Hmmm...

Of late, after moving to Kerala, I have been getting a lot of calls and messages. Not just from friends, but from their friends, and sometimes even from people I have never met. And almost every conversation starts the same way. “We are planning a Kerala trip for 4–5 days… can you help us cover it properly?” Then comes the list. Munnar, backwaters, Guruvayur, Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Wayanad… and if possible, a beach also. On paper, it sounds perfect. In reality, that is exactly where the trip starts going wrong. Because Kerala is not a place you “cover”. It is not one destination that you tick off and move on. It is a collection of very different experiences, each one asking for its own time. I have been travelling across the south for years now, and even today I feel like I have not “covered” it. In fact, I still find myself wanting to go back to that one small village, or that random stretch of road, or that quiet corner which is not even on a tourist map. That is the thing about Ker...

I have always been telling my kids something, and honestly I am still figuring it out myself. Business success is not just about how intelligent you are. It has a lot to do with the environment you grow up in, the conversations you hear at home, and the way you are taught to look at money, risk, and people from a very young age. Over the years, through work and personal interactions, I have had the chance to observe people from different business communities. Jain, Marwari, Gujarati, Kulkarni, Reddy. Different languages, different regions, different lifestyles on the outside. But when you sit with them, watch how they think, how they take decisions, how they talk about money, you start seeing a strange similarity. It is not about the community. It is about a mindset that gets built slowly over years and then passed on without even being formally taught. I remember sitting with one such businessman. Nothing fancy. Simple office. Old furniture. But the clarity with which he spoke about c...