Crazy good story of a techie turned story teller.

Us waqt premchand ji ki kahaniyon ka matlab samaj aaya, “ki kafan bech ke koi insaan ek waqt ka khana bhi kha Sakta hai." Aur yeh realisation mujhe kaise Hui, iski bhi ek alag kahani hai, 
 

Let's start from the beginning….

Toh shuruaat se shuru karte hai!

I am Faizi Khan. I am the founder of Khayalon Ki Udaan, a writer and a storyteller for the stories of life. My current purpose is to help people celebrate their lives directly or indirectly. I offer story writing-screenwriting workshops and performances incorporates, fitness, and arts.

My Early Life…

I completed my master's in computer applications (MCA); As I was a good student, I got a Campus placement and started working at IBM, then Google. Later I shifted to event management for a celebrity life coach as well. So overall I had an experience of 6 years in the corporate.

Finding my true calling..

I wasn't enjoying my life working in a corporate. I just couldn't connect! I needed to take a stand. 

And then, I started asking myself. What skills do you possess to sell yourself in the market? I didn't have an exact answer. I was confused. So I started looking into my Childhood; My father is a retired professor. I remember he used to always read me stories of Booker T Washington. His book Up from Slavery had a chapter, Struggles for my Education. It taught me that if you do hard work, you have the power to change your destiny.

Coming from a small tehsil in Bijnor district I didn't get enough exposure growing up. I now even  perform from Jammu and Kashmir to Andaman Nicobar Island, all over India for my storytelling performance tour, 'Kalam ki zuban with Faizi.' 

 

 

 

 

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My father shaped me in my childhood….

I wanted to become a teacher in my childhood only because my father was a professor. He had these big books in a huge library. Even though I wanted to read stories from these books to the children just like my father, destiny played its card and now I am an artist and an entrepreneur.

But as they say life circles back. It picks you up from exactly where you left it, to complete the unfinished. I was a guest faculty in a school and I used to train the teachers under the "Train the Trainer" program. I used to also do storytelling workshops for kids because I truly believe when children start storytelling early in their lives, it helps them accept themselves better. This way, I could finally complete my childhood dreams of reading stories to children. This is how my journey has been!  And as you can tell, you never know where life takes you!

My Walk to My Dreams:

Everyone recommended that I go to Mumbai, but after you have left your job, with very little money, going to Mumbai is very expensive. My parents were, of course, unhappy after I quit.

"Hamari bacchi pagal ho gayi hai." Those were their words precisely.

Randomly, I decided to make a blog on WordPress with a free subscription, and every Saturday, I started writing and publishing stories.

These were reflective stories based on struggles that teach you valuable life lessons. They were also inspired by day-to-day conversations that somewhere have a hidden meaning to them. And people usually 50-60 years aka mature audiences started to read them. 

BHOOKH

Food makes relationships. I have written a story named,

"seth gali k dahi bhalle", Tej Gali is a place in Agra.

"Khayalon ki udan", was the name of the blog page, where I started publishing my work. During the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, there was a craze for open mike. The founder of the open mic used to like my blogs and one day they asked me to perform. I was hesitant initially but somehow, I promised to perform my story, Bhook.

Bhook (hunger) is about the people who take a stand for their dreams. Be it  entrepreneurs, startup founders, artists, first-generation business owners, or those people who have gotten the courage to stand apart from the crowd. And it's not for the faint-hearted.

I was extremely nervous while performing but when I ended my story, I could see people crying in the audience. I was able to connect with my audience.

It was my life's first performance. Meri Zindagi ki pehli performance and people loved it. Khoob tareef milli. And then, I started performing regularly.

I realised that you need to monetize your passion because you need to sustain yourself as well. It was important for me to reach a larger audience. And, If you wanna reach the masses, you need to put yourself in front of a camera. I did that and gradually people started noticing me. People made me a Storyteller.
 

Khayalon ki Udaan…

To put it in my own words, I ain't as smart as the current generation but I am as hardworking as the previous generation. My creativity, my authenticity, and my grit made me who I am today. Discipline and Learning are two values in your life that will never fail you. 

The Faizi who Runs…

I am a sports anchor too. I love running.
In 2019, I got the offer to write something for athletes. I wrote, "Jee haan mein runner hun, pairo se kwab dekta hun!"
I was praised for it. I could understand,
Ek insaan aakhir kyu bhagta hai…
I combined all my struggles and life learnings in my book, Urooj in 2021.

My Struggle….

During the pandemic, I thought as an artist, It won't be difficult for me to manage myself. But soon I realised, everyone was tense and nobody will give you money to listen to a story on a Zoom call. This was the time I could understand the deep meaning behind Premchandji's Stories.

I noticed people wanted to improve themselves during the lockdown. Hence, I built two courses, Metaphorical storytelling and Decoding the dream. People in sales and marketing found it extremely helpful.

In 2021, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa wanted a voiceover for the documentary of Lata Mangeshkar. It felt surreal when they chose me. When I was shown on TV, tab jake Ghar walo ko laga ki haan, humari ladki kuch toh kar rahi hai! 

My mission……

My mission in life is that I want to celebrate every day of my life. I am very much in love with life. I wanna tell everyone that we live in a world of overexposure. It creates chaos. And we must maintain and balance ourselves. Being happy is the easiest thing you could do. Life isn't as difficult as you think. Have clarity and keep working on your dreams. Embrace the changes. And keep moving forward.