Most often, it is people with wisdom earned over a lifetime who decide to share it with the world by penning a self-help book. However, Pune-based Chitra Lele has recently come out with The 6 Spheres of Life: Unlocking the Door to Success and Happiness at the tender age of 22.
Record-setter
The book, published by Atlantic Publishers, has a Foreword written by Tim Connor, bestselling author of over 70 titles in the motivational genre of books. He writes: “The book you are now holding can have a galvanising and positive impact on your life... It is a wonderful tool to help you chart your progress and maintain your course... It is books and counsel like Chitra's that enables me to discover what really matters in life both now and in the future... Thank you Chitra for sharing your wisdom with the world. When the world has more people like you, it will be a better place.”
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Chitra has appreciation pouring in from all over the world. “I have received more than 70 plus Letters of Commendation from world leaders and world organisations for my book,” she says, “namely, the President of India, Ireland, Croatia and so on.” In fact, she has two entries in the 2010 edition of the Limca Book of Records: one for the maximum number of appreciation responses from world leaders and the other for being the first Indian to receive ‘The Peace Maker Award' from the Peace Writers Organisation (USA) for her peace-driven writing.
Her take on life
So what is so unique about Chitra's writing that sets it apart from the rest of the self-help books? “I have tried to convey what I wanted to say by using easy-to-remember formulas,” she says. “For instance, the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of ‘hope' is 'ray' because of the phrase ‘a ray of hope'. So when I am trying to instil hope, I summarise my message in RAY — Repel paralysing forces; Action all the way; You have to be strong spiritually, emotionally and physically. These formulas are thought conditioners to bring about inner peace.”
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Her mother, Asha Lele, believes that the very fact that the book brings a youngster's take on life to the table is what differentiates it from other books in the genre. “Older authors tend to sound preachy,” she says. “However, in Chitra's book, the young readers feel that it is one among them who is sharing her experiences.”
Regaining confidence
Chitra is a management professional who also conducts motivational seminars on personal transformation. She says that during these seminars she met a lot of frustrated people who had the required professional skills, business knowledge and domain expertise but never got the right kind of growth opportunities. On the other hand, their counterparts who were not equally competent were at the top of the ladder.
“I realised that these days people want to get to the top by hook or by crook,” she says. “In the process, they deviate from the moral axis, and this is a very sad trend. Since I belong to the young generation, I feel disheartened when I see hardworking boys and girls my age lose confidence because of this unfair competition and take extreme steps like suicide. Through my book, I want to help them regain their lost confidence and bounce back with a renewed sense of self-determination.”
About her future projects, she says that she is working on a few books both in the management and non-management genres. “One is on the importance of English in today's world of globalisation,” she says. “I am also working on a computer science book.”