Happy Wala Birthday

Thanks everyone for your sincere & warm wishes on my 28^th Birthday :) 

Yes, Counting each blessings & wishes as I step into a new journey.

Celebrated a wonderful Bday with my lovely family at Alibaug

Alibaug Beach

Nagaon Beach

Murud-Janjira fort

Taking this opportunity to thank those special people who make my living worth it:

Parents: “Maa & Paa you’ll are my sweetest escapes. Words can’t describe what ull mean to me…..endless Thanks for making me, who I am today, bringing in those values & holding on the faith in me. I shall continue making you’ll proud”.

Sister: “Baby I am lucky to have you as my younger sister. Your maturity, intelligence amazes me at times. It’s a pride to see you grow both professionally & as a wonderful human being. Good Luck with your new house, car & job responsibilities”.

Extended Family: “Chachu-Chachi, Nana-Nani, Dadi, Mama-Mami, Badi Maa, Bade Papa - Thanks for being tolerant with me. Thanks for loving me unconditionally and being a great support for me & my family. Hope we have many reasons for celebration this year”.

Friends: “Yes, I am a bit crazy, confused, weird, and less intelligent as you’ll….but I have amazing friends who like me the way I am & nothing else matters. Thanks for keeping up with my madness & being around sparkling happiness & blessing always. I don’t promise to get smarter..but I promise to be the awesome person u believe me to be”.

Colleagues: “Setting higher benchmarks, giving huge responsibilities & making me prove that I can do it…thanks for the tremendous trust & support bestowed upon me. This year will be indeed rocking for Huawei Devices”.

Business Partner: “Being in business is all about being human. Thanks for teaching me the importance of a word, call, email, time, handshake, idea, win-win. Thanks for trusting that together we will make it happen”.

Well Wishers: “Last not the least – people who inspire, motivate, adore, appreciate, like, love me for my work and more importantly for who I am…trust me I will never let ull down”.  

More sunshine…more joy…more challenges….more dreams…more love

I believe that this year has lots installed...so bring it on :)

Best of 2012 & the world didn't end

It was well believed that year 2012 will be the end of the world & so that’s how people started living to the fullest. I am sure 2012 might have been the – Best year EVER for most.

 We are in 2013…thanks to the grace of God!

During my journey to coorg in the new years eve..I took some time off, sat down on the top of the hill to list down & share with you lovely readers the reflection of my 2012 journey.

Travel: “Destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

Coorg, Chennai, Nandi Hills, Vineyard, Allepyy, Auroville, Mysore, Mumbia, Trichy, Goa, Hyderabad.

Events: ”No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there”

Storm Musical Festival, Global Service Jam, Mobile Cloud Conference, ITU – Broadband for Rural Villages, Droidcon India

Passion: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious”

Badminton club, Cake Baking workshop, Cycling, Wedding planner

Work: “Job is just not Job for me, its something that I love”

Switch from Technology to Business

Hate it-love it-hate it-love it. Mostly love – people I work with & people I do business with & also people I get to meet every day

Celebration: “I sing, dance, smile & celebrate every small happiness & joy”

Potluck parties, Bday parties, Diwali pooja, Christmas party, Midnight mass, Bonfire Multi Culture New Year Eve, Friend’s wedding.

People: “People around me make me who I am today & better for tomorrow”

2012 was inevitable as I have met some very inspirational & amazing people from different countries & also people who are writing their own stories battling with life.

Family & Friends: “Royally spoiled by my friends & family love"
Grateful, Happiness, Joy, Support, Values, Believes, Strength, Forgiveness, Love, Smiles

Year 2013: “To be the Best Year Ever”

Raising standard, going global, adventure sports, singing, playing music, dance, blogging, learning, unlearning, embracing opportunities & newness, being grateful - Inspiring, getting inspired, loving, taking responsibility to shine, rubbing off fears, taking risk & smiling.

Olivia Culpo – Inspirational

* Rhode Island for the first time ever in history brings Miss USA crown home

* USA after 15 years of long wait was able to win The Miss Universe contest this year 2012

* 5.5 feet, 20 year’s girl was titled the most beautiful girl in the Universe.

Yes! All this was just so close to impossible…but Ms.Olivia changes history back to back.

She is one big example for - “Anything is possible”.

I have been reading & watching here videos off lately & have learnt a lot from this beauty queen. Few quick things that has touched & inspired me to a major extend about her:

Beauty: “You got to be more than just a pretty face. It’s about how good you feel in your own skin. Smile always because that always radiates and brings in smile on others face too. A beauty is not to show-off but to inspire others.”

Grateful: “Treat each day as a gift. Make the most out of it. Be grateful to your loved one. Hug your parents and express your feelings, gratitude to people who mean a lot to you.”

Confidence: “My boyfriend cheated on me with my best friend, it hurts but then I didn’t let it shatter me. I learnt my lessons, moved on. Didn’t let that take over me…focused on my goals and believed truly on myself and on god, as he had some very interesting plans for me”.

Being yourself: “All what matters is how you feel about yourself. Don’t be judgemental, just have an open mind…keep getting inspired by the people around you and keep learning. Better yourself each day.”

Communication: “There is no great feeling than being able to express yourself truly in best words. Choose your words carefully. Words have the power to inspire, hurt, create, collapse, destroy… so I always watch what I say.”

Passion: “People call me crazy because I dance & keep singing every time anywhere…but I can’t stop. Music is so much in me…the passion in me defines me…keeps me always happy & going for new challenges.”

Her values, beliefs, passion, beauty, words has created history today.

So what are your creating for yourself?

Whom are you inspiring?

Are you yourself?

Exit Strategy

“There was a phase in my young life as a photographer when I would shoot every object that comes into view. It was good practice, invaluable training, even. 

Now that I have grown comfortable with my camera system, know more or less how to play with light, I try to push myself beyond every comfort zone I find myself in.

It was therefore quite a treat to put together a bland looking window on a fire exit door with a gorgeous woman”

This was narrated by a friend of mine - an ideal example of exit strategy.

You got to figure out when to exit…move out from your comfort zone…take new challenges…in order to grow…in order to excel. Exit strategy is needed in everything you make an entry into, if you don’t, that’s the time you feel stuck. This post will talk about why exit strategy is a must for the below:

Partnership Alliances:

You can never win in today’s industry by being an individual player, strategy alliance with other business gives you an edge to fulfill customer needs and excel. Every partnership that I sing off brings in lots of excitement along with commitments. We sign off Win-Win partnership deal, decide on Go to Market plan, but never plan on defining the exit strategy.

What if the market does not respond positively to the partnership?

What if only one partner succeeds out of the deal?

What if the market circumstances change and the partnership backfires?

To proactively act in the above situation its important while designing an alliance best moment is to talk about the exit strategy.

Product:

When thinking of the end of a product’s life, think of the principles of product life cycle management and the four phases of a product’s life cycle. There’s the introduction phase, the growth phase, a peak phase, followed by a gradual decline phase. 

An exit strategy for a given product line typically involves outlining the company’s steps to reducing its exposure. Using customer reward programs, prompt payment incentives and offering volume discounts, are just some of the ways to retain business. The intention here is to maximize the product’s gross profit during its final life-cycle. In telecom I see a new product killing another existing new product launched from the same brand.

It’s important to predict eventual decline in customer demand, accordingly reduce the products marketing expenditures, reduce inventory and move the product line to“made-to-order” status. Support & Maintenance for the existing customers using the product is primary in exit strategy. Either move them to the new product or set a deadline for the end of support dates. Oracle products are the best example for the same.  

Relationship:

I know it’s debatable, why would one need an exit strategy for a relationship? Who wants to step out it? Why work on it?

But look at it in 2 angles:

Exit strategy for being friends to moving on to be in a love relationship. Exiting from being just lovers to a married couple. Exiting from just being a couple to a family etc. Figure out when to exit from one kind of relationship to another.

Other angle is when you realize your integrity is no more secure. During getting marriage discuss the divorce scenario when heavily in love, it is the best time. The moment the love is over and all what is left is disagreement and difficulties, it will be much harder to find a common ground based whereupon both partners can exit gracefully. Having a plan ready in advance will save emotional energy when you're feeling sapped from fighting.

Unexpected swings in the relationship can create distress and drama. If you have a relationship that you value, sit down with the person while things are going well and create an agreement on how you would handle your worst case scenario. What would you like to see happen, from a calm rational place, before you end the relationship. An exit agreement can clear a lot of bandwidth we can use for other fun activities, and let us enjoy the moment in the relationship now!

Start-up:

Your new venture is off and running. You and your partner are in sync with your goals for the future. As hard as it is to imagine the ending when you’re just beginning, an exit strategy belongs in your business plan, it can actually help you improve your business, making you look at cracks in the foundation of your company that need reinforcing and new methods to help you push your business even further in the right direction. 

Plan for what happens if one of them dies. 

Define what happens when one partner is ready to walk away. 
Worst scenarios for dissolving a business partnership is when the partners are locked in a dispute and the only solution is splitting. This is a time when emotions can run very high and having the terms of the dissolution already in place limits additional conflict.

So what happens to the partners when your small business becomes bigger either by merger or by sale?

What if somewhere down the road one of the partners is ready to take it all on alone and wants to buy out the shares of the other? A carefully crafted plan will lead to a smooth financial transaction. Having a clearly defined exit strategy does more than just establish the rules for different end-of-partnership scenarios. 

Job:

I am guessing that at the beginning of your career or even at the end of your corporate one, you did not have any idea that you would end up doing this for a living. I used to have a mental box of where my career could “logically” proceed, until I realized that I love learning new things, working on challenging stuff.

So my advice to you if you do not know what you want to do…Congratulations! It is perfectly normal. I promise you few really know their life’s purpose early on. It is a work in progress and that’s what makes life so beautiful. Second, be patient and have fun and explore. Try new things, learn constantly and allow yourself to imagine, to brainstorm, to come up with ideas and to put a few to test. Also, pay attention to your strength. That’s something that you do well consistently and feel energized and happy about.

We have got to be open to the possibilities and the opportunities that come along or else we will miss out on great chances to reach our fullest potential. I always wanted to make my professional smooth exit so I took my time building what I believed was imperative to that: a smart exit strategy at every job that was interesting, different & challenging.

Exit strategies aren't failure missions; they help to reinforce what you are doing right and focus on what you can do better. 

Thank You!

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”

Last few couple of days I have been getting upset and angry over very minor issues; I took a pause to realize what’s exactly going wrong. With time keeping me busy I have started taking things for granted, without any clue what life could be like on the other side.

One thing that we took for granted was education. In country like India where it’s compulsory for all kids to go to school, so it was a given. We never thought about how lucky we were to be educated until we read about Malala Yousafzai

Another thing we take for granted are our parents. Since our birth they are the people who keep doing small & big sacrifices just to give us a beautiful living.

We all are fighting with our fears, upset about something that’s not fair happening with us, stuck at some point in life, hurt when our expectations never get fulfilled… but is this all life. Let’s began to appreciate things around us more. As I saw more and more of the world out there, I realized all the things I’d been given are not rights, but privileges.

Do this small exercise: Before going to bed, hold your favorite thing in hand and count 5 new things you did for the first time new today or few things you are grateful of. This will make you focus on the positivism & beauty of life, which we royally ignore in our busy schedules these days.

Like today I am grateful. Grateful for my favorite music, for movies that make you feel good, for my phone that connects me with people, and for the electricity that lights up my life. Grateful for my imagination, grateful that I can think and communicate. Grateful that I can laugh and smile with lovely friends. Grateful of being literate. I realize that there is a lot of war and violence in the world, and I’m lucky to live in a country where it’s safe and peaceful. I realized there are people out there who don’t have their five senses, and to have mine which I am extremely grateful about. Grateful that I am alive!

Sometimes it’s easy to feel bad because you’re going through a tough time in life. However, remember no matter how bad your situation may seem, there are tens of thousands of things to be grateful for in life.

We always focus on others, what they are supposed to do/give/behave/react…we keep building our expectation & finally WHAT? We lose our piece of mind. 
Instead just focus on yourself – see what you contributing/creating/learning/giving/changing in yours & others life or think BIG for this world.  

Just a slight change in lookout & a bit more gratefulness will change how you are feeling now
 * Now I don’t lose my temper when a colleagues shows me how to work in excel, I am grateful about getting to learn new excel skills.
* Now I don’t get upset if the cab driver drives slowly, I am grateful that he is driving me safely.
* Now I don’t get irritated when my friends pull my leg, I am grateful about getting their attention & which helps me stay grounded by knowing my flaws.
 * Now I don’t feel suffocated when people care, I am grateful of being able to love & be loved.

So, be grateful that you are You!

Be grateful that there are two words that can change your life.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Are you listening to your heart or mind?

At every point of time in our lives we have to make decisions. It could be as small as deciding where to go for a vacation or where to go out to dine or it could be as big as choosing a profession, choosing a job or choosing your life partner. Taking a decision has never been easy for me and I am sure it’s not that easy for you too. We get stuck at a point where we can’t make a choice. This is majorly because we don’t know should we listen to your heart or mind. The question comes next is how do we differentiate what our heart is saying and what our mind wants us to do?

Have been researching on this for a while and few things below that I will be noting down is purely based on my experience: So let me tell you something about the role of the heart and mind. Let’s take an example:-Your parents are searching a groom for you and they show you two boys x and y. You got to choose between two of them. You have met them, interacted with them and have a fair idea on what the boys are. This task is done by our mind. It logically analyses things and construct a meta-data based on different parameters. If the differences between parameters being compared are huge then decision making is obvious. Say boy x fares very poorly in comparison with boy y on some parameters of your choice. Hence the decision making becomes easy and mind says yes.

Now consider a scenario where it becomes extremely difficult to decide whom to marry. On some parameters x is better and on some y is better. Your mind has analyzed things but has failed to break the deadlock. This is where your heart comes into picture. Your heart can’t lie. It knows what it wants. Just close your eyes and I am very sure, one choice will be in front of your eyes even if it’s higher by a small percentage. Go with your heart.

The same scenario can be applied to other cases as well. You are undecided between medical or engineering course. Listen to your heart. Go with it. Don’t look back in regret at any stage. Things will work well. But when it comes to any decision related to money always listen to your mind, like gambling, investment, lending money etc

Once you have listen to your heart, it’s time for your mind to take over. And this is where you need to play a major role. Listening to your heart is simple but not easy for the mind. Never regret the decision which your heart has taken. But if you fail to do this you will be in trouble for sure. The confusion will again return and you will end up making your life miserable. 

Few days back I got my handwriting analyzed and I was surprised to know that my mind rules my heart and trust me, that’s the worst. Get out of it…I have regretted all my decisions that I have made by my mind, I was scared to close my eyes and see what I always wanted. I was scared to speak out loud and trust on things that I wanted. Have belief!

Getting over the guilt of making a wrong decision is also important. Well it is not an easy job but one way of looking at it is by asking your conscience. Ask yourself whether the decision was taken with the intention of hurting others or with the intention of keeping someone happy. If your answer to this is positive, then the question of guilt creeping in doesn’t arise at all. In extreme cases few loved ones will stop talking to you completely forcing you to think about what you have done. But if your conscience is clear then just get along with it.

To conclude mind analyses things logically and strives to arrive at a decision. If the analysis leads to confusion then ask your heart for answers. No wonder the saying
“listen to your heart when in confusion” holds well true all time.