Identity Crisis !

With love - An evening of appreciation

2010-02-17T23:03:00.000-08:00

It is 7:45 pm in the evening, and I am back after a rather tedious meeting from work. I am thinking something, and as I open the door, I see my maid still working .

"8 O clock, Shanti ammaa..? "
She looks at me, smiles and says something in tamil, which she knows I will not understand.
As I always do after I get back home, I put on the Geyser and move to the kitchen to brew some tea.
"You want some? , I ask her , To which she answers "Swalpaa kooro", meaning get me some .
As I shirk off the cups, I notice my favorite cup broken, and I ask her - How did it get broken .She pulls on the drawer and shows me how it got stuck, as she was pushing it off ,and got broken .its broken a voice in me tells me , and I say , "problem beda" , meaning no problem .
The tea is close to brewing and I am sieving her, she asks me for a chapatti (Indian bread). My first instinct is to make her a Maggi, coz that's what I would have made myself when I am very tired. But something in me tells me to stop being mean, and make her a chapatti . There is no vegetable sabji so I get her some amla pickle and pudina chatni (Indian sauce).

As I am making the first one , the power goes off, and I make both the chapattis in the dark .I am bad at making chapatti’s by the way, so this is probably my excuse to not take charge !

She smiles as I capture her, saying the light isn't enough. Somehow she always get really exited when I shoot her .

See her live in action as she helps with cockroaches here .

As she is sitting in the balcony next to my kitchen on the broken chair ,suddenly seeing her I remember my Mom, and all the time she used to feed me as I used to stand next to her in the kitchen . Most of these times, I never understood when she used to make me that extra chapatti
with the dough, which she would have had herself, and she is tired enough not to kneed the dough again, and goes on to bed with a half empty stomach. Only much later I realized to trick her by finishing the last chapatti and then asking her for me, thus "forcing" her to kneed more floor .

My sister on the other hand, was much more subtle. As I was preparing for my IIT entrance exams she used to get up in the middle of the night and make me tea and get em a little to eat.
When I was back from the classes, she used to make me food, and so was it for the evenings, till Mom got back from work. My sister in that way was my second Mom.

This wonderful lady, my maid , enables that I put my best each day learning new things and understanding the world of Mathematics and Sciences .She enables me to do more , be more.

Life is too short to complain, about broken cups, about maid asking you to cook something for her, when you are tired enough not to make one for yourself, about the cold water that you would have to take bath with , because there's no power.

Three wonderful women - My Mom, My Sister and My maid- here's a note of thanks , for I wouldn’t have been what I am today.

Footprints of Gerizim

2010-01-31T08:27:00.000-08:00

You will know the meaning of a kiss only when you have never been kissed.

This simple realization stuck to me yesterday, when I had been to Gerizim Rehabilitation centre .

At the first sight , there was particularly nothing remarkable about Rahul. He had just been an ordinary child, but what stuck me at first when I saw him, was he wished me Merry Christmas Akka(sister in Kannada) almost four or five times that single afternoon. That was December 25th ,2009 .

Rahul is the one next to me in the picture- in White

That day, Anupama and I had been to Gerizim first. We had our inhibitions at first about how it would be to spend some time with specially abled kids. We took with us some sweets, and color books and crayons .But what was remarkable (and unexpected) was that these kids were extraordinarily disciplined .They never rose once while we are distributing the stuff, and continued to watch the movie that was being stage in the hall they were seated in.

And this is Vidya .

Yesterday, once more, we had been there. And this time with more energy that we had than the previous !
While I was playing with the kids, Vidya came to me, and as I soothed her hair, and picked her in my lap, it was appalled by the warmth she gave me and it was then that stuck me , these kids had no family , they were mentally challenged, and might not even remember us. (But I was surprised when the kids drew in thin air the signs showing coloring –as if to tell us that they remembered us from the last visit)
It stuck me that at times when we have nothing to lose, we still hold ourselves, in the tough collar, shutting ourselves out ,to what is humane .

That’s why they say –You never know what your smile does to someone, for a moment, for a day, for a lifetime of memory book – go sketch a memory book for someone .

This is something where My world of numbers and Mathematics have no meaning-Just the plain realization that we must give selflessly .

-------
Helping people help themselves
Ekta Grover

My New Blog

2009-01-06T02:29:00.001-08:00

Find me here

~
ek

Community wellbeing: Why each of us matter

2009-01-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

There is this interesting book, Bottom of the pyramid, at the heart of it; it doesn’t try to touch upon a newly discovered problem. It just states may be a lot better given the statistics that are very well compiled in the work.
So what the work reinstates is that the poor and the less privileged section of the society is where our future will be, and empowering these people is where we collectively as a society will be able to move forward.
Talk of Microcredit(The Gramin Bank), or eChoupal, at the core they imply a change, and a shift in focus from ME to the less blessed in the space around us.

We draw our identity from the space we live in and this is why this section should be empowered, for we do not do everything in self interest. There is an immense difference that can be made using entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of this miserable section. The project I am planning aims at physically impaired people, providing basic education to these people, generating employment opportunities and consulting suicidal attempt cases.

I was just exploring how we can use social media, Acting Wikily; to amplify the cause and raise funds. I do not quite believe in charity, because when you ONLY give monetary support you are feeding someone for a day or two, but when you teach him, a vocation, or provide him/her employment opportunities, you are feeding him all his life and this is my vision. To begin with, feeding 15 families an year for the rest of their lives, inculcating in them high motivation levels, and making them self reliant.
As years go by, I hope to be able to touch more lives, and hope that what I am trying to do will be simulated in the space we put up in.

In essence I wish to redefine community wellbeing and I am looking for off beat ideas in improving community service and making it exemplary, because this is what I can be my personal BEST it.

I m amazed at the amount of energy each one of us here has got with them. Given that we belong to varied backgrounds, cultures and bring varied experiences in the forum, there is a lot we can do together.
I am here to learn from you, and how do I make my project more visible, adaptable, and truly inspiring.
Yes, I need you .

If the path is beautiful,first confirm where it leads,but if the destination is beautiful,dont bother how the path is..Keep walking..

Cheers,
Ekta Grover

If common sense was so common..

2008-12-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

If common sense was so common!

1. Cheer someone up each day.
You would have probably heard it over a hundred times, but doing this will not only make someone feel wonderful as it sets their day, but also, they according to Newton’s Third law: “Every action Has an equal and opposite reaction” , love comes back. It sure does!

2. Say a thank you even to people who do what is expected of them as a chore.
Once I had urgently needed this passport photograph for my VTU form submission (I procrastinate a lot, anyway). The staff there was initially reluctant to make it, as that would require cancelling the printer queue and reinitiating it with the first entry as mine. So when he conceded to my demands, I closed the transaction with a heart felt thank you.
No matter what profession people are in, remember that they are individuals and that they deserve equal respect as you do.

3. Listen to people

Sometimes people just want to be heard. They might not want any help from you, monetary or otherwise. Your time is most valuable asset that you are investing in them. Just hear to what they have to say without any prejudice and skepticism. And please address them by their names. All that makes a difference is this.
Every conversation is about a relationship. Make it .

4. Value your own time and others
Time is the most valuable commodity that you have. Value it, preserve it, and especially when it is others, tell them that how obliged you are towards them for it.
5. Appreciate people

Appreciate people, be it their blue color shirt that you have been eyeing, or the help that they offered you out of the way.
There is a difference between genuine appreciation, and being sycophantic. Strike that difference for yourselves, for when you lie, it does no good, and people will catch you.

6. Happiness is like a radio station, stay tuned..
Being happy is the simplest thing on earth. Because when you are happy, your energy centre creates a space where people can identify what it feels to be in your company. If you can make others “Smell you” (Economic times, Paramahamsa Nithyananda), “People around you will welcome your presence as they feel centered around you, more peaceful, unstressed and relaxed. They would want to be with you. Let them smell you and find out “.
Smiling to yourself , is the best thing you can feed your mind with each day, condition it ! Be a butterfly.
You do not have to make others happy, make yourself selves happy first, and the rest shall follow...

7. If it's over, it should get out of your mind, and if it is not, you are probably doing injustice to yourself, by running through things that matter the least to you.

People just move on in their life, and you have probably not gotten over "what was said, or done". Do not do injustice to yourself by reminding yourself about the times you were hurt. Let them be milestones instead, that shape what "ELSE" can you achieve in life.."
Do not ever allow anyone, to surpass you, and break the faith you have in YOU. YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON OUT HERE, and keep reminding yourself about it, that is not to say show that off!! JUST care for YOURSELF :)

8. Substantiate what you say

Be one of those “I won’t take enough of your time, but I will leave you thinking for a while. “Because if you do not, chances are that you will be tagged with those “Chattu types”, and “Detailed bugger”. Respect your integrity, and stand by it.
Don’t divulge unnecessary details, and more so, no one is interested in what you think and say, you have to make it interesting.

9. Fight Fear and Greed, not yourself.

Find out what is it that is troubling you, better still WRITE IT, and once you find that, Shut your brains off! Go into hibernation mode, because once you go in the “Low Mode”, everything appears to be low in life.
Talk to an old friend, or browse through the old photo albums, do anything but think on what is troubling you.

10. Get high, get drunk!

Feel passionate about anything, but something, and put your heart in it. Be it sports, or dance, or your pet.
Have something that you truly care about, and let it be the be that you can back upon on a rainy day. Love gives you a reason to live, find this reason, your personal and customized reason.

Here's hoping, you find what you love :)

Stay Tuned ..

Cheers,
Ekta Grover

Breaking the Bad habits..

2008-12-14T19:17:00.000-08:00

Breaking the bad habits..

There are very few people, who haven’t browsed through a single ‘how to..’ book.
Like many others , I have read plenty of them too; How to live 24 hours a day, how to sleep less, and have more energy than you ever had before, how to quit coffee, how to find what you need in life bla..bla..

And then there was this book, I pounced upon in the library, ‘breaking the bad habits’. So, as the ritual went, I gave it a shot. If you have read this far, it implies, that you really want to do something about the quality of life that you are living. Below are the things that worked for me , it may not work for you, let me be truthful, because the very moment we see a change, we run away, or don’t pursue it, because we are afraid of the transformation, or the flip-flop this change will bring about.

The most important aspect of any positive change that you want to bring about in your life is ‘discipline’. No matter how hard you try, your inner self, which is reluctant to change, and is cozy with the older you, will keep poking into you, ‘This is not worth it. You should live the way you want to. You are FREE’.

There are many vital aspects of life, here I am taking the most important of these ‘Healthy living’.

Every morning, we practically compete for Olympics marathon, to board the shuttle, why, because if you miss it, you would have to go through the pain of, travelling in Bangalore traffic. So if you care so much for yourself, why not get up 5 minutes earlier? I would say, get up an hour earlier not just 5 minutes. Morning is the most wonderful time of the day, a time where a freshly manufactured day is lying ahead of you, wanting you to embrace it, but each morning you miss it under your cozy blanket , and sluggish laziness. Don’t get up an hour before all your life, just 7 days, and see the wonders it will do to your energy level. Why 7, because your body clock takes time to get used to your sleeping and activity patterns. What you do with this morning is upto you, you go for a jog, meditate, walk, an innocuous tete-a-tete with your parents, or spouse, or read newspaper, or finish your breakfast on the dining table. It may seem stupid, but all this actually gives you a sense of composure and stability.

Besides if you choose a morning walk, or jog over the rest, you have a windfall. Everyone knows the fitness aspect of it, but not everyone knows that just being exposed to sunlight, gives you tremendous amount of energy to keep you charged up. Why? Melatonin is a hormone in our body, that controls the amount of sleep, and is regulated by the amount of light available to you. Most of us, also are not aware that we are taking quantity sleep, and not quality sleep, which means that when you get up after the nap, you feel as if you have been drained out of energy while you were sleeping. You can probably relate to this, because chances are that you might have experienced it. So go grab, as much sunlight as you can, if you cannot make the morning walk, at least grab some in the afternoon! And no sunglasses please!

Now, what you dread the most! Food. I know by now , I have infuriated you enough , well, you want to change my thinking paatern,sleeping habits, and now even my eating habits ! This is too much. Well, this is because , you are what you eat. So when you experience that sluggishness and inability to concentrate ,an hour after your lunch, it is due to the fact that the body consumes a lot of energy, as the food passes through the alimentary canal for digestion. So you go garb that cup of coffee and you feel , alright I m ok now. What this coffee does to you is that , being a stimulant, it urges the body cells to release the energy that it stores in layers. So not only is your body theme perturbed by this sudden bust of energy, but because it mistakenly associates this energy, with your power of being able to concentrate more, you get used to it. Coffee actually makes your thinking more linear, saying it saps your ability to think, and track back to them. so get that out first! To begin with you can replace bournvita with coffee, keep one at your desk, and have it when you feel you cannot do away with the urge of coffee. Having wheat grass juice in the morning, is the perfect way to detoxify your body.

These 7 days, should you follow it, drink loads of water(everyone tells you that ),get enough sunlight, go for that jog, eat healthy and prefer fresh fruits and fiber, replace coffee with bournvita, and tea with herbal or tulsi tea, and when ever you feel that you cannot take this further, just remind yourself, that you are doing it only for 7 days , and count the residual days. If you feel, it does you good, you know what to do with it !

If you continue doing what you are doing, you will continue to get what you are getting.

Be the change you want.

Here's hoping all good things come to you ..
Amen...

Stay Tuned..

Cheers,
Ekta Grover

Glimses of my work..

2008-05-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

This is where I started from, poetry straight from the heart..

I sometimes, sit and wonder..Gosh I am so talented..sometimes the reaffirmation is so enthralling

~
ek

A mother in its own right..

2008-05-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

She plays on my lap, playfully she rubs off my cheeks, sometimes, she fights with me, when I seem not to observe her delightful activities in the play ground.
I take her for an evening stroll, in her ‘princess trolley’, and as I call her ‘Vedika’, ‘Baby’, she turns back, and smiles at me, and I give her this little blowfish kiss and she returns one back to me.

So as I take her for this stroll in the society apartments, a question dawns to me, will I be able to afford all this for my kids? Will I be able to give them the club house, the basketball court, the swimming pool, the kindergarten, or if not, will they ask me why they do not live in the big apartments, where you have these immaculately dressed children, with the most colourful robes, most of them with their nannies.

And as I think all of this, I am touched, of what my parents have made me, ‘Responsible’, I think that is the legacy I cherish the most having had from my parents.
So as I struggle, as I have always been with ‘Who am I? “, I know that I will have to answer it, and I do not have much time, and it never seems enough.

So while I sit besides the swimming pool, with her on my lap, and my feet in the cold water, and as she struggles to let her free, I sit back and wonder, what will it be like, to have my own kids, to send them to school, to sit with them and help them with their homework, and knowing that whatever may I do, will never be enough.

But after a thoughtful debate of me Vs. myself, I am convinced, I would want to give my progeny a more precious legacy, an inheritance which my parents gave me, an inheritance of ‘belonging’, of knowing where you come from, and of knowing why we were sent to this earth. Of making those special years of life, all the more wonderful and telling them, that there are ‘second bests too’, and that nothing is absolutely wrong, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Teach your children to fail, for every success is the revenge of failure. Let them be what they want to be, not what you always wanted to be and could never become, tell them that there are vocations besides doctors, engineers, and teach them to make mistakes, and laugh at them, for life does not come easy to all of us.

Sooner or later they will find you…

2008-05-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

What it feels to have your lunch all by yourself on the first day at school!

I had this feeling, that someday, someone will observe me, and ask me to join them. That never really happened. Never in school, never in college, for if we have to make things work, we and we alone have to work towards it.

If you cannot take care of your baby, no one else will.

Born to working parents, whose job required of them to travel immensely, I practically spent half my life making friends, and the other half losing them;for I possibly changed around 9 or 10 schools in my entire Academics. Somehow the feeling of trying to mingle, and leaving behind an admired set of people never left me.

Someone who has faced it will tell you how ignominious and heart rendering it is. But things never really change. Be it school, where we kind of, find comfort in ‘herd’, or be it college where we do not wish to ‘stand out’., or be it any organisation for that matter, things never really change the human psychology. The basic human heart , the feeling of insecurity never really retreats.

And then comes another face, the job, where one seeks to find like minded people and people that can gel well with.

Look around for those subtle messages that life keeps throwing.
Life keeps throwing these messages all the while, just that like a band pass filter we tend to see things the way we want them to. If the Manager says, let’s meet after lunch, when did he say,’ You are performing bad, I want to kick you!’. Now don’t tell me your heart was not pounding after lunch.

As I grew, I really admired “unfreezing, changing , and refreezing “, concept a friend told me.

Standing in a BMTC bus, I see two kids, possibly the contenders for the dirtiest kids I had come across so far. The older girl is seated by the window and repeatedly strikes the younger girl with her elbow, as the younger one tries to grab a look from the window. The younger one looks irritated, and finally retorts back hitting. Now there are two ways any child would react, either she would cry and call the mum, or she will try to fight, completely aware that she cannot win.

When we were kids we never gave up, so why do we get bogged down by life, so easily as we grow up?
Why do we lose against a bossy colleague, or an overwhelming Manager, or a demanding spouse ?

On the face of it, things do appear tough at times, but they are no different from what you have already faced, and if you fared all them the earlier ones, well, this is just the same..

Dont bother about what you do not have, or what you cannot do, but direct your enery towards the positive , and the rest shall follow..

Life doesn’t wait for you to get back to your feet, So FIGHT !

And keep Running ..Because..Stable is stagnation..

If this is best, there sure is a better!

2008-05-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

“To know what is good, you have to know what is bad”, exclaimed a German participant at the annual Management event at IIMB.

How true, isn’t it surprising that we all run behind things wanting the best of them all, but to know what’s best on the platter you have to try everything on the menu !
So how do I know, what’s best, for every best may have a better!
I m truly convinced that there’s no such thing as “Best”, because if there had been, it had been definitive enough, and there would sure have been contenders. I remember arguing at school, to be the best, wanting to top every class test, and assignments.
I recall how my competitions used to be my mother’s competition, for a child’s mind can be moulded to think the way, its creators want it to be. In that way,I am lucky to be born to my parents.

The greatest things start in the ‘Mind’, so if there’s this something that’s best, if at all it is, it all starts in your ‘250 gm’, topping upon your head. But to realize this most of us take all our lives, better still, for some of us will, or might never now ‘What lies within’.

Look at the wonderful men and women around yourself, and think about that one thing that took them there, no it is not Education alone, for there have been as many
Failure stories as have been successes. So what is it, is it the opportunity, the exposure, the Resources, the determination and will, the Circumstances that ‘Bring out the best of all’.

Now that I have twined all the post-requisites (I am doubtful if there exists such a word, but I intend to convey, that nonetheless, these all are important. It is the knowledge of “self”, the knowledge of being fully aware of your strengths, your Weakness, and the “Rest shall follow”.
There’s this concept of Johari window which intends to map your personality traits.I am convinced that God was only trying to be fair when he made us all different, and it is up to us, to decode that message, for which we were brought on the earth in the first place.
That doesn’t mean quitting the job, being a recluse. It just means “being aware of your cards, and playing them, when your turn comes.” Find that one thing that drives you, and life will be fun, everyday!

If you cannot take care of your baby,No one else will...

2008-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

If you cannot take care of your baby, no one else will.
If someone is really consequential on this planet, that some one is you, and if you cannot take care of yourself, no one else will.

Life is like opening a speciality Restaurant where your USP (Universal selling Point) is say, diet food. So you open up to the foodies who would eat out more often, if the food be less calorific. But then you realize that the food is bland, and you could make someone tempt for a desert may be, so here it comes on your menu.
Bang, Kids come along too, there has to be this extra lavishly dressed burger too, and may be if you are catering more to a particular community, you could decide to serve “specialty food” like Punjabi, Rajasthani ,or like.
So what was your USP now becomes a platter, you have everything, sure you sell and make good profits, but you have lost your identity.

This is what happens, as you set to answer the larger question, ’What shall I do with my life. “

So whist I am stuck up with the larger question, “What shall I do with my life “,I am left clue less, more so because I feel I have always wanted to be a bit of everything I can be, so much so, that it has eventually diluted what I would primary want myself be.

People say, it’s all about being at the right place at the right time, but is there really a right place? I doubt so.
I look outside the window by my bed, the cool breeze that passes by me, and by the woods I notice a boy, somewhere in his teens, dragging his body, for he cannot walk.
And a thought crosses my mind, I have a strong mind and body, sure I do earn well, I am respected at amongst my family and peers because of this white collar job , but have I made a difference yet. I do not think so.
I have come to believe that life keeps sending in messages everyday, it is up to us to tune into them, and because we do not know when that one message that will change our life will come, so we need to keep hunting.
I am tempted to quote an expert from Steve Jobs’s , CEO Apple, commencement speech here, “You cannot connect what happens to you today, but may be years later when you try to relate to it, you will be able to connect the dots backward..
Probably you remember crying for that one sweet chap in college (I cried for loads , trust me!) , or that one company that happened to be your Dream Company in college, which you miraculously could not make, or that accident just before the V day, on your much awaited blind date. Now years later, when you are settled with a surprisingly sweet hubby, a satisfying job, and many sweet dinner dates with your Fiancé , you know what I am trying to sell.

Life ends the day you feel, you are done.

Loving What you do...

2008-02-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

This job is my bread and butter.7 months back when I joined my firm , I was teaming with Ideas so gallant and ‘Out of the Box’, that I wanted to make a difference. Infact that was precisely what I did in the first 4 months, but later it died a silent ignominious dimeeath.

Now as I revist this entire process, my mind tracks back from day one, to this day...

Why can’t I feel the air, the sun shining when I am back after the walk, the moon staring behind the clouds, lovely so much so, that I have penned some odd 13 poems for a secret love, I have never known to exist.
Where is the passion that used to drive me. Perhaps the harder you start, the sooner will fatigue dawn upon you.

My friends tell me , that its no different for them. IT is boring at times, but if that be the case, what was the objective of 4 years of sweat, the VTU literally sucking out every ounce of blood, be it microprocessors, or advanced microprocessors, or computer organisation.

I sit back and wonder, now what do I do, I remember the first poem that I wrote,” Preparation before night “, and how, it gave me enough reasons to brag all to myself.(For I had already occupied a revered place amongst, the likes of Prem Chandra), and how mercilessly was it crucified under the No-Go decision for the school Mag that year, and how I had bitched about the my classmate, who edited it.

Then all of a sudden I am reminded of, how did I come here at all, this far, and how have things changed for this ‘frog in the well’, Then I remember telling Papa, that the world is very big, and that I am just a small unit here.This was when my progress reports used to go , and dad was really apprehensive of my falling grades every semester, Later I grew smart, and made sure that reports never reach where they are intended to, Thanks to my sis!
Now, I feel nostalgic, so much so, that I feel my eyes are already wet, I feel like hiding myself under the cosy blanket, so that I cannot question, “who am I”, and “If I had come here for a reason, and if that reason is not achieved yet, have I given up? ”.

There is an old saying in Sanskrit, which says,’ A deer doesn’t , by itself enter the mouth of a sleeping lion..’
I.e., not only is it important to be alive, and wake, but also, to hit when the opportunity comes.

Life doesn’t wait for anyone, it is right here, right now, so what ever it be that you want to do to it, do it now.Perhaps I am finding something, I dont know exists, or something I have no clue about...But alteast I am trying to find it, and that's important..

“Find a job that you love, or love the job that you find…”

Before You Quit !

2008-01-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

Before You Quit..

Leaving a plush job, and setting out on the Road, is a double edged sword, if you don’t do it, You keep crying about it all your life (worse , When you are 60! ), and if you do , you always tend to rethink your decision, every time you find your self helpless, and pushing far beyond you should.

At one point of life you break, and say, ‘Ok I quit’ , if I don’t enjoy what I do, if I do not find it the least meaningful enough, then why do I go about it. I am a loser anyway, but this way if I were to quit, I would be a happy loser.

However, there a certain things that you need to be clear, and rethink, before you jump in the back water, and say, ‘I will learn to swim, someday’.

Here are some of these.

Analyze the alternatives
Before you decide to quit, have the alternatives. Be it the change of job, or your profile, the geographical ecosystem, it has to be meaningful. To the least, you should know, before and after one month of quitting the job, how do you make your ends meet, how do you earn your bread?

When will I break even, and when can I break?
The first break signifies, the Tipping point, where the venture ceases to be a self funded, the point from where one can expect the profits to come in. And the second break is, when do you say, “Boss I quit, it had all been foolish!”

How much do I need before I hit the Road?
Give yourself plenty of time, a realistic soft bound frame, to achieve this goal. Let there be Milestones, and let them be as realistic as possible, accommodating all the “What If”, or risk factors.
Do not overlook, even the slightest chance of possibilities where risk could seep into your B model.
Taking a simple case, say Mr X earns some 30 K per month, and his expenditures (The must spend-not avoidable) cumulate to 15 K a month. Assuming he has a calculated break even period of an Year, then this implies for his survival for a month he would need 15 K, so 12*15 =1.8 Lakhs is what he needs for one year to feed himself.
All in all, when you have that much money to support you till you ‘Break Even’, Quit, assuming you have done your Homework well. And you SOP is not some random out of the box, and back to the box thinking.

Is there a Gap that my ‘B Plan’/Venture/ Service could fill in, or is it just following an existing model of making money, which ‘seems’ to be a potential contender.
What are the customers needs, what my Ideal customer will be like, what will be his expectations from my service, What will differentiate me from my potential competitor, will I be my Core Competency, do I put in into a lot of things and hope something works (The Stock broker theory, as I would call it, putting your cash in different baskets, not all will/can be a loss!), or do I concentrate on one, and believe that How can it fail, if I am working this hard to get things done.

Networking
This is the key area which needs to be worked on. There are a plenty of things that can be done to spread the word around, Viral marketing, Partnering with another start up (The Barter System Theory, When you can Exchange services for service, need not be a monetary support at all) Trust me, when you are in the market, people are bound to get to notice you, provided you make your presence felt. Meeting up with like minded people and generating Ideas. Go with a fresh mind, and soon will you realise, may be, its time to rethink and put on a different Hat that you never wore for so long (The SIX thinking Hats theory , Edward De Bono)

Ideas, Never Run out of them
May be you have been thinking about it all this while, but nothing of the sort, out of the box, that’s where Stagnation creeps in, and then you know again, ‘I m Sick again’. Key in some RSS feeds, collect data from users feature request, or subscribe to searches, see what are the customer’s ‘Touch points’ (The Acupressuretheory), and Hit them, when the hammer is still Hot! Yupp! There you go, so you provide a service , just tailored to what your customers were looking it, that’s how you have the Viral Marketing in the B model.
So the more frequently you Rethink, the faster you analyse what is going on, and how should you build on it.

What if it doesn’t work out?
Well I have always believed in “How can something manage so well, not to work out someway, Someday.” The only hurdle here is, realising that it does demand a lot of patience leaving a plush job, and more that than the belief, ‘if god be with us, who shall be against us.’

Need to know, where to start, Wait for the sequel to this!

Stay Hungry,Stay foolish..
Stable is Stagnation..

Cheers,
Ekta Grover

On the Run..!

2007-12-23T22:19:00.001-08:00

Be it anything, It has to grow!

Sometimes I sit and wonder, does anyone read my blog after all, is there any difference between ‘My diary’ and this blog. And pop comes the answer, this blog means commitment to me, of having to let others know, what I have learnt all this while. Well I am not altruist, in fact before I plunge into something, I think about the ROI, so here my ROI is in abstract terms, yet is treasured by me, in not-so-absolute terms.

I keep reading about wonderful men and women, and tend to question myself, what it takes to get there, ‘education’ being the basic, but I firmly believe more than that it takes a vision to get there, for education is just a means of pursuing that vision.
Infact I was reading about Amrit Singh yesterday, the P’s daughter. Now that is one thing, had she performed so well in India, we would move raised brows over her mettle, For ‘they” say about India, if your dad is remotest-tly connected to politics, he would get you There .But having proven your mettle abroad, is another thing. Hats off to you lady!

I somehow believe God tried to do justice, so he made us all different, filled with extreme talent, passion and qualities, only that we as humans still need to polish it. But more importantly and sadly, we do not know our selves so well, and that is precisely why we try to discover ourselves around every where but within.
The bottom line, the more self aware one is, more are the chances of him expanding his knowledge base, and most of all using this knowledge base, to plot it to the Johari Window, and find that one thing in life which will drive him for the rest of life.

Your brain, has to expand, ultimately it will reach the ‘big bang’ when you will realize you understand the things around better.

Look at it this way; to be where you are now, you have to keep running. Run...

Stay hungry, Stay Foolish…

Am I worth it ?

2007-12-21T00:22:00.000-08:00

There are some things that are bound to change, once you land up with an IT job.

The Calls!
From the credit cards, to Personal loans to Holidaying, to all those pleasures yonder, that I was always mesmerised with, ever since I was a child.

So the Transition, all of a sudden I become Credit Worthy.
I remember The advertisement, "When You have power it shows", but the point is, am I actually that potent enough?

Change is inevitable they say, and all of a sudden I feel lost , as if I have a mixed identity,I am expected to maintain a professional demeanour,dress uncomfortably (With what sounds stuffy to me), and most of all think before I speak.
I can no longer bargain for the prices that I pay to my grocery store, for he would say,"kya Madam, itna to kamati ho..", just then I am tempted to tell him , how grilling a day @Work can get sometimes.You miss your family, your friends ,your manager literally threatens life out of you,people find loopholes in your code,you are in tears, but you still have to work!

Sometimes when I walk by those golgappa walls in the street, I m tempted to stop by and treat my tastebuds, and just then I look around, considering, ok, what if I could have it as a take away.I see small dirty toddlers playing in sand and mud and rain and heat, and I am tempted to play with them.I am tired of having to speak with an feigned content in my conversations , of having to maintain distance with my maids.

Sometimes I just want to tell people that I am the same person I used to be ,just that in this "Me vs Myself", both these identities tear each other down, and left is an entity , wanting to be left all by itself.

Kiss: Keep it simple, stupid !

2007-12-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Sometimes some conversations really get on your head, and how so ever may you try to forget them, they keep coming back to you.
I read the ‘joining the dots “ by Steve Jobs, and since then, I am far more convinced and optimistic that everything happens for a reason,only that you can “connect” it really later in your life.

I remember this small tete-a-tete I once had a friend over coffee, “So what is the purpose of life, an IT job that pays well, a Maruti an year from now, an onsite trip two years hence, a Honda City 10 years from now, and if everything goes well, may be a Hummer, or a Mercedes Benz. “

So while I walk around the magniloquent corridors, a pause to think, what I am heading to, a 10-6 job, that pays well, but intellectually, the learning curve has a slope close to zero, may be I never crossed the threshold in the first place.

As I come back from work everyday, I am left exhausted, with my entire body drained out, till the next morning, as I leave for work, and lock my house. But somehow I have increasingly started to comfort myself, ”ok, not this evening, this one’s going to be the way, I want to mould it, but.. There is only “now”, and the “later”, never speaks for itself ”.So as I procrastinate, evenings after evenings, this dissatisfaction drenches me and I tend to question myself repeatedly, will I be where I want to , the helm of my career, when I grow 50? May be then I will forget what the first monsoon means, the parties on Fridays, may the board rooms will take over the goofy cubicle conversations, but if this be the life I want, and if I want it this bad, there is no way, I will not have it.

Think,Decide,Plan, and its already time to attack !

Atleast I know to Dream..

2007-12-19T03:28:00.000-08:00

The other day, on my way back from Tirupati as I looked outside the window, as we were passing through the country side,and I see, young children bare footed,dressed in some robes, that one can vaguely call "Uniforms".And not for a moment did I realize how priviliged had I been.

I was born in a middle class, yet intellectually encouarging family,for my parents always celebrated "me", even though I was a "girl".So what's so special, these days you have all the parents wanting their progeny to out-do them at everything,and forge far ahead of them.

What has made my parents so special is the fact, that they have always stood by me,never made me realize that I was a "girl", and most of all, the independence we sibilings were given to experiment with our careers,with absolutely no ROI expected.

They have taught me to dream, and in this regard, I feel I m blessed enough, for I am never satisfied with whatever I might achieve.It's not humility,but the
dissatisfaction that arises from wanting to explore more, that keeps me "Geared".

So just when the bus passes, I feel helpless, and proud at the same time,for these children at the countryside might never know, where can one go, if one knows to dream.

Infact a friend of mine,suggested that I keep my blog "Anonymous", I thought about it, for quite a while, and settled with an understanding, that I am sure should make me sell my point well.
Accepted I can be truly myself, if that be the case, but I purport that 7 years down the line, when I log in at genispeaks, I will know I made some promises to myself , and to the Readers, who spend some odd 10-15 minutes reading these,and just then,
will this determination grow stronger,

"Who am I is not the question, but who I can be, should indeed be the answer.."

Identity Crisis!

2007-12-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

The following are the lines from Madhushala

मदिरालय जाने को घर से चलता है पीनेवला,
'किस पथ से जाऊँ?' असमंजस में है वह भोलाभाला,
अलग-अलग पथ बतलाते सब पर मैं यह बतलाता हूँ
-'राह पकड़ तू एक चला चल, पा जाएगा मधुशाला।'।

How meaningful! I was simply mesmerised by the beauty of these lines.No wonder I am a poet myself.
It justifies the importance of independence and personal freedom and pursuing your dreams.

Life is all about finding your love and the rest will follow.

Sometimes I sit back and question myself "Who Am I ? " and more profoundly, " Who will I be in ten years from now " , only to realize that I am rendered speechless.

I did my graduation from a reputed institute, got a job that pays handsome amount of money , and then basking in this materialistic self satisfaction, I became over contended with myself and started celebrating the person I am. I stopped, stooped and when I woke up I realised that all this while I was wasting away my life.

I sit back and remember my mother, for it was to her, that "My competition was her competition ",and this is precisely why I grew on to become what I am,overcompetitive.But I guess in a sense that is very desirable part of the picture.

I was always into books, I keep reading the unconventional books.So there was this book I was reading, "what should I do with my life" , it sounded as though it was a mantra, which could spoon feed me, giving me precise objectives and ways to go about them.There was this line , that I am tempted to quote here. "It would be so great if one morning when you woke up, you found this letter, which told you what should you do with your life".

This same day I sat back for more than an hour with a piece of paper,(by the way, I write a lot too! ), to pen down what had I achieved these 23 odd years.
And trust me, I could not come out with anything that I could call as "My Own", something that would make my parents proud of me.

I had everything , I was ambitious,creative, intellgent and never shunned learning in its own right.No wonder righty is it said,"If you see no one in yourself, you will be no one for the rest of your life"

I was open to new ideas, always looking at new opportunities in the "Me Vs Myself",Only that it wasn't as fruitful as could have been.I have always been looking out for that "Message", which I think could tell me what should I do to myself.
If you look at all thes ucessful men and women around yourself , you will realize there's only one thing that takes them where they are.."Intelligence and devotion towards pursuing your dreams "

I realised that when you want to "Become Somebody" , you actually do not become "Anybody" , for one should know "Precisely" what one wants from life.

If you see nobody in yourself, you will be nobody for the rest of your life..

Take a call as to what you intend your life to be.And keep working towards it.

"Being a star may not be your goal, but being the best you can be is a goal you can set for yourself."

"Stay hungry ,Stay foolish"