Sometimes you don’t just follow a person on social media for the namesake, you actually walk on their footsteps, knowingly or unknowingly.
Slowly and steadily, you start absorbing the posts, the stories, the statuses that you don’t understand when you’ve begun implementing someone else’s daily activities in your life also.
Well, all this is excellent when you’re following the right person. By right, I mean the person who’s fit to be an inspiration and who’s leading you towards a beautiful life and not just influencing you to follow his/her fashion or lifestyle.
The one you follow should not at any given point of time give you negative vibes or force you to feel deprived in life.
Do not envy your role model’s life, get inspired by it. Stop asking, “Why am I not like him/her?” it’ll take you nowhere.
Are you wondering why am I telling you all this today? To be very honest, I’ve been longing to write about my role model and how I follow her not just on Instagram but religiously.
In a way, I’ll be writing down a piece of my heart here as I love sharing my personal encounters with you – my lovely readers.
Preeti Shenoy – a name I literally keep chanting all day around. The moment I open my Instagram, the first name that pops up right at the top, in the stories section is – Preeti Shenoy. And then I long to listen to her sweet voice. Every morning she puts up a little video of her surrounding on her Instagram story and says, “Wake up! Life Is Calling” – the name of her recent book.
Her voice sounds like music to my ears, and I’m good to kick start my day.
Preeti Shenoy is wakened up by her dog, who pulls her out of bed every morning, and they both go for their morning walk. She gets most of her writing ideas on these morning walks.
After she’s back with her dog – Lostris ,Preeti Mam sets for her cycling routine and cycles for 5 to 7 kilometers every day. Sometimes the rounds get extended to 10 kilometers also.
She’s been practicing Yoga from the age of 6 and continues till date, every single day. No wonder she’s as vibrant as a 21-year-old girl.
Preeti Shenoy, the author to 13 best-selling books, believes in cooking all by herself for her family. Her favorite food is Puttu Kadala, Idlis, and salads. She prepares all south Indian dishes with great enthusiasm and shares the pictures on her stories.
Every minute of her day is spent in doing productive and positive things. Preeti Mam sketches something positive in her journal every single day. All her journal work is done using a pen. She paints her day on a piece of paper and shows how grateful she is for this beautiful life of hers.
Besides all these activities, she reads a lot. She has taken up a challenge of reading 100 books in 2019. She reviews the books she reads on her stories and has just completed reading her 37th book. My heart expands with pride when I see our choices are so alike. Check out her highlights for book recommendations.
Preeti Shenoy’s writing journey started with her blog, and she still continues to blog every now and then. Followed by her book release every year, in May, Preeti Mam runs a Blog Marathon for a month and publishes a nice post every day. Check out her blog here.
She is also fond of gardening and owns a gorgeous terrace garden where she grows her own veggies and is gifted with pretty flowers every morning.
Her two children, whom she has raised with great love and care, are adults studying abroad. She misses them a lot and so does not miss a video call with her daughter, Purvi, every day.
I would love to share with you a sweet incident on my life wherein I got the opportunity to meet Preeti Shenoy in person. It was the cover launch of her recent book – “Wake up! Life is calling”, the sequel to her first novel.
The cover launch was organized at the ‘Title Waves’ book store at Bandra, Mumbai. There were various events lined up for the day, and Preeti Mam’s slot was in the late afternoon.
But my over-excitement took me to the book store well in advance. I waited for my dear friend at the entrance. She loves attending such events.
To my surprise, as I stood there right at the gate, I saw Preeti Shenoy getting down from a cab. Her walk from the car to the entrance was straight out of a famous Bollywood movie – Om Shaanti Om, where, on the entry of the actress people lean over her in amusement, and the background audio says – “The Dreamy Girl herself – Shanti Priya.”
The only difference here was, I was the sole audience jumping, screaming, clapping from inside my heart. I couldn’t believe that she walked past me.
Oh My! She looked stunning in her elegant one piece and long straight hair that she had left loose on her back. Her diamond pendant (that she wears for all her launches) shined in the mid-afternoon sun. And her skin as smooth and shiny as a dough.
Yoga does wonders to one’s body.
I couldn’t control my emotions, and I called my friend who was on the way to the store and narrated her the entry scene of Preeti Mam. She laughed on my silly act and said, “Are you mad? I’m coming there in just a few minutes, Dumbo”, and hung up.
Despite being a Bollywood fan, I wouldn’t have been in such awe on seeing an actor or actress on the road as I was when I saw Preeti Shenoy.
Now, coming to her books, she’s a proud yet humble best-seller author of 13 books. I possess all her books, but I have my own reading pattern. I pick up her book when life hits hard, and I need to calm down at once. Preeti Shenoy’s books speak.
It seems as though she writes a part of herself in all her books.
“A Hundred Little Flames”, portrays her ancestral house and the way she describes it from the bottom of her heart says a lot about her.
“It Happens For A Reason” – is an unusual story of a single mother. Preeti Shenoy beautifully does justice to the title of the book and brings out such a meaningful plot.
“Life is What You Make It” – is her second book that changes your heart and mind and has a positive impact on your soul.
“Tea For Two and a Piece of Cake” – is so beautifully written that I could not put it down.
“34 Bubblegums And Candies”-This is her first book, non-fiction. Every word written in that book is true. It was a part-memoir. Such a genre had not been published in India. She took the risk and it turned out to be her first best-seller.
“Love A Little Stronger” – is the new edition of her first book. I loved the title and the cover so much that I didn’t mind buying it again.
Preeti Mam has written many more such excellent books on her bed, by having Lostris beside her as her arm-rest.
Related Articles (every book-related blog of mine has to have one book of Preeti Shenoy)-
What Are You Loosing On If You’re Not Reading Books And 7 Best Books To Read If You Hate Reading
8 Life-Changing Books That’ll Shape Your Thinking
Well, you know what, I can go on and on this topic. I’d not mind too. But I need to end this blog and so will end it on a good note –
“if you have not made somebody’s day happier, if you’ve not appreciated something good that has happened to you and if you have not felt thankful to be alive, then you have wasted that day of your life on earth!”
― Preeti Shenoy, Life is What You Make It: A Story of Love, Hope and How Determination Can Overcome Even Destiny
P.S. I haven’t read anything about her on the internet. This blog is a sheer outcome of following her Instagram posts and stories.
Hey shraddha, that was a nice piece. I want to read her books. Which one is the best?
Hey Minal,
Thank you. I started with her first book. 34 bubblegum and candies. I’d say “Life is what you make it” is her best piece.