About Me — Taneeya
The International Kid.
This piece is not just about me, it’s about us. For this article to exist, I need you to have clicked & tapped in. When you read this, it is about me as much as everything that’s happened during your day, your week, your life before you clicked. All of them lead to somehow you reading about this random 25 year old: wild, geeky, rebellious, spiritual. So welcome. I hope I make you smile.
I guess that’s the first real thing about me: I am THAT friend — finding the connection in everything, delving deep into pasts. The friend that asks “Whats your biggest regret” over fries & rants on how the sun & water are connected when we are having beers at the river. My friends love & hate me for it.
I know things don’t always have a meaning but I always find a way to make one. My best strength and my weakest loop.
I attribute most of my outgoing and spiritual nature to the fact that I grew up in over four countries: I was born in Varanasi, India which is one of the “sacred” cities of the world. By the time I was 6 years old, my parents and I moved to Niger, West Africa. At the age of 11 we flew to Taiwan & at 16, I left my family to go to Boarding School in England. By 18, I was living in Budapest for medical school which is where I still am based.
It has been a big journey for a little girl — and when people call me mature for my age, I realize it’s not maturity at all (if only you knew); rather I am just fortunate enough to be well traveled. To have witnessed the complex truths & contrasts of life from an early age.
Being born in Varanasi is still one of the most beautiful facts of my life as it is the city people go to die, and also the city where liberation is granted for Hindus in sacred texts. It’s the oldest living city in the world & is the infamous place where bodies are cremated in middle of town. It’s the Jerusalem or Athens of the East, except older & more preserved in its rawness.
But it is West Africa that probably shaped the most important lessons of life and attitude — even though those lessons did not reveal themselves much later. My parents and I spent beautiful 5 years there, absorbing much of true life, laughter and love. The Sand Dunes. The Dinner Parties. The International Community. The Coup ‘etat. Nothing could have been more enriching for 10 year old Taneeya. Until we moved to Taiwan. I spent my teen years here: social, athletics, health and fitness geek. In England, I developed my youthful self — the wild child.
The first half of life seemed so slow & gradual but ever since my move to Budapest, I have been unable to keep track of time. I’m just now realising that maybe the rest of life too will go by in this blur if I don’t slow myself down, take each moment for itself and savour the gratitude of being here today.
But I am a fast fanatic, my words, my thoughts and my limbs are always in overdrive — rushing million miles an hour. My spiritual practices have helped me clam & slow down. But I’m still too fast. Since I also model- I often get to see behind the scenes footage and usually when I think I’m being normal, I’m still abnormally fast. Many photographers have asked me to slow down and hold still because… well I cannot. Not even if you pay me, literally.
Being exposed to such diversity has shaped me to be a curious & creative mind — weather it was training as a Yoga Teacher or diving into studying Psychosomatics in Medical school- I want to act on and absorb every calling that comes to my mind.
The best thing I have learnt is that although I am a model, a medical student, and now a writer — I am also none of these things. The most powerful label to have is that of nothing. It has freed me to continue experiencing & trying all the gifts of life without fears nor worries, but rather excitement and hope.
This includes sharing my thoughts & writing — something I held back until I realised there is nothing to hold back from.
