About Nalanda Joglekar
Hi, I’m Nalanda.
I use the power of stories to help you live with purpose and enjoy stress-free outdoor adventures.
Get my FREE Newsletter here — Get, Set, Adventure. It’ll drop twice a month.
I graduated with a Masters’s Degree in History from the University of Pune in 2000.
You see it, don’t you? Hi’story’.
All through my life of adventures, travel and immersing myself in different cultures, I’ve listened to stories. And narrated them in turn.
They have been about love and loss, hardship and abundance, joy and sorrow. Think of any emotion and I have a story for it.
I even have a tale about how I won the top prize at a local rolling-out-of-bed competition.
It is fascinating to listen to tales shared by a campfire, narrated in the middle of a desert storm or whispered in tents.
Equally beautiful stories get told on train journeys, in cramped buses and in shared drives.
Overhearing snippets of conversations stokes my curiosity as my mind races to complete the story half told.
Even if the tongue is unfamiliar.
There is always the universal language of expressions to fall back on.
I began using my storytelling skills to amplify the message from small brands. When they blow up tomorrow I will have played a part in their growth story.
I have the talent to narrate but I am still building the skills to tell a brand story
Come from a place of empathy as I understand the growing pains of busy entrepreneurs. I am one myself.
If your brand story needs be told, I’m am here to help you grow.
Stories connect me to people and to questions. Curiosity makes me seek the answers.
Questions is how I found my life’s purpose.
My mind inquisitive mind was working behind the scenes. After all that chasing, it hit me suddenly.
My purpose in life is to help.
To the best of my ability.
It has been a long journey. I don’t know if this is the end, but I am eager to see where it leads me.
Sometime those questions outnumber the answers. Then, I turn to the mountains for a way out.
It is a wonder that more people need to experience. To be up there, see the interminable peaks and witness incredible sunsets.
Time spent in nature is full of whispered questions and answers that come unprovoked.
Your needs are simple, the day is uncomplicated.
Your body needs to get you from point A to B. But your mind soars to heights your body will never attain and fetches the answers you’ve been seeking.
The more primitive it is, the better it gets.
To anyone hesitating to step out, I can only say, don’t deny yourself the awe of outrageous magnificence that nature inspires.
Let your first adventure be the first of many. I will make it stress-free.
One of the best outcomes of finding my purpose was I started writing grant proposals for NGOs in 2019.
There were a series of hits and misses as I struggled to understand how to craft compelling documents that would catch the funder’s eye.
Finally, I learned the ropes myself and after about 27 proposals, started seeing some acceptance.
Besides my grant writing service, I’m also putting together a detailed Course to take a writer from novice to capable in a matter of weeks.
That’ll the first structured course around grant writing in India. Sign up here.
I’ve never confined myself to one role or work. I’ve let my passion and purpose lead me on life’s adventures. They include:
- Opening and managing a thriving bookshop.
- Learning on the job in the nascent e-learning industry in India.
- Walking a 1000 km across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia supported by Bactrian camels and a Kazhak crew.
- Up-skilling my way to head Operations for the third largest Business Unit with a 4500 head-count in an Indian Technology Major
- Trekking in the Indian Himalayas, and multi-day hikes in the Alps
- Turning around a loss making gymnasium in the middle of the pandemic.
- Traveling to 22 countries.
- Seeing a snow leopard in the wild among the high peaks of Ladakh.
- Heading an NGO and executing land and water-based adventures for persons with and without disabilities in India
- Writing two articles every week since 2020 combined here and on medium dot com
- Walked 63 KM and raised Rs 1.12 lakhs through a personal fundraiser campaign.
- Launching a handmade clothing accessories and home decor business to a first year revenue of 0.5 million dollars
- Crafting winning grant proposals for NGOs in India with a top grant of Rs 22 lakhs.
- Completing several triathlons, half marathons and a Half Ironman race in a decent time.
- And now, building India’s first structured course on grant writing.,
