Monday morning is a good time to begin a week on a high note. There are certain eminent writers, who liven up the beginning of the week with a fresh perspective. I, during my tenure as a team leader, used to share “ Monday morning thoughts” with my team that mostly comprised work related issues, but was eagerly awaited by teammates. Therefore, the following took me down the memory lane, provoking me to share the same with my readers. Came across a beautiful reel posted by a friend on Instagram. The reel has a toddler learning to walk and falling repeatedly in the process. As we enjoy the sweet toddler’s effort to get up immediately after a fall without a frown, the word “ failure” never comes to our mind! 

When we venture into an uncharted territory or untested waters, we are like a toddler only, taking our chances. Therefore, falling in the process is not “failing” but a learning that would eventually help us in overcoming the challenge. 

There’s so much to imbibe from a baby’s innocence and “ never say die attitude”. 

Speaking philosophically, we should live our age rather than yearning for our long gone by childhood and youth and enjoy whichever phase we are in our life. And it’s more so for someone like me who’s an eternal optimist, looking forward to each day as a new beginning and an unexplored opportunity. But there are moments when despondency does set in, taking precedence over our positive emotions such as hope and optimism.

As goes an old Urdu couplet, “ `मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर, लोग साथ आते गए और कारवाँ बनता गया`. As we traverse the path of our life, we come across people, who become our friends, relatives and acquaintances. And we keep on expanding this list as we continue to move ahead. And as old age starts setting in, while we add new members to this brood in the form of our grandchildren, grand nephews and grand nieces, the fact is that our friends, elderly relatives and acquaintances also age with us and then the karvan (कारवाँ) that we assembled over a period starts depleting.

The above thought crossed my mind as recently I witnessed a spate of deaths comprising my close relatives, friends and acquaintances. While creaking joints, falling hair and teeth, diminishing stamina are a few of the natural consequences of old age, witnessing depletion of your circle or brood or whatever you may call it is more agonising and traumatic. Again philosophically speaking, nothing is permanent on this earth and every creation faces destruction at some point of time, but given all one’s positivity, faith, optimism and what not, there are moments that do plunge one into the state of deep sorrow. Of course, all that we can do is to take all this in our stride and continue our journey ahead.

Before penning my thoughts for this Diwali, I revisited my past blogs written on the occasion of this festival of lights. The common theme of all my Diwali blogs incidentally has been hope for a happier and better future for the entire mankind. The problems have ranged from international tensions to internal strifes to pandemic to wars to frauds to evils of misuse of social media, but the never say die spirit helps us prevail over all these gives inspiration to keep on working and aspiring for a better tomorrow. That’s what the festival of lights, goodness and hope does to us – to uplift our spirits and give us a renewed hope for a great life ahead!

In this journey called life, problems will continue to be an inseparable part of it – a few specific to us and a few affecting the entire mankind, but Diwali eradicates the darkness surrounding us by lighting our life so that we make a new beginning with renewed hope and vigour.

The festival of lights reminds us each year

That there’s light at the end of each tunnel;

All we have to do is to pursue our passion with faith and conviction,

And we shall conquer new heights after every stumble!

Happy and prosperous Diwali to all my friends and acquaintances.

There’s a popular saying in Hindi, “ Jab jaago tabhi savera.” It’s a very powerful message because the thought provides us with a chance to reset our lives. 

As we live our life and cover a sizeable distance, we get ridden with the guilt of mistakes that we committed, opportunities the we missed and risks that we either took needlessly or chose not to take and play safe! And this guilt can really sag our spirits and become a bottleneck or a hurdle in the way of our onward journey. The fact is that as goes another popular saying, “ Aadmi galtiyon ka putla hai”, loosely translatable as “ to err is human” and in the course of performing our duties, we do make mistakes in personal as well as professional capacity. These mistakes are attributable to the judgment that we used at that juncture based on the facts available and maturity of mind that we had! On the hindsight these mistakes may appear to be very gross and outright stupid, but in real life there’s no Time Machine that could take us back to that particular period to relive the moment and act as per our state of mind today! 

It’s never too late to make a fresh beginning provided we shed the baggage of our “ not so rosy past” and live the present with full gusto and enthusiasm. Let’s forget the job offer we didn’t accept, the relationship we shouldn’t have entered into, the assignment that we refused, the bad property deal we went ahead with et al and reset our lives as tomorrow is a new day to be lived like there’s no tomorrow. – forget yesterday! 

We are now the fifth largest economy in the world, with its GDP expected to touch USD3.94 trillion and one of the fastest growing too! Our currency is doing better than other currencies in the emerging market. Our Sensex has grown so much over in the last few years that it has made Indian stocks look quite expensive. In fact, whether it’s infrastructure, consumerism, capital goods, one can see growth happening everywhere. With our economy poised to grow further, are we going to become a developed nation from being a developing one? I think apart from the usual culprits – poverty, inflation, education, population explosion, health care et al that can only be tackled over a period of time, there are certain other concerns that seem to be hindering our way to becoming a developed nation. I list a few of these here below:

(1) Law and order and safety of our women. The day a girl can walk out late in the evening, wearing dress of her choice and by using public conveyance and she considers herself to be safe, raising neither eyebrows nor undue interest of staring eyes, we can consider to have taken a giant leap ahead. 

(2) Road traffic is one of the worst managed – at least I can say it from my experience of whatever international travel I have undertaken. People blatantly break rules, have no consideration of others and are perpetually enraged, ready to pick up fight at the slightest excuse and to go to any length ( even killing other person) in the fit of rage. Road hogs are always in a hurry and go to any extent to prove their supremacy. 

(3) Political intolerance is rather a new phenomenon and sometimes it takes such extreme version that even the best of friends  become the worst of enemies! It’s unlike earlier days when the differences were confined to and were used to get sorted out on the floor of parliament and behaviour outside of it was extremely civil and polite ! 

(4) it’s high time that we leave our social, religious, political, sectarian  differences aside and stand united against the enemies of our great nation. 

Without addressing the above, we will continue to March ahead as our progress now seems unstoppable, but the growth and development will not be inclusive and disparity among sections of society and with the developed nations of the world will be more pronounced. 

Dussehra marks the victory of good over evil. But that was Satyuga and whether it was Goddess Durga killing demon Mahishasura or Lord Rama slaying Ravana – the good and evil were clearly black and white.

In today’s yuga or age, it’s difficult to identify a clear black and white as everything seemingly is tinged in shades of grey. The good and evil depend on the lens with which we are seeing the person or the event. Everything is determined by the narrative, prefixed notions, prejudices and the coloured lens, as aforesaid. Therefore, we as ordinary foks have no idea as to to the clear good or evil – whether it’s ongoing war in gulf between Israel and host of organisations and countries, Russia- Ukraine war that’s seemingly endless and other such events and occurrences in our country and around the world.

Therefore, this Dussehra/Bijoya, let’s pray to Lord Rama and Goddess Durga to let the truth prevail and all the black sheep be exposed so that we don’t get carried away by narratives but are clearly able to identify modern day Ravanas and Mahishasuras for their elimination.

Happy Dussehra and shubho Bijoya!

Today’s newspapers are replete with life and times of the great Ratan Tata, who breathed his last yesterday. The articles celebrate the man’s achievements – the way he expanded Tata empire , with international footprints, but an equal, if not greater coverage has also been given to the man that he was! His love for philanthropy ( something that’s been the hallmark of the entire TATA group’s philosophy), downtrodden, animals, especially the homeless strays, budding entrepreneurs and above all, growth and development of India, make him a person extraordinaire that he was! Truly a son of the soil, a gem of a person, justifying his name, “Ratan”.

However, amongst all the obituaries, obeisances and condolences by a cross section of people, one that I received on WhatsApp forwarded by my friend stood out. It said-

“ RIP Ratan Tata – Sir, Return if possible.”

I don’t think there could be a more emotional expression from one’s condoling heart. He indeed touched the people of this nation like a very few before him or may do so after him!

In our schooldays, we studied, among other subjects, CIVICS. If I recall correctly, we were taught that we must use our right to vote, which is exercised through secret ballot, signifying that we had freedom to vote for anyone we liked without revealing our identity so that nobody could influence us or subsequently victimise us for not having voted for him or her.

Aren’t these exit polls an exact antithesis of the spirit of secrecy associated with voting? Why should the voters casting their votes reveal their cards to the exit poll analysts?

Ironically, second time on the trot, exit polls have failed to make right prediction. While during Loksabha polls, exit polls sort of justified BJP’s catchword of “ Abki baar 400 paar” and BJP barely scrambled home needing crutches to form government at centre, exit polls for Haryana predicted a sweep for Congress, which in reality has been swept away by BJP juggernaut.

It’s for these pollsters to recheck their methodology, sampling and sample size, but I hope that the essence of secrecy of right to vote and its sanctity is being meticulously maintained while conducting exit polls.

And mind you, the election outcomes are becoming increasingly unpredictable and the old theories of anti incumbency, disenchantment with long ruling parties, coalitions etc are all no guarantee for poll outcomes that are solely the prerogative of an increasingly maturing Indian voter.

Long live Indian democracy!

Have you noticed an increasing phenomenon on Mumbai roads? These are delivery persons on their e bikes running helter-skelter , with scant regard for traffic rules ! They come from wrong direction, move in zig zag patterns and don’t understand the significance of traffic light! But they are not to be blamed;  their masters and employers are solely  responsible for this reckless phenomenon on our city roads, who are shouting from the rooftop – all essentials are delivered in 10 minutes! 

If I recall, this trend was first started by a famous pizza brand, assuring delivery within 30 minutes, failing which, free pizza! Many of us would have devoured this free treat, little realising the risk these poor hapless delivery persons would be taking in fulfilling this promise! 

And mind you wrong side driving is no longer a fun thing with couple of deaths happening recently caused by these gross traffic violators. Traffic police is trying to convey the risks of such violations and penalty applicable, but what we need to do is to ensure that this farcical efficiency of delivering trivial stuff such as gobhi, mirchi, chips, coke, biscuits, samosa etc within 10 minutes must be brought to an immediate halt! These are not things to die for that they got to be delivered in 10 minutes! Instead, these e commerce companies can make “ assured and quick delivery of quality stuff” as catchline and internally monitor the behaviour of delivery personnel for any time wastage or any undesired act! The delivery persons should also be educated to meticulously comply with the traffic rules! 

Let’s stop this 10 minutes bunkum and devise a methodology that’s sustainable and safe – for the delivery persons as also for other road users! People on their part should plan their provisions more rationally to avoid this last minute rush or be prepared to wait for reasonable period ( of say 30-45 minutes) for something very urgent as a contributor to arresting this dangerous trend ! 

In late 60s and early 70s, when the first signs of inflation started hurting the then newly emerging middle class, my grandmother, who managed a large household, decided to cutdown expenses by using loose washing powder instead of the branded one. When she went to the shop, she asked the shopkeeper to give her “ loose Surf”. Such is the strength of Surf brand that people use its name, instead of the product’s name that’s washing powder. And this has continued for past so many decades, though Surf’s numero uno position has been challenged by many strong brands of detergents. Another glaring example of this brand dominating the product is Xerox that’s commonly used for photocopying!

The above recollection got refreshed as I read about an iconic brand Tupperware having filed for insolvency. The brand that revolutionised the technology for making airtight containers to preserve food became synonymous with such products and people bought the products of rival companies while asking for Tupperware container and not an airtight container!

It’s a dilemma for the iconic brands and may be the companies should lay as much emphasis on product features and product uniqueness as they on brand building so that brand doesn’t outlive and overwhelm the product itself!

One case that immediately comes to my mind where the company sort of sidelined the brand for its own domination is “ Only Vimal” that once identified Reliance. But here the promoters had big plans to diversify from textiles to becoming a conglomerate, leading to Vimal losing its relevance.

Whenever an iconic brand, restaurant, theatre etc folds up, it invokes nostalgia for its users, lovers and patrons. Whether Tupperware will survive the insolvency proceedings or shall go into oblivion, is not clear, but it certainly makes one feel sad !