Formed to "acknowledge and appreciate the achievements of unsung citizens of the society,” the 40 under 40 awards of The Indian Achiever’s Club (IAC) include entrepreneurs and professionals who have "sailed through numerous social biases and today have established themselves in their respective fields,” notes the Club’s list of awardees announced on January 29, 2021. Photographer and founder of Bombay Sock Co that manufactures and markets socks, Cyrus Dastur and media professional Paricher Tavaria were in the list of awardees for 2020.
"I do set some impossible targets for myself and desire to change my time and energy towards something valuable, be it socks, the next street photography session,” Dastur noted in a brochure listing the awardees on the IAC website. To Tavaria, "that a word, an image, a video, a creative could have an impact on not just the viewer or the subject, but on me as a storyteller too,” keeps her motivated.
Young achievers Cyrus Dastur and Paricher Tavaria
Speaking to Parsiana, Dastur stated, "Comparison is the thief of joy. And you are you. The past is the past. The only way to achieve a better life is from inside the present…Don’t compare your actual self to a hypothetical self. Don’t drown in a sea of what ifs,” believes Dastur. What is his mantra for success? "Don’t clutter your mind by imagining other versions of you, in parallel universes, where you made different decisions,” he noted. "The internet age encourages choice and comparison, but don’t do this to yourself… Accept your reality and be human enough to make mistakes. The rest will follow.”
A proponent of "moving on” in the face of adversity, Tavaria told Parsiana that "what most people would consider the lows in life, I would view as a challenge or a hurdle to overcome...Not having money to study further didn’t dishearten me… It pushed me further…Losing my parents and being left stranded by my ex-fiancé should have broken me... but just made me somehow more courageous,” she narrated. "Giving up for me has never been an option,” avers Tavaria whose curriculum vitae states that she has trained at and worked in various capacities at the British Broadcasting Corporation, All India Radio, Doordarshan and Radio Mirchi.
As she stated in her profile in the Club’s brochure, "While I’ve mostly had good people guiding me at the top, what’s kept me sane and grounded is the fact that even with bosses who are slightly narcissistic, you learn...perhaps more of what you should not do...and yes, the importance of treating people better.”
IAC’s website states that the Club was established in 1966 as Sahitya Bharti Trust, "for networking for businessmen and professionals to help them bring out better thoughts and strategies which in turn helped them to do better socially as well as professionally.”