Most people who keep putting off things on their bucket list for later often end with nothing but regret. Very few get a second chance, fewer still manage to grab it. Meet Neeraja Sigatapu, an Indian expatriate and resident of Qatar for over two decades. She is one of those rare few.
Starting as a housewife to a working mother of one and back to being housewife, Neeraja, now in her 40s, got rid of all the excuses she would give herself and set out five years ago to accomplish whatever “she always wanted to do.”
She starts her day with yoga and meditation routine, something she always wanted to do before starting her household chores while continuously leaving posts on Facebook and replying to message on WhatsApp on the go.
And she does that because she organises, manages or hosts multiple social networking and activity groups with dozens of individuals and families in their members. Qatar Families Group, which she founded, has more than 1,000 members on Facebook and over 100 at meetup.com
And she is the host of events at two other groups, Qatar Expats and Doha Social Club, on the same social networking portal. In the past five years, she has been to yoga retreats, established a regular fitness routine, travelled to countries she wanted to and has made dozens of new friends from scores of activity groups she has attended so far.
“I have kept myself busy doing many things for which I could not get time when I was working. I have more time for family, friends and travelling now,” says Neeraja, speaking to Community on how and why she decided to form or host the social activity groups.
Joining her husband Mahesh Sigatapu, who is now a Business Development Manager, in Qatar in 1996, Neeraja herself started working and did multiple jobs for about 14 years leading up to the position of a Project Administration Manager in a reputable company.
In 2011, she however, decided to quit the full-time job. By now, her son Nikhilesh had completed his college and was moving to the US for higher studies, from where he graduated with double honours from Princeton University and is now doing a job in San Francisco.
Now, she had more time to herself. First, she became socially active, participating in meet ups and events of various social groups in Qatar.
“And this is when I realised there were not as many social groups in Qatar, particularly for families where they could interact with families from other nationalities or cultural backgrounds,” she explains.
Due to their busy routines, for many families their social interaction would remain limited to either their office friends or people from within their own community. By creating Qatar Families Group, she provided such people the motivation to come out of this shell and have a cross-cultural interaction outside their work environment or schools, for children.
“Qatar Families Group (QFG) is a collage depicting families from different nations, cultures and social backgrounds. Our slogan is ‘One Great Family’. Variety is the spice of life,” says Neeraja, who realises how difficult it gets for families to make time for such activities yet how important it is.
QFG, she says, is a group for everyone with family in Qatar to get-together and enjoy outdoor activities, picnics, organise events for children, have dinner parties, go to long drives and attend events in the form of a group.
“I intend to expand the activities to include educative and informative sessions as well as entertainment. I hope to bring together families of all nationalities so that they learn to interact with each other in a cross-culture environment,” says Neeraja.
She believes it would also help children in adjusting to culturally different atmospheres besides cultivating in them qualities that would help them in their future. Children would get a chance to develop social skills and interact with people from all walks of life.
Managing and organising events and meets up, she says, is easy for her. “It never feels like work because I love what I am doing. I am sometimes posting (on social media) even at very late hours just in case I miss something important,” she adds.
When people attend her events, they are initially a bit apprehensive because, she says, she is a stranger to them who is organising and announcing meetups in the public groups. However, once they spend some time and get to know about her background and family, they are comfortable.
Neeraja says she tries to cater to all the needs and interests of the members of the group even if it means finding and participating in activities organised by any other similar social groups.
If there is something they are organising which is not possible for her to organise but is of interest to her group members, she would ask that event’s host and take her members to it.
These groups, Neeraja says, are excellent avenues for making new friends. She gets friends requests on her Facebook from those attending the meetups soon after the first meeting. She says she has found some very close friends just by attending and then organising meetups.
And then together with these friends, she has created and enjoyed many outdoor excursions and indoor cultural activities. In 2015, she invited her non-Indian friends to her house for Diwali (an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn) celebrations.
“I invited old family friends and those made in meetups. The idea was to invite other nationalities to let them know about Indian festivals and culture. Also, my Indian friends would get a chance to interact with other nationalities and families this way,” says Neeraja.
Her guests learnt how to create the Rangoli (colourful patterns-making on the floor). With her new friends, she and her family have also been out in the desert on camping and safari adventures.
Neeraja says her husband is a big support in all her social activities. “He is my dedicated driver most of the times for Qatar Expats and Doha Social Club events,” she says with a smile. “I would meet up with men who I do not know at these events so I ask him to come along and he drives me all the way from Wakrah where I live to anywhere in the city, no matter how late it is,” she adds.
It also allows him to interact with the people in the groups and he is himself a friendly and socialising person, who is always ready to help others the social group with tasks. She hopes more and more people will join her groups so that she can create a vibrant expat families’ community.
LEARNING NEW CULTURES: A get-together of friends to celebrate a festival. Right: Neeraja is trying to expand the membership of her groups for more people to benefit from cross cultural interaction. Photo by Umer Nangiana
