Farsi-monious in inspiration

She’s a singer, a choreographer, an artist, a chef, and also practices meditation and yoga. 38-year-old Anaida Parvaneh is known to break through cultural barriers with her music. She has recorded singles, albums and performed live in many languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Greek and Persian.

And honing many hats at once is definitely not easy. So, to deliver with excellence in all her engagements, Anaida feels that one should make decisions with love and not fear. And, it’s not the sacrificing sort of selfless love; it is decision-making from empowering love that makes one go on a better path.

As someone who comes off as a spiritual person, Anaida believes in keeping her “frequencies in tune”.

“I believe in keeping my energies aligned and my frequencies right. It may sound simple but it involves a lot of work that has to be done on a daily basis. Once people have all their energies right, everything can be done easily,” she says.

Currently, the projects that she’s engaged in include a Farsi music album which includes Rumi’s poetry; as part of her interest in culinary art, she has curated a special menu — called Anaida’s Persian Pop-up — for  SodaBottleOpenerWala (SBOW); and, she’s also looking forward to her art show in Mumbai which is slated for October this year.

Referring to an incident she faced recently, she explains how keeping her “energies aligned” helps her. “As a person, I like being on time and never being late for any appointments. So, once I was at SBOW Khan Market in Delhi and I had to report for a bloggers’ meet in its Noida outlet. I forgot my shades at a bookshop there, and those shades were very sentimental to me, so I had to go back to take it. Only 10 minutes were left before the meeting was scheduled to start, and I got a call from the Public Relations person saying that there was some confusion and the bloggers had all gathered at SBOW Khan Market outlet!”

Thus, for Anaida, it’s all about being simple and aligned.

“I keep myself in tune and it’s an everyday job. And this doesn’t mean reaching extremes and sitting in a cave to manage everything. It’s about balancing everything. One has to understand that I’m not a superwoman. That I’m able to deliver in diverse places is because in my life, I only look for balance, and I am able to do that by keeping myself balanced,” she says.

Looking back at her life, when she, as a 15-year-old, started with her singing career, she claims that she was a “major planner.” “I used to be someone who was a meticulous life planner. But then I stopped doing that and now all I try to do is balance my general plans in a day and things turn out to be for the better,” she says with a smile.   

Ask her what she does in her free time and she mentions, “I love gardening and my house is full of plants. Most of the food I cook comes from the vegetables that I grow at my own place.”

But the multi-talented Anaida considers travelling at the top of her list. “While my idea for a holiday also includes sitting in my balcony and having a chat with my friends, I also love travelling to places and discovering new things . I have travelled to over 40 countries and Greece is my favourite!” she signs off.