The soft glow of her laptop screen illuminated Rajani Kafaltia's face as she typed away well past midnight. Outside her window, the world had gone quiet during lockdown, but inside, a lifelong dream was finally taking shape. After nearly two decades leading digital transformation initiatives at multinational corporations, Rajani was transforming herself.

"I remember staring at that blank document the first night," Rajani recalls, her voice softening with the memory. "Twenty years in IT had taught me to solve complex problems, but facing that empty page was the most intimidating challenge of my career."

When the pandemic forced the world to slow down in 2020, Rajani found herself with something she rarely had before—time to reflect. The high-powered IT executive who had traveled across continents implementing cutting-edge AI solutions was suddenly confined to her home office.

"The pandemic was devastating in so many ways," she says, "but it also stripped away all my excuses. That book I'd been talking about writing 'someday' for the past fifteen years? Suddenly, someday was now."

Like many successful professionals, Rajani had always kept her creative aspirations on the periphery of her busy life. Her passion for leadership and motivation literature had been kindled since childhood, when she began collecting inspirational quotes in a small notebook—a habit she maintained even as she climbed the corporate ladder.

"There was a quote by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on my desk for years," she remembers. "'Dreams are not what you see in your sleep, they are the things that don't let you sleep.' It haunted me because I knew there was this unlived dream still waiting."

The decision to finally write her book wasn't gradual—it came as a sudden realization during a particularly difficult week of the lockdown.

"I was on my fifth Zoom call of the day," Rajani shares, her eyes widening at the memory. "We were discussing digital strategy for a client, and I found myself speaking about innovation and transformation with such passion. Then it hit me—I had been helping companies transform for twenty years, but I hadn't given myself permission to transform."

That night, she opened a new document and typed the first words of what would become "Women Chin Up and Fix Yourself!"—a book focused on women's entrepreneurship and leadership.

Rajani's approach to writing wasn't just about finding time—it was about creating a sustainable process amidst her still-demanding professional life.

"People ask me how I wrote a book while holding down an executive position," she says with a slight laugh. "The truth? I became religious about my schedule. My colleagues knew I was unavailable between 10 PM and 2 AM. Those hours became sacred."

Some nights the words flowed effortlessly. "I remember one session where I wrote six pages without stopping," she recalls, her eyes lighting up. "It felt like the book was writing itself."

Other nights were different. "There were evenings when I'd write three sentences and delete five," she admits. "One particularly frustrating night, I stared at the screen for an hour, wrote nothing, and ended up in tears. I was exhausted, questioning everything. I actually sent myself an email that night titled 'Why I'm quitting the book.' Thankfully, I never opened it."

This vulnerability is something Rajani doesn't often share in professional settings. "As an IT leader, you're trained to project certainty. But writing stripped me of that armor. There were moments of crushing self-doubt that I had to push through."

What ultimately carried Rajani through was a level of discipline that borders on uncommon.

"I created non-negotiable rules," she explains. "Write every single day, even if it's just ten lines. No excuses—not tiredness, not bad moods, not other priorities. Just like you wouldn't skip brushing your teeth because you're tired, I wouldn't skip writing."

This unwavering commitment meant significant sacrifices. "I missed Netflix shows everyone was talking about. I declined virtual happy hours. My friends started joking that I'd gone into hiding," she says with a smile that acknowledges both the cost and the worth of her choice.

The discipline paid off. In just two months, Rajani had completed her manuscript—a remarkable achievement that surprised even her publisher.

"When I submitted it, my editor called me and asked how long I'd been working on it. When I told her 'two months,' there was this long pause. She thought I meant two years."

With her manuscript complete, Rajani faced another challenge: how to ensure her book would stand out in a crowded marketplace. That's when she made one of the boldest decisions of her journey—to approach Dr. Kiran Bedi, India's first female IPS officer and a renowned social activist, for a foreword.

"Everyone told me it was impossible," Rajani remembers, shaking her head. "My publisher said established authors wait years for such endorsements. But I've never been someone who accepts 'impossible' at face value."

Rajani's connection to Dr. Bedi wasn't merely admiration from afar. For years, she had followed Dr. Bedi's work closely, engaged with her social initiatives, and aligned herself with the same causes.

"I drafted seven different versions of that email," Rajani reveals. "The final version wasn't a request as much as it was a letter from the heart. I shared how Dr. Bedi's breaking of glass ceilings had given me the courage to break my own, how her work with women had inspired the very book I'd written."

Then came weeks of silence. "Every day I checked my email with my heart in my throat," she admits. "After three weeks, I had accepted it wasn't going to happen."

But on a rainy Tuesday morning, the impossible happened. "I was in a meeting when my phone buzzed. The subject line was 'Re: Request for Foreword.' My hands were literally shaking as I opened it."

Not only had Dr. Bedi agreed to write the foreword, but she also requested to meet Rajani in person to discuss the book further.

"That meeting changed everything," Rajani says, her voice filled with emotion. "Dr. Bedi told me something I'll never forget. She said, 'Your courage in asking is precisely the quality your book aims to instill in women.' It wasn't just about having her name on my book anymore; it was about embodying the very message I was trying to share."

With two more books already in progress, Rajani has embraced her identity as an author. "The second book explores leadership principles through the lens of ancient wisdom," she explains. "The third is more personal—examining how mid-life transitions can become opportunities for reinvention."

What drives her now is the impact of her words. "Writing isn't just about expressing myself anymore," she reflects. "It's about creating something that outlives me, that continues to speak to people long after I'm gone."

For aspiring authors who, like her former self, are waiting for the "perfect time" to begin, Rajani offers hard-earned wisdom: "The perfect time is a myth. Begin now, even if it's imperfect. Write in the margins of your life if you must—early mornings, late nights, lunch breaks. The world needs your story, and you need to tell it."

She pauses, then adds with quiet conviction, "And when self-doubt creeps in—which it will—remember that the voice telling you that you can't is lying. I spent twenty years believing that voice. Don't waste as much time as I did."

Recently, Rajani received an invitation that brought her journey full circle. Dr. Kiran Bedi asked her to speak at a women's leadership conference alongside her.

"Standing on that stage, next to someone who had been my hero for so long—I had this out-of-body experience," Rajani confesses. "Part of me was still that IT executive who secretly wrote in her journal at night, dreaming of becoming an author someday."

Looking out at the audience, Rajani spotted a young woman furiously taking notes. After her talk, the woman approached her.

"She told me she works in tech but dreams of writing a book," Rajani shares, her eyes brightening. "She asked me if I thought it was possible to do both. I gave her my email address and told her to send me the first page of her book by the end of the week."

Rajani smiles. "The cycle continues. Another dream begins."

For Rajani Kafaltia, the journey from IT executive to published author with a foreword by Dr. Kiran Bedi represents more than personal achievement—it stands as testament to the power of perseverance, discipline, and the courage to pursue long-held dreams. Her story reminds us that it's never too late to reinvent yourself, that the right words can change lives, and that sometimes the most important transformation we lead is our own.