A TASTE OF HONEY

Honey Kalaria was born with a club foot and told she may never walk properly, let alone dance.  She didn’t listen. Honey is now the UK Bollywood ambassador and icon, and has opened her own dance academy with 15 centres and over 1,800 students.

Honeys determination and dedication have helped her overcome her difficulties and she is now a deeply spiritual person, who relies greatly on the power of positive thinking and belief. I asked Honey how she manages it!

Honey - Relentlessly Positive is all about finding the positive side of life. Can you explain a little about your own positivity, and how you feel that your belief in the power of positive thinking has helped you achieve the success you have?

I believe that “you are what you think”! Therefore it is extremely important to think positive. I remember reading a book called ‘The Power of Positive thinking’ at the age of 13 - and since then I have become a personal development book addict. I strongly believe that feeding your mind with positive things tends to reap positive results. A strong combination of a belief in yourself, a higher universal force and having a purpose in life breeds amazing faith, energy, motivation, joy and a positive attitude.

You've been dancing since you were four years old - and presumably at that point you were too young to know that you weren't expected to find it difficult! Do you think that being unaware of other people's limited expectations was one of the reasons you've overcome them?

I believe the sky is the limit and the universe is so abundant that it can give you whatever you wish for – the question is how much time, effort and action are you willing to put towards your goal?  I tend to surround myself with positive and successful people because I feel you need to enjoy the journey of life, be inspired by others, be willing to go beyond your limit and maximize your true potential.

The doctors said you might have difficulty walking, yet here you are a professional dance trainer. Did you find that people tried to talk you out of your dream, or were they generally supportive?

I was born with a clubfoot and I can’t remember much as I was so young. All I remember is the stories my mother told me about doctors saying that I may not be able to walk properly.

I admire my mother for doing everything possible to fight this limited belief. She used to do everything that the doctors advised - massage, foot bandaging - even though it would cause me a lot of pain. My mother would cry whilst seeing me screaming but would still carry on.

Seeing the dedication my mum showed towards my well being, Dr Ambekar, our family doctor - who I consider as an angel in disguise - introduced us to a bone specialist. He agreed to do some treatment, twisted my foot to a normal position and gave my mother a special metal shoe that I would have to wear until the foot healed. If this hadn’t worked, I would have had to have gone through an operation but there were no guarantees.

Unfortunately another girl who suffered the same thing has never been able to walk normally. This is one of the reasons I am so fond of helping young children in this world and have accepted the role as an ambassador to the charity “Forgotten Children International”– a small effort on our part can help to change someone’s life forever!

When did you first decide that you wanted to make a career out of your love for dance?

My life was drawn in that direction. It was as if the universe was guiding me and helping me move into an entertainment related career.

From the age of 13 I was flying to New York, Norway and Morocco to perform. By the age of 16, I was training Bollywood film stars.  I realised that I wanted to help make the world a better place and learnt that people who have name, fame and money can do so much more for the world if they chose to.

I also find Indian dance a fantastic way of bringing people from different cultures together, promoting health and fitness, generating confidence and self esteem in others and opening up opportunities for talented individuals.

You're known affectionately as Britain's Bollywood Ambassador - what do you think it is about Bollywood that makes Bollywood films so amazingly popular, all over the world?

Bollywood is just amazing! The Bollywood film industry is massive. It produces up to 800 films a year - twice as many as Hollywood and about 14 million Indian people go to the cinema everyday - yes 14 million people go to watch a Bollywood film every day. That’s almost 100 million people every week in India.

You've performed all over the world - in over 2000 shows, that's a phenomenal amount of dancing! Have there been any performances that stand out as being really special to you? Why were they special?

I enjoy performing and bringing joy to audiences all over the world. Each time it is different, exciting and I end up meeting new people and learning new things.

Some of the events that were extremely memorable for me were when I performed and met the late Princess Diana at a show in East London. Princess Diana told me that she had thoroughly enjoyed our performance and I found her to be warm and friendly. I admire her for all the charity work she did.

Another project I thoroughly enjoyed was promoting Gareth Gates ‘Spirit in the Sky’ for Comic Relief. I really enjoyed bringing Bollywood dance to a mainstream audience and I discovered how music and dance break down all cultural barriers – we spent a lot of our touring time meeting people from all walks of life and educating and informing them about Indian culture and Bollywood, while also enjoying performing at exciting events.

I remember also attending a ‘Dream Wedding’ in Paris where I was booked as a choreographer. The wedding was for the daughter of Lashki Mittal, the international steel tycoon.  I believe £43 million was spent on the wedding celebrations and I enjoyed every moment of it. Performances also included appearances by pop princess Kylie Minogue  and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

I used to like Kula Shaker - which one of their videos were you in with them?

I performed as a lead artist in one of Kula Shaker’s pop videos. It was for the song called ‘Shower your Love’ from the album Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts.

You have so many educational, business and entertainment achievements - so how do you manage it? How do you motivate yourself and keep your energy levels high for all your projects?

Firstly I think it is important to have a purpose in life, so for me I have summarized this as:- My passion lies in the area of dance & performing arts, creating opportunities for others and enhancing their lives, contributing positively to society by making this world a better place and bringing people from different cultures together by developing East-West relations.

Next, in order to make my business, personal life and career successful I have implemented the following steps:-

• Have a clear vision
• Develop passion for what you do and earn from a hobby
• Don’t just talk, take action
• Don’t concentrate on the money but on providing a worthwhile service and loving the journey, Have a positive attitude and be cheerful (life is so short),
• Don’t be afraid to take risks and be solutions focused  – learn lessons from adverse situations, Count your blessings and concentrate on what you have, not what you don’t have.

Finally, I meditate regularly. I have been doing Samarpan Meditation, which is a branch of Dhyan Yoga for the past six years. I feel it helps me to stay grounded, have clarity in my life, develop peace and harmony, focus my energies towards my goals, work on building a strong intuition, enhance my creativity, boost my health and immunity levels whilst also developing a strong spiritual connection with God to help me remain on the right track.

In fact I found so many benefits to be gained from regular meditation that I volunteer running an East London Samarpan Meditation centre every Sundays where all are welcome. Life is what you make of it!