Surviving a Terrorist Attack and Choosing Happiness

I recently spoke to entrepreneur and author Rüdrani Devi. Rudrani is also a terrorist attack survivor; in Choosing Happiness, Rüdrani reflect upon her personal experience of overcoming the unthinkable after she survived a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your story and lessons learned. You survived the unthinkable. Can you describe your life leading up to the terrorist attack?

Rudrani: Before, what the media dubbed, the Mumbai Massacre, my days were full to overflowing with my holistic health care clinic. You could say I had the tools to prepare me, although I never expected the horrific events that occurred on my meditation pilgrimage to Mumbai, India.

Adam: What do you remember about the day of the attack and the attack itself? How did you survive?

Rudrani: On the morning of November 26, 2008, I was on a treadmill, training for a qualifying race to get me into the the coveted Boston Marathon. Little did I know that my view from the high-rise gym was overlooking the Mumbai waterfront where 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba hijacked a fishing boat, killing the fisherman. Soon after breakfast, our group was visiting Ashrams and I remember my body vibrating as we listened to Brahman Priests chant. That evening, we ate in the 5-star hotel lobby restaurant, and it was seconds after our food arrived that two terrorists clad in arsenal came running into the lobby, firing at at everyone. My friend next to me was shot, and it was his warm blood that soaked my white head wrap; so with my eyes closed, I’m sure I looked dead. Then I heard a voice call out from the kitchen saying that if I wanted to survive, I had to come now. Shot in my right femur and triceps, I couldn’t get up, so I called out “drag me!” And just like that, one of the waiters selflessly ran out into the chaos, grabs me by the wrists and dragged me across the floor around other lifeless bodies into the kitchen, and then they others barricaded the door. Nearly bleeding out, I was eventually put into a cab and rushed to the Bombay Hospital.

Adam: What is the process of recovering from the trauma of living through a terrorist attack? What should everyone understand about those who have gone through similar experiences?

Rudrani: My first job was healing my body. My femur was shattered by the AK-41 bullet that ended up lodging next to the femoral artery, fortunately not piercing it, as I would not be here to answer these questions if it had. A prothesis was custom made for my leg that attached from my hip to my big toe so the bones could grow back together. Once that was done, physical therapy ensued three days a week, along with several other protocols and a final surgery to reattach my kneecap correctly. My marriage of six years began to dissolve within the first year of recovery.

It would be 25 months after the attacks, that my doctor finally released me, and then it was about getting back to work and not losing my house. I was too busy trying to get my life back on tract, that it was 10 years before I began having PTSD. What I would invite others that have had these horrific experiences to do is find those skilled to help. I was lucky enough to quickly find a support team consisting of my mother, close friends and three amazing holistic doctors that helped me navigate the experiences my body was having several years later. It was if my body waited until I could feel safe enough handle the fallout. There is help out there. Find it.

Adam: You wrote a book drawing on your experiences called Choosing Happiness. How can you choose happiness?

Rudrani: The question I got asked a lot during and after my recovery was, "with everything you’ve been through, how in the heck are you so happy?” In my point of view, happiness should be our natural state, but by the present unrest evident all around us, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The first step is a brave one, and it's the sheer audacity and willingness to be happy. Once you do that, it’s easier to choose it. My book has 10 incredibly pragmatic, and dare I say, easy tools from the Access Consciousness movement, to assist anyone truly willing to choose happiness, navigate their lives to create authentic joy.

Adam: What compelled you to become an entrepreneur? What advice do you have for fellow entrepreneurs?

Rudrani: I realized that I had this capacity and willingness to create that almost seems instantaneous once I choose it. I wrote “Choosing Happiness" in one week, although I prefer to say it wrote itself. I believe you can create your life’s dreams with ease if you live in the question. Questions empower you to push further. Remember Orville and Wilbur Wright? They were two the American aviation pioneers credited for inventing the world’s first steerable flying machine. There were many failed attempts, but these entrepreneurs remained in the question of what can we do to make this better? My advice to fellow entrepreneurs would be to live as the question of "what else is possible now?” That optimism will be received and you’ll be surprised by how quickly infinite possibilities will magically appear. When you fall down, get back up and ask more questions.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Rudrani: Do you want to be right, or do you want to be free? What if everything is just an interesting point of view? What if you didn’t feel the need to align and agree or resist and react to anything? Imagine if you didn’t have a point of view about anything in your life, what would your life be like? If you didn’t place significance on how you think things should be or look like, couldn’t that create freedom for you? It certainly has for me. If someone’s else point of view doesn’t work for me, I can be in allowance that it works for them and choose something else that does work for me,

Adam: What are your three best tips on we can live happier lives?

Rudrani: 1) Live as the question. For example, you could ask, if I choose this, what will it create? If you can perceive great things, follow the energy of that. If it falls flat and doesn’t feel like a contribution, choose something different. That question could be, what else could I chose that will create and generate the most here? And then there is always “what else is possible here?"

2) Live as interesting POV. It gets you out of judgement of yourself and others quickly. Simply say, “interesting point of view I have that point of view about their point of view." Try that with every POV you have about everything for 3 days, and I guarantee you’ll feel the significance melt right off your very being. That is true freedom my friends.

3) Live in 10-second increments. What if you realized that you can choose things other people choose not to choose? Like Happiness? Maybe in their interesting POV, they don’t have the capacity or the right to choose happiness unless they deserve it somehow. What if living in 10-second increments put you in the energy, space and choice of always creating your life? Something doesn’t work in this 10 seconds for you, you can always choose again, and again, and again until it does work for you. Maybe in a week, it stops working for you, but guess what? You have the freedom to choose again. How cool is that?

Adam: What is one thing everyone should be doing to pay it forward?

Rudrani: Paying it forward is as simple and being the example you wish for the world. What if you could be the inspiration for greater possibilities? My target is to embody so much consciousness in every choice I make that others might choose the same for them. If I succeed to inspire just one person, I have done this world a great service.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Rudrani: Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not an airy fairy type; but I do believe you can magically create your life with ease if you choose it. You don’t have to take my word for it. Within this little yellow book are very easy, pragmatic tools that can create a more joy filled life for you and those around you, and seemingly work like magic if you so choose to implement them. The only question remaining now is, will you choose it?