How to be a Harry Potter in the world of Muggles

Over the last 20 years, Harry Potter has impacted millions of us, crossing time and generations when doing so.

How many of us have grown up wishing to be a wizard and waiting for our letter from Hogwarts? I bet that right now, somewhere in the world, there’s a kid dreaming about the wizarding world, wishing to be a part of it.

Magic aside, the series taught us some most important things that we need to focus on in our life. From the first book and until the most recent movies, there’s always a new lesson about responsibility and leadership.

Haven’t you noticed it?

Here are some 4 lessons I learnt with Harry Potter:

1. Leaders are made, they are not born

As an infant, Harry survived an attack by Lord Voldemort, and acquired fame as “The Boy Who Lived”.

He grew up without knowing any of that and, when he entered the wizarding world, he was surprised to know the legends about him and how heroic everyone considered him. Despite this, he remained grounded and was always seeking to learn and gain more knowledge, rather than just taking a heroic status that was gifted upon him by others.

In the end, Harry owned his title as a hero through his own actions and leadership skills, right?

He didn’t accept that it was his responsibility to be a hero because of people telling him that. Instead, he made it his responsibility because he saw the importance of his actions and decisions.

A true leader is not told to be a leader, but they just can’t stand in front of injustice and do nothing. They have strong values, as Harry had.

We can see this change also in many other characters, such as Neville Longbottom.

Starting as a modest child with low confidence, Neville mishandled his way through secondary school, once in a while leaving a positive impact on anybody he met with.

For several times he showed purpose and bravery. Because of his own strong will to evolve during the years that he spent in Hogwarts, Neville could grow a lot in confidence. He assumed an instrumental part in the last Clash of Hogwarts, again showing that leaders are made, not born.

2. Knowing its own strengths it’s a big step in leadership

In Harry’s 5th year at Hogwarts, the school goes through hard changes in its rules and class schedules. This happened because the Ministry of Magic didn’t want young wizards talking about the return of Voldemort. It was pure censorship.

Most of the students were angry at the new policies, as they felt powerless and vulnerable without the chance to learn Defence Against the Dark Arts in such uncertain times.

Hermione took the lead and proposed the arrangement of a secret study group. She knew how Harry had a lot of practical knowledge in Defence Against the Dark Arts, due to his past experiences with Voldemort, and suggested him (not to say pushed) to lead the Dumbledore’s Army (D.A.).

That’s where Harry got really aware about his potential.

Maybe he would never have accepted that if Hermione didn’t tell it to his face. Sometimes you just need someone telling you: “you should do this because you’re good at it”.

And thanks Hermione for that, after all, leadership is a lot about how well you know yourself, right?

3. True leaders inspire others to be better

Dumbledore’s Army began with the aim of being a place to study and practise magic, going against the new wave of authority at Hogwarts, but it ended up filling a substantially bigger need.

The students who went to D.A. gatherings where the people who needed to learn and enhance their magic, and they built up their aptitudes at a quick rate through Harry’s direction.

Later that year, when a battle was approaching, Harry was prepared to fight without anyone else. He felt it was his responsibility alone and that he couldn’t ask anyone to risk themselves.

But a good leader makes people feel capable and empowered. Hence, Neville stood up and said that the whole D.A. should go to, as this was their opportunity to fight and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

By role modelling courage and bravery, and putting time into building up his companions, Harry could enable and empower different leaders. After Harry fled Hogwarts, years later, Neville assembled and led a new D.A., preparing them to face the last battle at Hogwarts.

This is a true sign of effective leadership – by empowering his followers, Harry helped new leaders to come up.

4. No one can lead alone

Harry, Hermione and Ron are regularly admired for how complementary they are and how solid their bond is. The trio shows how the best leaders are the individuals who centre around their qualities.

Aren’t they just friendship goals?

Harry never hesitates to speak his mind, he makes the team be fearless and talk about ‘unspeakable’ things. He is confident and free, ready to trust in his abilities in face of troubles and huge difficulties.

He‘s also driven by an inborn need to put things right.

Hermione is a supplier and an anchor. She is ingenious and mindful and adopts an exceptionally even minded strategy. As opposed to Harry, she’s able to control her impulses and think things through before acting, something that comes in hand many times, when others couldn’t think properly.

Ron, in the meantime, ties the gathering together with his feeling of loyalty and brotherhood. His benevolence and will to help other people, even if shown in the goofiest way, is just lovely.

5. Leaders don’t close their eyes to the issues around them

During the entire Harry Potter series, Harry and his friends were always concerned about the issues Hogwarts was going through. They were willing to anything at risk the course of exploring the problems and looking for solutions, always keeping in mind the safety of the other students.

They just couldn’t close their eyes when something seemed wrong.

That’s how true leaders are, right? Our world is our Hogwarts and we have to learn about the issues that it is facing now.

After all, we are the one, who have to stand-out, like these incredible wizards, and take action to make our life legen-wait for-it-Dary!

Let’s take the first step and be a Wizard of change in the world full of muggles?

Let us know in the comments if you ever did some magic to make the world a better place!
We’d love to know it 🙂

If you like this post you may also like: “Things we wish the school would have taught us”.

Do you want to make a difference and contribute towards United Nations’ SDGs?
Check out our opportunities at www.aiesec.in

Written by

Anisha Bhawanani is graduated in Marketing and Finance and loves writing. She is a happy go lucky girl with a head full of dreams, very passionate about traveling and exploring different cultures. One day she wants to win a man booker prize.

The Tranquil Roof of the World

Wedged between the high Himalaya and the steamy Indian plains, Nepal is characterized by snow peaks and Sherpas, yaks and yetis, monasteries, and mantras. The right mixture of adventure and sublime peacefulness under a constant backdrop of spectacular mountains is something that you cannot miss to experience.

The Adventurous Abode

The Himalaya, here, is the definitive goal for most mountain lovers. Nowhere else can you trek for days in implausible mountain backdrop, shelter in the knowledge that a hot meal, cozy lodge and a warm slice of apple pie await you at the end of the day! Besides there’s the adrenaline kick of rafting a roaring Nepali river or bungee jumping into a bottomless Himalayan gorge. Canyoning, climbing, kayaking, paragliding, and mountain biking all offer a rush against the milieu of some of the world’s most vivid landscapes.

The Spiritual Bliss

This cultural powerhouse of the Himalaya offers a matchless collection of world-class palaces, concealed backstreet shrines and transcendent temple art. Strolling through the medieval city squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, and accompanying Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims on a spiritual stroll around centuries-old stupas and monasteries is going to redefine peace for you.

A Traveler’s Paradise

There are not many countries in the world that can give you a similar taste of independent travel as Nepal. Walking alongside the trekking shops, bakeries and pizzerias, it’s easy to feel that you have somehow landed in a kind of backpacker nirvana. Nepal’s wild and abstruse national parks, which lend you the prospect of skimming the treetops for exotic bird species and comb the jungles for rhinos, tigers and myriad birdlife is going to leave you overwhelmed.

Whether you cross the country by mountain bike, motorbike, raft or tourist bus, Nepal offers a bewilderingly diverse array of charms and landscapes. The biggest problem you might face in Nepal is just how to fit everything in!

The Persistent Struggle with Progress

Despite all the picturesque landscape and cultural treasures, Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world according to the United Nations classification. Therefore, it’s even more crucial for us to take this fact into consideration and contribute in whatever way we can for this gorgeous nation to prosper. AIESEC provides this opportunity to create a social impact and the emerging start-up culture provides a plethora of options to acquire some great work experience.

Going for a social or corporate internship to this exceedingly stunning and unruffled abode through AIESEC is going to transform you in a way that your approach towards life after coming back is going to make you shine out of the crowd. The satisfaction that you would obtain after working for the underdeveloped society in this country is going to lend you immense pleasure.

Are you ready to embark on this remarkable experience? Sign up now!

Blog by Udit Kalra, can read anything except textbooks 24/7 and aspires to find a way to survive without zero sleep.

Lets talk about it. Period.

Menstruation is a natural process. Nonetheless, in many parts of the world, it still remains a taboo and is seldom discussed.

Numerous societies have convictions, legends and taboos identifying with feminine cycle. Quite often, there are social standards or unwritten guidelines and practices about managing this feminine cycle and connecting with bleeding ladies. A portion of these are useful yet others have possibly destructive ramifications. For example, in a few societies, ladies and young ladies are informed that amid their menstrual cycle they ought not bathe (or they will wind up infertile), touch a cow (or it will end up barren), look in a mirror (or it will lose its brightness), or touch a plant (or it will die).

Social standards and religious taboos on period are regularly intensified by conventional relationship with insidious spirits, disgrace and shame encompassing sexual reproduction. For instance, in Tanzania, some trust that if a menstrual fabric is seen by others, the proprietor of the material might be cursed and we need to change it. The most appropriate thing that could be done is Proper Education about Menstrual Hygiene and removing these taboos among the society because these are the some cravings that you should feed and you don’t need money for it. If you want to bring a change and move towards the future which is free from all these believes that are not based on any facts then Volunteer today for Quality Education.

So, believe in yourself and break the walls around you made by society.

Today, on Menstrual Hygiene Day, guarantee yourself and other women around you painless and happy periods with these cleanliness tips.

Change your sanitary napkin each 4-6 hours – Menstrual blood, when discharged from the body pulls in different micro organisms from our bodies, which increase in the warmth of the blood, and cause disturbance, rashes or urinary tract contaminations. Changing your napkin or tampon routinely checks the development of these creatures and counteracts contaminations.

Wash yourself properly– Washing your vagina consistently is important, because the organisms stick to your body after you have expelled your napkin.

Don’t utilize cleansers or vagina cleanliness items– While utilizing vaginal cleanliness items regular is a smart thought, utilizing these items amid menses can turn things around. Vaginas have their own particular cleaning instrument which becomes possibly the most important factor amid menstrual cycles, and these fake cleanliness items can hamper the natural procedure prompting diseases and development of microscopic organisms.

Discard the sanitary napkin properly– Disposing off your tampons and clean napkins legitimately is a critical advance. Wash them first , Wrap them appropriately before y ou discard them, so the microscopic organisms and diseases don’t spread. Ensure you don’t flush them, since that will obstruct the toilet, making the water to back up, spreading the bacteria on top of it.

Stick to one strategy for sanitation– Women tend to utilize tampons and sanitary napkins, or two clean napkins simultaneously during the heavy flow which is a productive method. While it might keep you dry and prevent staining garments, it can cause diseases as well. The mix of two systems ingests the blood making us careless in regards to the need to change our tampons and clean napkins. Without frequent change, the collected blood welcomes microorganisms and causes diseases.

We the people living in Urban areas know most of these things, but a holistic approach, collective action is needed to address menstruation issues of rural women. Surprisingly, when it comes to menstruation, the gulf between rural and urban women broadens considerably. With the lack of resources, education and awareness about personal hygiene, forget information about hygiene products, the women don’t even have any conversations about menstruation. Most of the women in rural areas are using unhygienic products such as wood shavings. The need of the hour is for everyone to come together to tackle such problems at multiple levels. Let’s take this brave step, sign up today and browse for more actions towards Sustainability of Humankind.

Blog by Anisha Bhawnani, a happy go lucky potterhead who wants to travel around the world to eat different kinds of ice creams. She aspires to become a VJ and a New York Times best selling author one day.

How self-aware are you?

Once in a while, we find ourselves completely lost. We follow the way that has been designed for us, similar to a manikin or a puppet, and still locate ourselves in the middle of nowhere without a map or compass to manage the way, or a cell phone to call home.

That is the thing that life is: an incomprehensible Bermuda Triangle.

You have nobody but yourself as a resource to remain above water. We spend the greatest years of our lives going to class to figure out how to be something.

We’re not generally beyond any doubt of what that something is, but despite everything we go to class, do homework and concentrate for tests. Some invest more energy than others, but we all try.

In reality, books won’t lead you out of the forested areas. You can’t search for answers in the dictionary, and a map will never lead you where you should go. All the training and knowledge on the planet can’t make you whole.

Qualifications don’t come with a purpose. You can have straight A’s forever, however, they will never lead you to your identity. Schools don’t teach you much about yourself. The discovery of the self is the most significant lesson you were never taught.

Finding out about yourself ensures you a route past money and achievement. When you are self-aware, you are a power to be figured within this world since then you are ahead of everything.

A majority of people have no clue about who they are, and you can easily tell by their mentality and life-decisions. Being self-aware means winding up more beyond any doubt of yourself by setting benchmarks and seeing precisely what you need.

What helped me get self-awareness was my volunteering experience.

Here are 3 things my volunteering experience helped me boost:

Becoming self-aware

Being by myself, helping other people for 6 weeks gave me a lot of time to think about me. It made me realize how I can do much more than I ever thought. The need to interact with people from all around the world made me reflect a lot on my own beliefs and habits.

I can honestly say that I came out of this experience knowing much more about myself that I ever thought I would, and I take this knowledge for life.

Confidence

During my exchange, every day there was a new challenge, and I had to overcome it alone. And this made me realize strengths that I never knew I had.

Before, I would tremble and question my ability on doing a lot of things. Now I know that, even if I’m not able to do something yet, I can always learn it.

Life fulfilment

Of course, being out there helping an NGO is extremely rewarding! Seeing the smile on people’s face, know that I actually made a difference, it’s priceless. We have the horrible habit of taking care only about ourselves and focusing on our own lives, but there’s so much we can do, even with small actions, to make the world a little better.

These three elements made me more prone to have an uplifting point of view towards my life and objectives.

One of the advantages of volunteering is that it gives you a nearby look at how your activities are affecting people around you. Besides, being a piece of a volunteer program can influence you to feel glad and give you a sense of purpose.

Volunteering can fill voids in individuals.

Helping other people may enable you to conquer individual battles and give your life new significance and a sense of purpose. It takes your mind off of your stresses and makes you meet new experiences and individuals that may even influence you to land at new answers for them.

Moreover, volunteering keeps you mentally empowered and as said by Wharton educator Cassie Mogilner, it influences you to feel like you have additional time.

Stepping out of your comfort range of familiarity is among the advantages of volunteering abroad. This encourages you to accomplish your personal objectives and set new ones and be in a steady condition of self-change. Volunteering additionally makes you more self-aware and making you a better version of yourself, it improves your own quality in your eyes.

Do you have a fantasy? Do you have an objective? What moves you to attempt an idea?

These are the start-up devices for executing your fantasy. Where does one discover such devices? For many people, finding these devices resembles searching for a buried treasure. Not knowing where to look, the vast majority acknowledge life as it is given to them; what could be possible?

People who have discovered achievement can help make conditions where others discover the instruments for progress.

Tall boats have a demonstrated achievement record for helping individuals discover their basic purpose for existing. 6 weeks on board a tall ship, as a crew member, will change an existence until the end of time, it’s your marathon, it’s your hustle.

Most tall boats are preparing vessels to build character, confidence, and self-assurance. To put it plainly, it changes lives. So let’s become a Global Volunteer today and board this tall ship!

Blog by- Anisha Bhawnani

Stakeholders of AIESEC in India: Globalising Workforce and Being Truly Awesome

As AIESECers, one thing our youth oriented leadership body diligently engages in earning the trust of our stakeholders before engaging their support. With the distinct business model we run, a lot of our thoughts become things due to the dire support we receive from our clients to deliver a groundbreaking impact each year. Whether you call it reaching the unreachable stars or fighting an unbeatable foe, looking up to our clients for the same is what we do.

In order to truly commemorate the relationship we share with our stakeholders and to express our gratitude for the massive support we receive, AIESEC in India has been hosting its Annual Stakeholder Dinner every year. We engage our patrons through a gala convening and indulging into conversations while everyone takes a thought back home.

Who are our stakeholders?
Our stakeholders come from various backgrounds. There are clients from NGOs to start ups to corporate companies. There are sponsors of the impact based events we do around the country and principals from universities who send their students for a power packed leadership experience. All help serve the purpose of delivering the cross-cultural exchanges we do by globalising their workforce.

Why Annual Stakeholder Dinner?
What we essentially try to convey through our communication and have always actively tried to propagate is why youth activation is the need of the hour. We deliberate over our organisation which has a diverse set of young individuals from around the world making history, delivering exchanges and setting a benchmark of an impact that is impossible to achieve without the enablers.

Every company, every client that harnesses our opportunities is an enabler of impact, an enabler of leadership. And the idea we have all been delighted to celebrate is the proliferation of leadership in youth as we endorse the imagination of witnessing a world full of leaders and positive influence around us.

Who is attending the gala?
This year, among our esteemed stakeholders, a few notable people who would be joining our celebration would be Ms. Dia Mirza, Mr. Ronnie Screwvala, Ms. Tanya Dubash, Mr. Mukund Rajan, Ms. Trisha Shetty, Mr. Atul Kasbekar, Mr. Afroz Shah and many others. Keynote speakers being Mr. Akshay Nambiar, the President of AIESEC India and Mr. Ishteyaque Amjad, VP Public Affairs & Communication, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia followed by a panel discussion and a networking space in the dinner.

As Anodea Judith smartly said “We are moving from a chain of command to a web of connection, from competition to collaboration, from markets to networks and stockholders to stakeholders, and greed to green.” We like to be the ambassadors of the same.

AIESEC in India has the privilege to have some of the biggest personalities in business and leadership on the Board of Advisors for the National office. Their guidance and support have been unique in driving our organisation forward.
Mr. Ronnie Screwvala is an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the cofounder of UpGrad, an online education company. He was the founder and CEO of UTV Group and was the Managing Director of UTV India, Managing Trustee of the Swades Foundation and Founder & Advisor: at Unilazer Ventures Ltd. Here is what he has to say about his experience with AIESEC as one of our esteemed partners.

You can find out more about how you can engage with us as a stakeholder here: https://partners.aiesec.org/