in Life Skills and Diploma in Counselling Skills at Banjara, he decided to follow his passion for social work and chose to join his alma mater as a counselor, mentor and faculty member. He also completed his BA in Psychology and M.Sc. in Counseling and Family Therapy

Sridhar Srinivasan

Counsellor & Coordinator

Mr.Ramaswamy is always available to anyone who is undergoing trauma. He is a living legend among highly specialized doctors as he looks after each individual patient, guides and leads him or her to the best possible treatment. Without any formal qualification in medicine or psychiatry, he armed himself with qualifications in counseling, was trained At Banjara, in NIMHANS and other prestigious institutions, and since the past twenty odd years he has been giving his free services for people in emotional, medical or mental distress. Retiring from a very senior position in an aviation public sector unit, Mr. Ramaswamy was offered very lucrative positions due to his expertise as a design engineer. But he chose to move on to a path less travelled and has created a path where none existed.

Ramaswamy Natampally

Crisis Manager

 

Every baby and small child has an innate desire and curiosity to explore, learn and acquire skills. 

Adults find it so difficult to hold back toddlers who wish to move around all over the place and investigate everything within their reach. They use all their senses to see, listen, touch, taste & smell whatever they come across.

As the child grows older, he is sent to school to get ‘educated’, but all his motivation and desire to learn reduces.  He then has to be forced to listen to the teacher, take notes, do calculations, complete his homework, and ‘mug up’ for exams. Is it the fault of the student, or is it the fault of all of us adults who kill the curiosity and the joy of learning?

Instead of blaming the system or authorities, each one of us can, and should, do our bit to rekindle the spark of learning in any child we interact with, and send him off on a path of growth to become a capable adult.

It’s not difficult.

We can be rightfully proud of ourselves

Patients treated in American hospitals have lower death rates if they are treated by doctors who were trained in foreign countries than at American universities – and these foreign doctors include many from India.  This was the result of a survey done by Harvard University, covering as many as 1.2 million elderly patients.

In the US, international medical graduates are mostly from India, the Philippines, and Pakistan.

The study questions the perception that some people may have that the quality of care provided by international graduates may not be on par with US- trained doctors. “America has a history of attracting the best and brightest from around the world and that appears to be true in medicine as well. We hope that we are able to maintain that openness because the biggest beneficiaries of these doctors coming to the US have been the American people” said senior author Ashish Jha, and I do hope Mr. Donald Trump is listening.

 

Bilingual Advantage

Those of you who feel burdened because you need to study two or more languages, let us see some advantages of being bilingual:

Overall, the bilingual outperformed the monolingual speakers on memory tests. Bilingual people were also on an average five years older than the monolingual participants.

Bilingual people tend to have better functional connectivity in frontal brain regions which helps them maintain better thinking skills and withstand the damages to the brain. Constantly switching between different languages causes structural brain changes creating a “neural reserve” that helps bilingual people resist mental deterioration.

Bilingual people also have better ‘neural compensation’—the brain looks for alternative pathways to help maintain thinking skills and compensate for the loss of brain structure that comes with aging.

Speaking 2 or more languages may slow down mental decline and eventually help you keep away from dementia, one of the worst things that can happen to you in old age, for which there is no cure.

 

Gratitude is a wonderful habit that can enrich your life significantly.

It is not the same as Thankfulness. We can be thankful for something that we wanted and received, and hence we desire to have more.

When we develop Gratitude, we are thankful for something we received without wanting, expecting or anticipating – and we feel a sense of fulfilment without desiring more.

It makes you feel happy, positive, and helps you overcome failures or disappointed.  You can even have gratitude towards those who treated you badly, because you became strengthened by their behaviour.  You can learn from failures. You feel connected to everyone around you – and you will never experience loneliness. Learn to look at only the good side of people around you.

Just start off with making a journal of all that you received as blessings or gestures or gifts every day…. And read the journal periodically.