Meet Sunali Gaur, the Woman behind the Soul-Stirring Stories

Caught up in the heartbreaking surroundings of ours, we often forget to appreciate people with their simple stories of power, courage, and struggle. But Sunali Gaur uses it as her power and is striving for an alternative perspective  Her FB page, Soul Stirrings by Sunali, is a fulfilling avenue of everyday stories of ordinary people making the best out of their lives. She aims to look at the bright side, find collective solutions and bring a smile on her reader's face.

On Why the name "Soul Stirrings," she joyously explains," I think every story that I choose to put on my page touches my soul in some way. It teaches me something new and often shakes me to my core. These are stories of common people who intrigue and interest me. These little things touch my heart and that's what prompted me to start writing about them."

On her journey of writing

Sunali explained her disillusionment towards negative news around her. Her sole desire remains to tell people about the good things that often go unnoticed. She initially began writing on her personal FB account. A handful of likes, few comments from her friends and some encouraging words kept her going. "I started to realise that the world might have its huge chunk of flaws, but there still are good things around us. I wanted more people to read about these positive acts of love and care." Soon enough, she started her own FB page and shifted her daily dose of positive stories to her public page.

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Not just Striving, actually Bringing change

Sunali's has been able to put the common people and their issues to the mainstream. She shares the story of a woman where she was able to solve the woman's problem. She recollects,

"I did a story on an old woman who didn't have funds to support herself. Her kids had left her at an old-age home. Where, she stayed in the dormitory where and had no means of recreation. The old people there had a hard time. I wrote how I wished for her to get a TV before Diwali that year. To my surprise, someone who had read my post decided to gift the woman a TV. And the old woman also received a lot of monetary help. This incident really encouraged me a lot."

Personal source of inspiration

Sonali mentions how some of the stories motivate her to appreciate the things she has in life and simply strive for a happier life. "I often go to CP in Delhi. Mostly, there are young boys of 8 to 10 who you will find standing at the streets looking to polish your shoes in exchange for some money. I once happened to talk to a bunch of these boys. I was pleasantly shocked to realise that these boys actually go to school in the morning. They were well equipped to read and write. I was moved by their sense of responsibility. While they had to support their family, they still had the desire to study and manage things in one go."

Soul Stirrings/Facebook

As adults, we often lose hope easily and tend to divert work rather than putting in extra hours. Through these stories, Sunali has been motivating herself and her readers to look beyond the troubles in life.

She stresses upon the need to find inspiration among the masses, rather than keeping a top-down approach to motivation and success.

On her choice of stories, she says," When you talk to people, they all have stories to tell, we just have to find them. I like to talk to people. I'll just randomly sit at some place, look around, find something interesting and simply go up to people. Surprisingly, they like to talk back and tell their life stories."

Rahul with Magic fridge Soul Stirrings/Facebook

Finding Collective Solutions

She emphasizes on common people's initiatives to find small solutions to large problems. This year, two of her stories were selected by the United Nations for their digital campaign on sustainable development. One of these stories was about a man who chose to put a refrigerator for common use in his community. In the fridge, everyone would put their leftover food in good quality packing. This food can then be consumed by other members of the community as well as the poor people.

She stressed,"Hunger is a universal problem. But that man found a solution to tackle it in some way. Similarly, people do have small-scale solutions to their problems. Harnessing these initiatives and encouraging them can actually lead us all to a better social life."

With this hope, Soul Stirring by Sunali provides a broad space of alternative stories which probably have the potential to inspire. Common people are the biggest source of change and alternate thinking and a focused discussion on them will help us cherish the little things in life!

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Nimisha is an intern with SheThePeople.TV