Ep#43: Sangeeta Mehra on Resilience, Reinvention & Finding Joy Through Creativity

The Smiling Souls Seniors Podcast

Sangeeta Mehra shares her transformative life journey, moving from a traditional childhood in Old Delhi to overcoming a severe health crisis

Key takeaways

• Sangeeta Mehra overcame Nephrotic syndrome, a kidney condition that caused significant physical and emotional setbacks.
• The 'Smiling Souls' platform provided the necessary stage for her to transition from private singing to public performance.

Main topics

• Childhood memories in Old Delhi
• Battle with Nephrotic syndrome

Notable quotes

Don't look like religion, don't look like deity. Look like humanity.

Conclusion

A powerful testament to how community engagement and creative expressi

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:11) Smiling Soul Seniors Podcast. I'm your host Tejasah and bring to you this podcast meant for the seniors, of the seniors and by the blessings of the seniors. This is the best platform for seniors to express freely, be heard, share their life story and achievements, challenges and wisdom with seniors across the world as well as with the younger generation. Speaker 1 (0:42) Our special guest today is a truly remarkable woman, Srimati Sangeeta Mehra, whose life is a beautiful blend of creativity, music, resilience, compassion, service and spirituality. Her siblings fondly call her Sarvabuna Sampanna for being blessed with a wide range of talents from singing to writing to painting to cooking, theatre, reiki healing and more. Thus, she brings passion and purpose to everything she does. Despite facing a serious health challenge and the resultant emotional setback, Sangeeta ji has emerged triumphantly with a new version of herself. Let's welcome Srimati Sangeeta Mehra and listen to her inspiring life journey, her journey with the Smiling Souls and the wisdom she has gathered along the way. Speaker 2 (1:31) Namaskar. The Smiling Souls Seniors Podcast has a warm welcome to all our viewers and listeners. Speaker 2 (1:40) Today we have a very special guest with us, Srimati Sangeeta Mehra ji. Namaste Sangeeta ji. Namaste. By the way, we know you. You are a member of Smiling Souls. But today we will spend some very good moments together. Definitely. So I would love to understand your childhood. Speaker 3 (2:04) Yes, my childhood was very interesting. I was born in Delhi. We were born in Old Delhi. We were born there. And at that time, there were no such flats. There was no such neighbourhood. The neighbourhood used to have a big veranda. Like we Speaker 1 (2:25) used to call it Speaker 3 (2:25) Veda. In Punjabi, we call it Veda. So in Veda, we only had 8 to 10 houses. Inside the same house, there was a big iron gate. Speaker 2 (2:36) We Speaker 3 (2:36) used to play there. We used to keep a wooden stick. Dad used to come on a scooter. We used to run in the evening. We used to wait for the horn to ring. All the kids used to run away from their homes. My dad is here. My dad is here. We used to put the stick on him. Dad used to Speaker 1 (2:57) come on a Speaker 3 (2:57) scooter from Speaker 1 (2:58) above. Speaker 3 (2:59) And we Speaker 1 (3:00) used to park Speaker 3 (3:00) there. And we used to play around them. It was a very good childhood of mine. But yes, I really miss those days. Because we shifted from there and came to a refined colony. We had this society system, you know. There were flats there. Definitely kids were there. We used to play together. Speaker 2 (3:19) And what did your father do? Mom, dad both? Yes, mom, Speaker 3 (3:23) dad. My father was in the bank. And my mom was a housemaker. And I have never seen a housemaker better than him in my life. She was a pure, pure divine person. Calm, serene. And I never saw anyone's hands so magical that they could touch anything. They could become so delicious. Wow. Yes. Because we never saw anything coming from the market in our house. Mummy used to make all delicacies at home. And the best part was that in our house, there were grandparents in one room. There were grandparents in Speaker 1 (4:03) one room. Speaker 3 (4:03) So what used to happen in our house was that everyone used to come to meet them daily. So, all the time, so many old people were there in our house. And we have seen such a beautiful time. All the time, all the time, with us. We have learned so much from them. Then, there were no phones, no gadgets. Nor could we refer anywhere that this recipe, or we should know that, or anything. So, these are the tips of grandmothers and grandfathers. Speaker 3 (4:34) Homemade recipes. We used to get these at home. We didn't need Speaker 2 (4:37) to refer to them. Speaker 3 (4:38) Mummy used to make dishes for everyone. I never saw her tired. I never saw her sad. Ever smiling. So... That's what Speaker 2 (4:50) you have. People Speaker 3 (4:52) say that. Maybe mummy has that reflection. So, thank you, mama. Speaker 2 (4:58) I Speaker 3 (4:59) think my dad is the best dad. He was very hard working and he taught us that hard work. He would make us do all the physical labour. He didn't do it with love, of course. But he did it with a lot of love. If you want to do it, then you have to do it. Like on Diwali, he had to remove all the crockery. He told me to clean them. Clean everything, change and put the paper again. And we used to bring the floor polish. Speaker 2 (5:31) It Speaker 3 (5:31) was done, it was clean, we removed the curtain and we used to polish them. We used to work hard. The benefit of that was that when we came on our own, I used to even use the fuse. I used to change the plug. I didn't have any work related to electricity. I could do everything. I knew how to handle a cooler. I knew how to use a tube light. I knew how to change a bulb. I knew how to do anything. I knew everything. I didn't have all this. I had four brothers. I had three sisters and one brother. I am still getting the hard work. Then what happened? Speaker 2 (6:14) As you grew up, Speaker 3 (6:16) education and all that. Yes, everything went well. Then marriage. Marriage happened in such a way that it was of my choice. Okay, love marriage. Yes. Okay. Speaker 2 (6:27) Everyone was happy at home? Speaker 3 (6:28) Love come arranged. Speaker 2 (6:30) Okay. Speaker 3 (6:30) So I told my mom. Mom said, okay, me and sister will go to meet. Then we will tell papa. Then mom went, sister went, met my husband, Ajay. Did you like it? So he said, hmm, okay, we'll talk to papa. Speaker 2 (6:47) Then Speaker 3 (6:47) we talked Speaker 2 (6:47) to Speaker 3 (6:47) papa, but I didn't talk to papa directly. Ajay told me in his house. And then both the families Speaker 2 (6:55) met. So everything Speaker 3 (6:57) went Speaker 2 (6:57) well. Were you in a job then? No, I had Speaker 3 (7:03) done Speaker 2 (7:03) vocational training. I wasn't Speaker 3 (7:05) in a Speaker 2 (7:05) job. Because my Speaker 3 (7:07) in-laws said that it's not necessary now. I wanted to but my parents said that if you know then you wouldn't have to do it. Speaker 2 (7:17) So when they felt that there is no need I didn't even opt for that. Speaker 3 (7:23) Later on as time passed I felt like then I took a teaching job. Speaker 3 (7:30) I did my teaching, then I had my elder daughter. I did it even then. But she used to stay in the creche. Because my mother-in-law was not in a state to look after her. So she stayed in the creche. So that was a bit painful for me. But still we managed somehow. Then I had another daughter. Speaker 3 (7:55) Then I thought I should stop because I had two kids and it was difficult. I used to feel more about the younger one. She used to say that I should be visible when I come from the school. She used to feel that way. So then I dropped. She said that you will