Voice

I wish I could do this, wish I could take a break, don’t want to work anymore, want a holiday, want to study further, cant stay with in laws any more, want to travel for a year. These are wishes that a lot of people I know often say to me and I wonder why they can’t just do it. As Indians we are so “in time” for everything. There exists a right age for school, college, education, marriage, babies, family. We are so conditioned and actually scared to break away from the done that we instead let go off these wishes I say Indian because I feel Indians are far more suppressive with their desires than people in the western countries. And it’s in our roots, reflection of our society given the fact that we live among so many people that we are always worried about how they feel and what they think.
I can hardly think of any Indians who have decided to quit their cushiony job and taken a break to actually accomplish their wishes or secret careers.
Very few actually set out of their satisfying family lives or flourishing careers to complete their education. A friend of mine called me from Australia this morning saying she was fed up of her job and decided that she would instead travel to India for a year. I actually think it needs courage to take such a step. Not knowing the future and be ready to embrace life just the way it approaches you.
Dreams wishes, hidden desires, secret careers how often we actually voice all these. Few times or may be none. Why do we often chain ourselves in relationships and commitments that we stop living for ourselves? Or is it these relationships & commitments that actually keep the Indian family system running.
May be its worthwhile doing the wrong and not knowing what’s the future got in store. Maybe we should learn to flow like a little stream that does not know her path but is happy. It’s not always good to be perfect just let your self go. What you deserve you will get so it’s ok to take a chance and explore the unexplored.
Live those dreams so you have no regrets, surrender to life and VOICE all that you’ve suppressed

When we were small!!!

This is truly inspired by my 3 month old daughter who amazes me with her little acts not every day but every moment.

Here is my lesson learnt…

When we were small everything we did was so cute… our smile so sweet, our tears so precious.

We didn’t care for what clothes we wore. Were they in fashion, were they brand new, what brand were they? Did I wear matching shoes with it? Were my hair shampooed everyday? Those little hands and small feet that cycled in the air, those innocent eyes that said a thousand words. Those cries and coos told everyone what you needed, what comforted you. One sound and the whole house would come running to see you. Wow! Blissful ain’t it.

You lived on milk alone with no other tastes. No Chinese, no thai, no pizza no pasta.
People waited for you too add some more fat. Truly fat looks so sweet only on babies. You never went to the gym to burn those calories, while you played in the garden and fell from the cycle all the chocolates and cheese got burnt.

When we were so small we couldn’t care less what people thought of us, whether they were friends or foes. Anybody who cooed back at us, we heartily cooed back with an innocent smile.
We didn’t know what ego was. There was no forgiveness as there was no disappointment.
There was only love as that was the only emotion we felt.
We didn’t know what religion was until we were taught.

There was no comparison, no envy as we were only content. The most expensive toys didn’t mean anything to us as we loved smiling just looking at the moving ceiling fan. We didn’t understand words to which we hold on so strongly over now. We just knew that somebody is talking to us and it sounded very sweet.

We trusted everybody who held us in their hands, we knew they would look after us really well. We trusted that our parents would give us the best food, values and education. We knew that the milk mom gave us was perfect, the fruits we ate were sweet; the water we bathed with was the right temperature.

We knew that whenever we fall there is mom to pick us up, look after us. Actually failure was never a fear. We fell so often but only to rise and play again.

Do you see the transition as we grow older, materialistic things precede love, you have less friends and more foes. I comes before us. Ego precedes all emotions.
Religion precedes humanity. Envy and competition comes before hard work.
Words have deeper meaning now and we try to dig and interpret those words in many different ways.
Trust seems to have disappeared completely. Once we grow up we don’t trust our parents, friends, spouses, colleagues. We just presume they will do us more harm than good.

Failure just wears us down, we cry over it and often take months and years to regain that strength to rise again. We blame people over our failure instead of starting the attempt to rise again.

I think, no actually believe that god made each one of us perfect but we just lost the goodness he gave us in the journey of life.

Lets try and be children again cause we were the best and the happiest “when we were small”

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Dates to Days

Personal experiences are not always enough to observe… Look around and the world has enough to offer for you to learn everyday. Often we get so consumed by our own problems, life, relationships that we walk in bright daylight with our vision blindfolded.
We become oblivion to life.

More often than not we always have special occasions in our life that earmark our life. A few significant dates that turn our lives around, make them beautiful, exciting or even ugly.

This date may bring you fame, fortune, love, loneliness, togetherness, whatever it maybe, but it will add a new dimension to your life. It could be your first date, your 1st anniversary, 1st birthday celebration with your husband, 1st few years after marriage, your baby’s 1st birthday, 1st promotion, 1st car, 1st day at work…

We celebrate all the firsts with so much excitement and love that the experience is overwhelming.
As we move on in life the past ceases to exist and a few more dates become of significance. Some would say that’s natural progression of life where newer events become significant and some would say those dates which changed your life will always be memorable and need to be cherished.

Let not the newer priorities take precedence over those important dates, they shaped your life. Let the celebrations continue through life for those are dates that bought you closer to your loved ones.

Don’t take those dates for granted there will always be circumstances that will force you to let go of those moments. But don’t succumb to circumstances, don’t let situations precede relationships. They will always provide resistance but it’s the strength of the relationship that needs to battle the resistance.

If you let go of it once, it will be gone for life. The turning points in your life will cease to exist. Soon you will realize that you have no special moments and no special people. All that you gave to those firsts is too far away. In fact after years of togetherness the chocolates that you send taste sweeter, the red roses seem even fresher, those stuff toys seem even more cozy, that candle light dinner and that walk on the beach by the moonlight even more romantic. Your child’s every birthday will mark a year of growing and learning,for the both of you. Your siblings’ occasions will only reassure him of your care and support.

Don’t let those ‘DATES BECOME DAYS’ ….

Start now, celebrate every day that you have with your loved ones and especially those DATES that gave you happiness forever…


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Never say Never

I always thought I was organized, set and controlled in life. I had complete control of life and I wouldn’t digress from all that was planned.

To be organized, to plan, to make pert charts was probably my biggest obsession. The smallest of task and my network sheets would crop up. I could never wait for life to happen to me. I knew I had to make life happen.

Confident, aggressive, ambitious, little proud & pompous, life couldn't be wrong with me…that was my belief, or probably most of us believe in that. Until the heights collapse, the walls narrow in, hopes sink, waves calm down and people seem scarce. the phrase.
“It can never happen to me” ceases to exist.

That’s the time god makes you believe in his existence and crushes that pride that made you into a ‘not so good’ human being. He will make you realize of his superiority, his powers and the castle of cards you thought was a steady shelter in your life.

When one stands atop the highest peak, things seem small and tiny, probably unimportant. The words in your conscience are “I will ‘never’ ever be down there.”
The road ahead seems dearer than the journey you left behind. We forget the golden rule in life;
“Rise and fall is a rule in life with no exceptions.”
Not everybody needs to walk downhill or tread the path he left behind but it’s just that, “NEVER” forget the lessons you absorbed on the way and be unaccepting to life. At any point in time remember you will need to embrace life with whatever it holds for you then

Sometimes you wish you had more control over situations that can just sweep you off your feet. When you feel that once I achieve this I progress a step further and will do this and once I achieve that I will work towards the other. That achievement that stability you wish to achieve and use as a base for next steps is a myth, a mirage that is never realized. As you move closer to what you call achievement sucks you in further more and you lose yourself to situations and circumstances.

Today you believe that I don’t want this or I can make this happen at my time, my pace or when I am ready for it. But my friend we don’t live in isolation. Our lives are so entwined with so many other people and forces that it takes, people, energy and forces to all unite at one time and make things happen. There is no either or!

It’s not procrastination but the belief or rather overconfidence that I and ‘me’ solely can make anything happen when I want it. I know a lot of people who spend years chasing bachelor hood and when the y seek companionship finally they fail to see anybody around. That carnival of people around suddenly seemed to elope. Then either it’s no companion or not a perfect companion.

I know friends of mine who tell me I will ‘never’ want to have babies, I don’t want babies yet, or its too early, or cant compromise ‘us’ for ‘it’ yet. They thought they could plan ‘life’. They craved, pleaded and begged to god to make it happen but it didn’t…
They believe that it will happen but, just the journey now seems so long.

I know some friends who believed that they were the best, life would walk to them, they looked down on people, laughed at their miseries, wondered how it would be to have a tough life. They were so happy reveling in the good life that it blinded them until god opened the blindfold and showed them life. Now those eyes are sensitive and can see through problems of all. Now those are eyes are happy to help and not judgmental

We all live in this eternal faith that “it will ‘never’ happen to me”. I will ‘never’ do this, I ‘never’ want this, I ‘never’ will have to put my hands forward. I ‘never’ will have to see downhill, life can ‘never’ be bad with me.
The battle is not with the time you need to get there, or the pace you want to progress at. Just be open and accepting of the fact that today you don’t want it, tomorrow you can’t or may not have it.

Life will happen at the pace you want it at, just delete the ‘never’ in your life coz life keeps changing and situations and circumstances make us do things we thought we’d thought we will ‘NEVER’ do.

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Everything you want, you will have

This one is from the man who inspired me to write. whose columns made me religiously read the Bombay Times every tuesday. Cyrus Merchant, he made me believe in life.

There is a place and a time where everything will be well. and you will be present there. Am I merely some merchant of hope, selling you soap for the soul each time I write, will what I tell you ever bear fruit, your fruit? That you will know and until you do, believe. Believe that this whole thing we are all a part of was not designed to end in despair.

Besides that this whole thing which we so little understand, has at the helm, someone who does understand. god is too good too let it be bad for you, for long. Heaven won’t keep you hungry, it will serve you a banquet. But here’s the difficult part: you may not get your deepest hunger for whatever it is you are hungry, fulfilled here and now, accept certain inalienable truths. accept them as god’s will. A will you don’t want, hate can’t understand. One that makes you ask aloud "why is god doing this?" Yes, in the pressure cooker of your prayers, burning on the slow flame of faith, for years you asked and it is still being denied.

Don’t curse and turn your flame off, your faith may not have won for you, but it will warm you. The serenity prayer which every living adult is familiar with is more profound than we know... ‘god help me to accept that which I cannot change.’

Millions before you have resigned at the altar of his wish.... and found happiness. The house of the lord has many rooms, some will welcome us. The wisdom lies in not banging on the door that can never be opened.
At a breath-takingly beautiful lunch at six pm with a lake down below, an old friend awash with wine and some of life’s most mature living, concluded that no matter what we do and what we try, god’s way is final. Only humans rush where even angels fear to tread and then we live lifetimes paying the price.

God always gives us what we want; when will we give god what he wants? having said the difficult part for you and having said so after having seen many lose their dream, their loved one, sickness battles lost even after persistent prayers, I know that in some enchanted place where there is a perfect music, everything will be alright again. you will have what you want. and you will have who you want but not now. Perhaps even when your eyes are closed and you are a part of a world that is not this one, you will have your heart opened with joy.

God’s delays aren’t god’s denials. Sometimes he says "yes," sometimes he says "no." and sometimes he says "wait." Pray with the intellect of your soul and find out which of these three is his answer to you and then have the grace to accept, and have the sense to know that god knows what we think we know and have once and for all, the supreme liberating knowledge of that if you can be with god through life, no matter what, then life is with you, no matter what.

You only need obedience, you only need to be exceptionally good, you only need to be eternally religious or spiritual through life, on his side. Just never give up and fight the fight with a smiling soul the play is infinitely more significant than the problem.

Your life is not your problem. your problem is a part of your life, it is not your life. Cross the river if it’s stormy on this side, but don’t keep cursing, crying, the river will flow anyway.

Life will go on and you will be left behind. what kills homes, families and individuals and may be you is not your problem, but in the way you perceive it. There is more good to your life than bad. and the bad will go, it all always ends in good. that’s why they’re all working there - for us.

There are only happy endings; it’s the interruptions that are sad. I know you will be very happy because that is the eternal promise made to us.
og mandino said it beautifully: just before you were born, just before you were coming out of your mother’s womb and into this world, god whispered to you - "you are my greatest miracle" and you will be loved by me through life." then we were delivered and we forget his last words to us. Remember god’s promise to you. Remember that when you go back to him, you will find everything repaired again. Nobody is unhappy, nobody is dead, nothing is wrong in an increasingly materialistic world, I have nothing to offer you, but this - in some enchanted place, when god is happy with you, you will find your loved one, your miracle, your greatest joy... and you will remember what you read today.

Believe in your faith, it will come true. Don't lose the belief incase of delays...

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Small joys of life!

As I walk hand in hand with my husband learning to slow down in my last few days of pregnancy at the place that belongs to the common man... Worli sea face.

I am amazed to see or rather it brings a sweet smile on my face of how life gives happiness to everybody.
Sitting on the parapet that's just being renovated most couples sit oblivious to the world spending their best times together.

They sit all evening till finally the security guy whistles and gets them out through the rocks... Those times together always seemed to pass so fast. Some people look at the sea, soul searching waiting for it to reply to the questions in their life. Some others look up at the stars and wish life was beautiful and they achieve all they wish. Some stroll up and down having the conversation of their lifetime.

Some fitness freaks walk the talk and enjoy the freedom that the road offers unlike a gym, with no restrictions. Remember the road comes free and available 24/7.

Animal lovers love the no timings rule where they can spend quality time with their pets at any hour they desire.
Some people exercise in weird poses stretching their arms and legs not bothered wether people laugh at them or not

little children hugged and kissed the statue of the common man by R.K. Laxman not knowing who he was but sure someone important as he posed there. Tourists took pictures with him as memoirs of their visit to one of the tourists spots in Mumbai.

The ice cream vendor on the cycle ringing the bell with kids following him with the hope that their parents would buy them a small candy. A newly married couple sharing a candy that was melting in the Bombay heat but seemed like the best joy toy for them. They looked into each others eyes and shared the candy and laughed on their coloured lips.

An old couple maybe in their 80's where both of them supported and watched the path of the other as they walked along to ensure the other never falls.

A father running after his growing son as he learned to cycle along in life. He may hav ebeen a high profiled banker, a ceo, an ace surgeon but then he was a father.

Shedding all inhibitions people came to this space just to be... Who they were, which role they played nothing mattered. It was their time and they lived it.
Everything wasn't perfect but everybody was happy. Actually after a really longtime I saw that childlike happiness on so many faces at a go.
The simplicity of life is what touched that cord in my heart and made me appreciate small joys of life!!!

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Globality replacing Globalization

A recent podcast got me to think of various boundaries that are fast diminishing between developing & developed economies. We all thought after Thomas Friedmans', “The world is flat” that the world is flat but if it was, then their would not be any competitive advantage. If all wage rates were common across the globe then globalization would not exist. But the reality is that the world is very spiky and that's precisely why this is happening. If the world had the same wage rates everywhere, we wouldn't be seeing the rise of ‘GLOBALITY’.

Globalization is actually over, a one-way street. It was about the companies from the U.S. and Europe, and then later on Japan, going to the rapidly developing economies with large populations and very low wage rates and either producing product or buying product, shipping it back to the developed markets, and then shipping over some very high-end and often luxury goods to those markets. So, it was fundamentally a one-way street.

What has changed over the last few years with the rise of the BRIC nations is the emergence of a two-way street. What we have seen over the last five years is not just companies from the West coming to India and China, etc., but companies from India, China, Russia and Brazil becoming real companies that are not just operating in their local markets, but are actually taking their rightful place on the global stage. And, in doing so, they are starting to challenge the traditional multinational companies. Now, it's a two-way street and a competition.

Companies that operate in environments with different spikes, such as low-cost labor, are beginning to use those spikes to their advantage. Then they can build on that advantage by investing in research and development, new product development and distribution.

The opportunities and threats are similar in both developed & developing economies Differential wage rates offer a tremendous advantage relative to companies in the developed economies where wages are expensive.
But if they sit back and just stay local, they'll end up losing the advantage over time, because companies compete on more than just wages. If you want to produce a low-end product, you can do it that way. But you'll need to step out into other markets to learn about how to bring the best of the rest of the world to bear on your own business and if you're not taking a global perspective, your competitors in India or China may come into your market and take your position. The balancing act will be critical and low cost alone won't be enough to win, because at this point in time all the BRIC nations are competing only on that front and there will eventually be a level playing field.

The developed economies or the mature markets must never ignore the potential of consumption of the developing economies. Today with China & India together offering 2.3 bn people of whom at least a billion would be consumers would only grow to add a billion people to your portfolio in the years to come. One of the best examples of this is Nokia and its head on strategy in China & India. They built a position in China in the early days, by selling the traditional way -- by offering a higher-cost Western product. No CUSTOMIZATION.

With the influx of low cost local manufacturers the demand increased from the rich to the masses and Nokia started to lose market share and Nokia was under attack.. Nokia defied the conventional response of retreating and instead moved its product development centre to China and customized for the Chinese consumers. Learning each country is different and nobody understands the consumer there better than their own people. You have to be there, you have to learn, and retreat is not an option.
Nokia regained its 30% market share in China. It then applied the same learning’s in the growing Indian market.

Also it’s only a local member who can bring in the dynamism & creativity that is brought in. e.g. would the developed economies have thought of introducing a car like the Nano. They would have never understood the need for a Nano to produce one. Localization does bring in the flavour.

With the economic downturn there will be more pressure to lower costs, which of course is one of the advantages of operating in developing economies. That may encourage even more Western companies to go beyond their own borders to lower costs, and may also create more opportunities for companies from the BRIC nations. It also may mean more outbound M&A from the developing world, which will give the emerging companies access to brands and technology, possibly at lower prices.

We definitely are heading to a two way street aren’t we?


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