LEARNING WITHOUT BURNING The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. B.B.King , American guitarist, singer and record producer (1925-2015) As the environment around us is evolving, technology, industries, and daily life are changing faster than ever. In today’s competitive world, learning has become a continuous process rather than a phase confined to school or college. Whether it is understanding a subject, learning a new language, or developing a skill, continuous learning will help individuals remain flexible and confident in different situations. However, this pursuit often comes at a cost; long hours of study/practice, unrealistic expectations, information overload, and the pressure to perform. All this can lead to exhaustion and burnout. The challenge, therefore, is not merely to learn more but to learn without exerting oneself.   Having spent seventy six summers on this planet and survived constant evolution of technology and ma...

  1989 was the watershed year of my life; though the three enterprises of which I was one of the founding members were all doing well, from my perspective it was a disaster year; several things like my father’s death, wife suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, couple of raids by Sales Tax and Excise officials at the factory and peaking of my asthmatic disturbances happened one after another or sometimes simultaneously in a matter of a few months. This made me to introspect seriously and the outcome was the 4F Framework. The gist of the framework is Follow fundamentals that are essential for life Have faith in yourself  Protect family that represents values and culture  Manage finances effectively. Dr. Paul Nurse[1], a Nobel laureate in his book ‘What is Life’[2] explains the five core elements that form basis of all living beings – 1. Cell  2. Gene  3. Evolution by natural selection  4. Life as Chemistry and  5. Life as Information.  Though Paul ha...

  The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. -Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist (1908-70) In a world that often feels overwhelmed by the past or consumed by the future, it’s important to remember the power of living in the present moment. Embracing the present not only allows us to fully experience life’s joys and challenges but also cultivates a mindful and fulfilling existence. Having grown up in an old locality[1] of Bangalore, very close to the main business district situated around the Mahatma Gandhi road, I was familiar with microentrepreneurs[2] – typically street vendors, push-cart vendors, petty shop-keepers and even auto drivers. Though I have been living in this locality for most of my life, it was only after registering for my doctoral research in the area of entrepreneurship (2002), I started observing them closely. Most of these entrepreneurs have migrated to this locality from different regions of Karnataka, neighbouring Stat...

  The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. Henry Ward Beecher, American Social Reformer (1813–87) The Scottish novelist and poet R. L. Stevenson said, “The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed from the domination of outward conditions.” Our elder son Hari (b. 1984) perhaps understood this from his younger years and never allowed outward conditions to dominate him. I have hardly seen him crying even as a baby and I recall that he showed no signs of fear or inconvenience when he had to undergo a few surgeries during his childhood years!  In September 1995 I had gone abroad on work for a week; during that period our younger son Ram was diagnosed with Hepatitis A had to be admitted to a nursing home. While Hema took care of Ram for most of the day, the eleven-year-old Hari, would finish school and on the way back home (the nursing home was between our house and the school) he used to relieve his mother and take ...

  Resilience is a process of adjusting to adversity in the healthiest way possible.  Stephanie Parmely (b.1974, Psychologist, USA) Resilience is often defined as the mental reservoir of strength that helps people handle stress and hardship. While I was busy as an entrepreneur, sometime during June 1992 I had to undergo a major dental treatment. Around the same time, part of our ancestral home was undergoing modification. My mother too had gone abroad[1] to live with my only brother who was a bachelor and my wife Hema was continuing with her teaching job in a Junior College for women. It was around this time, that I had observed, our second son Ram was not able to communicate comfortably for his age (five years) with people in general and his peers in particular. He was even not interested in going to school, but mostly enjoyed riding his tricycle or playing with toy cars. We fortunately found one Child Psychiatrist who had established her practice nearby to our home just a few...

  Patience attracts happiness; it brings near that which is far. Swahili Proverb I can never forget 29th May 1980, a Thursday for a long time in my life! I got married to Hema on 2nd May. We could plan our honey-moon trip only during 19-25 May due to a few work commitments[1] that I had, though Hema, then working as a lecturer in a college had her vacation. On our return from the honey-moon, members of my magazine group (six of us were sharing subscription of a few English magazines), wanted to host a party to me and Hema to celebrate privately the occasion of our marriage. It was decided that we meet on 29th May at Hotel East West (presently Taj Gateway) over dinner (ITI worked for only half-a-day on Thursdays then). My parents had just returned that morning from Chennai after visiting ailing Ramasawmi (1899- 1980), my father’s only sister’s husband. Around 4.00 PM, I received a phone call from my cousin Nagarajan, third son of Ramasawmi that his father had passed away in the afte...