I overheard a conversation recently between my 16-year old son and 6-year-old daughter.
Neel: Rani, don’t touch.
Rani: Why? What is it?
Neel: These are medicines.
Rani: Medicines for “Karnataka Virus”?
Hearing the words, “Karnataka Virus” I and my son couldn’t control our laughter. My daughter seemed offended by our laughter.
Thinking over it later, I realised that my daughter had been watching “Wild Karnataka” on Discovery Channel for the past few days and so unconsciously Corona became Karnataka.
Children have this amazing concentration power because when they get glued into something they absorb it completely and their imagination takes them to that make-believe world which they have been glued into. This was a classic example of the same.
As we grow up we start getting distracted. Our concentration levels get divided. Very few people in this world can be great in multi-tasking. Most can actually concentrate on one thing at a time. Unfortunately, when we grow up we try to concentrate on too many activities and end up being average in all. Why can’t we concentrate on what we are best at and keep improving on it?
What’s stopping us from following this methodology?
Thoughts?

Hindustan Pilkington Glass Works Limited was a premiere glass manufacturing company situated in Asansol. In the 1970’s it was probably the best Glass manufacturing company in India. From there the trade union problem raised its head and the factory shut down in 1980. Over 2000 employees lost their jobs all of a sudden. My father was also one of them. From having a pretty decent lifestyle our family fell under a pall of gloom. The factory never reopened after that and even after many years of struggle my father and his colleagues never got their PF dues also.

With a young family to feed and hardly any savings, my father had to rebuild his career from scratch. I had already got admission to St. Vincent’s High & Technical School at that time. People living in and around Asansol would know that it was one and still is one of the premier schools of Asansol. My father’s paternal property was at Howrah and many of our relatives advised him to leave Asansol and come back to Howrah so that he can save on the rent and associated expenses. Also those days my Grand Mother was alive and we were a joint family so the expenses would have been less.

He didn’t budge and the only reason for him to not leave Asansol was for my studies. He knew that I have got an opportunity to study in one of the best schools and getting admission to a similar school at Kolkata could be difficult. He lived his life on his own terms and he didn’t have any ego when it came to work. Within one week, he started a milk booth sitting at the doorstep of our house. He could afford only 60 bottles of milk and each sale would give him 25 Paisa profit. Selling 60 bottles would give him Rs. 15 profit per day and that’s how he started. There were days in the first couple of months when we would have only Potato curry and rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There were days when my parents gave me the Potatoes and they had the curry. We couldn’t afford anything else. On Sundays, our very kind-hearted neighbour used to send mutton curry for me. That was my only non-veg dish and this continued for about a year till my father was ready to move to the next step.

In between, there was no compromise with my studies. My school continued as before. I was in Class 1 and I could feel my friends were far better off than me and my mother used to tell me, “don’t worry, study hard and you will get all the things that you want one day”. 

Every day the ice cream vendor used to stand outside the school gate and my friends used to have those stick ice creams. One day I asked my mother, please give me 50 paise, I want to have ice cream. My mother didn’t give me. I didn’t have the maturity to understand the reason behind it. But one day, I saw a 50 paisa coin on the table. With both my parents not anywhere near, I pocketed the coin and left for school. That day I had my first stick ice cream. When I came back, I was asked if I had taken any 50 paisa coin, I didn’t understand how could they know about one 50 paisa coin. Later I realised that my father maintained a diary where he kept a note of each paisa so he knew that there is a shortage of a coin and after that realised he had kept the coin on the table which went missing. I admitted that I took it to have ice cream. Got a royal thrashing from my father and I realised how poor we were financially. 

Anyways, with some profit coming from selling the milk bottles and the free time that my father had in the evenings, he thought of starting a shop. One of my maternal uncles was holding a top position at J Thomas & Co and he helped my father to get a few boxes of tea every quarter. My father was one of the 13 siblings and the advantage of a big family meant many of his brothers and sisters pooled in money to get him the seed capital to start the tea business. Once every 3 months, he used to go to Siliguri and get tea boxes which he then sold from a small shop which he took for rent. 

Things started looking up and after a couple of years, he started Order-Supply business to local Asansol Market where he used to supply plastic packets. This venture helped him increase his profit and he became a vendor at IISCO later on where he supplied stationery and electrical goods.

By that time I was in class 6 and our lifestyles had significantly improved. My father didn’t believe in taking debt which meant he was never able to scale his business and it meant he never became a big enough player in the market. But, he was happy because he always said that “I do not owe money to anyone – so I get a good night’s sleep”. This he maintained throughout his life. 

Just before Glass Factory closed down he had booked a Maruti Car which he couldn’t take delivery of, due to financial issues. By the time his business improved, he could have gone for a car taking a loan, but instead bought a scooter which he kept with him till we left Asansol in 2014. He finally got himself a Maruti Car in 2014 with full cash keeping his motto of never taking debt.

We used to live in a rented house where I spent my entire childhood. Finally, in 1991, he bought a piece of land and he built his own house which started in 1992 and finished in 1993. Once again nothing on debt so it took more than 14 months for him to build the house.

My mother was a typical housewife with visible tension written all over her face. If I was late for even 10 minutes she would be at the doorstep. As she left for the heavenly abode yesterday, I was left thinking who will wait for me in the way she did throughout my life. It was so painful over the last few months as she kept fighting Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and finally stopped recognizing me. From the days she can’t have food without meeting me at least once a day to a situation where she didn’t even know who I was. A journey that is so difficult to fathom.

My father had just finished building the house when my grandmother passed away and I finished my class 12. I couldn’t get through the West Bengal joint entrance exams but a few of my friends were going to Bangalore so I gave the CET (Common Entrance Test to get admitted to Engineering college in Karnataka) and got admission there. My father was not ready for such steep fees because he couldn’t afford it then. But he somehow managed and as I spent the best days of my life in Bangalore he kept struggling to keep us afloat. He ensured that I keep getting my basic things in Bangalore though it was extremely difficult for him financially. He could not get our 1st floor of the house completed because of my studies. We finally finished the house in 2006 when I started working in Kolkata after coming back from Bangalore.

In 2014 when he realised that it would get very difficult for me to maintain a property in Asansol because I hardly go to that place he decided to sell off the property. The day we were coming back from Asansol one of our neighbours came and told us, “If Satya (truth) leaves us how will we survive?” (My father’s name was Satyandra Nath Sinha) – that’s the kind of person he was – never compromised on the values and ethics and was happy with what he had. People who have seen his struggle through the 1980s know how he rebuilt his career from scratch. 

After coming back to Kolkata he never visited Asansol again but one of his earlier dreams of owning a car was realised when he bought a Maruti Alto car in 2014 with full cash. He made me promise that I won’t sell this car until his grandson drives it. Still, 2 years to go for Neel to get a driver’s license but I will definitely make sure that the wish is fulfilled.

In 2016 as my father was diagnosed with a Chronic Kidney ailment, parallelly my mother was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease with signs of Alzheimer’s. It was a big struggle with my father often telling me that my mother should leave us early because she is mentally tuned to be too dependent on him. I kept telling him not to think of things that he just cannot control. Even during his last few days at Fortis Hospital, he kept telling me the same thing.

God has his own plans!

My father left for heavenly abode on 21st January 2019. My mother’s health kept deteriorating and she took the bed in May 2019 and from there on it was a daily struggle and in between this pandemic of Covid-19 her ailment took a severe turn and she stopped recognizing me for the last 2 months. Every day over the last few weeks we lived in fear as no doctor was ready to visit the house. Finally, the struggle and her fight ended on 9th August 2020 as my mother breathed last leaving me orphaned forever. Getting a doctor to visit and certify her death was extremely difficult. Once again the school for which my father didn’t leave Asansol in the 1980s came to my rescue as my dear senior Dr. Jayabrata Sen Sharma came down to certify her death.

As an adult orphan when I look back, I can only see the good things that both my parents gave me. I wouldn’t have had such a great school life without their sacrifices. My best days were spent in Bangalore and once again it was not possible without their sacrifices. Both times my parents went above their means to try and give me a good life because their entire life went in trying to make me happy. 

How good a son was I? 

I don’t know but I did my best within my capacity. I am nowhere close to my father’s values when it comes to financial management but I hope to get better. And I am very sure my father would have seen from above that the girl whom he completely disapproved of (I married Sushma without my parent’s approval) took very good care of my mother and left no stone unturned to keep her as happy as possible. Finally, she couldn’t succeed as Alzheimer’s took full control but she did her best.

Stay happy where ever you are and keep showering your blessings as I begin a life without you.

Om Shanti!

The lift in our apartment was not working. It was an Amphan Martyr. When I called up the maintenance guy he said that an electrical part has to be replaced so it’s gonna take time because arranging resources ​on time is difficult.
My Microwave oven stopped working, another Amphan martyr. ​My ​wife called up the service centre of LG Electronics and got a robotic response to be patient​ (with no deadline)​ as they arrange a service engineer. She called up our local technician who used to work for LG. The guy came within 24 hours and fixed the issue.
COVID-19 gave everyone an opportunity to improve their customer service. Think about it! The way you go out of your way to serve your customer amidst a crisis defines you as a character. If you give COVID-19 as a reason for slow or lack of service none will question you now but in the long run, you will lose these customers when the situation is back to normal.
As a customer, we will move to that company which provided service during a period of crisis ​without citing any excuse. The onus is on us to treat COVID-19 as an excuse or treat it as an opportunity.
Thoughts?

12th June 2020 – an important date in the annals of the Indian Entertainment Industry. The first time a mainstream Bollywood movie released directly on an OTT platform – Gulabo Sitabo starring Amitabh Bachchan & Ayushmann Khurana released on Amazon Prime. After a long time, I watched a movie on the first day of release. It was a nice movie about relationships in the backdrop of Lucknow City​.
The movie centres around the characters, Mirza (AB) & Baanke (AK), and the house where they stay. It beautifully portrays how immediate needs supersedes long term relationship goals. And, how the value of a person is sometimes best understood when that person is no longer there with you.
Watching this movie made me think about Price Vs. Value. As a customer, what you pay (to get a service or product) is the “Price” and what you get is the “Value”. Hence salespeople should train their minds towards value selling. Multiple times we make this cardinal mistake of using the price as a negotiation tool and we fail to sell the value. This happens because we probably think it as cheap and hence don’t value it. This is exactly what was portrayed in the movie especially in the last scene about the “Chair”.
So have you watched Gulabo Sitabo yet?
Thoughts?

It was ​a ​​late evening in mid-2002 ​​​when one of ​my ​roommates came back from the office and as was his usual habit, ​switched on the TV.
A couple of us who were already not in a good mood got irritated.
It was the final of the ​Natwest ​Trophy and with 5 wickets down we had turned off the ​TV​ in frustration.
This friend didn’t know this background​ & unknowingly​ turned it on. ​
When the TV was switched on, to our surprise we saw that India was counter-attacking with the 2 youngsters ​Yuvraj​ and Kaif. The smiles were back on our faces​​ but as a superstition we kept standing at the same place​ where we were​ till the end of the game. And what a game and what a win it was for India.
​This brings me to the topic of superstition.​ From childhood days I had this superstition that if I see a pair of Myna birds early in the morning then something good will happen.
Sometimes good things used to happen and it remained with me till date. Even today, if I see a pair of Myna it makes me happy (with the hope that something good is about to happen).
Is it normal to be superstitious?
Do you have any superstition which works?

Byju’s acquiring WhiteHatJr is all over the news today. The stunning growth of WhiteHatJr. has astounded many especially because to be acquired for $300 Million after being in business for less than 20 months is unheard of.

Many in India might not even have heard of WhiteHatJr much especially because they never advertised on TV. They were focussed on Digital/Social Media to run their campaigns and they did it smartly because they targeted the right group of people and got students & teachers on board.

One of the primary USP of WhiteHatJr has been the one to one coaching that they provide. Of course, coding is the emotional selling point because as a parent you get emotionally touched when you see your 6-year-old kid doing stuff on computers. This emotional connect along with the personalized education provided got them ahead of the race. The added advantage was they were pioneers of this space in India.

The use of technology to impart education has been well utilized by WhiteHatJr. The one to one video classes give you a seamless experience and the curriculum is set in such a manner that if the teachers are good (There are no bad students! There are only bad teachers!) then the kids will enjoy the sessions. The way it’s set up it helps kids learn coding through interactive & fun games.

I also must add that Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown helped them quite a bit. With parents working from home, these classes meant the kids got involved in something new, and because of the interactive way of teaching most kids got attracted to the system. And as pointed earlier, seeing the kids’ enjoyment, the parents committed to the programs (Emotional connect).

Many might say that the recent National Education Policy might have played a role in deciding the aggressive acquisition but to be fair such decisions are taken over a long time so I guess the decision had to do more about Byju’s growing clout over the EduTech space. With one shot Byju’s increases their valuation and also gets access to a pretty decent database of students who would need Byju’s flagship products as they grow up. Remember WhiteHatJr mainly has kids as their students who are not yet in middle school.

Byju’s, of course, can start a similar model of imparting education for Maths and Science Subjects. With ready students in the system, they won’t need to resell the new product. The ready technology in hand is an added advantage.

The teachers play a very big role in WhiteHatJr’s success because the students will continue in the long run only if they connect with the teachers well. The young kids as we all know tend to do well when they connect to their teachers. And once again Covid-19 worked in their favour because housewives got extra time in hand with no school for children and husbands working from home. 

In India, many ladies sacrifice their careers due to family but WhiteHatJr provided an opportunity for these ladies to restart their careers. Many who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 got enrolled as teachers too. Of course one needs to go through multiple rounds of tests before getting selected but if you are a graduate with computer knowledge then you can pass the interview rounds. To be successful though you need to have a passion for teaching. Otherwise, it’s a stop-gap thing and you might not add value to the ecosystem. 

There is always a saying that all disruptions create new market leaders and this definitely is one such story coming amidst the disruption of this century – Covid-19.

One thing that needs to be reiterated once again, if you have the right product, you don’t need to aggressively market it. What you really need is to get into the eyesight of your prospective users and if your product and service are meeting the criteria of your users, you will automatically create a difference to the society. WhiteHatJr is one such example.

When Zappos was acquired by Amazon, one of the terms was that Zappos will become a 100% subsidiary of Amazon but will continue to run independently. And that’s how it has been. Zappos still runs its operations independently and remains one of the great online stories of customer satisfaction. They have been able to do that only because Amazon didn’t interfere in the running of the company though nobody could have actually stopped them after the deal was done. That’s what Jeff Bezos is after all and that’s why he is so well revered as a leader. As far as I understand this acquisition of WhiteHatJr by Byju’s has been done with a similar concept where Byju’s won’t interfere with the running of the business and the founder, Karan Bajaj will continue running the show as before without any interference. This will be a great success story only if Byju’s follows the mindset of Jeff Bezos of negligible interference into WhiteHatJr’s management.

Good luck to both Byju’s and WhiteHatJr. Indian EduTech space is consolidating but the opportunity is still huge for new players. Will it be the cloning of the existing ideas or will it be something innovative? 

Let’s wait and watch.

In 1911 two teams, one led by Roald Amudsen & another led by Robert Scott started their journey to reach the South Pole.
Both made immaculate plans to reach the destination. While Roald Amudsen and his team came back home safely after successfully reaching the South Pole, Robert Scott & his team lost their lives. The opposite results of these 2 perfectly matched teams make a very interesting study.
Proper Planning and Risk Management are two very important aspects of project management. However well you plan, if your plan doesn’t take care of the expected and unexpected risks, you are bound to fail.
This was the basic difference in the above example. One planned meticulously and didn’t leave anything to chance whereas the other assumed stuff which backfired.
Roald Amudsen later said:
Victory awaits the person who has everything in order – People call it Good Luck!
Defeat is definite for the person who neglects to take necessary precautions – People call it Bad Luck!
How much do you blame your luck in defeat or in an adverse situation? Do you give credit to your luck when something good happens in your endeavour?
Good Luck follows many years of patience and perseverance. Luck doesn’t happen by chance.
Thoughts?

Our society is allowing maids to enter. Our cook is back to work. This makes things a lot easier for my wife. She is happy to get her cooking assistant back.
This brings me to the topic of “Happiness”.
What is happiness?
Happiness is a state of mind but then why are people around us not happy? Why can’t everyone be happy?
As per Tony Hseih’ Happiness Framework, when a group of people are asked the same question of what’s your goal, you get varied answers. But, if you keep adding a why against all their answers, finally we will know that all are pursuing happiness.
I for long kept comparing myself with others. This comparison mindset, I realised was hurting my psychology to be happy. I decided to be a competitor to myself.
Each day try to be better than yesterday. Keep raising your own bar & press forward. Don’t be overly satisfied with your accomplishments but be happy.
In India if you call another person & ask, “How are you?”, invariably the answer will be, “Going on”. Only 10% of the time you will get an answer, “I am doing good.” Why so?
Its all in the mind. If you are happy, you will reflect happiness otherwise you won’t.
What works for you? What makes you happy? How do you motivate yourself when you are down?

I am a sports lover & one of my favourite is Sergey Bubka. ​During his heydays as a pole vaulter his competitors used to fight for the silver medal because he used to win all the events. Not only he used to win, he used to break records. He achieved the feat of breaking his own world record 35 times in his career. In 1991 in the space of 4 months he broke the world record 5 times. The rest of the field was competing for the silver medal and he was competing with himself.
​Everybody has their own journey hence rather than competing with others, compete with yourself.
In my first job as a sales person, we had 2 sets of incentives. One, after you achieve 80% of your target & another when you reach 100%. I used to generally cross the 80% mark. Then one day magic happened. One big deal closed & I overshot my target by 200%. That day, my boss took me out for lunch and told me, “You broke the company record today. Records are meant to be broken and so don’t let your current success make you lazy. Continue as if nothing changed and this will ensure that you keep crossing your target.” That advice remained with me till today.
So, how do you deal with success? Do you raise your own bar higher? What has been your story?

Years ago during my childhood, I saw the movie, “Sonar Kella“ made by Satyajit Ray. It still remains one of my favourite movies. Other than it being an adventure/thriller movie, what really remained with me were the forts of Rajasthan with the cherry on the cake, The Jaisalmer Fort. The camel ride sequence of Lalmohan Ganguly was also something very enjoyable. Over the years, I always had that interest in visiting Rajasthan and so when the plan finally crystallized in 2013, I ensured that we have an extended stay at Jaisalmer.

Our Rajasthan trip started on 21st December and ended on 3rd January. Quite a longish trip but it still was like a whirlwind tour as we covered all the major forts of Rajasthan. 

This post of course is my experience of riding a camel in the Thar Desert.

After visiting the Jaisalmer Fort, our guide asked if we would be interested in a desert safari. We had small kids with us so we were not interested in staying overnight in the desert camp because it gets really cold at night. He suggested we take the camel ride and we thought it was not a bad idea for the evening.

Right after lunch we got ready and left for the desert camp which was about 40 minutes’ drive from where we stayed.

Asif’s and my family had traveled together to Rajasthan. So including the kids, it was 7 of us. We decided to rent 3 camels. In one Sushma and Sumbul sat. Another was occupied by Asif and his 2 daughters, Iqra and Daneah. The third one was for me and my son, Neel. 

Camels have this unique way of standing up. It will first get up from the rear using its two back legs and then it will raise its front legs. Writing this is quite simple but experiencing it is not so simple. Definitely it was not simple for me. 

We wanted the ladies to start first and as the camel rose up what we could hear were only shrieks of our dear ladies because as the camel raised its back legs both the ladies’ bodyweight went forward and this meant it was having difficulty to raise its front legs. Looking at that scene, I started wondering if it was a good decision to come for the ride in the first place. 

Asif was the expert as he guided the ladies to lean according to the Camel’s movement. My heart was pounding. Neel was sitting in front of me and as my camel raised its back legs, the gravitational force took me forward and I was unable to lean backward. There were now two problems in hand:

1. I was hurting Neel with my full weight over him.

2. The Camel was not getting enough strength to raise its front legs as my weight was a deterrence.

At that moment I was feeling like anytime I will lose control and fall off, anyways there were helpers around who came and helped the camel to stand up.

There is a saying that morning shows the day. Our ladies were now comfortable but my confidence in Camel ride laid in tatters. I asked the helper about how long it will take us to go to the destination. He said it will be about 30 minutes. He also added motivating words like it’s very enjoyable and asked me not to panic. Well, I said, you come and sit in front of the computer and write a program and I will also tell you don’t panic. It’s very simple.

Anyways, we started our ride through the desert and I felt that riding won’t be an issue. How wrong was I! As soon as the camel moved up the sand dunes, I was feeling completely out of control. The feeling was worse than riding through the pothole-filled roads. Sometimes, I am falling backward, sometimes, I am leaning in front. I was just hoping for the destination to come as soon as possible.

As a few minutes passed, I got used to the ride and the thought of watching the sunset from the Thar desert preoccupied my mind.

Neel was enjoying the ride to the fullest. As we reached our destination where we would be spending time till the sunset –  right in the middle of the desert, I felt like mission accomplished. But wait, I needed to get down from the camel’s back. Now the camels while sitting down follow the reverse process of how they get up. Now they will first fold their front legs and as it folded its front legs, I felt like I will be thrown into the desert. Somehow I kept holding the saddle and as it folded its rear legs, I heaved a sigh of relief.

Getting down I stretched for a while to get myself steady. I almost made up my mind to walk back during the return journey which was quite a childish thought though.

Anyways, I found a tea seller in the middle of the desert so I decided to have some tea to get back to my saneness.

The kids had a great time in the sand while Asif and Neel did some Camel Racing too. I was really surprised to see my very daring 9-year-old son and Asif kept on egging me – giving Neel’s experience.

The sand dunes were a perfect setting for the kids to play on as we waited for the sun to set. Sushma & Sumbul also joined the fun.

It was an exhilarating experience to watch the sunset from the middle of the desert. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about the camel ride though.

In the movie “Sonar Kella”, Lalmohan Ganguly had to get on a camel only once. Don’t know how he would have reacted to another camel ride but I didn’t want to ride it again. But, there was no option after all. This time the experience was slightly better because I made sure I leaned back right after getting up so that the force of the rear legs as the camel got up didn’t push me front and hence the tough part was done relatively smoothly. The ride became difficult though because now the camel was walking downwards in the sand dunes and this meant I was forced to lean forward. Sometimes it felt like I will fall over. 

Thankfully nothing untoward happened and we reached back to the camp and I felt like I won a war.

Neel in the meanwhile was feeling disappointed that the camel ride was over. How diametrically opposite reactions in the same bloodline, I wondered.

All in all, it was an experience worth remembering. I doubt I will get on a camel again anytime soon but then no one knows what lies in the future. 

Looking back I think the shriek of the ladies when the first camel got up followed with me not leaning backward when my camel got up meant I had a bad start and the fear psychosis reared its head. Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai and I hope if and when I am forced to ride a camel again, I will do better.

So did you ride a camel? What has been your experience?

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