100th post on Instagram

November 23, 2017

For my 100th post on Insta – a bit about me – @the_ barefoot_executive.

(I hear its good practice to let followers know from time to time, the Instagrammer behind the posts :-))

I started posting regularly on Instagram about 11 months ago. I enjoy sharing my travel tales – not because I love to brag and mark the far-flung places I have set foot on but because I like sharing my thoughts and telling stories in my unique (Uma) way. Somehow, every photo in my archive seems to have a story behind it – stories of places, people, events, and animals, too! But the ones I feel most drawn towards are the ones that are non-stereotypical – narratives that breaks new ground and disrobe a stereotype – to make people rethink opinions that betray original thought.

As an Indian living in Europe, I have a personal compilation of things that are said or assumed about my country and its people in the western world, especially Germany, where I’m based. Geographic generalizations are common everywhere, but in some places, they are too deep-rooted. Lop sided news reports, politically motivated news channels and half-informed westerners who travel to India (pretty much like diplomats visiting to inspect the aftermath of a disaster) bring back stories that confirm their preconceptions. (Like the saying ‘seek and you shall find’). I’m never annoyed or offended by these stories because they are true! Yes! They are all true. No denying that. But they are one-sided – they are single stories. They are incomplete because the storyteller doesn’t care about depicting the other side – the brighter side.

That is why I love to tell my own stories, mostly in my after-work hours. Not just of India but of the places I go, the people I meet and the experiences I have as a foreigner, as an expat, as a freelancer, mother, a spouse, a traveler, a strategist, a writer, a camera-wielding Instagrammer and more importantly, as a woman, made in India! And this post is dedicated to all of India’s daughters:-)

While I share travel tales on Instagram, my blog, http://www.umamuthuraaman.com has long-form articles and narratives that are authentic, original and true-to-life. I encourage you to read it. And feedback too, if you have the time.

I hope our stories will cross roads sometime and together we can create a new one – one that breaks old ground.

And yeah, about why the name Barefoot Executive:

I choose to freelance as a way of engaging with a business/brand and hence the light-hearted allusion to being a Barefoot Executive – the type of people who contribute to a team without the typical corporate fringe benefits (barefooted as opposed to well-heeled!) but having said that; I do invest in shoes.

 
 

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