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...

  The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing  that the free man makes for himself and by himself.  Gilbert K. Chesterton, English author & Philosopher (1874-1936) Persons like me, born in a middle class joint-family setting soon after India becoming a Republic[1] have generally given more importance to family responsibilities, rather than personal passion or aspirations. During my younger years by doing small errands for the family, like purchasing coal, provisions, vegetables, etc., I could learn a little bit about commerce and later learnt many of the abstract concepts like culture, moral values, patience, etc., from elders at home – mainly my mother and paternal grandmother, not through any specific training, but observation and interactions.  During the middle of my sixth semester engineering exams (1971), when marriage of my elder sister was celebrated at our home (as it was fixed at a very short notice) where we have been living...

  The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.  Plutarch, Greek Philosopher (46-119 CE) Like many youth, Bharath also joined Pre-University Course (PUC) in 2006 taking Science stream – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, as optional subjects to fulfil the dream of his parents to become an engineer. When the second year PUC Public-examination results were announced in May 2008, to his utter shock, he found out that he had failed. Bharath mustered enough courage to drop out of Science stream and register for Commerce stream (History, Economics, Accountancy and Business Studies), through correspondence course and passed PUC with a first class (>60 %) in 2009. Bharath Rajanna (b.1991) was eldest of three sons of Rajanna, employed as a Constable in Karnataka Police Service and home-maker Nirmala. Passing PUC in first class gave Bharath enough confidence to pursue his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (BBM) at Acharya Institu...

  Success has no other shortcuts apart from the ones that tell you;  control thoughts, delete negativity, alternate actions and shift attitudes to become positive! Israelmore Ayivor (b.1989) Writer & Life skills Entrepreneur  2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of creation of Magic Cube, popularly known as Rubik’s cube invented by Ernő Rubik, a shy Hungarian Professor of Architecture. His motivation for designing the magic cube was to give a puzzle to his students to play around for enhancing their spatial creativity. Realising that he had accidentally created a spatial-logic toy, Rubik applied for patent and started participating in international toy fairs. In one such fair held in Germany he met Tom Kremer, a marketer who acquired the rights for the magic cube and in 1980 licensed it for manufacturing to the Ideal Toy Company changing the name to Rubik Cube. Within three years 300 millions of Rubik Cubes were sold across the world![1] Around the same year (1974) whe...

  Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also love of humanity.  Hippocrates, Greek Physician and Philosopher (460-377 BC)  27, 28 and 29th September 2024 were three important days in the life of senior ophthalmologist Dr. K.V. Ravishankar for a couple of reasons – he was part of centenary celebration of his Alma Matter, Mysore Medical College and on this joyous occasion he was honoured by his batch mates for the high quality eye-care services that he has been rendering to the community, both for the paying and non-paying patients, in India and outside India, with the same enthusiasm and rigour for nearly three decades! Throughout these three decades of his professional journey Dr. Ravishankar has been balancing rigour and changing technologies on the one hand with compassion and commerce on the other, while maintaining the enthusiasm to serve the community. Kowshik Venkatasubbaiah Ravishankar (b.1963) had most of his schooling in Hassan before joining Mysore Med...

  He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own. Confucius (551- 479 BCE), Chinese Philosopher The greatness of social organisations like Rotary International is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members. Eradication of Polio in India by 2014 is synonymous with Rotary. Through the Polio Plus Programme initiated in 1985, Rotary was the first humanitarian organisation to visualise Polio-free world. Since 1988, being one of the founding members of Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)[1] Polio eradication has been the priority project of Rotary across the world. Incidentally, it was in 1988 I began my journey in Rotary. But it took more than fifteen years for me to meet a member whose main interest was to serve the community using the Rotary platform.  I had first met Jayaraman during 2003 when he was President of his home club – Rotary Bangalore R.T. Nagar, as he wanted his club to be part of the eye-care project – support...

  To be successful, you have to have your heart in the business and the business in your heart. Thomas J Watson Sr. former CEO of IBM (1874- 1956)  Jeevan joined the company of which I was one of the two founder-directors as commercial manager in 1986. Earlier to that, after completing B.Com (1978) from Ramnarayan Chellaram College of Commerce, Jeevan worked for TVS Madras Auto Service, Bangalore in the accounts department for three years and in the Sales department for a couple of years. Having worked in the two key areas of business – finance and sales, Jeevan decided to join hands with three of his colleagues to establish an enterprise to market Auto Spare parts in 1983. Even after three years of company’s existence Jeevan did not see the needed passion in his three partners to grow the business and hence decided to take up employment again that was offered by my fellow founder-director. Because of his entrepreneurial nature, from the day he joined, he took lot of initiativ...

  Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German Theoretical Physicist   Though many may go through the process of getting educated either because of family support or economic compulsions, all may not realise the fact that education is an effective tool to train their minds to critically think with a view to analyse or innovate. Research is necessarily a thinking process because of its probing nature. I was in my early fifties when I registered for a Phd programme and was fortunate to have Prof. Ramesh as my fellow research scholar. He indirectly provided the much needed motivation to me not just during the doctoral research, but even after completion of our theses, by being an excellent role model, constantly highlighting the importance of rigour that is needed for research. Ramesh Narasimhan (b.1955) hails from a family of researchers. He graduated in Electrical Engineering with honours from Birla Institute ...

  Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action;  try to use ordinary situations. Jean-Paul Richter (1723-1825) German Novelist Just before the birth of the new millennium, I lost my younger brother to cancer and he was only forty six years old. During that year (1999) I was the Executive director of an export company travelling abroad three to four times a year,  I was busy in forming my team of office-bearers having taken up the responsibility of leading the Rotary club of which I was a member since 1988, and raising funds for the service projects, thus getting prepared to function as the President with effect from 1st July 2000, and  I was managing my ancestral home situated in a busy locality of eastern Bangalore.   I was planning to implement fifty service projects during the Rotary year 2000-1 as I was turning fifty. But, typically it is also an age when the metabolic rate[1] starts slowing down. Hence, with the ushering of new millennium, ...