We discuss racing with a learner's mindset, bouncing back from injuries, burning out, handling loneliness, gaining sponsors, motivation and MUCH MORE.
We discuss racing with a learner's mindset, bouncing back from injuries, transforming frustration, gaining sponsors, grit and MUCH MORE.
Golden Galata's from the episode.
Found more? Let me know on IG @PuneethSuraana or write to me at Puneethsuraana@gmail.com
This is a sponsored series in association with Sirona India. The series features women who are pioneering an unconventional career in sports. We discuss their journey, struggles and insights on the field that can be implemented in building your startups.
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About our sponsor:
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About The Galata Podcast:
Galata is a word from the Indian language Kannada that means the noise caused by a ruckus.
Each episode features an interview about starting up, testing ideas, creating a team, building something worthwhile and adding value to other people’s lives. Most of all, The Galata Podcast is about how you are delivering on your audacious promise.
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Mail: Puneethsuraana@gmail.com
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, racing, race, sport, support, athlete, primarily, life, pretty, bike, india, women, winning, happening, motorsports, explore, listening, family, sponsors, essential
SPEAKERS
Sirona, Puneeth, Aishwarya
Aishwarya 00:00
I am 24 and winning a world championship at 24 is overwhelming. I didn't expect five years ago that I would be doing anything. I don't even know where I was heading. So not having a direction to having a direction. championship was something it is something
Puneeth 00:18
it's Puneeth Suraana and this is the bonus series of the Galata podcast. We'll get to it in a second. But first, here's a message from our presenting sponsor,
Sirona 00:29
in association with sirona hygiene and our winning startup with salt unaddressed feminine hygiene issues with their unique products like sirona harbor period, pain relief patches, natural anti shopping, sirona menstrual cups, and many more. They are best known for their flagship product, Peabody, India's first female urination devices in which women can stand and pee in all dirty and unfriendly toilets visit them on www dot v sirona.com.
Puneeth 00:56
By joining in a conversation with a guest who is an Indian circuit and offroad motorcycle racer. She has a lot of firsts to her name, the first ever Indian athlete to win a World Title in motorsport on motorcycles. She participated at FIFA World Cup and secured the first place in the women's category and second in the juniors category, the first women to win six national titles in circuit racing and rally championships combined. Also the first Indian woman to compete in the Baja airgun World Rally in Spain held in 2018. At the time of this interaction, she is prepping up for the upcoming baja World Cup. She enjoys sketching music and meditation and is putting India on the map of world Motorsports. She is Aishwarya they say just yesterday liner songs she had like 300 K. And I was like you should like these two classes.
Aishwarya 01:55
Yeah, I think I showed that on Instagram yesterday. She's definitely an inspiration to a lot of people. And I think you got to log in, in women to not just men. I mean, not not just women, but men too. And I think that's really wonderful.
Puneeth 02:11
What do you look up to her about? What do you see him?
Aishwarya 02:17
She's like a cast woman. And now she leads a lot of men to at the risk of the.com, which is primarily the World Championships all I can feel on pics of motorsport square, the lead athletes, right? And she finishes stop 1520 every year. And yeah, that's wonderful. And that's pretty much how I want to be
Puneeth 02:40
explained to the listeners or Docker is like, because when I went to research of it, it scared the life out of me. But just those who are listening to it, what is Docker like?
Aishwarya 02:50
Docker is like the Olympics for Motorsports where it's a 14 day race with the right about at least 9000 kilometers over 14 days with one day break in between. So it's the most grueling and difficult race. And it's the survival of the fittest, and the strongest has
Puneeth 03:09
got to be like eight hours on the bike. That's eight hours of adrenaline jacked up kind of strain and the fatigue that it involves pushing you
Aishwarya 03:18
do the limits to Yeah, it's technically pushing the man machine and the mind to the limits. And that's the test of data. That's what that is all about. How
Puneeth 03:27
far are you from participating? I
Aishwarya 03:30
think I need another two years to be there not because I believe that learning needs to be completed, not fast forward. So which is pretty much why I think any two years to be able to be that. And that's the timeframe I'm looking at,
Puneeth 03:43
you know, when I started really appreciating the kind of work that get put in was when I was on a call with one of the trainers. And he mentioned the kind of timeframe you have been able to accomplish the kind of things for somebody, let's say born in Spain, or Australia. We have biking, I don't know this up biking, beautiful eight 910.
04:07
Even earlier, earlier. Yes.
Puneeth 04:09
And here you were starting these eating no infrastructures really in place. figuring it all out that made me appreciate is so much more.
Aishwarya 04:21
I think not doing too well in like 12th, which kind of reason why I got to explore more things coming from a conventional family where even today everybody does a named valve job to explore something that's out of the box. That is something away from the norm was who I was all along, which is what I explored. And that's how motorcycles happen with everything. I just didn't let it go. I mean, it hasn't been easy. It still isn't. But the goal is quite clear. And I think that that's why I keep going and that's
Puneeth 04:48
why I like what I do. We'll talk about that. But I want to pull it back to the first question that I usually ask my guests, which is what are the kind of conversations you had when you're growing up?
Aishwarya 05:00
Primarily you wish to do well in my studies to be able to figure out what career choice I had to make. And I think that is primarily the talks on the table. And I think over a period is more to do about how I should just do liking his passion and not invest all my time into it. And I should pick up a carrier and then afterwards just do this on weekends. And these are the kind of conversations we usually have on the dinner table. I remember the
Puneeth 05:27
days when she's my neighbor to other listeners, she was my neighbor for a long time. And a lot of times you'll be at your place for tuitions. That's something I vividly remember to this day, her arms. She's super she's so generous and open should have this really fun. Time. I still have such amazing memories. I think she was somebody who just made us come out of her house and have a good time and neighbors.
Aishwarya 05:51
Yeah, I think in in the society I think there are so many of us in terms of kids and we spend more time outside our houses than in our houses. And I think that was really nice. And there was a good growing upset be do do but it was really nice.
Puneeth 06:08
I remember you being so shy by yourself and a chubby kid. What happened after we met for the last time I think you're in eighth ninth
Aishwarya 06:17
as an attempt. Okay, yeah. And I think I took up going to college, which I didn't want to they made me take science and I have to go through it because
Puneeth 06:27
my Studio One two, I never
Aishwarya 06:29
was I was Moodle silent and I was not mine. I am but back then I was an unsigned and I think I was them. I just like my shop. That's that was pretty much who I was, I would find myself in the middle of trouble always so much who I was. I think after I'm done at that place, I was in college and didn't do too well in Metro. And I think that's the year I had a year to kind of figured out what I wanted to do whether I wanted to continue studies or whether I wanted to do something else. So I chose to do both. When I started working, I started training for racing. And I also started studying to complete my education. So that's pretty much how I kept going and always in extracurricular activities, sports and never in the class more or less. So that's pretty much how much
Puneeth 07:22
college Yeah, seems like a to college, but very pleasing at the same time.
Aishwarya 07:27
Yeah, definitely. We have been quite encouraging. In fact, I have resumed my studies manner graduation within last year living quite supportive of everything that I do. And that's I think that's the leash that an athlete or a person who wants to pursue something else along with education could ask, and it's a good platform for people like me to be able to do what we like, and also finish our academy.
Puneeth 07:50
It gives you that space.
Aishwarya 07:52
Definitely, definitely, I think with having the right kind of people and the right support by the faculty or the principal. I think it's really nice. And in fact, Mike Scott has an unconventional spot, which is quite difficult to get leeway to. But I think with the achievements that I've had, I've been quite kind enough to let me do everything that I
Puneeth 08:13
was the same when you when you're 12
Aishwarya 08:15
No, definitely not. Back then they would scare us about how we would not be making anything off ourselves. And we probably be throwing away our life. And yeah, but the same principle today is really Scotland proud of what I do. And
Puneeth 08:30
what happened was how did you end up feeling were always outside the class extracurriculars?
Aishwarya 08:35
Well, I think it used to do with a lot of emotional turmoil that was going on with my family too. So my parents have been separated for quite a bit. And I think that is quite traumatizing as a child, and also my grandmother passed away. So it was a lot of things for me to deal with at that point, which probably I was not prepared for. And I definitely didn't study and that resulted in me not doing too well. The first attempt at my exam since I come from a conservative family feeling 12 was probably like the tip of the iceberg to me for my dad to ask me to leave the house because I'm cheering 12 means you don't know what you're going to do after even to me It felt like I don't know what I was gonna do. Like I really had no direction anymore like I was as clueless which was quite scary at that point. And I think that's how failing feeling in my 20s was but it was also a boon in a way where I got to explore more things which was I started riding bikes. I started working at a very young age which was
Puneeth 09:38
was your first job I
Aishwarya 09:40
think I was doing day jobs where these one was I was also doing modeling at that time. The second was I was doing day jobs where you would be hostess is doing like at the reception of inviting people in of events and things like this. These are the characters that I used to do back then
Puneeth 09:55
there's also like support yourself because
Aishwarya 09:57
I taught my mom run the house because my mom doesn't earn enough to be able to run the house. So at that point, it was quite necessary for me to work to to be able to put food on the table or also pay the rent. So that's pretty much what it was you became
Puneeth 10:10
an adult? We are you then got other views of yours. What are you studying in undergraduate studies,
Aishwarya 10:18
I'm doing journalism, psychology and literature. That's what I'm doing at this point. So the reason I picked up is because I want to do sports psychology after this. So in our country, we don't have a lot of sports psychologist and me being an athlete, I think, we working with a sports psychologist, it's kind of interesting. I like it. So I want to be able to explore more of that. That's why
Puneeth 10:44
this is so relevant. When you were sharing about your failure. And the thought that I had is, especially the manual crowd, or probably the power, you know how to handle success, they're terrible at handling or supporting somebody who's just say,
Aishwarya 11:01
I think it's just the way we are brought up in terms of focusing on the strengths, focusing on them, successes, and I think we should were playing a sport comes into play at a very young age. And I think, which is why it's very essential for parents this day, to be able to let their kids to go play a sport to fail and will at the same time, so that they understand and as they grow, it will be much easier for them to take these negative setbacks and the sport,
Puneeth 11:30
really utilize this thing that you have,
Aishwarya 11:32
that definitely active sport, not just utilizes failures, but it gives you a way of life, I think it makes you so much more healthy, happy, because you are also much more of yourself. I believe that physical fitness kind of changes your whole mindset, your mentality, the way the kind of person you are, how you transform into how you do things, or it just it just transforms into every aspect of your life. And that's what I like about working out or
Puneeth 12:01
do you have like a transformative moment when you were like doing these road trips or stuff that you haven't picked like that. But we do.
Aishwarya 12:09
I think the Johnson wanted moment was when I went to my first race and I then moved to LA when I realized I'm not as good enough as I think I was,
Puneeth 12:17
when was it that was
Aishwarya 12:18
always in 2016. And on in February it was the circuit racing circuit racing is primarily races that happen when closed circuits, and the length of the circuit is about 2.1 kilometers, or three kilometers. In our country, we have two tracks. And those are the tracks that have races on and I feel terrible, because I wish the only one on that grid who had more experience than every other woman. But still, since I had not practiced for a while I feel terrible, again, that made me realize where I stand. So I think that was quite transformative. And after which I started training pretty much every other weekend changed a whole lot of my training schedule from working out pretty much every day to riding every weekends. I think Gigi change everything.
Puneeth 13:02
I remember researching about the exclusion of Indian. And this is again, why I appreciate the kind of work she's done. Because the kind of exposure that people in Spain and Australia get. They get like every damn day, and they have the best facilities in place. And how are they treating these lighters, you're trying to treat beacons or you can write beacons and train. How to figure that out. Was there a structure in place? Was there something?
Aishwarya 13:30
I think until 2018 I think we have a structure per se for offloading that for longer. Yes, there are infrastructures available that should offering when I wanted to pursue or go for my first international reasons. When bought a couple of months earlier, I started training vigorously where I had a coach named Manny from the ground. And he could have a structure for me as to we could do this. And that's pretty much how we started. And I've been working with Invictus for quite some time now. And mon also is, is from the same place with mon mon velkommen is my mental fitness coach where he runs a facility called behavioral foresight in the same place. And we were before Yes. So that's pretty much when I put a structure to everything per se, how to plan how to be able to utilize the most remote we have let's have this three days of training at the gym and three days there came along but every time I go to Spain, I do everything pretty much every day, Saturdays and Sundays. So that's what I like about going out and chaining. So that's pretty much how training every day is coming along to meet students in Tunisia in India.
Puneeth 14:42
That's why I've noticed a lot of Indian athletes go to places like Spain or Australia for training purposes.
Aishwarya 14:48
I think it's primarily because you can race with the best if you are in India and you want to race with the best How do you know what is your benchmark in terms of how you want to progress and I think it's quite essential for you to be able to race with the best to be able to be the best
Puneeth 15:01
option there in 2016, you failed in your first race. However,
Aishwarya 15:08
what is the journey so I had a coach in English class at that point for offering I wanted to do offering to get better with racing, because it's proven throughout the world that all the circuit racing athletes, when they change the slide off road, it's much easier for them to slide on board. So that's pretty much how I wrote which was to teach me how to do a ride off road and get better at it. And he suggested that I go for the action layer, which was probably one of the best decisions I made. At that point. I didn't know how to ride off what I had never been offered, but I knew how to ride a bike. That's really that's all I knew, I think the one who is probably the most trickiest one where we had it in madikeri. And it was quite slushy. And I probably had so many topples that I lost count of where every time I fell, I pick the bike up and I went, and I finished but I didn't know I didn't know how the format work. I didn't know anything. I just learned on the go keep asking assets from TVs racing at that point. What do I do? What do I do? And he was trying to shoot as then he is one of the most fastest guys in scooters. And he was kind enough to tell me how to go forward with every bit of the check post or check ins and checkouts and how do I do all of it. And that's pretty much how I learned how to do rally and actually was probably the best experience I had the first year between 16 years of life I finished with that job. But the second year, I went on to winning it with voice 2017 I went after winning the same race with the boys like in third and one women's last the second year. But the first year was the goal was to finish the race. I think even today, this is one thing I practice I need to be a learner every single time I go into a new thing, though I may have done it so many times, I still have to be a learner because every race is different areas is new. That's the same attitude I had then which is scattered forward even now. So 2016 Election Day was terrifying because the amount of crashes I had and the amount of stages that be worth and the amount of refueling stop saying this, I'm happy that I was not stranded anywhere. And I finished it. So it was quite an amazing
Puneeth 17:08
kind of mindset, you have to develop for something like this. Because for most of the raise your heart rate is at like 8590 you're jacked up on adrenaline. Yes. And you still have to be patient
Aishwarya 17:20
having a game like this comes primarily from the person that I am, which is all the things that have all the things that I've had to go through in my family since I was a kid. And I think that's what's made me tough in terms of my family, with my education with how I was treated at school or whatever it is. I think that's pretty much where my mental toughness comes from. And with this thought primarily it is more to do about being patient and doesn't if you look at the Moto GP riders, they have this video where they show the heartrate of all the riders at the satellite, which is some of them are peaking. Some of them are really early come like Valentino Rossi's happy slowly. But I think it is something we need to train time and again, to be able to stay that calm and one of the things that mon makes me do is that patience to be able to balance things out to have clarity to also use that I would call it the butterflies to use it in the right way. I like the butterflies. Yes, I think that's how we change to stay calm.
Puneeth 18:28
I did long back that are the more traumatic incidental experience you have had in life become the foundation for you to go the other direction when you can push yourself you can motivate yourself off of it.
Aishwarya 18:43
Yeah, because I think the worst can't get any worse than you've seen and you can either pick up yourself and go forward or you can stay away while and sulk about it so i think that's that's what it is and I I love being happy I don't like being in that negative space even even to the even too late and I think that's what's kept me going that I wanted to make something of myself I wanted to be someone that I could be proud of. And that's what I have been doing is what motivates you definitely like It's like my I don't live with my parents and I do things I've been doing things on my own for a while I've been learning since the age of 18 passed on the fact that I need to run the house there is not a lot of things that I have to say this is what I want to do this house this is our secured I want my life to be and things like that. I think that's that's pretty much me do. I want to say a certain thing and
Puneeth 19:46
I forgot.
Aishwarya 19:48
I guess I wanted to say
Puneeth 19:51
okay, we'll come back to that. How do you handle injuries? I have heard a few stories about injuries. I've seen a few photos, how do you take it emotionally? And what kind of family support
Aishwarya 20:12
helps you get through it? It's really important to have the right people around you and to have your goal as to what are you taking off this accident in? What do you want to do right after this. And I think that's how I've been able to bounce back from my injuries, especially the collarbone was probably the least of my problems. Because I broke my collarbone, I got the surgery. And five days later, I was back on the bike racing more times. This was in 2017, mid season where I was leading in both road racing and Rally Championship. And that's the UI went up to winning both championships in the same round. This is the international Rally Championship and international rotation championship. And I also wanted option, that option there and the rate at the same as 2017 was quite a full year. And the next accident was in 2018, where it was my first debut at the International rally race which was to stay in Baja. And I had a I had a crash actually had multiple crashes that day, but one crash and stable where I felt that I was just hurting and I have a normal crash epic like up I finished the race after I finished the race, we went from check just get an okay because of crashes. And they said we'll have to run some tests in the middle of the hospital and ancillary sounds with that Hitman. And when that I had ruptured my bankers. So the step they will have to transfer me to another hospital and not let me race for some time. And I think I was transferred to a different Hospital in a different city,
Puneeth 21:47
where you told about scenario I was
Aishwarya 21:50
I was but I didn't understand the depth of it until I finished my surgery. When they technically said that they will have to place a prosthetic press that however when we reach there, we realize that it's a little worse than to displace prosthetics. So they had to cut open my entire abdomen, which means quite a few stitches, and to tie back together, after which I was in the ICU for a week and about in less than a month. And I thought about hell that I think it was definitely a lot of the time, which gave me time to plan my world championship for 2019. You flip that
Puneeth 22:24
around that positively?
Aishwarya 22:27
Wow. Yeah. What else can you do? What was that I think about making off myself sitting in the hospital that one month, I probably understand Spanish quite a little bit. And then as making friends, the next bed of mine, that's pretty much as then my bed. So yeah, it was, it was probably the most horrible accident I've had,
Puneeth 22:52
you don't really appreciate about you that you can talk about something super painful with such ease. And the fact that it can take some just pain and word that you want to use.
Aishwarya 23:04
I think that's that's what I have always been, I think every traumatizing experience that I have changes me into a better version of myself. And that's something I really
Puneeth 23:16
love myself. How do you go about it, you give us an instance of you're on the bed and you realize you've gone through 42 stitches. I don't know how painful the fact that when you woke up or came to sense.
Aishwarya 23:29
Only it was just a blur and look to how it went. But then afterwards, I think it was primarily sleeping at the time there may be sketching in a while whining the little about me being there. But sadly enough, all of that, figuring out how I wanted to get back on my feet and get back onto the bike and how I wanted to get back into racing. And that's all I kept thinking about. And that's pretty much when Johnny and I made the plan of participating in the 2019 season
Puneeth 23:56
does grant cleaning there when you're asking
Aishwarya 24:01
God? Yes, yes.
Puneeth 24:02
Tell me about him. I've heard so much about him. I was searching you and he's been such mercy How can I propose that for you for
Aishwarya 24:11
God is he's technically a really nice man i and i think he's really supporting and growing up a lot more Indian talent. Leave me or Santos or the other people that we supporting. It's it's really nice to see how much he's being able to
Puneeth 24:31
do things for us about support he gave you right off the bat.
Aishwarya 24:36
I think he was there for me anytime I needed him because I was alone in the hospital. So he and his family were actually there for me to feel comfortable and be okay with thing that was happening. So I think he was
Puneeth 24:49
he treated me like family. He's like a father figure for a lot of foods. People that I looked up. Yeah,
Aishwarya 24:54
yes, good mental. We're just talking about what we do in 2019. That's pretty much when we decided to start with, we could start with the Baja where we live, at least they were for championships, which was Dubai, Portugal, Hungary and Spain. So these were the four rounds. And I had to be able to put money together to resolve all of the service thinking about the finances, how we put together these things.
Puneeth 25:17
How do you figure out the finances, I mean, there's a lot of work for sponsorship to be done by an athlete, especially in this sport, if you can give an insight of what's it like to go to sponsors, acquired,
Aishwarya 25:30
it's definitely not an easy job, but with TVs racing being there as my sponsor because my skin gave me a levy of at least performing, which means they said they supported me with something that I didn't have to worry about how I would get the finances together. However, the International Jesus, they partially supported it. So I had to look for more people to be able to support it, which is when I started speaking to sponsors meeting different people who are already scoring the score. We visited at office that spoke to them, they seem in group regression, why happened to who I am today, and they even dream that I want to be an RN, which is why I found few people to support it. And that's how I found my answers. It's not easy even today, to be able to earn my championship this year, I do have our sponsorship and the shirts a lot more than last year. So I'm still working on it. It's an ongoing process.
Puneeth 26:23
A lot of entrepreneurs do it. The last two, actually two came on board, we have actually connected them to ours, on organizers.
Aishwarya 26:31
If anybody listening to this podcast is interested in supporting this dream of being able to create India on the map of Motorsports with me, I would really like you guys to come forward and support this
Puneeth 26:46
always reach out to her going to be the sort of description she said the rest was the first quarter that was about it, how to make it for you. I think my
Aishwarya 26:53
first answer was he makes racing Academy because I started my career with him. And back in 16 2016, where he was sponsoring my training days where training is quite expensive. And they need show that they give as a sponsorship, where few of the riders were chosen, and they were giving training track time bikes, and then we had to take care of the money for the races in terms of the entity and all of these things that we had to take. So I think that time I had to crowdfund money to be able to start racing. That's how racing journey started to
Puneeth 27:31
respond to the coughing and trying to get funds from friends, relatives,
Aishwarya 27:36
I think I was able to take 50,000 rupees that year, which was good enough for me to chase that. Dream. Whatever money I made off winning the race, I will put it back into the next race. And that's how I kept it going for quite some time.
Puneeth 27:50
A lot of startups 16 strategy
Aishwarya 27:53
going back? Yeah, I think it's really important to invest in yourself, invest on your brand, because I think that's what will help us go a long way. And actually, I have so many other people backing me It's purely because I'm not going to make the money that it's an appeal, you need to be able to perform and utilize everything I need to be able to be at my best. And that's that's that's what I've been
Puneeth 28:15
doing on it.
Aishwarya 28:17
There's no halfway
Puneeth 28:19
through perspective, there's no half way about the attitude of flow. Do you have a mentor that you work with? I know Roy is somebody I know Is anybody else was recommended? Or like a guide by your side?
Aishwarya 28:32
Not surely not at this point. I've had people in the past, like Jeeva, which was nearly I think, at this point, it's Johnny but on us. However, yeah, I am in search of a mentor at this what kind of mentor
Puneeth 28:50
was connected to somebody? Well,
Aishwarya 28:55
as an athlete, I think it's all as human beings we primarily especially I think being the people of India, we always have family to kind of be there for us always. In my case, I don't have that part. So which is where my team, my friends and all of them come into play and the mentorship is a very essential part of my life and which is where we performance a lot of things I have one who really supports me with life skills and a little bit you're in that I get to learn to move action called shampooed hurry so very nice man who I will learn a lot of things from and I want to be like him for sharp is definitely a very nice person. And since he's not around most of the time, which is why you know that constant need of being able to speak to mentors is I think a part of all our lives and that's pretty much why I'm looking for a mentor because it's it's definitely a very lonely spot because we have just by ourselves, bikes and we it's what's going on in our mind, the kind of people we are what we do on each situation that we get the Wi Fi lost at a race. So what we do and I think and which Why since we do so many things by ourselves when we are off the bike, it's essential for us to be around the right people and the right mentors. And I think that's what I always look for the right kind of people, I think is available. Yes, it is an extreme sport. I mean, filoli for only when you think fit, but for me, it doesn't really matter what it is. It's more I really love what I do. Which means those challenges are what I like and and alarm. But that's not what I am scared of. I have done so many biking trips, just by myself. jaisingh by myself, racing happens just by ourselves. And that's what I like about it, that it's challenging. It pushes me every single time, it gives me something new to learn from. And it's definitely terrifying sometimes, but it's okay. Honestly, you know, to think because Motorsports is a sport where a tiny error, a tiny minute of thinking about something else can make you fall, or can end up in tables. So which is why that's what I like about the sport. It doesn't give me room to think about anything else. It's just keeping me on my toes to do what's there at that moment. It makes me live in the moment. And that's what I like about it. And talking about stuff. Sorry, about the score. Yeah, yes, it keeps you in the moment, it gives you the opportunity to explore how much more you could push every single time because that moment will come repetitively for that many hours that you like,
Puneeth 31:28
you have this pregame routine of listening to music, visualizing meditating, kind of music you listen to, what do you visualize, visualize the perfect lab, the visualize the ending,
Aishwarya 31:39
I should read the book, mostly when it is self chasing, I also had a map and what I would do is close my eyes and write the chapter we I would write when I'm there physically, so which means I am continuously typing myself as to what I'm doing. And I tell myself exactly what I want to do in that corner, what gear I want to change how I want to play everything. I keep doing that for about at least 30 to 130 minutes to one hour. And along with this. I keep listening to music, what
Puneeth 32:09
kind of music do you listen to?
Aishwarya 32:13
I listen to a lot of upbeat music. Definitely I have the divers one of my favorites. I also listened to some devotional music sometimes because it makes me stay calm a little bit when I am really anxious sometimes to able to calm myself down. This is when I remember this is when I was doing meditation. But now when I started doing meditation headspace, and yeah, that's basically app. Yes, sometimes it really has some cool, different topics that you could choose from. And it's really interesting. And it just takes 1015 minutes which, which feels like forever to everybody. So I think everybody should take that at least five to 10 minutes off, just try it and it really helps which it's really made a difference in my life.
Puneeth 33:01
This isn't a paid sponsorship.
Aishwarya 33:04
This is the monster it's astonishing. We come from a country where yoga meditation is like literally we respond and throughout the world people worship it and we don't understand the importance of it coming from the same country which is why I'm trying to speak about it a
Puneeth 33:20
corporate viewer by chance
Aishwarya 33:23
Yeah, definitely. I mean it's a part of my
Puneeth 33:26
reading as part of your creativity and I usually just about it like it has to be this way. If you do
Aishwarya 33:32
breakfast is for sure something anyway I am a foodie I can function without eating food and breakfast. So what I do is primarily I plan my day one a priority of everything Jedi everything is set. So when I wake up in the morning or after do is take a shower, get my breakfast to my warm up, listen to my music. This is my routine. That's that's what it is.
Puneeth 33:51
What do you do? Absolutely. What do you do after or after? All right, you sit down, you deflect.
Aishwarya 33:58
Yes, I sit down, I sit down my coach I reflect to be able to work better the next time and also feed myself enough to be able to go back. I am a foodie. And I think yeah, that's essential to me.
Puneeth 34:09
What's your favourite food just for fun sake.
Aishwarya 34:12
tasty food. Masala Dosa is like a sandwich. But heavy food is meat jeans.
Puneeth 34:27
Let's talk about the world championship. What was kindness?
Aishwarya 34:32
secretions went back. I think it was quite difficult because the media was primarily to come back from my accident as well, which was a lot of work that was involved. And back here. Yeah. So there had been a lot of rehabs involved for me to be able to even feel stronger as I was feeling. And I think what we started doing was, like I said, we put a plan together in terms of how we wanted to train in a way to be able to find enough time to rest as well as any It's best to. So that's pretty much how we started first getting back on the feed, then on the bike, then racing for the national championship that was 2019, then 2018. And, and then 2019, I started training outside the countries for about two months, I think I spent about 15 days in Dubai, and then I raced in Dubai, then I went to Spain, and I raced in Portugal, then I came back to India for a race in India. So we what we did is we got as much as tea time as we could, that was the only substitute to be able to get that and to be able to be as fast as we wanted. And to be able to achieve our goals, which is what we did, we stayed on, like we saw the races, we put it on the hard work and even figured sponsors to be able to support it. And I think that's how we put that entire
Puneeth 35:45
season together. The fatigue and the kind of workload that you as an
Aishwarya 35:52
athlete, it is definitely quite tiring, because I think that is that some honest answers are no for getting responses. And to be able to put that amount of hard work to God and the time of waiting period, you don't know if it's happening or not. It's quite stressful. That is probably one part of the work. And then the chiming in on that fatigue. I think all of that is another part of it. So I think there are a lot of aspects of it. And I think we do get burnt out sometimes. And at this point is it's really important to realize that you need to take a break, how do you take a break, quick division, but what do you imagine, travel channel and travel for at least two, three days, spend some time with your family, or friends, challenge and unwind and connect with yourself to be able to come back and start pushing again. Oh, well, I hope other ways to figure things out. Like if that's an option, I can look for the next one. And that's a good thing to know is sometimes a good thing too. It's better than being hanging in a situation where you don't have an answer. So I think it's always better to have a yes or no. So you find different ways to work around the same problem.
Puneeth 37:10
Maybe we can you that's what the startup was is yes, the Yes or no? What is it like winning the World Championship?
Aishwarya 37:23
I think it was quite overwhelming and nice. Because after having the kind of accident that I had going on to winning the World Championship, racing the same races that
Puneeth 37:34
I had the accident as
Aishwarya 37:36
accident add was quite special and dear to me, because I felt like I was back. And I think that is really modern for a lot of things that I do and just why I felt really lightened or when
Puneeth 37:54
when Yes,
Aishwarya 37:57
I'm training for winning a world championship between four is all wearing. I didn't expect five years ago that I would be doing anything I don't even know where I was heading. So from not having a direction to having a direction. championship was something it is something will always
Puneeth 38:13
speak to that after winning.
38:17
Yeah, did
Aishwarya 38:19
I still speak to them on and off, but it was just happy about it. Like, I used to shop? No, I said there's a large disconnect with my family. So what they feel really doesn't quite affect me anymore. Because I've reached a point in my life. And I think it's really essential for each one of us to understand what's toxic in our life, we any kind of relationship and how to handle ourselves to be able to do the best in our own lives because we can't let certain things affect us. So I think what my dad right now and in my mother for that matter, the amount of traumatizing experiences that we've had due to internal conflicts in the family. It's pushed me to a point where I'm self-sufficient emotionally and in everything else in my life right now. Because nothing they say, really is actually much Yes, I'm happy but they were happy for me. But that's about it. I'm sure a lot of listeners are not quite used to listening about the fact that family isn't playing an essential role. And it's true for a lot of people. And not a lot of people want to speak about it because the kind of society we come from. It's not accepted that you don't live at the parents. You are taking care of them and all of these things that support them in whatever ways they can but I also need to watch out for myself and let's
Puneeth 39:43
appreciate us sure issues that we face.
Aishwarya 40:00
I think primarily the issues women faces is equal to men because it's to do more with being able to get the right back in to be able to train as much. It's the same problems that everybody else has around the world. And I think Apart from that, I don't really think there has been any other problem as such, we do deal with just thinking about periods and specific is thinking about the body and all of that. The whole thing about that stopping a woman from doing what she has to is not true at all. Most of my races, I've had my periods like 90% of them, it's always standard doesn't make a difference. It's just a part of me. And I think, yeah, that's pretty much how I just like my space. So I don't speak to anybody. I just focus on what I need to do. And I just the thing is, no matter how painful or whatever it is, I just, I just know what things we will comfortable. What am I supposed to do what's supposed to today? And once I'm done,
Puneeth 41:00
I go and rest? How to use the body perhaps?
Aishwarya 41:03
Yes, I do use the sanitary napkins, which are quite comfortable. And I think that's that's what was one
Puneeth 41:10
of the longer chips. And the money was invented on Route two
Aishwarya 41:15
standards. I haven't I haven't used it ever. But yeah. I've heard a lot of people use it. And I never had an issue. with that. I guess that's I'm,
Puneeth 41:28
I'm just curious, beyond just need to like the brand. Because I would plug it anyways gonna love it. But otherwise, how have you figured out the problem of being while you're on a road trip or a bike tour doesn't matter. I
Aishwarya 41:43
just stopped the bicycle. I've been assigned a space. And I just like it's not the biggest problems, honestly. I mean, I understand where a lot of charmers come from a lot of them aren't comfortable, aren't used to being by themselves and are quite conscious about of things that are happening around them. And which is where I think the body has invented the school thing, which is which I heard a lot of people use that with me, it's my mission. And it's just been different. I don't know how to explain how but it's just a different
Puneeth 42:12
is anything else that you always want to talk about? out there to the crowd to the women listening, if you haven't gotten a chance to.
Aishwarya 42:21
Even today, I had a lot of people thinking about wanting to do so many different things. But they all look at the problem as an elephant. And life is just one step. First, everybody's looking at the whole picture, which is so big in everybody. So when we will take the first step setting to all those women who know who have those unconventional dreams or who want to do something that they want, I would take myself just take the first step and see how it goes from there. It's for you. It's for us. It's not at least to give it a shot. So and when you're also giving it a shot, you're gonna have a lot of people telling you, this is not your cup of tea. Maybe you should explore something else. And there'd be a lot of naysayers. I would also say just ignore all of it and focus on what you want to do. And just keep going one step at a time.
Puneeth 43:05
What kind of elephants do women have? One is money that for sure.
Aishwarya 43:09
Not just women, for that matter, that elephant is for every person passing. And when I think especially in our country, being able to get out of the house and do something unconventional is I think the biggest problem to be able to get the first goal from the family and parents, the financial thing is the other one. And I think if we find a way around all of it, which is definitely possible, we will be able to achieve what we want. If me being an underdog not having anybody from motorsports as a part of my family. And if I could make something of myself from nothing. Anybody can.
Puneeth 43:44
I think that's why the soldiers respect the reason
Aishwarya 43:47
for Yes, definitely. They've come a long way. And everybody's seen all the struggle that I've had to go through
Puneeth 43:55
one elephant I thought, which is a big one was a lot of people stopping thinking, you know what racing or biking is like a rich person sport. So just give them this gives the listeners an idea of what is it take financially to support a career like this, it has
Aishwarya 44:12
a chance effigy at the same time, I would disagree with the same thing because I don't come from a rich family, I don't really get support from my family to be able to fund it. So I think this Court has to do also with the person have the skill and the ability to make the most of what they have at that moment. And that's pretty much how it has changed for me. And it could change for a lot of people who have that passion. We hear so many stories about people giving me hundred percent in anything that they do and they succeed in it. So what I did, and it's how I've been able to make it my career today because when I started people told me that actually I also saw that intraday there are just countable number of people that you could look at and see that they made a career out of it. And this is what they told me back then to there is no career and if you don't have this And if you're just wasting time, but I just gave my hundred percent to it. And I think today, I've made ways for a lot more people to be able to look at this as a career. And also look at it from a point where it's not just the Richmond squad, it's also the squat for the people who really want to make a big, we want to make something of
Puneeth 45:19
themselves or we also have the support system. You just have to figure it out on your own.
Aishwarya 45:25
Yes, definitely. I mean, even today, there's a lot of things that I'm figuring out even today, there is no definite way that this is step one, step two, and step three. But these are things that I think as pioneers we have to face to be able to create movies to other people and ourselves,
Puneeth 45:39
most of us are entrepreneurial, or already in startups. Are there any problems in this world that they probably saw an opportunity that you think you know, what, why there is nobody doing anything about it? See, as
Aishwarya 45:53
any other sport this sport also takes in probably 10 times more hard work. And what's happening is the fact that people don't know that this code exists. And I'm now with this podcast, I definitely hope all the listeners are listening to it, I educated quite a bit about what was causes and how it works. And I think all it needs is support like any other sport does, which means if there are any people were interested in broadcasting it all around India, which is a very essential thing for the sport like badminton, or like, all these things are playing on TV, which is why it has a viewership that it does. And it's also a sport that everybody plays pretty much every day as saved to riding a motorcycle, which is what we all of us do every day, but it's just that people are not aware of it. And I would like more people to educate more people about this. And also, I think, remote it as much as impossible ways that they can
Puneeth 46:48
choose one. Is there any other poll gap? Because when I did my research, I realized that we are way behind this like stain of the way for supporting a sport like this. Yeah,
Aishwarya 47:01
but it's also primarily because everybody thinks it's an A dangerous sport, which it is it is that you know, there are safety measures taken to it, which means we wear the right safety gear, we have an ambulance in the place where we are racing and which is why it is a safe sport as well at the same time. And this sport really supports the road safety, which means wearing safety gear is the most primary essential thing. And that's pretty much what we're trying to accomplish trying to ask everybody to do. And it's just an example of how we would be safe to ride motorcycles or cars for that matter where the seat belt and resistance.
Puneeth 47:37
how can listeners reach out to you?
Aishwarya 47:40
I think they could follow me on my social handles on Instagram, as Mr. C and Facebook is actually our birthday, as well as Twitter on the same thing. And that's how they reach out to me
Puneeth 47:50
are the links to reach out to her are on the show description. Feel free to go and connect with her. I think she's really accessible on Instagram, she takes a while. She's a busy woman. But that's how he's given to you in the first place. define what's the sort of impact that you seek to make on the motor sport.
Aishwarya 48:11
I want to put India on the map of sports and I think that same back I wanted to make and evolve sports to an extent where we will have made many people from participating worldwide and also create a lot of ways for a lot more people aspiring athletes.
Puneeth 48:32
This has been such an unconventional conversation with a month of motion sports were made back by a sponsor. I just want to give a quick shout out providing such an amazing package
Aishwarya 49:00
in driving
Puneeth 49:01
on that note, go and make some good data.
Aishwarya 49:26
My first thought was that more or less we have this kind of conversations over cameras or different