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...

 The other day I was invited to a college to speak about career opportunities. The room was full of young faces. BCom, BA, BBA, MA, LLB. Sharp minds. Curious eyes. Students who had done everything the system told them to do. Study well. Pass exams. Get a degree. They asked me just one question. What job will we get? And how much will we be paid.? That question stayed with me long after the session ended. Because I know the real answer. Most of them will start with inside sales. Customer support. BPO night shifts. Tele calling. Back office processing. Academic counselling with targets. Data entry. Sales Executives. Some will move to gig work when this burns them out. All this after spending years in classrooms. And lakhs on education. Take home salary. Somewhere between 20000 and 30000.That too in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai or Pune. Now do the real math. Shared room rent. Food. Transport. Phone bill. Basic life. What remains is not saving...

  Wayanad is a quiet place. Green hills, soft rain, mist that moves slowly like it has all the time in the world. In this sleepy town, the middle school students of Gunnies International School were excited about something new. They wanted to understand wildlife not from books, but from real life. The school management agreed. After speaking to the forest department, education department, and the district collector, permission was given for a jungle safari. Since there were 120 students, the school decided to use their own buses. Saleen, the vice chairman, left nothing to chance. The buses were fully serviced. Metal mesh was welded to the windows. The best drivers were chosen. Safety was given top priority. The forest department insisted that their drivers would take over once inside. They knew the routes, the turns, and the moods of the forest. On the morning of the safari, the campus was full of excitement. Children carried mobile phones, teachers carried responsibility, ...

I was invited to a college to speak about women and where to draw a line, or should we even draw one at all. I did not carry slides. I did not carry statistics. I told them a story. I asked them to listen, not as students, but as people. I said, listen carefully. Rishab and Aryan came from a powerful family in Uttar Pradesh. Old money. Old control. When they moved to Bangalore, the city made space for them easily. Doors opened before they knocked. "Rain Tree" became their home. A place where power lived behind tall walls and polite smiles. Inside those walls, names mattered more than behaviour. They were never questioned. Next to that gated world lived another family. Tribal by roots. Quiet, grounded, but ambitious. They believed in slow growth and honest work. Among them was Naina and her two brothers, Kabir and Veer. Kabir observed before he acted. Veer reacted before he thought. Naina was free spirited and open. She reached for what she wanted without fear. Well educated, ...

  Jayshree was in her early sixties, living in a house that looked like a postcard. Waves breaking just outside her gate. Soft wind floating through the windows. Every evening the sky turned orange as if the whole world was painted fresh for her. She had everything people dream of — peace, comfort, money, freedom. She had no one to share it with. Life had once been full. She and Suresh had worked side by side, counting every rupee, building every wall of that house with hope. When he laughed, the house felt warm. When he left the world with that sudden heart attack, it felt like the walls turned cold overnight. Her sons, Sunny and Bobby, lived far away in Europe. Good families. Good jobs. They loved her, called her every week, begged her to come and live with them. But each time she visited them, she felt small. No friends. No freedom to move around. No familiar language. She sat alone all day waiting for them to return from work. It made her feel like a guest in her own life. So s...

For the last many years, I have been writing only one thing in my blog and on LinkedIn. India’s real strength is not IT. Not manufacturing. Not startups. It is manpower. People laughed at me. Some got angry. Some said I am negative. Some said I do not understand the new India. And today, suddenly, the government proudly signs agreements to send thousands of Indians to other countries as workers. And they call it diplomacy. Now everyone is clapping. And I am sitting quietly and smiling. Because now it is official. India is the world’s most organised manpower supply company. Recently, we signed a big agreement with Russia to send workers. Construction, IT, textiles, everything. Around seventy thousand people in one go. That is not migration. That is not opportunity. That is export. A full moving township of Indians. We are not exporting products. We are exporting people. What a vision. We could not become number one in manufacturing. We could not become number one in innovation. We ...