Prachi Garg is a true blue Mirandian, who is an entrepreneur herself. She co-founded Ghoomophiro.com and Anmoluphar.com. An alumna of Great Lakes Institute of Management, she is passionate about writing and travelling.
Interviews
An Interview with Prachi Garg
MAY 14, 2017/ INCREDIBLE WOMEN OF INDIA
In our ‘Incredible Women’ series, we bring to you Prachi Garg – an entrepreneur, author, and an inspiration.
Who is Prachi?
I am a Taurean to the core. A child of the early 80s (I have stopped counting the years now).
The word Prachi means the rising sun. I worked as a software professional in an IT company. I am (thankfully) a ‘so called’ techie. My greatest regrets are not being able to write as well as I always believed I could; and play a musical instrument (especially a guitar). Not for the lack of trying though. I’ve always wanted to learn different languages. I know Hindi and English. I learned French at Delhi University for well over 10 years, and still I am struggling with it. It took me a while to get where I am in life. I’d say I’m reasonably content now. I believe if you love something, it is because you can never own it. I have a wandering and restless spirit, which annoys my mom to no end. I like the concept of being a global citizen. I don’t yet subscribe to the theory of growing roots and getting old in one place, living there for the rest of my life. Maybe, I’ll change my views once I get older. Maybe, I won’t. I am passionate about travel. Stuff I’d like to be doing ideally (given the money and time): – Scuba diving in Mauritius (or even Lakshadweep) – Riding camels in Egypt – Trekking in the Himalayas, which I often do, as it gives me solace – Taking a long drive on Australia’s Southern Coast – travelling through the vineyards of France. – Crossing the English Channel – Rafting in the Ganges – Chilling out in the Bora Bora islands. I’d also like to see much more of India – what a beautiful country! I’m an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I love going out with my camera in hand and taking pictures. I dabble in art occasionally. It’s something that gives me a lot of pleasure. Mostly I do it for myself, my friends and occasionally for people who specifically want something for their walls. I can do this for hours on end. (I desperately need a SLR). I like playing badminton but I don’t do enough of it. I also like swimming and would ideally love to live beside water. But I also love the mountains, all covered with snow. At 10, I wanted to be fed (mostly); at 15, I wanted to be a heart surgeon; at 20, I wanted to be a career woman (whatever that means). And today, I realized I didn’t much care for that either. I’m taking things as they come right now and living life to the fullest.
A quick list of what I love: Corn (in any form), books (long live Paulo Coelho), movies, music, photography, travelling, trekking, walking, lazing around, almonds, cashews, letters, stationery, tigers (phew …I wish ), wildlife, blue eyes, avocados, tea, trees, rain and the list goes on. I hate pessimism, people who have bad attitude and are nasty, cowards (any kind), rash drivers (who honk too much) and smoking!
Who is Prachi not?
Prachi is definitely not someone who whines or blames someone else for her failures. Instead, she is the one who has turned her failures/lows in life into successful milestones.
What does Prachi do?
Travelling and writing is my passion. Despite being a MBA and computer science graduate, I chose the unconventional field of travel and tried my hands to make my hobby and passion as my career choice. Currently, I run a travel start-up –www.ghoomophiro.com, which organizes corporate events and women-only events. At ghoomophiro we curate the requirements and help our clients get the best experiences. Also, recently, I tried my hands at writing and penned down two books; Superwomen and Supercouples. Superwomen is a collection of stories of women entrepreneurs; whereas Supercouples depicts the life of couples who chose to be cofounders too. Both books bring out the challenges as entrepreneurs and the ways they came out with them.
Why does Prachi do it?
Travelling is my passion. As mentioned earlier I am a restless individual who loves roaming. Since ghoomophiro lets me explore the world, I chose to start ghoomophiro.com, whereas writing is in my genes. Coming from a publishing family, I have always loved expressing myself. In fact, I can recall that during my childhood days, my parents used to encourage me to pen down my opinion via a letter to editor on everything. I still cherish that collection of letters to editors that I had. I think as a writer, you eventually want to pen down a book. This is exactly what happened with me. As I grew up and started reading, authoring a book that can impact people’s life got added to my bucket list. And here I go striking my bucket list items with Superwomen and Supercouples; and coming soon is Supersiblings.
How far has Prachi come?
My journey has been great so far, but so many more milestones are yet to be achieved. Few of the key milestones that I cherish most include
Whenever I get repeat or referral customer for ghoomophiro. To me, it is an acknowledgement of the good work our team does.
Any text/email stating that they really liked Superwomen and it has inspired them to start something
When Indian Express covered my story and ghoomophiro as one women show while I was just in college.
I was included in the list of 10 Indian women who made big online
Miranda House conferred me with Distinguished Alumna Award
Femina/Yourstory/Bizexchange published my journey about ghoomophiro
Women’s web included me in the list of incredible women entrepreneurs in year 2015
Superwomen was included in the list of 9 books every women entrepreneur should read in just one year of its publication
Supercouples is at No. 1 in all nonfiction charts in book stores.
Where does Prachi wish to be in a few years from now?
I want to be remembered as someone who brought a smile to people’s faces, who lived her life to the fullest. I hope people can find at least one thing to learn from me.
Whom does Prachi look up to?
I think it’s my parents whom I look up to for everything. I believe it is their parenting that has brought me this far. Their trust, faith, and confidence in me always pushed me to go beyond my limits. Besides this, with every travel I met so many people who impact my thought process in some way or the other. Eg- While I was travelling to Leh last year, I met this 8-year-old girl, who saw a smartphone for the first time. I was completely charmed by her smile and expressions. Her simplicity simply made me realize ‘life is so simple, it is just we who complicate it otherwise’.
What advice does Prachi have for our readers?
For me, it is important to live life happily, so that we have tonnes of stories to share around. I am a strong believer in Karma. Hence I always emphasize on good karma; because some day, it definitely comes back to us.
Where can we find Prachi?
I am not a social media fan and still cherish pen and paper; but as they say you need to change yourself with time, I am quite active on Facebook, Twitter Instagram to keep my work going.
