We Are Unique

28/02/2021

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08/01/2021

We Are Unique Series Ep-12
"Perseverance to Success"
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Dr. Mariam Anjum Ifthikar, hailing from a beary community in Mangalore completed her schooling in Gerosa convent school and had always been a meritorious student. Also an active member in all the extra curricular activities.

Completing her 10th boards and pre-university in flying colours she pursued MBBS with merit seat from Father Mullers Medical college. She did face alot of discouragement from many people to discontinue and get married, but her parents stood with her in full
support. Especially her mother and maternal grandfather (A.S.Manipady) were instrumental in supporting all her decisions and helped her to continue studies.

As of today she is married to Mr. U.T. Ifthikar Ali, son of late Mr. U.T.Fareed and brother of Mr. U.T.Khader. They are blessed with 2 little daughters Layyah & Liyyah.

After MBBS she joined post-graduation through merit seat for MS OBG and did fellowship in gynaec-oncology at Kidwai cancer institute, Bangalore. Dr. Mariam Anjum Iftikhar is the first Gynaecological Oncologist from Dakshina Kannada.

Post that her career graph has just advanced with every step, she also did fellowship in minimal access surgery, Post graduate diploma in clinical research and Mch super-speciality at Amrita institute of medical sciences in Gynaecological oncology, robotic surgeries and breast cancer treatment with undue support from husband and in laws. She even did scholarship based international level presentations at Seoul, South Korea and Rio de Janario, Brazil. Currently she is the zonal member for Karnataka state chapter association for Gynaeconcologists, India.

Dr. Mariam Anjum's Journey in her own words

As a child, hailing from a middle class family I was focussed on building my career, not medicine per se. Eventually as I grew up inclination to medicine was encouraged by my Mother.

While I was doing my Postgraduation I was examining an old lady who was diagnosed to be having cancer of the uterus, so we both were waiting for the senior oncologist to come and examine her to give his opinion on the
treatment. The old lady cried & requested if I could examine and give my opinion as she was not comfortable to be examined by a male Doctor. This was thought provoking and I realised there were hardly any female cancer surgeons at that time in Mangalore. Thats how I decided to choose oncology as my career path for higher studies.

As a Doctor we have to face challenges, take risks, face failures; but with patience, perseverance and dedication along with prayers always makes it worthwhile. We are responsible for our own destiny.

My family, my mother, father, sister and grand-dad has always been inspirational and supported me in all my endeavours before marriage. And after marriage my husband and in laws have been my encouragement with undue support. My husband motivated and supported me when I had to move to Bangalore to chase my dreams with my daughter who was just 8 months old.I had to crack my entrance exam to get into prestigious Kidwai institute as it was only merit basis. Mother and U.T. Khader’s wife Lamees took take care of my daughters who were just toddlers then. Maintaining good relations with family and friends is the main ingredient for any peaceful and contented life.
I have been inspired by my in laws for how supportive they were in terms of education and charity. My sister in law has been my mentor in shaping my growth after marriage on my personal front with so many values in her which is beyond this scope of write up.
I would like to give a call to all my muslim brothers and sisters to please educate their daughters and make them economically independent within boundaries of Islam. Bias of educating only boys should be eliminated and should treat both genders equally.

Today's world is certainly changing and motivating as more and more girls from the community are getting graduated from medical, law, journalism, public service, airforce, etc. Educating a girl in family who is a daughter, sister will eventually be wife, mother, playing innumerable roles and thereby will lead the society and also be the backbone of the family.

People in the community are appreciating, respecting and accepting the change and take me as an inspiration towards motivating their children, which I consider is a sense of pride for me. Please take it as a challenge, doesn’t matter which background you come from, education/financially sound or not but being focussed, without any distractions, ignite the zeal in you and chase your dreams. But at the same time being righteous in our earnings
and confined to the religious boundaries also is an important key component.

Keep pursuing your dreams, and
always keep religion in par with the worldly aspirations. It is each one of our responsibility to maintain the respect of our community. I personally believe excellence in our work area should be our goal, irrespective of how small or
big is our job.

End of the day we should contribute back to the society, help the needy, be a support to the family and its all about one life that we have and making mark is all that matters!
Irrespective of what age you are – “why not me ?”should be the motto.

It’s all our individual responsibility to maintain our community’s respect to a next level.

19/12/2020

Ashwitha Shetty a software engineer currently working as a business analyst in an MNC in Bangalore. Hailing from kundapur she is also a freelance zumba trainer. She loves practicing new Zumba fitness choreos and other dance forms like hip-hop and Bharatanatyam in her free time. She also enjoys exploring the world around her which definitely includes travelling and trying out new things in life.

2016 was a year which brought zumba into her life. That year was a bit depressing for her on both personal and professional end. That is when her mother pushed her to join some form of fitness classes to be physically and mentally healthy which could act as a catalyst for combatting her stress. She says regular gym workouts were not her thing. She felt it to be too monotonous and boring at some stage. Since she loves dancing and as Zumba entails both dance and fitness, she decided to enroll into it. For her it was the best decision she ever made. All her problems looked smaller over time, helped her gain a fresh perspective towards life. Sooner, Zumba grew on her and she decided to become a instructor herself and spread the love across to make a difference. At the end of Dec 2018 she decided to take zumba professionally.
Apart from Zumba fitness, she also performs Strength and Conditioning, Jump rope, Running on a regular basis. According to her every workout form has its own perks. She is always thrilled to try different things to have a healthier happier soul. She says, "Zumba has no age limits. It is like a fitness in disguise in the form of dance. The choreos of Zumba fitness is smartly designed in such a way that you are enjoying and working out at the same time. From my experience and from my client feedback as well, in the end of session, you will feel like you are having the best time of your life. Its beautiful to see your clients leaving your class with a happy face and I feel like I served my purpose at that moment. I haven’t experienced anything like this in other workout formats."

Her routine is very impressive to follow. She wakes up at 5:30am. Goes for a run for half an hour, reads a novel, spends time with family in the morning and begins her work. Once she is done with work, she starts with 10mins of jump rope, 20 mins of S&C, 45 mins of Zumba Fitness and sleeps by 11:30pm.

She is now an independent Zumba trainer. She likes to have a flexible schedule. Depending on her free time and Zumba session requests, she conducts classes. Being from a conservative family, initially she was a bit skeptical of how would her parents respond but when she told them of her Zumba journey after an year, she was completely surprised to see them being very supportive of what she does.

She aspires to travel and conduct more Zumba live sessions across the globe as she waits for things to get back to normal once the covid situation settles down.

For enquiries people can drop a DM or mail her at [email protected] for energetic healthy Zumba session.

05/12/2020

Vishakha Kamath, B.E in Computer Science hailing from Mangalore. She did her schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya & then joined St. Aloysius for Pre-University. Post that graduated from Canara Engineering College. They are a family of 4. Her father, a retired BSNL employee and Mother, an Ayurvedic physician. Anf her brother is doing his graduation. She loves interacting with people, art & craft, writing, listening to music, enjoys being with children and recently realised her love for travelling too.

When she was in her 2nd year of engineering she came across an organization called "Make A Difference". That was the first time she heard of volunteering for a cause & got a chance to enroll for it. Her role at MAD started as a teacher where she visited shelter homes on weekends to teach them. She took up multiple roles in that organization like a mentor, city trainer and a centre head.

She was nervous & at the same time excited too. She feels it was bit of selfishness that made her work so hard as she loved receiving their selfless love. She was looking forward to each weekend to visit the kids, to talk to them, to teach & learn from them. Little did she know that she could take this up as a career.

During her days as a volunteer, with a role as a "centre head", she got an opportunity to work closely with the students, she used to visit them almost everyday. She saw the potential in these kids & they proved her right by scoring very well that year in the SSLC exams. She wanted to explore & understand the ground reality in schools but she did not know the exact way to go about it.
After her Engineering she joined Infosys and worked there for 10 months. However, she was not able to continue & started exploring various options in the social sector. Thats when she came across "Teach For India" fellowship and she realized that was exactly where she wanted to be. She loved teaching kids & felt content.

Her journey from "Make A Difference" has been a roller-coaster ride. She acquired skills of people management, program/project management, training and coaching. She got an opportunity to work with people from diverse backgrounds like Students, community leaders, parents, teachers, government officials, CSR, corporate leaders, shelter-homes, NGOs etc. And also got to explore on-ground realities, especially in the field of education. She believed it was a great opportunity to be in the development sector solving one of the puzzle pieces aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal by UN.

She started her journey at "Make A Difference" with one shelter home and now she is working with multiple government schools and communities. The visibility of impact in this sector is slow. Here they keep investing in students which would yield returns in the future.

As she shares insights we realise that there are various opportunities around if you want to help others & be a part of the social sector. First you need to understand your area of interest. i.e. Education, Employment, Healthcare, Environment etc. Also, understand which group of people/ target group you want to work with ( Eg: Children, Women, Water issues, etc.) and then you can search online for organizations working in that area. Also, if you are working for a corporate company, you can get involved in their CSR programs.

When she started as a volunteer, her parents were worried about her studies & were unhappy about her getting involved in these activities. But slowly, they realized she loved doing this and they saw positive changes in her. Hence to take this up as career, it was not very difficult for her to convince them. She had told them her story, her journey previously about volunteering and how much she wanted to do it. Also, she explained them about the "Teach For India" fellowship and their rigorous interview process, where they select only handful of applicants, and they knew she had worked hard to get through.

She quotes - "Working in the social sector/development sector helps you solve real-time problems, it is very rewarding, enriching & a satisfying experience. I am sure that more than what you give, you receive here. Also, work here only if you are passionate to do something for the people. We see a lot of them complaining about the various issues around. But working in the social sector, we get to be part of the solution and actually solve a part of the problem and stop complaining."
She chose to walk on the steps of humanity and made it choice to turn that into her career. This takes immense courage and confidence and we salute her for this beautiful decision.

06/11/2020

- Episode 09
"Dreams to Destiny"-
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Arun R Hegden hailing from Ettumanoor, Kottayam, Kerala is an avid photographer and an aerospace engineer.  He completed his B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering initially and settled in with a promising MNC job in his own forte. In the final days of his engineering college he started his interest in photography. Initially he explored photography with a phone camera & eventually started a page back in 2011 which gradually garnered some good reviews. Once he joined work after College, he explored the hobby forum in the company called SLRBB, which laid the basic foundation of his Photography career. He joined their weekly challenges where he nurtured his skills. It took him an year of practice to win the weekly challenge. As his intetest grew, in 2013 he attended a Photography workshop which changed his perspective. To nourish his skills he would click pictures whenever an event was organized in and around Mysore. Eventually in 2014 he started to take up few paid works after one of his picture from Ladakh was featured in Chennai Weekend Clickers exhibition 2014 and it went on smooth from there till 2017. Slowly his office life turned monotonous and creative saturation was creeping in. Some of his friends left office and he couldn't put is 100 percent into photography. He reached a situation where he had to decide whether to dedicate more time to Photography & Travel or stay with a desk job. Ultimately he laid down his papers on Dec 27 2017 and quit his job for good after working for 6.6 years as an Aerospace Design Engineer. He then shifted to Bangalore and continued to work on freelance projects, started to conduct travel and Photography workshops. He wished he had read more books and learnt more in his twenties but he still lives with no major regrets. He is currently conducting 1-1 workshops on Portrait Photography and Lighting. He would be traveling to Iceland for a Photography expedition once the International flights resume.
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31/10/2020

- Episode 08
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"Breathe into a Conscious Life"
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Aminah Sheikh is a storyteller with a gypsy heart, who believes ‘We are all Stardust’.
Her endeavor is to share the gift of healing through the Breath. The essence of her work is in supporting a breather to befriend the wounded inner child, and weave a fresh story thereon. She uses a gentle approach to remind breathers of their power of choice.
As a healing facilitator, Aminah uses modalities such as Breathwork, Mindfulness, Emotional Freedom Technique and Flower Remedies. She facilitates private 1:1 sessions and guides experiential workshops. She works with people across age groups. And, often collaborates with alternative & holistic studio for her workshops.
She embarked on a conscious lifestyle in 2019, prior to which, in her career spanning 15 years she has been a business journalist, business development/client servicing executive and a freelance brand communication consultant.
“At times our journey takes us through pivotal moments, when we are ready to receive. And so, in 2019 when I came close to losing my mother, all my childhood wounds came alive, along with a strong fear of abandonment. It was then that I met an angel - Catherine, my healing facilitator. The inner work I did with her helped me reclaim my authentic self. Among the many wonderful discoveries I had with her, one was breathwork with Alchemy of Breath,” shares Aminah. From a breather, she went on to becoming a trained facilitator with the
Like Rumi said, ‘What you seek, seeks you’, Aminah found her life’s calling in breathwork. “I truly believe that each awakened individual passes on the magic to her/his family, friends, community, humanity. And, I’ve been blessed to witness significant shifts in people. The love I receive from people, inspires me to go deeper in my offering - holding space and reminding people that we all have the power within us to change our narrative,” expresses Aminah.

23/10/2020

- Episode07
"Life is what YOU make it"
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Asma, a Saudi based MUA currently running a  studio in her hometown Mangalore, Karnataka. She spent 22 years of her life after marriage in Saudi Arabia with her Husband and two lovely kids where she professionally started working as freelance make up artist majorly Indian, Pakistani and Arab brides. She is a trained and certified artist with skills of perfection and her work in images testify the same. She was doing really well in her forte of make up but at a point she had to take a decision to leave the comforts of Saudi for the education of her kids but made sure she continued her passion as a makeup artist and brought it to another level. Her husband has been of great support through out her journey.
She returned home with a dream and a strong determination to establish herself as an independent MUA. And as she says with all praise to the lord in a very short time her dream turned into reality working on a variety of assignments. Her major support came through her Instagram account where she has been very regular. If you see her growth graph it is evident that her work has been the sole reason for her success today. She is definitely anytime a perfect choice for a MUA for any occassion or project, whether its bridal make up, model shoot, movie or any family function/parties. Her passion for make up started in her early life itself but her real professional career began when she started her new life in Saudi after marriage. She started her training under a professional Pakistani beautician Zoya Khan in Saudi Arabia where she continued her work as a freelance MUA. She has her expertise in various types of make up arts.  After returning to Mangalore - "Asma's Makeover", as a brand name, she started her work initially through an Instagram account in and within a year she opened her studio in Mangalore. According to her, hard work is the key to success no matter what field you are in. She gives complete credit to her hard work and passion she has put into her career all these years.
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17/10/2020

- Episode 06
As we celebrate the b'day of Sri. Abdul Kalam on 15th Oct, our beloved former president & India's aerospace scientist, We Are Unique has decided to dedicate this week to him.
Eventhough he belonged to wealthy traders' family, they had lost all of their fortune during his early childhood. Being the youngest among the 4 he had to sell newspapers to meet ends. His father was an Imam in Masjid and used to run a ferry which would carry pilgrims. He was born & raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next 4 decades as a scientist & science administrator, mainly at the DRDO & ISRO & was called as the 'Missile Man of India' for his work on the development of ballistic missile technology. In school, Kalam had average grades but was described as a bright & hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn. During his engineering senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his progress & threatened to revoke his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next 3 days. Kalam met the deadline impressing the Dean who later said to him. He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he was placed 9th & only 8 positions were available in IAF.
He graduated in 1957 & started his career as a scientist in 1958. After visiting NASA in 1963-64 he had started working on an expandable rocket project independently in 1965 at DRDO but it was not successful. His achievements actually began after he got transferred to ISRO in 1969. Under his leadership India saw many developments, such as:
•••SLV-III which successfully deployed the Rohini satellite in near-earth orbit in July 1980.
•••India launched missiles like 'Prithvi' and 'Agni'.
•••Succesful launching of IRS satellite into Sun-Synchronous orbit.
•••Conducting the Pokhran-II, a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions in May 1998.
He served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007. He earned his name as a 'People's president' for his tremendous work during his tenure. He will remain as a true inspiration to everyone. Never stop chasing your dreams, it can take you from zero to hero in fractions

09/10/2020

- Episode05
"Inspirations are boundless"
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Nirosha Shanmugam from Chennai, a final year MBBS student in B'lore has a very interesting story to share. She always wanted to become a doctor ever since her childhood. After her 12th she was very confident that a medical seat was going to be easy. In 2015  she wrote all the entrance exams for separate States and Universities, but still missed to manage a seat. Her dreams shattered and she went through a depressive phase. She had never thought of a second option but with the love for physics, aimlessly she joined engineering. It was the phase where failures discouraged her to give up and think about other possibilities.

She loved her new college as it was open to experimentation & creative opportunities. She got into elocutions, literature, debate, etc. Eventually started participating in national-level debate tournaments. When she felt she was happy there, in about 2months reality striked in. She didn't enjoy her subjects. Her best friend who had taken a year break was insisting her to start exam preps again. She realised she wanted to become a doctor itself. For 6-7 months she prepared for the exams in every possible way compromising her health. This time she was confident of cracking the exam. A few weeks before the exams she informed her parents about appearing for entrance exam, eventhough they were shocked they supported well. She dropped out of college for 3 months & cracked the NEET exam, secured a seat in Bangalore.
Also, she has been writing since her school days and always wanted to become a writer who can connect with people. She says, she wants to be a doctor who writes and a writer who heals. She is one of the 18 elite writers for Silent talks publication. She even learned art for a short period of time during school days. She is currently working on a comic anthology called "Hope On" and another Anthology called "Thoughts after midnight". She has illustrated for alter doctor, an online magazine run by health care professionals. And this doesn't end there she is also one of the brand ambassadors of a stationery brand called adori.in.
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02/10/2020

Apoorva Jnaan a final year Mechanical Engineering student who belongs to Tumkur but majorly brought up in Mysore. A vivid reader from childhood, where serious reading has been a household culture with a huge collection of books residing at home which eventually influenced him to write. What makes him interesting are not these background checks but the talent this guy possesses and how well he has taken effort in growing his skills. He is one example of multi-skilled individual: an author, poet/ lyricist, musician anda singer. He started writing during his early pre-university days and eventually posted few of his poetries on Facebook where people found it relatable and he received good number of appreciation. During the same time period music also happened when he was forced to learn a music Instrument by
his Mom. Initially he had no interest in learning music and was a huge physics geek but for Mom he chose to learn guitar and in his initial six months he developed an undying love for music. He also started a blog with a bunch of his childhood friends during his engineering where he took up writing a little seriously hence by the end of second year he had enough poems to publish. Thats when he received a message from a Delhi based publisher on his blog and he got to publish his first collection of poetries, called "She Will Be Loved. After that it took two more years for his next book, yet another collection of poems called "The Kiss". He also writes poetry in his mother tongue Kannada, & his very first poem in Kannada "Neelamegha" was picked up by singer/songwriter Vasu Dixit (the front man of Indian folk band Swarathma) for his solo project and since then he has worked with multiple independent artists and for some Kannada movies as well. As he kept juggling with so many stuff he has been dividing his time fruitfully doing multiple survival errand jobs along with extensive travelling. He was also part of multiple bands where he performed as a guitarist which gave him huge exposure into the world of music. In 2019 he started learning basics of digital music production and in 2020 he finally got his songs out there, a single and
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27/09/2020

25/09/2020

- Episode 03
"Happiness lies in the Dreams you seek"
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Art in itself is an expression of human skills and imagination. Sometimes art can speak much more than words and actions. Like this we came across a young artist whose art expresses many more things than just an image. Vinod Suvarna is youngest among his siblings and art came as God's gift to him. During childhood whenever his sisters insisted him to study he would sit with his sketch book and colours. Usually being average in studies his interest in art kept growing with time. After completing his graduation he joined Mahalasa Arts college in Mangalore, where he persued BVA(Bachelor of Visual Arts). It proved to be the perfect choice for him. From there he attended many camps and events which brought him many prizes and awards. He still remember the best feeling of his life when he got first award in Mumbai for the art named 'The Lamentation'. The art was so thoughtful that it brought him first prize in the event.
Some of his events and prizes are listed below :.. 'Kalavart Nays' National Art Contest Ujjain M. P. Which brought him gold medal. .. 123rd All India Art Exhibition Bombay Art Society where he won best painting award... National Level of Award of Kalavart. .. 2016-17 Lalita Kala Academy Bangalore Scholarship Award.
Soon after college, along with four friends formed an art group "pixncil" joining pixel n pencil which brought in more meaning to their creativity. They started taking up art projects in and around the city.
If you are in Mangalore or been travelling around the city you will see many of their art works on street walls, majorly around the compound of commissioner office. Recently they were also in news for the message they gave to the society through their art depicting not to neglect the old aged people because tomorrow it will be our turn.
Vinod has a very busy schedule. As he works as a freelance artist with pixncil, he also teaches art to children at home every evening.
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