All of us seem to think of a career change at some point in our lives. Monotonous work, poor work culture, snobby colleagues and the like make us wish we could live on greener pastures. But how many of us do actually take the next step and risk burning our fingers for our own hobbies or passions? Bandra Buzz spoke to Tarini Menezes, a lawyer-turned-yoga teacher to get her story on why she took the plunge from a bustling corporate setting to an entirely different more calming world of yoga.
What made you choose law back then? It’s a world apart from what you do now.
Becoming a lawyer was never something I dreamed of. In fact quite the opposite, with two lawyers in the family, it was not a career I pondered on in my early days. Needless to say, when I announced my decision to go to law school, my family was a bit surprised. But go to law school I did, while getting a number of prestigious internships under my belt. Whilst in my final year, I was offered a job at one of the best firms in the country as an Associate in their Corporate Law & Projects team. I grabbed it with every part of my being, after all, who didn’t want a job at a fancy law firm, right?
For many taking to law as a career, work at the firm can seem stressful. How was it with you?
I wish I could say that life as a lawyer was bad from the get-go. For many people, I’m sure it was. But that wasn’t my case. In my first two years as an Associate at the Firm, I kept decent hours, travelled around the world on fancy vacations, met some of the nicest people I know, and everything seemed perfect. It was also during this time that I took to practising yoga at the suggestion of my mother. My first class wasn’t what you’d expect – no fancy vinayasa, inversions or arm balances. It was a lot of sitting still in a posture or asana and being there, being present. I walked out of that class feeling invigorated, relaxed and at ease.
I soon found a yoga class and signed up. It was the perfect life – a great job, excellent remuneration and I had ‘me’ time. I loved sitting at my desk, headphones on, and drafting whatever I needed to.
Seems like you did indeed have the perfect life. What made you rethink?
This didn’t last very long. Shortly after I completed my second year at the firm, things drastically changed. Longer hours with barely any weekends off, work trips with no prior notice, barrage of emails often and WhatsApp messages, a lot of drudgery and stress. Copious amounts of stress quickly turned my seemingly perfect job in to my perfect nightmare. I would dread waking up in the morning, dread going to work, dread seeing my coworkers, dread dealing with my clients and the buzz of my phone was enough to drive me up the wall every single time. I was always tired, always annoyed, easily set off and my only exercise was walking to the printer and back to my desk. One time, I was on a weekend break at a beach town and at the ding of my email message, I whipped out my laptop and worked the afternoon away. I just could not switch off.
Not knowing what to do, I turned to yoga as a way to try to relax. I found a class at a studio close to home and went. By no means was it an easy class or similar to the yoga I had done before, but I walked away with that “yoga high”, and I was hooked. I got memberships at three different studios so I always had timing options. I had a mat and a change of clothes in the car just in case I got off work early and could manage to squeeze in a class. I went all in – I got a new yoga wear wardrobe, attended workshops, and finally went on a retreat to Himachal Pradesh. Seven blissful days in the mountain air with yoga mornings, meditation evenings, simple food, no cellphone reception and patchy internet availability. When I look back now, it was these seven days that really changed my life.
Quitting can be a really difficult decision with plenty of risks attached. Besides, you were making a decent sum at where you worked. When did you think of quitting? Did you have a back up in mind?
Although when asked, I was quick to say that yoga was just exercise, but somewhere it was my escape. My way to avoid thinking that possibly being a lawyer was not for me. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. Embracing these feelings very quietly, I decided to go back to Himachal Pradesh the following year to do my yoga teacher training course, taking baby steps into the unknown. My TTC was all that I hoped for and more, I learned so much about yoga, about myself and met some of the most incredible people. I returned a yoga teacher and began teaching weekend classes on my terrace. That didn’t last very long. Along with my newly found marital status and a promotion at work came tons of work, longer hours, endless meetings and much less time for my own practice, let alone teaching.
My life was spiralling out of control – I was constantly on the edge, always anxious and could not switch off from work and relax. Being a Type A personality, afraid of losing control, I neatly swept everything under the proverbial rug for half an year or more until one day it was all too much. I had to quit. I needed to quit. It was when I hadn’t slept for a week – and was in Gurugram for the better part of a month engaged in mindless brunt work, when a client ‘suggested’ I stay the weekend and maybe find a physiotherapist for my hurt shoulder in Gurugram (rather than go home and keep my appointment with my doctor) – that I had had enough. With my husband’s encouragement and support, I marched into office Monday morning, and quit!
When you did quit, which seemed quite the logical thing to do then, you did not have plan to back you up. How did you manage what came next?
I was almost a decade in law and had no plans of what came next! Alarmed at this thought, I quickly enrolled myself at another training for six weeks, this time in Mysuru. I returned home from my training, cleared out a room in my house and a few weeks later I was teaching from home. It was around this time a new studio was popping up, I contacted them and got on board as a teacher. Added to the mix were a few private clients, and viola, I’ve now been teaching full time for three months with forever to go!
Is this the initial bliss of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?
Instead of waking up every morning dreading my day, I can’t wait to get my day started. That’s not to say there aren’t difficulties being a yoga teacher – from a six figure income to the hustle of maintaining steady clients and paid vacations to wanderlust, I still wouldn’t change it. The feeling of teaching a group of people, guiding them through a class and seeing their “yoga high” faces after our class makes it truly worth it.
While I’m still unsure of what the future holds, I’m happy to let it gradually unfold.
Tarini is a yoga teacher at Movement Sanctuary and Vazir Villa Yoga Studio. For her teaching schedule and updates, you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Valerian D’Costa
