Episode Thirty - The Byte: Rachel Lopez

This super cool Indian journalist has made her Instagram world famous. Hear how the simple act of taking photos of taxi ceilings has changed her life, and how bringing joy to those around her is a miracle.

Transcript

Well,

I was very lucky because I went to a good college.

I went to one of the best colleges in the country.

And I got out of it and I walked into a newspaper office saying,

You just gotta give me a job.

I'll figure it out.

And then they were like,

Oh,

Which journalism school have you been to?

And I'm like,

None.

And like,

Oh,

What kind of editing skills do you bring to the table?

I'm like,

None,

But you know what,

I'm going to figure it out and you're going to be happy you hired me.

And they were so I mean,

It all worked out.

So it was pretty good.

Hi,

I'm Rachel Lopez.

I'm a resident of Mumbai,

India.

I'm a journalist with a major newspaper in India.

I've been a journalist since 2003.

It's the only job I've had.

It's the only thing I know to do.

What I really like about my job is that I can be a different person every week,

I can jump into the story of India's dinosaurs one week,

I can talk about art the other week.

And it's just allowed me to open so many doors into my life that I feel like I'm a very blessed human being for being a journalist.

I'm also someone who photographs the city obsessively.

I live in Mumbai,

I love it.

And there's always something happening.

And just the fact that there's always something happening means it's a good thing.

You're never bored.

You're always distracted and distraction is a good thing.

I sit in black and yellow taxis a lot as I move around the city.

And every time I sit in one,

I noticed that the ceilings of the taxis are colorful.

There's a there's a covering and upholstery that goes on to the taxi ceilings.

And they usually printed in some very bright,

Ridiculous colors.

And I've been taking pictures of them since I think 2017.

I have more than 500 different images.

And I've ended up without realizing I've ended up with without realizing that I have the world's largest gallery of Mumbai taxi ceiling art in India.

I never thought I'd be the best or the largest collector of anything art related.

But here we are.

Have you in your life ever felt like you've witnessed a miracle or the magic of the universe or some experience where you've been a witness?

Have you had an experience like that?

This actually is the hardest question I've been asked in a very long time.

When you reached out to me with the question,

I started thinking about it.

And I was like,

Gosh,

You know,

I'm just gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna figure something out.

When I heard the question,

I was like,

Gosh,

I better find an answer,

Because then I'll be prepared for it.

And the more I thought about it,

The more I thought about it,

The less I had an answer for you.

And and then I asked a bunch of friends,

And they were like,

Gosh,

I don't know.

This is such a personal question.

You should answer it yourself.

And of course,

I wasn't going to take their answers,

But I wanted some help.

And I didn't get it.

So I've been thinking about it for quite some time.

And it's wonderful to be able to think this hard about a question,

Which I haven't thought for a while.

So thank you for asking it.

The way that I want to answer it is that I don't think that miracles are necessarily single events in one's life.

A lot of people think a miracle is yet to happen to me,

Or I did or I did not witness a miracle or I'm missing out on them.

I also want to think of miracles as a longer experience.

And a longer understanding of life.

I believe that it may not just be a quick burst rather than a slow burn of something wonderful that's happening to you.

That said,

I consider myself an extremely lucky person.

If you asked me on a scale of one to 10,

How lucky I am,

I'm a nine.

So I won't win.

I won't win bingo very easily.

I'm not the kind of person who's,

You know,

Whose ticket you'll pull out when you're when you're playing the lotto,

I won't win the car.

I'm not going to get five nights and four days in Bangkok for answering,

You know,

A question on the radio.

I'm not that kind of lucky.

But I'm so lucky in so many different ways.

Because I struggle a lot less with a lot of things that I find everyone around around me struggling with.

I'm a journalist,

I went to bed on Thursday night thinking,

Oh,

Man,

I have to write my column this week.

And I didn't have anything for my call.

And on Friday morning,

I had gone to the bazaar,

I had gone to the market,

And I came back with fresh peas,

Because they're in season now.

And I sat shelling them and listening to something on the phone.

And I got my idea right there.

And that's when I knew how I wanted to answer this question as well.

I do think that there's something out there that has my back and has my back more than it has other people's back.

I don't know what I've done to deserve it.

But for me,

That miracle is that I'm always buffered from the really bad stuff.

I'm always buffered from a really bad day.

It's never as bad for me.

And I'm always able to find a silver lining when other people are only looking at dark clouds.

It's probably why I'm so optimistic and so happy all the time.

And you see it on Instagram with all of my posts as well.

And I think it just comes from the fact that I'm in a I'm in a much happier place,

Because there's something that's putting me in a happier place.

And I think that's my miracle.

I didn't think of myself as a particularly positive person,

You don't see yourself until someone else points it out to you.

And everyone is like,

Gosh,

You're so positive all the time.

And I'm like,

Oh,

No,

Please,

I don't think so.

And I realized that,

Oh,

My God,

Yeah,

You know,

I am positive all the time.

So I'm afflicted with a certain kind of happiness.

And I think that's probably my miracle.

Well,

I think that's beautiful.

And I have a couple things to say.

One is that we've discussed that you're very joyful.

And through your Instagram feed,

You are bringing joy to lots and lots of people all over the world.

And so I find that when people are tasked with that in this life,

When they are tasked with bringing happiness and spreading joy and lifting up others,

You know,

Their life becomes the miracle.

Yes.

And so you and yourself,

I'm listening to you,

You are the miracle because you are along with millions of other people all over the world lifting others up.

It's a sacred duty,

Right?

Because what you're doing takes a lot of energy and the energy is going out is going out,

It is going out.

So where does your wellspring come from?

And so I would suggest that your miracle is that the wellspring is continually rejuvenated and filled by source.

Yeah,

No,

That's such a beautiful way to put it.

Because if someone had to ask me,

Where does where does all your joyfulness come from?

I don't know.

I'm not drinking a tonic every morning.

This isn't a little bit of yakult,

You know,

I don't know.

And I really do think that is something out there that is refilling me in ways that I'm able to refill other people.

I also think that being happy and being joyful and spreading hope and not spreading hate is a conscious decision.

It costs a lot of energy.

I don't mean that I'm sort of weeping tears while I'm while I'm keying happy thoughts,

Happy thoughts on my Instagram,

Of course not.

But to be able to see the world differently,

While everyone thinks it's burning is a special kind of energy to sit in a taxi and just go to your destination versus looking up and realizing there's a papaya on your head is a certain kind of energy to be able to and you mentioned that you went to a church and it was art deco for you to notice architecture,

See the beauty in it and appreciate it is a certain kind of energy.

Because there are a lot of people who just don't see how beautiful their world is.

But they're quick to point out everything that's wrong with it.

I will I will give you another example.

I have a friend who was going through a very bad relationship.

It just seemed like she didn't have any confidence in herself.

All right.

So I asked her it was late at night,

We were in a hotel room.

And I asked her to find 10 things that she likes about herself,

That no one can take away from her.

And she struggled she couldn't get past three.

She couldn't get past three things that she liked about herself.

And she said,

You know,

If you asked me about things that I didn't like about myself,

I go on and on.

And I said,

No,

But that's not what I'm asking.

I'm asking you about things you love about yourself.

I could tell you think then things that I love about you.

But why can't you find 10 things you love about yourself?

Even if it's as simple as you love the way your hair curls?

She's got beautiful girly hair,

By the way.

And so she said,

Yeah,

I suppose.

And I suppose I gave you a compliment now and told you that your head is beautiful.

How much would you really believe it?

And she'd be like,

No,

I believe it.

But you could tell from her tone that she was just humoring me.

Sometimes if people are saying lovely things about you just take it and sometimes believe those things about yourself before people tell you that.

And when the pandemic hit in March this month for us in India,

The lockdown was really bad because India went into lockdown at some four hours notice.

So overnight,

Everything just shut.

We were not prepared.

So she was really unhappy because she couldn't go to work.

She was at home in her family home.

And I said,

Why don't we figure out something we'll,

We'll every night,

I'll send you 10 wonderful things that happened in my day,

Or 10 things that I'm thankful about.

And it doesn't have to be a what I did at 10am and then 11am or whatever,

It's just things that you're happy about.

And why don't you share a list of your own as well.

And so she did and she would struggle,

Struggle,

Struggle through I think,

April,

But by May,

She was sort of filling in 20 things and 18 things.

And she started to see that she was in a bad situation,

But she was not a bad person.

And I think it taught me that seeing the bright side is a learned skill,

And that you really need to work on it,

Because it's so easy to be taken away from you.

Sometimes we just don't realize that this is our purpose,

Or sometimes we don't choose our purpose.

It's,

You know,

It's just something that happens to you.

And like I said,

Up until recently,

When someone said,

Oh,

You're so positive all the time,

Or you're so optimistic,

Or you're,

You know,

You bring joy,

I'd be like,

What,

What are you talking about?

I just have a good sense of humor.

And I see the funny side in a lot more things.

But I'm realizing it's all part of the same,

You know,

The same shimmering light.

I mean,

It's always better to laugh,

Isn't it?

I like to think,

You know,

When people talk about the Big Bang,

Or they talk about in the Bible that God created the world in seven days,

I'm like,

God created the world with joy and laughter.

I would love to see that each of those things that happen on each of those seven days was just the result of maybe day one was a chuckle.

Day two was a guffaw.

You know,

Day three was a little snigger.

And so it's like all the different kinds of laughter created our universe.

And to me,

That's just the most beautiful thing because it is such life giving energy.

Absolutely.

And God definitely has a sense of humor.

I mean,

Have you seen the arms on a T-Rex?

Of course,

He has a sense of humor.

Those guys can't brush their teeth,

They can't hug.

There had to be some kind of little chuckle happening when the dinosaurs were created as well.

And that's a wrap on season three.

Thanks for listening to episode 30 of Bite Size Lessons,

The podcast all about the magic and spirit that surrounds us.

If only we open our eyes to it.

And whether you choose to listen to our bite sized offerings for that five to 10 minutes of freedom in your day,

Or the longer interviews,

We're grateful you're here.

I need to thank my amazing guest,

Rachel Lopez,

For sharing her story today.

I learned about her in an article in Business Insider.

She's also been featured on PRI International,

RootsAndLeisure.

Com,

And MyModernMet.

Com among many other platforms.

She's a little bit of an internet celebrity.

And she very generously gave up her time and wisdom so that we could create episode 30 of this podcast.

She's also a journalist for the Hindustan Times.

If you'd like to read an archive of her works for that newspaper,

Type in her name,

Rachel Lopez,

As well as Hindustan Times.

Read some of her articles and you'll see just why I am so enchanted with her.

Also find her Instagram account,

The greater Bombay.

There you'll find images of the art on the vintage Mumbai taxis that she photographs.

They'll be sure to enchant you as well.

I need to thank the creators of the music for episode 30,

Raphael Crux,

Kevin MacLeod,

Edie P.

Wonty,

And Musik L.

Files.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite Size Blessings website at bitesizeblessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to other episodes,

Books,

Change makers,

And music I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening,

And here's my one request.

Be like Rachel.

Live into the joy and happiness in every moment,

And don't be afraid to create your own.