New Media, Marketing and Entrepreneurship

The title of this post would have suggested by now, that this is not about social media or marketing. Yes, its not. This one is under the life experiences and learning’s which I share.

A confession – for the first time in public!

This is probably for the first time in public, that I am sharing this. There is this strange presence of a floating figure inside me, which makes me be in a situation, be present to everything which is happening around me and still see myself standing at a distance and seeing the entire action unfolding in front of me, as if I am an audience and never a part of the situation.

A confusion!

Over the last many years I have lived, just like everyone else, I have taken decisions, calls, many of which worked out for the great, some for the good and the others, well, I learnt great deals from them (people call them failures). But still the confusion remains, is this the right thing I am doing?

Though overtime I have also realized there is nothing called ‘right OR ‘wrong’. Its all actually a perceptive notion made by the human mind. Interestingly, the human mind makes itself suffer by making things wrong OR right. It just somehow makes its own meanings to things and then creates a ghost called ego, which makes the human take drastic steps to keep the meaning up-right.

Who am I?

I am thankful to the clear vast sky above, yes, I am sane still. I have learnt from the vast, endless sky along with the Bhagvad Gita (a Hindu scripture), the answer to the question, who am I?

The reality is, I am nothing but an ‘awareness’ which is a complex combination of biological processes. There are many things that form ‘me’. I am actually existing, only till the time, I am conscious about it.

To make things simpler: when we fall un-conscious, there is nothing that we feel/ experience. The human hence is the exact opposite of this state. The conscious. The human actually is the ‘conscious’.

The reality of life – But I get hurt!

Yes, as a human I get hurt. I do have emotions, I do feel pain, I do smile, I eat, I fight, I love.

An Activity for everyone reading this post, for the next minute: replace the ‘I’ in the above line, with your conscious. You feel the pain when you make yourself conscious about it. You love, when you are conscious about it.

The moment you realize that its NOT ‘you’ but your ‘Conscious’ which you are dealing with ultimately, you get the powerful insight, which makes you realize, no-one can actually hurt you. No-one can actually harm you. You can powerfully change the play of ‘existence’ of that ‘conscious’ by making your ‘conscious’ stronger than the one, which might hurt you in any manner. Here the expression ‘stronger’ means, you can make the other person (conscious) cease to exist for yourself (conscious), by just being present to the thought always, that all that you are dealing with is another ‘Conscious’.

So what is the human then  - if its the conscious?

The body is another form given to conscious. Its like the car body which conceals the engine. There are deep descriptions of the soul OR the aatman in Hinduism. A powerful extension to the aatman is ‘Aadhyatma’. Aadhyatma is the understanding of the inner self, the soul.

Once you learn to keep the ‘Aadhyatma’ growing, while keeping yourself ‘aware’ always of the fact that you are nothing but a conscious, you will learn one of the most powerful expressions of human life: ‘detachment’. You will be able to clearly establish a distinction between the ‘aatman’ and the ‘body’.

This distinction is the understanding of: Nothing

Nothingness is the ultimate state to be in. You can be with millions of dollars in your bank and still be in the state of nothingness. Once you are clearly able to create this distinction, you start experiencing some interesting things, which I am experiencing now-adays:

• There is no-one out there to hurt me/ harm me and I strongly believe it
• My body can be taken, but not my conscious
• I still need to do everything I am to do in my lifetime, take birth, study, get married, have a family, die, but my conscious remains and that is what I need to build in my lifetime, because everything else I do/ have, will finish/ cease to exist for me, the moment I end.
• I am limitless, there is no definition that can define me, I am a ‘conscious’.

But where is Nothing?

That’s the entire point. Life ends with nothing. There is only the conscious which remains.

Lessons learnt?

There is so much more to life than doing the usual things we do. For a start, I would like to mention two expressions, hatred and forgiveness. Both the emotions have been talked about greatly in the Bhagvad Gita and the Mahabharata. I am trying in my personal life, to move my ‘living’ conscious towards forgiveness. At times the confusions cloud the mind, but when you close your eyes and tell yourself, that you are only ‘your conscious’, well, then you go the extra mile to make your conscious rise higher than anything else around.

Can you implement this in business?

Well yes! Treat your business as a life, which remains for you till your very existence and ceases to exist for you the moment you do. Now if you treat your business as your ‘conscious’ then you will constantly move towards improving it. For your employees, your customers, stakeholders and the ecosystem around.

Share on Facebook

This blog post is not about marketing, its not even about New Media, which I write on, but this is about life. I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of a trend which is great, but has many in-built flaws.

If you really give it a minute of your time and think, then you will see a particular trend in everything in this world. The things we go through, what we do, its all a trend. Everything in this world has its own good and attached with it its own bad (or not so good) however you want to put it.

Lets talk about Independence

I am proud to be the citizen of one of world’s largest and strongest democracies, where people sacrificed their lives many years back to give us freedom. I can see dreams and do what I want to today because I have been bestowed with the freedom to do this. But over  a period of time, I have strongly felt that whatever comes to us easily in life, we start taking its presence in our life by default. The appreciable value of the same thing goes down!

Women and Independence

Before I write this, I must confess there is a lot I have learnt from the leading ladies in my life, my Mother, Sister, Wife and Many of my female friends. There’s a certain way of life for them. Anyway, now let me share a picture and this is not a myopic view of things, so hold before you react.

My Mother (just like you’rs) went through much in life, she saw phases when she lived her life and raised us up with almost no means. Obviously my Sister and I were brought up well. My Sister belongs to the generation which has values from her Mother but is changing and evolving with the times. My Wife pretty much belongs to my Sister’s times.

What’s common though in all the three ladies?

Well, they have all been raised up and been ‘looking for’ a certain kind of a feeling called ‘Independence’. For my Mother, Independence lets say is about having enough means to build a strong happy family. For my Sister, lets say to ensure while she is a working woman, she is project managing her home. For my Wife its pretty much the same perspective.

My Mother raised my Sister, telling her stories about what all she has faced and hence made her daughter strong enough to face the world. My Wife’s mother did the same. But what is changing now is, these stories along with the times we are living in are becoming inspiration for the birth of a small ‘Rebel’ inside the heart of the otherwise sane human.

I earn my own money, I am Independent!

I have heard so many women today speak of this and I am sure many of you would agree, that I want to earn my own. A girl in college says I don’t want to be dependent on my parents and a Girl getting married says, I don’t want to be dependent on my Husband.

Hold for a second and think, its the same girl who is growing up and one day will have her own family and will tech her daughter/ son one day that I had to go through so much in my times, I will make you guys strong enough to ensure you don’t.

Does money really makes you independent in life? Well, yes it might buy you many things, but Independence, well, probably not. And mind you, it also does not buys you confidence. It only buys you things.

I have my own life, my own decisions: I am the 21st Century Woman!

Agreed. And everyone has the right to live a good happy life. But in this whole ‘want’ of living your ‘own’ life and taking your ‘own’ decisions, you are being ‘reduced to only you’. I take many workshops for college students and corporate(s), I have seen the shift in the thought process. Education must have made us go getters and more enlightened, somehow I feel its making us more like rats in a race.

Especially in India, where we are all ‘bechara’s’. Somehow I feel we have been fighters (not in the literal sense), but we have many fights in our lives. The whole thing is, we are trying to ‘prove ourselves right’ all the time, by getting over the whole scene of ‘boss life mei bahut fight hai’. From a railway station to a college form line, there’s fight in every sense of the word.

http://www.ambuuncle.com/images/indian_women.jpg

And one day we get married!

While we are growing up through all these fights of life, one day we get married and the whole thing of raising up a successful family dawns upon us. Now lets re-visit, what I said in the starting of this post. When a girl gets married, the same mother will give her lessons of life, her friends will give her some. But what’s happening in India, as I see it, today is, what a professor of mine at college told me: “Paritosh, chances are that the woman you will marry tomorrow might have multiple relationships in her life before and she must have learnt from all of them, for you life is not the same as what I had”.

And I agreed to him and accepted the fact with just a line from my side, I said whether a woman OR a man, I don’t see much differences other than physical. What I would really want is to see women in this world really creating a beautiful world (because I strongly believe, men are a little lacking in this). The only rider I have for women is, have fun ladies, but do take care of the future, which is changing for all of us.

I hear so many people talking of how the world is changing and I instantly get reminded of a line I heard from a gentleman many years back who said, in Bhagwad Gita, Bhagwan Shri Krishna has predicted that generations will go down because the raisers (women) are changing.

Do I have issues with women leading the game?

NO! Ask my current boss/ colleague Geetika, she is a wonderful person to work with (not because she is my boss). Entrepreneurs don’t have this thing of buttering and all, we are straight talkers and so am I. I love the fact that women lead the game, infact I would love to see women creating a whole compassionate environment in the corporate jungle. But not at the cost of creating a future in the name of a feeling called Independence. Remember Money in the short term is NOT independence.

But I do have issues seeing the future!

What we do will come back to us within this lifetime, I strongly believe in this as well. And hence the next generations. More sharp, more intelligent (great), but into drugs, cigarette buts in schools, liquor is a fashion statement. And I am not saying this is all due to women, it is NOT. Men are as much responsible. But Ladies, you always say it and its true, you guys can create a far better world and a great happy future.

Maintain your relationships, whatever it takes

Ensure that whatever it takes, build strong relationships, because a broken relationship in your early days is an experience which you will at some stage  share it with your kids, your daughters who will be raising a world of their own tomorrow!

I just wanted to share this on this Saturday, because this is one thought which disturb me personally, this is one thing I am seeing building around me and I will be the happiest to see folks roaming around happily with each other, creating a future of this country, which is truly BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL

Share on Facebook

Last night I went to South Ex, a upscale shopping destination in South Delhi. Though I am not a shopping enthusiast by even the farthest of the accounts, but being married changes the game as they say

For all those who have ever been to this market, there are two ways to cross that busy road, either risk your life (like many people do) and dodge the traffic as if you are NEO from The Matrix OR be a little sound in your brains and use the underpass. I respect life a little more than being a daredevil and hence took the underpass.

A blind man hit me from the back

Not that it was his purpose, but a young man might be in his late twenties hit me from the back and the moment I turned around I noticed his white stick. What struck me at that time was life in the purest of its essence. Not that I have not seen blind people before, I have had close encounters in life with such amazingly gifted people (I will soon share how they are amazingly gifted).

He was talking on the mobile phone when I held him and merely told him that he has stairs in front of him and the other obstructions and this chap showed me a skill which was something that I expected but was not prepared for. He walked around as fast as I did (along with me) and when it came to climbing the steps, he used hit white stick in a manner which struck me. He let it loose in his right hand and started bumping it against the steps, which made a sound and let him know what’s next!

source: http://fightclublife.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/blind-cartoon.jpg

We came out of the subway and I asked him where he wanted to go and I guided him to that street along the road side.

Story ends: and a new begins

While we were going from one shop to another to see clothes and what not, the one thought which was constantly playing on my mind was, how swift was the man who was using nothing but sound to reach to where he wanted to. But let me give one more perspective to it which I felt strongly for later, its not just about the sound, its also about faith which he was keeping in that moment on me and my judgement. Not for a moment did he show any signs of nervousness, neither did his confidence shook for a second. Infact when I asked bhaiyya kahan jaana hai aapko (brother, where do you want to go), he answered, mujhe agle waale cut se mudna hai aur bahur aage tak chalna hai (I need to turn on the next cut and there’s a long way to go).

The game changer

In life there are so many moments when we feel so dejected, so disheartened, when life feels as if there is nothing more to it. When for the smallest of the issues which can be solved quickly we act our own way, thinking that we are RIGHT and create deadlocks.

These are the times I feel, the ‘we’ who are so blessed in life, take many things for granted. We are not grateful for life, for many things in life. And all of this results into something which eventually makes us go down the drain. We lose our ownership.

We lose our ownership

While we go through life, we lose our ownership. In the jobs we do, do we really own our work (exceptions are always around the corner), do we really thank the employer for everything they are giving to us. And not just that, slowly in our process of keeping ourselves and what we think of, always right, we start making it: my way or the highway, which sounds good in a song, but when it comes to life, there are many more songs which get affected with your tune.

Eg: the organization you work in, if you don’t perform well, though you might be at a very small position, some way or the other, the organization is affected. There are negative ripple effects. And hence your under/Non-performance affects those around you. This way you are not respecting other’s lives, while taking your’s for granted anyway.

Learn from the blind

I learnt many lessons of life last night in just those 5 minutes of my time with the blind man. And hence I share with you, there are people who cannot see the beauty of what this world beholds. If you are someone who respects this, rise up and create new opportunities for many others and you will by default be raised to a whole new level in life, far ahead and faster of many of your pack.

I need to hear to be alive

That’s the blind man. Coz if he does not trains himself to hear the sound of the click of his white stick, while hearing all the other sounds of the world, he will not be able to live through life. When he can train his brain to do this, can we not train ours to achieve much more? I honestly believe, each one of us is an amazing potential powerhouse, just that a few realize it and work towards it.

While I am writing these lines, I have a hard feeling in my own heart, but a strong promise as well, which I have been keeping with myself since I did my start-up, that I will rise up to create many opportunities for folks around, they might be family, friends, No-one at all or everyone.

Share on Facebook

Note: after writing this post, somehow there was an error in my WordPress installation due to which I had to revert my blog to a past date, which compromised on the latest blogs I had written. I am happy to be back though

This might be one of the important most posts I have ever done. I have always written from experience, things that I keep learning from life, from people. Life is everything and nothing at the same time. I have heard many philosophers saying this, but there are many moments when you experience it.

The deadlocks in life

I have seen many people, fight over and over again on trivial issues and most of the times the one thing common in both parties is that each tries his/ her level best to keep his. her ego upright. How could I be wrong? OR How could you wrong me? Let me tell you who I am!

Well, let me tell you this. I personally in my life, feel such people are utter foolish who live their life, trying to save themselves from being wronged and who keep fighting hard trying to save their ego from taking a hit.

The meanings we give

In most of my workshops and lectures that I take, I ensure that I share with my audience, the meaning of everything in life. Its really simple. A dark room, a pitch dark room, if you are made to stand in such a room and someone shuts the door from outside, in all general sense the first reaction in your heart would probably be that of fear, you might even want to scream and might try everything in the book to get out of there!

But lets rewind a bit, all that I said was: that you were in a dark room. A dark room is a dark room or a room without any light. Where does fear/ screams come from? That happens when you give a meaning inside your mind to the dark room with something weird and fearful. You have made your mind to believe that since its dark, now you gottu be cautious.

Relationships in life: the biggest deadlocks!

I have seen so many people and many a times have experienced it myself, how the best of relationships go kaput, while we all are in the space of standing upright for what we believe is right. The reality being everyone involved in that situation is doing the same thing. Everyone is thinking the same. Everyone is making the same move.

This simply is a deadlock. And it happens to the closest of the relationships. That with parents, with your life partners, with your Co-founders (in your business venture) and so on.

Someone at such times has to just simply understand that there is no meaning to anything in life and move on himself, while ensuring that everyone moves on and moves along. Now this is what I call a real winner. The one who just knows its all about moving on and never let situations which are meaningless, become meaningful in many weird ways for many different people.

But it hurts!

And yes, before you say it, I know it hurts. Iv been hurt many a times in life like this, but Iv learnt the art of keeping my relationships, because they are my life, they are why I live, I smile and I love life.

Love: that’s what I know and I do

Let me now give you something, which will never again let any deadlock ever appear in anything in life. The strongest human emotion without a doubt is Love. To be honest, I still say that Love again has no meaning to it. Its just another expression. And it is. Love but is something which you DO. Whatever it is, you still DO. And in life to move on all you need to do is DO.

Love makes you DO things by default. Many a times it hurts, but that’s something which comes along the package.

And Love has no reasons, no point, no start, no end. I am sure you must have heard of all this before in books, pages, videos, movies, but that’s the difference.

I have experienced it

Iv been lucky enough in my life that I have actually experienced Love. Something that I cannot share in words, but somehow the following words from a Punjabi Song, I heard sometime back:

Eh satinder jo gonda e gon de, e tan ho gaya shudai rolla paun de

bus pyar waali chhattri tu taan de, baaki rabb jo karenda kari jaan de

Translated in English: Satinder is the name of the singer who says, let Satinder sing whatever he has to, he has gone insane, let him scream n shout. Just put over him the cover of love and let God then do whatever he has to

The emotion has been captured perfectly in this song, which simply says when you fall in love in life, its about you falling in love and nothing else. It has no meanings to it. Move on, coz you fell in love, make the other do it

All said and done, was this a lesson on Love?

Hah! If that’s what you got out of it, then it was! It simply was about the fact that once you love something in life, whether your partner, your parents, your car, your venture, whatever, well, its your love, its your expression. Yes the other person/ thing might have become a part of your Loving happiness, but its always been your love!

So why fight and create deadlocks, when its always been your story! Be strong and come up to being 100% of what you fell in love with and don’t expect the other thing to give even a per cent of it. Be that love and you will never face deadlocks in life.

*the post is dedicated to my mom and wife, who have made me be in love and be powerful forever

Share on Facebook

Well, yes yesterday was the day which comes once in everyone’s life. Its shows you growing up, maturing over  period of time, creating new possibilities in life and what not!

The Pages of Life: Something about Turning 25

There is something about turning 25 and stepping into your 26th year. There is something about life taking a new turn, its like a new page opening in life, which calls out to you saying, im again blank and then you start scribbling many new chapters of times and life on the pages. The pages of life.

A Little Kid, Growing Up

When we were kids, we never used to think twice about something. Whether it was climbing trees while playing hide n seek or just gong berserk in rains and soaking in every drop of happiness that there is. We were fearless.

And that’s what Iv always liked about being a kid. And that’s how I operate in life, makes one, fearless. Makes you do things which are not so normal according to the real world. According to the world of grown ups.

And What Did I Learn, Turning 25?

Well, I am so sure my life has been put through such a major sudden change. Now I must admit, I was looking for this change to happen since a long time and I think its finally arrived. But as they say you never know what it is like, till the time it hits you, well, Yes, it’s hit me and Im happily just going with the flow, learning.

What Change?

Even before I talk about the change, its about the fact that I learnt a lesson, which is, that being a little kid makes you fearless, but what it also does is puts you into a whole new space which is full of so many grown ups that you feel that there is something that we grown ups talk about, a communication gap.

For Me Life Changed While Answering a Question: Who am I?

Yes! Life actually did answer me a question which is one of the most crucial questions for anyone! Who am I? Just like every normal person, I am playing many different roles in life, that of a Son, of a brother, of a friend and professionally as the CEO.

And Iv always been operating from just one take in all these spheres of life, which is being just the way I am.

And How did it happen?

Interestingly, God has plans which unfold in front of us, while we don’t even realize there are things happening. Things had started to change around me and were calling for a change to be accepted by me, within me, which I was aware of, but probably was too reluctant to be accepting and being present to it.

And then it happened, it started on 27th August and went on and on endlessly and effortlessly. While going out for a meeting on 27th I bumped into someone who is changing life, who is making me realize that there is not just me to myself.

I see smiles everywhere, everything is smiling around it seems and well that’s the way I am

The above line is not mine, but that’s what Iv come to realize.

What Iv come to realize and really really incorporate in my life is, the real meaning and the truth behind the word ‘stability’. Everyone talks about it. Everyone says you must have it. But there are a few in your life who actually understand you and make you realize that you know it, but you have been missing it, by just a small mark, but that small mark, you were not able to see clearly, as you were happy with what you are!

One of the biggest lessons of my life which this one person taught me over like a few days and many many hours is how to detached and still be as much attached to something. Until ROI, of which I am the Founding CEO, obviously when its your baby, you are always cautious and concerned, but what also becomes is you get so attached to your baby, that at times you overlook many a things.

What Iv Always Been Wishing for?

Iv always been wishing for someone who can help me be detached and still be as much attached. Someone who really makes me learn, how to control my excitement at times when Im just overjoyed and literally like a to little kid the excitement takes over my senses in those moments. And at these highly charged up and very excited moments, does one loses his sense of stability. At least I used to.

At many a times in life you need a strong perspective on things. A perspective so strong that it hits your own ego and shuts you up for a few minutes and makes you realize that there are other views to the same issue than your own.

I mean, this has been the biggest learning of my life. Today I am growing towards real stability coupled with patience and the right attitude. Iv learnt to how look at the same thing, which I used to just look at from my own vision, from many other views. Its about seeing something so close to yourself, from your eyes, but from a whole new perspective.

And How Has it Helped?

Well, this whole new perspective has changed my life. Changed my life, as now I am looking at all things existing and in the future from a different perspective. Its not about just me anymore. Its about learning from many new people in life. About how they see what Im seeing or trying to see.

What Do I See Now?

As I said above, well, now when I look upto the sky, what I see are smiles, clouds forming upto be smiles, the moon smiling back..

And Obviously I am Thankful to that One Person Who’s blasted my Ego and Made me Realize the Bigger Things in life. Sure this one person is going to be a part of many new wins and many more better moments in life

Share on Facebook