Our past can be anything, depending on how we approach it. It can be a prison or a perfect learning guide for the future. In many ways, our past defines our future. So if today, you see Rahul as a mental health speaker, who is bent on changing lives through therapy, meditation, and other sessions, rest assured that he is doing something based on what he himself lacked in the past.
“It was not easy, my childhood and the following years, all the way to my teenage,” says Rahul. Born in the mesmerizing aura of Trinidad and Tobago, his parents split up when he was just 18 months old. As a result, Rahul had to move to his grandparents, which wasn’t ideal either. His family was not privileged, and Rahul would often find himself dejected over this fact.
“My circumstances were very poor. I would see my cousins having all these wonderful things and toys, and my neighbors providing everything for their children, and then, on the other side, here was I, lacking the support and love of parents, enduring verbal and physical abuse, striving to survive a day safely,” shares Rahul.
His childhood was far from ideal. Rahul had an abusive stepfather and his uncle was a ‘pest’. His stepfather used to torture him and eventually, ran Rahul out of the house when he was 14. It was his grandparents who had this beleaguered child’s back and let him grow under their supervision.
While living with them, Rahul completed his basic education and went to the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, to pursue higher studies. He chose computer science as his major and learned considerably about emerging technology at the time. “I could take apart and repair a computer from scratch, and my typing speed was 60 words/pm!” says Rahul.
After suffering toxic times initially, Rahul was finally able to have some breathing space and pursue his academics. In the year 2000, he saw one of his dreams fulfilled – and that was moving to the USA and meeting his relatives. Rahul calls this move ‘life-changing’ as the American dream transpired to be far more beautiful than he had ever imagined. Here, Rahul finally found peace and purpose in his life.
“When I moved to the United States, everything turned upside down. Except for a few hiccups at the outset of my life in New York City, I think I was completely reborn here. That’s the reason I also call this city my second mother,” says Rahul.
However, Rahul has not forgotten the ill-treatment he had to endure before moving to the US, and how bullies would often get under his skin and cause him great malaise. But he didn’t let the worst experiences of the past deter his way to achieving his goals. In fact, he used those experiences to convey a powerful and inspiring message to the world:
“If Rahul, who was abused and bullied, who was disrespected and defamed, who was thought less of, can rise from the deepest, darkest hole to the peaks of success in his life, then there is no soul on earth who cannot repeat the same!”
This is the message he has relentlessly conveyed through his online and offline sessions, and through his show named Your Life Experiences With Rah. The truth of the matter is that we all, at some point in our lives, have been let down by people, sometimes the ones closest to us. However, if we remain persistent and learn what life teaches us along the way while staying positive, nothing is insurmountable.
