Siddharth Rajsekar's Youtube Channel

So this young voice that you're about to now witness, with a vision to represent India as an Olympic gold medalist by 2032 at just 12, she's a published author and she is in the Asia Book of Records as well, a 2-time best speaker at MUN, a multi-talented achiever across sports, arts, and intellect.

Rise to your feet with the loudest round of applause for the very Very amazing, Mira Shankaran.

Why does studying suddenly feel like a punishment when it's never felt like this before? We moved back to India. Another big shock was the schooling system in India. I was asked to go back and redo the same grade. That hit my confidence hard. I kept asking, how do I become like them? That's where Most of us go wrong. We change our environments instead of changing ourselves. Then came the next program, and honestly, I joined with fear because I thought, okay, new people again equals new judgments again. At first, I was confused, but then I realized instead of judging each other, they encouraged each other. Biggest shift was this: before, I used to think. Safe goals, safe ideas. But here everyone is dreaming big, taking action, and sharing their wins. So seeing them each day, it pushed me to grow as well.

Are you ready for more?

Yes!

So in every FBR, we have a unique segment on day 2 in the morning, and you know what segment that is? We want the next generation to inspire us. And I'm going to have Pallavi who's going to introduce our next speaker who is a teen. And are you ready for some magic and some pearls of wisdom from a teen?

All of you shout, bring it on! So let's all give a round of applause for Pallavi and she's going to introduce the next speaker.

Yes.

Thank you, Sid.

All right.

Was that super powerful? Are you ready for something absolutely phenomenal?

Yes!

GenNext, GenNext, oh my God, they constantly surprise us. We love them, we live for them, we live with them, and we cannot live without them, right? And let's, uh, hear it for somebody who's not just talent. This one amazing being is our future in motion. So this young voice that you're about to now witness is already walking that path of greatness, of excellence, with a vision to represent India as an Olympic gold medalist by 2032.

Give it up, give it up!

Siddharth Rajsekar.

And to stand on global platforms for animal conservation. Yes, big round of applause.

I'm going to share something with you which is going to make you applaud even louder. At just 12, she's a published author and she is in the Asia Book of Records as well. Thank you. What about you guys? You don't want to— you don't want to hear yourself applaud this beautiful soul?

Come on!

A 2-time best speaker at MUN, a multi-talented achiever across sports, arts, and intellect. Wow!

Thank you. And guess what her superpower is? This is something so beautiful that we do not give Gen Z and Gen Alpha enough credit for. Her superpower is her emotional intelligence. This is exactly what is about to come up next, is exactly what aligned ambition looks like.

Early, powerful and unstoppable. Rise to your feet, everybody. Come on, come on, and make the loudest noise with the loudest round of applause for the very amazing Meera Shankaran.

Thank you.

Come on, come on, Mira! Receive that love. Receive, receive. She's about to receive, so come on, come on. More, more, more.

No, no, no. It's all fine. All good. It had it landed so well.

Sorry.

I've never seen you come down and speak. Yeah. Come.

Hello everyone. So, there was a phase in my life where every morning I used to crib. Ma, can I skip my language tuition today? Ma, I don't want to attend school. Why should I study about people who are already dead? And why do Tamil and Hindi feel like my worst nightmare? Why does everything feel so hard when it never used to? Then came the ultimate question I asked myself. Why does studying suddenly feel like a punishment when it's never felt like this before? I was a straight-A student. Hi, everyone. If you've ever felt like you don't belong anywhere, this story might feel a little too familiar. See, I grew up in Texas, where I spent all of my elementary level and some of my mid-school years in the US, and spending almost a decade And let me tell you something about my lunchbox. It had a full personality of its own.

From— thank you.

From yellow color to red color to green, white, basically like a color palette, literal rainbow. And the aroma, let's just say it entered the classroom before I did. But at home, I love it. Every Sunday afternoon, we relish eating home food together, especially the sambar rice or curd rice with potato fry which my dad makes, or my mom's roti and bhindi. I can simply live on it forever. I also asked my mom how in the world can they not like Such Indian recipes. But I wouldn't show it. I would literally look around, wait, and eat secretly because I didn't want the questions. Ew, what is that? Ew, why does it smell like that? Ew, why is it that color? Then one day, something changed. I got tired of hiding. So the next time someone laughed, I didn't explain. I just said, just take a spoon. And guess what? Some of them liked it, and some of them couldn't handle the spice. But something powerful changed. They stopped making fun of me. That was my first real lesson because I realized confidence is louder than insecurity. And when you own something, people will eventually start respecting you for it. But the food was just the beginning, of course. My accent, my clothes, my skin color, my hair, my accessories— everything became a topic for them. And slowly, I started changing. First, food. Ma, can you bake for me? Ma, can you pack me sandwiches? Then, Ma, just give me money, and I'll eat school lunch instead. And finally, one day, I was sitting with everyone eating pizza and feeling like, okay, I belong. Took one bite and felt like throwing up because I realized it had meat, pepperoni. And that moment hit me, not because of the food, but because I realized—

I belong.

I was changing myself for— just to feel accepted. And that is where most of us go wrong. Fitting in is addictive, but it slowly disconnects you from your own self. Then came the plot twist. We moved back to India, and I thought, okay, okay, my place, my people, easy, right? I was completely wrong. Because in the US, I was too Indian, but in India, I suddenly became too American. My accent teased, my thoughts Questioned, and even the way I spoke felt wrong. See, and then another big shock was the schooling system because there I skipped a grade, which is equivalent to a double promotion, but in India, I was asked to go back and redo the same grade. That hit my confidence hard. See, same child, but different systems and different judgments. See, this is where it got messy. I started to overthink everything. How should I talk? What should I say? Would they like me? Would they not like me? And I felt, you know, insecure, like I don't belong. And every conversation felt like an interview. But instead of asking, are these my people? I kept asking, how do I become like them? And that's where most of us go wrong. We change our environment instead of changing ourselves. And then, here's where things started to shift, not just emotionally but directionally, because until then, I was still figuring out who I was, but I didn't have a roadmap. Then came the next program: Nurtured Environment for Exponential Thinkers. And honestly, I joined with fear because I thought, okay, new people again equals new judgments again, right? But something surprising happened. Everyone was being themselves. See, someone was amazing at talking, another person was great at designing, and someone else was building something online.

Hi.

But nobody tried to copy anyone. At first, I was confused, but then I realized instead of judging each other, they encouraged each other. And the best part? They were all celebrating everyone equally. See, that's when I realized you don't need confidence first, but what you need is the right environment.

Thank you.

And then next didn't just give me, you know, comfort, but it gave me something much, much more powerful: clarity. Because, and then it's not just like, what do you like? But it's, what can you build a life around? And that's when I started understanding what is my niche, my long-term purpose, my ikigai, and The biggest shift was this: not every passion has to become a career, but the right passion can become a powerful career. And more importantly, a career that creates impact and income. And honestly, getting this clarity at my age, it felt like an edge, a real advantage, because while many are still exploring, I already have a roadmap. I already have a direction.

Thank you.

And then in NEXT, we created something called a codex. Yeah, it's not only for y'all coaches, it's for us NEXTers as well. So as you all know, it's a vision of who we want to become, our future self. And I remember the first time I read mine, you know, I had tears in my eyes because For the first time, my future didn't feel intimidating. It felt real, possible, and it felt close. And then— and there, I used to think— before, I used to think safe goals, safe ideas, but here, everyone is dreaming big, taking action, and sharing their wins. So seeing them each day, each week, showing their wins and showing up, it pushed me to grow as well. So I found something else here as well. My mentors like Vanita ma'am and Apu ma'am, my inspiration from Surya uncle and and direction through challenges and topics. So I want to share something that during last year in Nextival, Suren sir shared something that really stayed with me. He said, speak from your heart, not just for the sake of speaking, and this is with everyone. And that one line, it stayed with me.

Thank you.

So, during my daily conversations, like with my grandparents, my parents, my friends, I started using this, and they all said they noticed some changes, but the changes were very visible. They said I sounded more sweeter, more real, and more me. And during the same time, fortunately, I had my vice head election. Coming up. And we were told to record a video, and instead of just memorizing a script and, like, you know, reading it like a robot, I decided I'm going to speak from my heart. And no fear, no filters, it was just me. And guess what? That video went viral in my school, and I got selected as vice head. So thank you, sir and sir. And during the whole thing, I also had my MUN club. In which amongst delegates like students like me representing as delegates for their own countries, and amongst 80+ countries, I representing France secured first place earning best speaker. And in the final round, where we were judged by actual young UN ambassadors. I represented the United States of America, and I won second place.

Wow. Okay.

So now, I want you to— I want to share an analogy of mine. So imagine trying to light a matchstick, okay? But the catch is you're going to light it underwater. It won't light up no matter how hard it tries, not because it's weak, but because it's in the wrong environment. And for the longest time, I was that matchstick. Now, I want you to place the same matchstick in the right environment. One spark and everything lights up. See, you are not always the problem. Your environment might be.

Because—

and then that's how See, my pressure didn't go away, but it transformed. The same Hindi I used to hate—I cleared three levels of examinations with distinction. The same confusion turned into clarity. The same laziness and dislike for going to school. Turned into discipline. See, and I also found my passion, which is badminton, and my purpose, which is animal conservation. So that's how I went from reacting to my life to designing my life. That's how I went from being an insecure child to becoming intentional.

Woo!

See, I didn't become perfect, but I became aware. See, so before I leave, I just want to say, maybe you aren't supposed to fit in. Maybe you're supposed to find where you belong. Or even better, create your own space. Because the truth is, we don't need to always change ourselves. We need to change where we are growing. Thank you.

Big round of applause. Check, check, check my mic. Let's give it up for Meera once again. Huge round of applause.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Can we have Meera's mother up on stage, please? Let's have Brinda up on stage. Receive the love as mother and daughter. Hey Shankar here, Shankar.

Shankar, just reduce the volume.

Is Shankar here? Let's give it up for Meera's father. Shankar is also here in the room. Big round of applause and let's have the music playing. And receive the love. And thank you, Bindup.

That was what we all needed to hear. Yes or no? In fact, they're saying the matchstick under the water. That was me. That was me. And thanks to this environment, we are able to spark so many flames from here.

Thank you.

Brindha, what would you like to share as a mom? You can come closer. Yes, we can come to the center.

First of all, heartfelt check, check. Heartfelt gratitude for Siddharth and Vanita and of course, Suren. All that learnings, all that learnings, maybe it's coming through her. Whatever I have learned for all these years.

Come.

It's all displayed through her, that's all I can say. I brought her to MMI when she was 8 years. From there on, she just took off. Whenever she listens to any of you, she just imbibes, she goes in her own zone and gets that out of her in a way that— like everybody say, right? Siddharth and Mani always says, we don't know what version it is coming through them. And I always see every time she speaks, I get surprised. But I, but I'm confident that it is bound to happen because we are in the right environment. Definitely. So like Siddharth said, third-party involvement definitely works, right? When it comes to parenting, we are very smart parents. So we took her to MMI, sorted. We put her in NEXT for 1 year, sorted. Suraj just said, sorted. That's it. 30— yeah, 13 years, they're all sorted. Now when I look at Devina, you're the hope and inspiration. That's it.

Absolutely.

And then sharing wins on every Sunday. Okay, that will take care of itself only.

Yes.

The FOMO is created, they will do the action themselves only, no pressure. So it may look very— not flashy at all, okay? But the impact is so subtle, like Rajiv says, transformation cannot happen overnight. It will slowly happen and we have to let it happen. And environment like this, I am so proud, yeah. I mean, you cannot see anything happening like this In India, even USA immigrant students. My heart goes out for them. Their parents, they are like looking forward for all these exposure. So I'm behind Siddharth and Vanita to open this up even for non-IILACH members, especially non-IILACH kids. Two two qualities that you can see in this junta, this entire junta. They are not just impactful, they are not just— you saw them in Next Level, okay? As a person, they are so inclusive, so inclusive. She got elevated by looking at them. They don't need anything else. So our responsibility is taken care of. So that's all I want to say. And without my husband's support, nothing could happened. And without Siddharth, there are 3 people, 4 people in my family, in my life, or maybe even 5 people that I cannot be without. One is my father, my brother, father-like figure, then comes my husband, and then Siddharth, my spiritual master. So all these people, I truly am grateful. And I think going forward, since she's sorted, there are so many things that we can take initiative Thank you so much.

Thank you, Brindha. And Shankar, would you like to share something, please?

I thought she was covering for me. Okay, I don't know what else to say because she said a lot about a lot of things, how she felt and how they both become part of this ILH community. And 2 things, while I was sitting there listening to what she was saying, I was just asking myself if I could have delivered that speech. The answer is, honest answer is no.

A little closer.

But what I felt is like, I think ILH made this happen, right? Part of this could be the confidence and the support that she gets, you know, to come up to the stage. delivering a speech for about like almost 14 minutes.

Yes.

So I couldn't have done that. That's because of the confidence and support, everything that they get it from this community. And what I observed from them, both from Meera and from Brindha, it's the faith. I just wanted to connect back to what Suren had said a day before yesterday. Faith is a sort of belief, but it's an unshakable trust they have. Yes. And because they have seen the facts and the faith they have in this community keeps them going.

Yes. Thank you so much, Shankar, for sharing. And Vani, you have to share a few words.

Let me give her a hug first.

Come on, round of applause.

Yeah, I think I'm really short of words because I don't look at her and all the kids here as just teenagers who are 12, 13. I look at them clearly as souls who have incarnated in this planet for a mission that is clearly, you know, not for just living a normal life like how 99% of the kids live and, you know, leave. But they're just here to impact, and you're already seeing it, right? Which other 13-year-old kid could have this kind of a clarity in thought and the pauses and the way the matchstick example, all of that is not your age, Meera. And I'm so proud, so honored, so privileged to be in an environment. I have an environment because of these kids to grow and be a better version of myself. Thank you, kids. I love you.

I love you. I love you.

And with that, I want to bring all of the teams on the stage and let's give them a round of applause.

One big round of applause for the teams.

There's a bit of music.