In this keynote, Dr. Alka—doctor, author, speaker, yoga and meditation guru, and founder of Hope and Care Center and the School of Happiness—delivers a motivational talk titled “The Magic of Believing in Yourself.” She opens with a Jim Rohn anecdote about a decisive moment that changes destiny, then shares her own life‑changing experiences: a painful childbirth in 1985 where she chose to say “yes” to her husband’s suggestion, the birth of her son who became a source of gratitude and purpose, and a later incident where she fractured her foot while chasing a train, forcing her to pause and reflect. Through these stories she illustrates the danger of living on a “treadmill” and the importance of slowing down to introspect. She guides the audience through a self‑discovery exercise, urging them to identify their unique “fragrance” and deepest desires. Dr. Alka describes how she shifted from personal ambition to community contribution by creating storytelling sessions for her children, which grew into a Balvikas class for seniors, giving her life greater significance. She concludes with two core takeaways: (1) the empowering belief “I can do it” anchored in purpose, and (2) cultivating inner happiness through daily silence, meditation, and self‑acceptance. The talk ends with a reaffirmation that each person is the master of their fate, captain of their soul, and maker of their destiny.
Chapters
We have Dr. Alka. If I give a little bit of introduction about her, she is a medical professional. She's a doctor, author, speaker. She's also secretary in PSAI, Professional Speaking Association of India. She is also yoga and meditation guru and founder of Hope and Care Center as well as the School of Happiness. And in Today's her talk, which is entitled The Magic of Believing in Yourself. You are going to learn from her journey few lessons that you can apply in your life. So Alka ji, over to you. All the best. I know you are going to really rock the stage today.
Thank you. I once heard this story of Jim Rohn on this platform itself. One day when there was a knock on his door. When he opened the door, there was a very young girl, beautiful girl, a Girl Scout, who was standing there and selling cookies of different flavors. He could actually smell the cookies, and she told him to buy some cookies. And he asked her, what is the cost of the cookies? And she said, it's $2. Only $2. And he wanted to buy the cookies, he really wanted to buy them, and he didn't know what to say to her. And he lied. He said to her, you know what, I have so many cookies in my kitchen. I just got it a few days back from another Girl Scout. And she said, okay, thank you so much, enjoy your cookies. And she walked away. After he shut the door, he was miserable. He was so miserable that he didn't know like what to say. He decided there and then that he didn't have $2 to give to that little girl, and he was a father, and he was a husband, and he had a family to take care of. And that was the moment the decision was made, and he said, I'm going to change this. It is these kinds of moments of decision which decides our destiny. I want to take you back to my life, 35 years back, maybe 37, in 1985. I was pregnant. Those were difficult times. I'd taken a loan from the bank. I was repaying my loan. I was having a job in the medical college. A very prestigious job and I was an Associate Professor. And this job not only gave me satisfaction of work, but it also gave me the money to pay for my installment. So one evening I was sitting in the house, I was pregnant and my waters broke. The people who are here who have been mommies and daddies do know what the pain is at that time, what happens? If you know, then type 'yes' in the chat box. No one knows? Okay, thank you. Yes, we know. Thank you. And that excruciating pain, you know, took me to the hospital. We ran to the hospital, we drove to the hospital, and that journey of 1 hour to reach the hospital was my very sad journey, and it was a very dark journey. I was so scared, and with the excruciating pain and the contractions which were coming up in my uterus, I was really, really, really terrified. When I reached the hospital, the nurse told me, naturally it was my first delivery, it's going to take some time. And you know, that time my husband, he comes very close to me and he holds my hand and he looks into my eyes and he says, Alka, can I say something to you? Don't get angry. And I said like, 'What can he say at this moment? I'm in pain.' Like I thought he wants to distract me from my pain. So I said, 'Okay, go on.' And I know that he's a very sensible, very compassionate man. So I said, 'Okay, go on.' So he said, 'Can we go out for some time and come back after a little while?' So I'm not understanding why he's saying that. I said, 'Okay.' I say yes. That's the power of yes in my life. I've always done that. And we went out. We went to a friend's house nearby and we came back after 12 AM and I got admitted. Anybody can guess why I went out for a walk? And I'll tell you the reason. We were saving money, right? We were difficult times, so we wanted to save one day's money for the operation theatre and for the bed charges. So that was the reason. Now next day evening I gave birth to a very beautiful baby boy. And when this baby boy was brought to me, he was staring at me with his eyes open. And as I looked at this baby boy, he was telling me something. I was so scared when the delivery happened and the boy came into my arms and I looked at the boy and I was filled with fear. What kind of mom am I going to be to this child. But he was telling me something else. He was telling me, 'I am a gift of God and I'm here to help you, Mama. Don't worry.' And that changed everything. I felt so grateful for this gift from God. And as I looked at the child, something happened to me from inside, and I decided that I am going to be the best mom in the world, no matter what. I'm going to shower this child with all the love and affection, unconditional love, so that he sprouts into a very beautiful flower and with unique fragrance like each and every one of you. Each and every one of you here has a unique fragrance in you. Just see and you just imagine and just recognize that uniqueness and the specialness that you have in you. Can you please close your eyes just for a minute? Sit straight with your brain and your spine aligned in one direction, and just ask yourself, what is that thing which is special in me? What is it that is unique in me? What is it that I want? What is it that I really, really want in my life? Am I going in the right direction? I am going in the right direction, or not? Ask these questions to yourself right now, today. This journey is going to be about you. It's not my journey, but I want you to think that you are a part of this journey and look at your own journey and find out the answers to these questions. What is it that I really, really, really, really badly, badly, badly want? And how badly do I want it? And how far I'm ready to go with what I want. You can open your eyes, come back over here. So when I decided that I'm going to shower this child with love, I decided that I am the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul, and I'm the achiever of my destiny. And I moved in my life, I've started working very hard towards what I wanted. I wanted a good family, I wanted a good house, and I wanted all the things that I wanted for my children, and I was working towards it. Then one day I was standing at the railway station, local railway station, to drop my children. I had 2 children by that time, to drop my children to the crèche. And as soon as I reached the station with one child in my left arm and the 3-year-old holding my right hand, I saw the train on the station. My heart sank. I knew that I had to catch this train. And I started running with these 2 children. I fell down, boom! And my children started howling, "Mummy, Mummy, what are you doing? What's wrong with you?" And the things went helter-skelter, the water bottle and the bag and everything. But I wanted to catch that train. And all the people around me started helping me and they pushed me into the train. And I got into the train and I took a sigh of relief. I dropped my children to the next stop, to the crèche, but something had gone wrong. By the time I reached the hospital for my duty, I saw that my foot was so fat, the right foot, like an elephant's foot, and I had a fracture. I was immobilised in my foot. The pain of immobilisation was not so much, but there was something else which was happening inside of me. I was pained with what I was doing. I was running and running, like as if I was running on a treadmill. How many of you feel that your life is like a treadmill? Put a yes in the chat box if you feel like that. I have been there. I felt like this. Now I had to slow down. This time it was Universe's help to me. This time was given to me to sit down and to introspect and to reflect on my life as to what I was doing. I remembered my mom, she always told me a story that when you're going to— the people who go to climb the mountain, the people who reach the mountain the fastest, they miss the view on the base of the mountain. She always shouted at me, 'Why are you running? Walk slowly, talk slowly, meet people, enjoy the journey and smell the flowers on your way.' So now she came to see me. And you know when mummies come to see you when they are angry, when they love you so much, how they shout, 'What's wrong with you? Why are you shouting? Why are you behaving like this? When was the last time that you smiled? When was the last time that you laughed? When was the last time that you played with your children?' And I was just looking down. My dad told her, 'It's okay, it's okay, she's understood.' I was crying. I knew she was right. And I had to change my ways. I started a different journey now. I was doing everything that I wanted to achieve what I wanted. The purpose of my life was clear. I know what I— I knew what I wanted. I was running, but I was not happy from inside. I was not fulfilled from inside. I was not spending any time with my kids, with my family, and that was what was missing in my life. I started changing myself. I started sitting with my children and I started telling them stories and making them read. They became good readers. And then this storytelling became into a balvikas class. And then I introduced seniors also into this group. And when I started this journey of contribution, I had more significance in my life. Friends, are we savouring our life? We are running. It's good. We need to have our goals. We need to believe in ourselves. We need to do what we need to do to achieve what we want. But are we not doing something for our inner journey? Life is an inner journey. What are we doing to become fulfilled from inside? The nightingale sings, doesn't sing a song because it has an audience. The nightingale sings a song because it has a song. So what is your song? Sing the song, hum the song, and feel happy. If today you can take away one takeaway, first thing is like what Jim Rohn said, I'm going to change what is wrong with my— in my life. And when I take up a project, when I have a purpose behind it, when I know the why behind what I'm doing, and I say one thing to myself, I can do it. Everyone say, I can do it. That is one message. I can do it. Thank you. Thank you so much. And the second message is that I can be happy from within myself. And that comes only when we sit in silence for some time every day in our lives, so that we become— we connect with our own selves. And only when we are connected with our own selves, we can connect with other people. When I know myself the way I am, when I accept myself the way I am, can accept other people in my life. My relationships are better and my life is a happier life. So if you can learn these two things today, I can do it and I'm happy from inside, I sit in silence every day, then you can be very happy, happy, happy in your life. You are the master of your fate, you are the captain of your soul, and you are the maker of your own destiny. Thank you so much.
That was amazing. Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much, Alka ji. That was truly heart-touching to say. And we have a small certificate for you. Not that you need a certificate, but thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with the community and
