Five years and more out of Uniform and into Life...

Well, it has been a while since I sat down to pen a few thoughts. Have I been settling down in my new 'avataar'? Has the unguided missile found a final direction? I don't know as of yet, but Yes, a lot of what I had thought of 5 years back before I left my uniform has still stood strong and I am actually living a life what I had envisaged.

As I read my blog written 5 years ago, I loved the statement "from the stale well into the seething oceans of sea state 5 and more". Well, an entrepreneurial life style is well described by this statement, only that I have stopped looking at settling down now and want to remain in action and keep learning each day how to grow and impact more people in this world.

The first few months of the 5 years civvy street life was experimental as I tried doing a job with a shipyard and realised the futility and vanity of it, fortunately much sooner than later and in six months I was out of it. I further did a lot of sensing around to get into the education system, primarily with an intent of impacting youngsters. I did teaching assignments in an Engineering college and also took some private tuitions. Something seemed amiss here too. I was not getting the feeling of happiness and satisfaction being a "professor" of fixed curriculum, though I considered myself pretty good at teaching and did get huge compliments on my teaching styles from faculty as well as students.

"The missile is still astray and seeking a proper direction."

I found an advertisement about career guidance that seemed interesting and immediately called up the number and enquired. They were talking about a structured mechanism of guiding young students and a training to become a mentor. I wanted to explore this opportunity. I visited the office and met a lady there who explained the process of training to me and said that post training I would be eligible to conduct a basic report explanation to students. I was pretty upset and told her that I considered myself much more than just a report explainer. She told me that I would have to go for advanced training to do that. I was not that convinced, but anyways, I was happy with the content and proposal shown to me, so I signed up for this 2 days training program.

And so my journey in "DHEYA" commenced with a 2 days training program where I got introduced to Anand Desai, the founder and CEO and Aditi Bhattacharya, the co-founder. Anand conducted the training and I got introduced to "psychometrics" and a tool to understand the nature of human beings.
It was an amazing tool and I was surprised to see how well it matched with my personality. I suddenly felt that there was a way in which a youngster can actually know what is their inner calling without much difficulty and can take their own decisions of career choices without getting affected by peer pressure and jumping into a rat race.

I was doing this as a part time activity and I got an immediate opportunity to conduct some sessions of students in an engineering college at Islampur and I spent two days there. It was an enriching experience and I was completely bought in by the concept. However, Dheya was a very small organisation and I was skeptical about how this would grow. I started visiting Dheya quite often to meet Anand and started conversations about how the education system needs to be reformed and youngsters need to be impacted. I would have met him more than 4 to 5 times and started visiting schools and colleges with the team for presentations. Anand offered me to consider joining the organisation as I was quite passionate and committed about the cause of inspiring youth in India.

But when he mentioned the amount that he could afford, I was taken aback as I was expecting much more and I was not ready to take such a big hit on the monthly remuneration. So I did not accept the offer and continued doing freelance work. After a month or so, in a meeting, Anand asked me what is the bare minimum that I can go ahead with. I was not too sure about this, because I had just shifted my parents with me and costs had gone up. So I mentioned a reasonable amount and Anand promptly accepted it and asked me to join.

As I joined Dheya, I went through a complete metamorphosis. I was just not used to an entrepreneurial organisation with complete openness and transparency and completely focussed on Results. Anand is  a very jovial person, but when it comes to Business and Results, he is the most feared person in the office and he is direct and blunt and does not mince words in calling a failure a failure and openly in front of everyone. Coming from a structured hierarchial organisation and working in a small dinghy office with just 8-9 people, most of them very young in their twenties, it was a bit difficult to digest initially. The first few months was quite tormenting and I used to keep thinking if I have taken the right decision or not. But as I got to know Anand better, the one thing that kept me stuck on is the "value systems" and "principles" and "knowledge" that was displayed by Anand. He was not the typical business owner who only looked at the numbers, but wanted 'value' and "excellence" and I saw the opportunity of learning something new and growing here. I knew it was going to be tough to gain acceptance here as I was an outsider and completely exposed to my lack of experience and expertise in education market, as well as sales or marketing which happened to be the main focus here.

Anand on the other hand, gave me the upper hand and involved me in all decisions and took me along for all business meetings as well as trainings. I used to wonder whether I could actually deliver to the expectations of handling the business, because he used to tell me that I was a Business partner and therefore would be looking after the Business also as a Research Director. After a couple of failures in launching some business models as well as some cardinal critical mistakes I made, I gradually gained confidence in "mentoring" and the "psychometrics" field and started my foray into "CDF Training", which happened quite organically. I had the privilege of shadowing Anand and learnt on the job by watching him and just following the processes, initially.  Things started happening very rapidly thereon and I was travelling most weekends across India conducting training programs and certification of mentors. I also started negotiating and discussing business proposals and have learnt the art of negotiation and sales to a large extent today.

As I worked at Dheya, I have conducted more than 70 training programs for senior professionals from the industry, conducted more than 350 mentoring sessions for students along with their parents and have developed a good reputation as a career mentor and a Trainer of mentors. I am well known for my energy levels during training and the passion as a mentor and trainer. I have a deep level understanding of the work we are doing and now have dreams of taking this to the next level of going much deeper as we work with students as their "Life Mentors".

One thing is for sure, I have a good night's sleep each day and transfer a lot of the positive energy to my family when I get back home from work. As  I read my previous blogs before I left the uniformed service, I realized that the reason I joined Dheya was because it resonated with what I wanted to do and I was not ready or did not have an idea as to how to implement the idea that I had in my mind to reform the education system. Now, being a Director at Dheya, I have realised that slowly, I have metamorphosed into an entrepreneur, who has learnt and still learning the "art of living" with positive aspirations and hope of an infinite growth while impacting the entire nation.  I am living my dream and am fortunate to be part of a revolution that will rock India very soon.

Jai Hind!!

So Far, So Good... Lots of learnings happening and intend to continue learning and growing......

Man Proposes... God Disposes....My Life Line

MAN Proposes... GOD disposes... My Lifeline as it was.....

• 16 years: Wanted to get into IIT.. Studied very Hard.. Gave up Table Tennis, gave up everything..
• Got into MREC Jaipur & Indian Navy
• 18 years: Chose Indian Navy and wanted to be an Electrical and Electronics Engineer
• Got selected and nominated by Naval Headquarters into Mechanical engineering 

• 28 years: Wanted to do a PhD in active noise cancellation after topping my Masters
• Got pushed into a Training Billet, submarine and into design later
• 38 years: Wanted to sail as a commander on a capital ship
• Was dry-listed (shore billets only) and posted as OIC of  Submarine Design cell in MDL
• 39 years: Wanted to redefine the entire design directorate for futuristic design
• Was wet-blanketed to just do things within the framework
• 41 years: Wanted to do something in Agriculture and education after leaving Navy
• Got into a Shipyard as a GM Design at Goa
• 42 years: Wanted to learn more about corporate world
• Learnt more about running marathons and Ultramarathons and made great friends and name all across the country
• 43 years: Wanted to teach and help students aspire for large Goals
• Got into Career Mentoring for students and professionals and developed good reputation as an Entrepreneur, Master trainer of Mentors and a Career Mentor. Developed knowledge of psychometrics, positive psychology and BhagwadGita and Upanishads for application in my role as a mentor. 

FINALLY.. GOD SEEMS TO HAVE ALIGNED ME TOWARDS A RELATED AREA

Agriculture is still a distant dream.. I have no experience but believe that it is a life skill that everyone should develop.. to learn to grow vegetables and fruits and flowers.. Because it is a basic need that has to be fulfilled lifelong and if you can grow some basic stuff.. You can be independent of vendors..or at-least create a self sustaining system for subsistence.

I believe in complete FREEDOM , no dependence on anyone for basic needs. Each human being should be capable of sustaining themselves to the best possible manner with minimum dependence on an external agency/ vendor/ shop..

COVID-19 is forcibly teaching this lesson to mankind. But are people learning anything or still caught up in their normal delusion?

• 48 years: Want to leave the Urban Premises and shift to a natural habitat to discover and learn more about SELF( Research on Upanishads and Gita and discover the True Self)  & continue working with youth and helping them aspire to be inspirational individuals in their career. 
• Waiting to see where I go next... ???

Life is UNPREDICTABLE as if you are a puppet with strings in someone's hands and YES, you do make choices but not necessarily what you would have planned for yourself.. So it is a volatile, uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) future there for all of us..

But surely, I enjoyed every bit of my life journey above in every role. I made the most of it personally and professionally. Looking back, there is NO repentance, just memories and friends who came along on the path and have become acquaintances now but whenever we meet, there are amazing stories to share. Life is a "Story-Book" with many stories and at the end of it, one must enjoy reading each of these stories.

 Man Proposes... God Disposes.................My life line as it is....

My Maiden  Official Visit to China

By Naveen Badrinarayan

I was on a visit to China on official purpose. This was my first visit to this country and the itinerary has been booked to ensure that all my energy was zapped by the time I reach the point of destination. Well, I needed to go to a place called “Quinzhou” which was approximately 300kms drive from a place called “Quingdao” pronounced as “Chingdao” , I got a bad stare when I pronounced it wrongly at the domestic airport  check-in counter.  Well, the itinerary was planned as follows:-

Goa-Mumbai; Mumbai –Hongkong; HongKong –Shanghai; Shanghia-Quingdao; Quingdao –Quinzhou by road.  To start with, the Goa-Mumbai journey was pleasant and I got to take some awesome snaps of the sunset from the plane as I was in the window seat. The Mumbai Hongkong flight was at 2300 hrs and I again got a window seat in the mid-section of Cathay Pacific airlines Aircraft, the seats were quite comfortable to sit, but the journey was about 5-6 hrs and in the night, so I was wondering how I am going to sit through the whole night, as I am not used to travelling like this. My seat partner was a lady who was struggling with her luggage as she entered the plane and she requested the steward of the plane to help her, and I was really surprised when he too said that he may not be able to lift the suitcase alone. And then is when I stepped in and offered my muscular services to lift the “heavy” suitcase of the damsel in distress, and I noticed that this lady had a strange tattoo on her arm in Sanskrit something like: “Anugatchami Pravahim”. As we got comfortable in our own seats and after customary introductions, I asked her about this tattoo, to which she replied that “Anu” was her name, full name “AnuPriya”  and this tattoo meant  “Anu goes as per the flow”, and she believed in living life that way. She said that a lot of planning can be done but sometimes the flow takes you in a particular direction and you just move on regardless of what you plan. I smiled secretly, because strangely the same thoughts were playing on my mind a while back and to meet a person who echoed the same sentiments quite close to the time it was playing in my mind seemed too much of a coincidence, or is it the “secret” working that what you think in your mind and your vibrations attract similar people. We started chatting about her job, what she thought about Mumbai vs Hong Kong where her husband lives. She seemed to like Mumbai a lot, living in Malad, and said that Hong Kong can never be a place to live, it was good for business but life is much better at Mumbai because of the friend circle and the network of friends.  I also met up with a gentleman from Hong Kong named “Ajoy” who was working for a Technology company, I think he said “I Gates” and we started chatting at the boarding queue, when I was mentioning that I was not liking the idea of this kind of business travel where you have to travel the whole night in sitting position. He also said that he travels to Hong Kong regularly as his wife stays there and he works at Mumbai, but he manages to travel only once in six months and I wondered about how he was managing his family life.

                Anyways, on the plane, I managed to toss and turn in my seat throughout the night, the pillow shifting positions from behind my lower back to behind my head and sometimes on the side panel of the aircraft from where it used to fall off on the floor though the gap between the seat and the panel. I was struggling throughout the night to catch a comfortable position to sleep, and whenever I used to open my eyes, I used to see this lady (my seat partner) coolly sitting and watching a movie. She did not sleep the whole night, and when I asked her in the morning, she simply replied that it was way too uncomfortable to sleep, so she did not sleep.  So the second part of the itinerary ended at Hong Kong with a dreary eyed self, with my tummy growling as I had not had my early morning hot milk and therefore my bowels were creating trouble to move.  Sometimes I wonder why and how we become slaves to our own habit patterns and any change in lifestyle causes havoc in our systems.

Then at Hong Kong, we had to move to the other terminal to board the flight to Shanghai, which was a connecting flight and the boarding passes were already there with us, so that was an easy part. An amazing thing about China, in spite of the great population, their systems are all in place and I did not have to stand in a queue for more than 10 minutes anywhere.  I was observing the staff and found them all too be very efficient and attentive, not one person was lazy or casual, whether the ground staff, the security guys or the immigration staff. All of them were extremely efficient in performing their respective duties. The “chalta hai” attitude which is a hallmark of Indian employees was completely absent here, and I think that is one major reason why China is doing so well in all fields.

The Hong Kong to Shanghai flight was for about 3 hrs and it was not all that interesting except that i watched “2 states” movie for the second time and I kind of found a lot of similarities between self and the male protagonist in terms of his aspirations of becoming a writer, and that is why I am writing this story too. I love writing about my experiences and about the feelings that I go through, it gives me some kind of innate pleasure and I can sit and write my thoughts for hours together without feeling tired, so I am just letting the flow take me:  “naveengatchami Pravahim” is it?  I liked that tattoo very much really; it is time I also did some tattooing and ear piercing as I have always wanted to do something freaky after shedding my uniform, having led a much disciplined way of life for about 25 years in the Indian Navy.   We reached Shanghai at about 1145 hrs and the next domestic flight was at 1905 hrs, so there was a lot of time. I thought it would be possible to do a little bit of sightseeing, but the ground staff in the domestic check-in counter warned us that the sub-way / metro was way too crowded and if we went out, we would definitely get delayed as any place is too far off from the airport. I did not want to believe this guy, and my temptations took me to the travel counter, where I noticed a separate counter for “MAGLEV” and a round ticket was being sold, and I learnt that this train which runs on magnetic levitation principle, runs to Longyang station and back every fifteen minutes, so I decided to experience the 300Km/hr speed and the

 Maglev train of Shanghai. 

It was a nice experience to see the sights of Shanghai highways and the various industries. I would like to mention here that I did notice a very unnatural way of development; I noticed many houses were reduced to rubble and a lot of undeveloped land with rubble of broken down houses was visible. It looked eerie to me and I wondered if some people had been evicted from their poor homes to ensure that Shanghai looked good as a business capital. I did not get a good feeling while looking at the sprawling buildings and highways and artificially grown trees on the entire landscape.  China seems to be extremely rich at least in the airport where you see so many people wearing the best of dresses and travelling on flights in large numbers, with state of art security systems and uniformed personnel alertly and actively functioning, but somewhere deep down I have this feeling that there is a darker side to this story of glory. I am not saying that development is not good, only it should not be at the cost of increasing the inequality between the rich and poor. Development has to be all inclusive and should attempt to reduce the gap between the ultra rich and the poverty stricken. The only way that this can be done is by laying emphasis on the Primary Goods viz. agricultural products and making agriculture and forests productive and profitable. If secondary goods like real estate, machinery, clothes etc. are the only emphasis and a balance is not struck, the day is not far when the primary goods would be depleted to that extent that we would not be able to further exploit it for the secondary goods. The day is inevitable, it is only a question of time and this greed for paper money will lead to devastation.  

Visit to QuingDao & Quinzhou.                 Stay in the hotel at Quingdao, typical as in any international five star hotel, comfortable and spacious, I really wonder why so much of luxury, but after a hectic travel schedule, such comfort is a pleasure as it allows one to recuperate and be ready for work. So all I remember is taking a nice warm shower and crashing to bed after a glass of hot chocolate from room service.  Next day morning at about 0930 hrs, we commenced our road trip to this place called “Quinzhou”, where the factory of this company I was visiting is, and I must say, though Quingdao is an international destination, Quinzhou is much more historical and beautiful. It was not the right season to visit Quinzhou as this place is well known for its flowers and fruit trees. After work, on the first day, I had the opportunity of visiting the old city of Quinzhou, it was really beautiful with stone paved roads, buildings made of stone with ancient sculptures outside. The lighting of the entire street and the buildings with a waterfront (I think a canal or a lake) was really making this place resemble a European tourist spot with amazing views. It was pretty cold, temperatures ranging somewhere close to -4/-5 degrees Celsius.  I decided to go for a run the next morning and was wondering how I would be able to cope with the cold conditions. Nevertheless, I made up my mind to step out and since I was not carrying any track pants, I wore trousers, jackets on top and stepped out into the unforgiving cold morning. I ran fast and turned into a beautiful stone paved road which extends for about 4K and could feel my thumb tip freezing and becoming numb. I quickly clenched my fist and hid my thumb and started running a bit faster hoping to get more warmth. After about 15 minutes, I was sweating and I realised that my body was warm enough and I started feeling comfortable except that I had a running nose, which I kept clearing as I ran. I noticed that many people were up and about, some of them on two wheelers- electrical bikes, and looked as if they had already started going to their offices. On the way back, I entered into a garden where I saw a group of people practicing  “Tai-Chi” and then I also saw two TT tables in the open and people playing TT.I was immediately attracted as TT was my first love, and I played a game of TT there with an old man. I was feeling great to have started the morning so well.

  

While returning back , we drove from Quingzhou to Quindao and my host was unwell, so I offered to drive his car, an automatic transmission Volkswagen Passat( left hand drive), and I got a feel of the Chinese highways. It was a good experience for me, I did not drive too fast, was maintaining a speed of 100-110 kph and drove for about 100 kms, and handed over the wheel as soon as we reached the city limits, lest I got arrested for driving without an international driving license. On the way we had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant overlooking a beautiful lake. Chinese are great hosts, they overfeed you and most of the times, the food gets wasted, but I was told that it is always like that. I told my host to order less in order to do justice. So he ordered a dish made of tomatoes and eggs, and another dish of “eggplant” which is not my preferred vegetable, but I just kept quiet and decided to have it gracefully as a decent guest. I was surprised when the dish arrived, the eggplant dish looked like French fries and as I tasted it, it was having a tangy taste and was crisp. I loved the taste. I almost finished the entire plate. We also had a plate of steamed rice noodles each and we were feeling very heavily fed.

I reached back to Quingdao and checked into the Crown Plaza hotel, and as I entered my room, I realized that my official mobile phone was missing. I tried calling my host and checked his car but was unable to find the phone. I thought I might have left it in the restaurant on the way, my host knew the owners of the restaurant and called them up, but with unsuccessful results. I was feeling very bad that on my first official trip, I was irresponsible enough to have lost my official phone. Nevertheless, I immediately mailed to my office administration that I had lost the mobile phone. I was about to crash for the night when the phone rang in the hotel and I was surprised as it was about 2230 hrs. It was my host and he had come to the hotel as he had found the phone below the driver seat, I think it must have fallen from my pocket when I was driving the car. I was very relieved and thankful to my host.

The return journey was quite uneventful except that the domestic travel in China was as good as or even better than the international travel. I did not have to wait anywhere for more than 5 -10 minutes, and as I entered the Mumbai international customs clearance, the long serpentine queue was a sore to my eyes. To add to the sore, I found a number of people forming double and triple queues and trying to break the line. A lady tried talking sense to one gentleman who had casually walked with his trolley and joined laterally into the line in front of an old couple, but he was not ready to budge and continued moving ahead shamelessly. I wonder why people from India have to behave in this manner. Is it because our systems are inefficient and everyone feels that their personal time is more important than the other’s time, and rules are meant to be broken? While I agree that the number of manual checkings and systems in India are not yet efficient enough, patience is a virtue that needs to be ingrained in each individual. Respect for other people’s time and courtesies are another thing which needs to be ingrained, especially when we are travelling internationally and are exposed to the international systems. Even a country like China with a larger population than ours has managed to make their systems efficient and people are very well behaved there. So we cannot just blame our population, there is more to this.

Chinese have a tremendous sense of discipline, commitment and energy at work and it is something that India has to learn. While this comes from a fear of losing their jobs, this kind of competitive spirit is healthy for a country’s well-being. Sometimes I feel democracy is being murdered by our citizens when we don’t respect our own country’s rules and blatantly blame government and public agencies for their inefficiencies. If we ourselves don’t follow rules, how do we expect our government to do anything worthwhile? After all, people like us only are sitting on those positions of authority and responsibility.  So the good things that we Indians must learn from the Chinese is the integrity and sense of commitment to their work, but at the same time, we must retain our spiritual essence and respect mother nature, not getting swayed by greed for paper money. It is only by a combination of these two values that India can change and grow to much greater heights than what China is today. However much advancement in technology happens, when nature unleashes its power, nothing stands before it. Therefore we must learn to respect nature and look after our primary goods with utmost care and respect. Only then will this great “Hindu” land remain blessed.

Secondly, Indians take more pride in calling themselves Punjabis or Tamilians or Goans than Indians. Why do we have so much of fragmentation in our societies, while we are culturally diverse, we need to develop a sense of national unity and relate to each other, irrespective of which state we belong to. I have been asked innumerable times in Goa: “Where are you from?”, Since I do not have any ancestral property and have been all over India, I always reply proudly that “I am an Indian”, but they are not satisfied. They want to know, which place or state I belong to.  What is to be said if I do not have a state to name as my own, am I not permitted to live freely in any place I desire in India, do I really have to be a domicile of a state to enjoy the public services of any place in India? Why are these rules made to differentiate between people from two states? Why can’t it be more open and let each person decide where he/she wants to live freely as an Indian? I am ready to learn different languages and eat the kind of food that people eat in different places, so why can’t I be accepted as a Goan as long as I am living in Goa? Unless we develop unity in our rich diversity, we cannot grow as a country as we will never develop respect for a nation and always be short sighted in our approach. We have to stop forming “tribes” and be open to changes and mixed cultures. By the way, in my travelling experience all over India, I find tremendous similarities in various places in the way people live and eat etc.  so it is really not a big deal to accept an “outsider” as your own. So I request the Goans to consider me also as a Goan at least as long as I live here.

5 years into Civvy Street

Well, it has been a while since I sat down to pen a few thoughts. Have I been settling down in my new 'avataar'? Has the unguided missile found a final direction? I don't know as of yet, but Yes, a lot of what I had thought of 5 years back before I left my uniform has still stood strong and I am actually living a life what I had envisaged.

As I read my blog written 5 years ago, I loved the statement "from the stale well into the seething oceans of sea state 5 and more". Well, an entrepreneurial life style is well described by this statement, only that I have stopped looking at settling down now and want to remain in action and keep learning each day how to grow and impact more people in this world.

The first few months of the 5 years civvy street life was experimental as I tried doing a job with a shipyard and realised the futility and vanity of it, fortunately much sooner than later and in six months I was out of it. I further did a lot of sensing around to get into the education system, primarily with an intent of impacting youngsters. I did teaching assignments in an Engineering college and also took some private tuitions. Something seemed amiss here too. I was not getting the feeling of happiness and satisfaction being a "professor" of fixed curriculum, though I considered myself pretty good at teaching and did get huge compliments on my teaching styles from faculty as well as students.

"The missile is still astray and seeking a proper direction."

I found an advertisement about career guidance that seemed interesting and immediately called up the number and enquired. They were talking about a structured mechanism of guiding young students and a training to become a mentor. I wanted to explore this opportunity. I visited the office and met a lady there who explained the process of training to me and said that post training I would be eligible to conduct a basic report explanation to students. I was pretty upset and told her that I considered myself much more than just a report explainer. She told me that I would have to go for advanced training to do that. I was not that convinced, but anyways, I was happy with the content and proposal shown to me, so I signed up for this 2 days training program.

And so my journey in "DHEYA" commenced with a 2 days training program where I got introduced to Anand Desai, the founder and CEO and Aditi Bhattacharya, the co-founder. Anand conducted the training and I got introduced to "psychometrics" and a tool to understand the nature of human beings.
It was an amazing tool and I was surprised to see how well it matched with my personality. I suddenly felt that there was a way in which a youngster can actually know what is their inner calling without much difficulty and can take their own decisions of career choices without getting affected by peer pressure and jumping into a rat race.

I was doing this as a part time activity and I got an immediate opportunity to conduct some sessions of students in an engineering college at Islampur and I spent two days there. It was an enriching experience and I was completely bought in by the concept. However, Dheya was a very small organisation and I was skeptical about how this would grow. I started visiting Dheya quite often to meet Anand and started conversations about how the education system needs to be reformed and youngsters need to be impacted. I would have met him more than 4 to 5 times and started visiting schools and colleges with the team for presentations. Anand offered me to consider joining the organisation as I was quite passionate and committed about the cause of inspiring youth in India.

But when he mentioned the amount that he could afford, I was taken aback as I was expecting much more and I was not ready to take such a big hit on the monthly remuneration. So I did not accept the offer and continued doing freelance work. After a month or so, in a meeting, Anand asked me what is the bare minimum that I can go ahead with. I was not too sure about this, because I had just shifted my parents with me and costs had gone up. So I mentioned a reasonable amount and Anand promptly accepted it and asked me to join.

As I joined Dheya, I went through a complete metamorphosis. I was just not used to an entrepreneurial organisation with complete openness and transparency and completely focussed on Results. Anand is  a very jovial person, but when it comes to Business and Results, he is the most feared person in the office and he is direct and blunt and does not mince words in calling a failure a failure and openly in front of everyone. Coming from a structured hierarchial organisation and working in a small dinghy office with just 8-9 people, most of them very young in their twenties, it was a bit difficult to digest initially. The first few months was quite tormenting and I used to keep thinking if I have taken the right decision or not. But as I got to know Anand better, the one thing that kept me stuck on is the "value systems" and "principles" and "knowledge" that was displayed by Anand. He was not the typical business owner who only looked at the numbers, but wanted 'value' and "excellence" and I saw the opportunity of learning something new and growing here. I knew it was going to be tough to gain acceptance here as I was an outsider and completely exposed to my lack of experience and expertise in education market, as well as sales or marketing which happened to be the main focus here.

Anand on the other hand, gave me the upper hand and involved me in all decisions and took me along for all business meetings as well as trainings. I used to wonder whether I could actually deliver to the expectations of handling the business, because he used to tell me that I was a Business partner and therefore would be looking after the Business also as a Research Director. After a couple of failures in launching some business models as well as some cardinal critical mistakes I made, I gradually gained confidence in "mentoring" and the "psychometrics" field and started my foray into "CDF Training", which happened quite organically. I had the privilege of shadowing Anand and learnt on the job by watching him and just following the processes, initially.  Things started happening very rapidly thereon and I was travelling most weekends across India conducting training programs and certification of mentors. I also started negotiating and discussing business proposals and have learnt the art of negotiation and sales to a large extent today.

As I worked at Dheya, I have conducted more than 70 training programs for senior professionals from the industry, conducted more than 350 mentoring sessions for students along with their parents and have developed a good reputation as a career mentor and a Trainer of mentors. I am well known for my energy levels during training and the passion as a mentor and trainer. I have a deep level understanding of the work we are doing and now have dreams of taking this to the next level of going much deeper as we work with students as their "Life Mentors".

One thing is for sure, I have a good night's sleep each day and transfer a lot of the positive energy to my family when I get back home from work. As  I read my previous blogs before I left the uniformed service, I realized that the reason I joined Dheya was because it resonated with what I wanted to do and I was not ready or did not have an idea as to how to implement the idea that I had in my mind to reform the education system. Now, being a Director at Dheya, I have realised that slowly, I have metamorphosed into an entrepreneur, who has learnt and still learning the "art of living" with positive aspirations and hope of an infinite growth while impacting the entire nation.  I am living my dream and am fortunate to be part of a revolution that will rock India very soon.

Jai Hind!!

So Far, So Good... Lots of learnings happening and intend to continue learning and growing......

My Maiden  Official Visit to China

By Naveen Badrinarayan

I was on a visit to China on official purpose. This was my first visit to this country and the itinerary had been booked to ensure that all my energy was zapped by the time I reached the point of destination. Well, I needed to go to a place called “Quinzhou” which was approximately 300kms drive from a place called “Quingdao” pronounced as “Chingdao” , I got a bad stare when I pronounced it wrongly at the domestic airport  check-in counter.  Well, the itinerary was planned as follows:-

Goa-Mumbai; Mumbai –Hongkong; HongKong –Shanghai; Shanghia-Quingdao; Quingdao –Quinzhou by road.  To start with, the Goa-Mumbai journey was pleasant and I got to take some awesome snaps of the sunset from the plane as I was in the window seat. The Mumbai Hongkong flight was at 2300 hrs and I again got a window seat in the mid-section of Cathay Pacific airlines Aircraft, the seats were quite comfortable to sit, but the journey was about 5-6 hrs and in the night, so I was wondering how I am going to sit through the whole night, as I am not used to travelling like this. My seat partner was a lady who was struggling with her luggage as she entered the plane and she requested the steward of the plane to help her, and I was really surprised when he too said that he may not be able to lift the suitcase alone. And then is when I stepped in and offered my muscular services to lift the “heavy” suitcase of the damsel in distress, and I noticed that this lady had a strange tattoo on her arm in Sanskrit something like: “Anugatchami Pravahim”. As we got comfortable in our own seats and after customary introductions, I asked her about this tattoo, to which she replied that “Anu” was her name, full name “AnuPriya”  and this tattoo meant  “Anu goes as per the flow”, and she believed in living life that way. She said that a lot of planning can be done but sometimes the flow takes you in a particular direction and you just move on regardless of what you plan. I smiled secretly, because strangely the same thoughts were playing on my mind a while back and to meet a person who echoed the same sentiments quite close to the time it was playing in my mind seemed too much of a coincidence, or is it the “secret” working that what you think in your mind and your vibrations attract similar people. We started chatting about her job, what she thought about Mumbai vs Hong Kong where her husband lives. She seemed to like Mumbai a lot, living in Malad, and said that Hong Kong can never be a place to live, it was good for business but life is much better at Mumbai because of the friend circle and the network of friends.  I also met up with a gentleman from Hong Kong named “Ajoy” who was working for a Technology company, I think he said “I Gates” and we started chatting at the boarding queue, when I was mentioning that I was not liking the idea of this kind of business travel where you have to travel the whole night in sitting position. He also said that he travels to Hong Kong regularly as his wife stays there and he works at Mumbai, but he manages to travel only once in six months and I wondered about how he was managing his family life.

                Anyways, on the plane, I managed to toss and turn in my seat throughout the night, the pillow shifting positions from behind my lower back to behind my head and sometimes on the side panel of the aircraft from where it used to fall off on the floor though the gap between the seat and the panel. I was struggling throughout the night to catch a comfortable position to sleep, and whenever I used to open my eyes, I used to see this lady (my seat partner) coolly sitting and watching a movie. She did not sleep the whole night, and when I asked her in the morning, she simply replied that it was way too uncomfortable to sleep, so she did not sleep.  So the second part of the itinerary ended at Hong Kong with a dreary eyed self, with my tummy growling as I had not had my early morning hot milk and therefore my bowels were creating trouble to move.  Sometimes I wonder why and how we become slaves to our own habit patterns and any change in lifestyle causes havoc in our systems.

Then at Hong Kong, we had to move to the other terminal to board the flight to Shanghai, which was a connecting flight and the boarding passes were already there with us, so that was an easy part. An amazing thing about China, in spite of the great population, their systems are all in place and I did not have to stand in a queue for more than 10 minutes anywhere.  I was observing the staff and found them all too be very efficient and attentive, not one person was lazy or casual, whether the ground staff, the security guys or the immigration staff. All of them were extremely efficient in performing their respective duties. The “chalta hai” attitude which is a hallmark of Indian employees was completely absent here, and I think that is one major reason why China is doing so well in all fields.

The Hong Kong to Shanghai flight was for about 3 hrs and it was not all that interesting except that i watched “2 states” movie for the second time and I kind of found a lot of similarities between self and the male protagonist in terms of his aspirations of becoming a writer, and that is why I am writing this story too. I love writing about my experiences and about the feelings that I go through, it gives me some kind of innate pleasure and I can sit and write my thoughts for hours together without feeling tired, so I am just letting the flow take me:  “naveengatchami Pravahim” is it?  I liked that tattoo very much really; it is time I also did some tattooing and ear piercing as I have always wanted to do something freaky after shedding my uniform, having led a much disciplined way of life for about 25 years in the Indian Navy.   We reached Shanghai at about 1145 hrs and the next domestic flight was at 1905 hrs, so there was a lot of time. I thought it would be possible to do a little bit of sightseeing, but the ground staff in the domestic check-in counter warned us that the sub-way / metro was way too crowded and if we went out, we would definitely get delayed as any place is too far off from the airport. I did not want to believe this guy, and my temptations took me to the travel counter, where I noticed a separate counter for “MAGLEV” and a round ticket was being sold, and I learnt that this train which runs on magnetic levitation principle, runs to Longyang station and back every fifteen minutes, so I decided to experience the 300Km/hr speed and the Maglev train of Shanghai. 

It was a nice experience to see the sights of Shanghai highways and the various industries. I would like to mention here that I did notice a very unnatural way of development; I noticed many houses were reduced to rubble and a lot of undeveloped land with rubble of broken down houses was visible. It looked eerie to me and I wondered if some people had been evicted from their poor homes to ensure that Shanghai looked good as a business capital. I did not get a good feeling while looking at the sprawling buildings and highways and artificially grown trees on the entire landscape.  China seems to be extremely rich at least in the airport where you see so many people wearing the best of dresses and travelling on flights in large numbers, with state of art security systems and uniformed personnel alertly and actively functioning, but somewhere deep down I have this feeling that there is a darker side to this story of glory. I am not saying that development is not good, only it should not be at the cost of increasing the inequality between the rich and poor. Development has to be all inclusive and should attempt to reduce the gap between the ultra rich and the poverty stricken. The only way that this can be done is by laying emphasis on the Primary Goods viz. agricultural products and making agriculture and forests productive and profitable. If secondary goods like real estate, machinery, clothes etc. are the only emphasis and a balance is not struck, the day is not far when the primary goods would be depleted to that extent that we would not be able to further exploit it for the secondary goods. The day is inevitable, it is only a question of time and this greed for paper money will lead to devastation.  

Visit to QuingDao & Quinzhou.                 Stay in the hotel at Quingdao, typical as in any international five star hotel, comfortable and spacious, I really wonder why so much of luxury, but after a hectic travel schedule, such comfort is a pleasure as it allows one to recuperate and be ready for work. So all I remember is taking a nice warm shower and crashing to bed after a glass of hot chocolate from room service.  Next day morning at about 0930 hrs, we commenced our road trip to this place called “Quinzhou”, where the factory of this company I was visiting is, and I must say, though Quingdao is an international destination, Quinzhou is much more historical and beautiful. It was not the right season to visit Quinzhou as this place is well known for its flowers and fruit trees. After work, on the first day, I had the opportunity of visiting the old city of Quinzhou, it was really beautiful with stone paved roads, buildings made of stone with ancient sculptures outside. The lighting of the entire street and the buildings with a waterfront (I think a canal or a lake) was really making this place resemble a European tourist spot with amazing views. It was pretty cold, temperatures ranging somewhere close to -4/-5 degrees Celsius.  I decided to go for a run the next morning and was wondering how I would be able to cope with the cold conditions. Nevertheless, I made up my mind to step out and since I was not carrying any track pants, I wore trousers, jackets on top and stepped out into the unforgiving cold morning. I ran fast and turned into a beautiful stone paved road which extends for about 4K and could feel my thumb tip freezing and becoming numb. I quickly clenched my fist and hid my thumb and started running a bit faster hoping to get more warmth. After about 15 minutes, I was sweating and I realised that my body was warm enough and I started feeling comfortable except that I had a running nose, which I kept clearing as I ran. I noticed that many people were up and about, some of them on two wheelers- electrical bikes, and looked as if they had already started going to their offices. On the way back, I entered into a garden where I saw a group of people practicing  “Tai-Chi” and then I also saw two TT tables in the open and people playing TT.I was immediately attracted as TT was my first love, and I played a game of TT there with an old man. I was feeling great to have started the morning so well.

  

While returning back , we drove from Quingzhou to Quindao and my host was unwell, so I offered to drive his car, an automatic transmission Volkswagen Passat( left hand drive), and I got a feel of the Chinese highways. It was a good experience for me, I did not drive too fast, was maintaining a speed of 100-110 kph and drove for about 100 kms, and handed over the wheel as soon as we reached the city limits, lest I got arrested for driving without an international driving license. On the way we had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant overlooking a beautiful lake. Chinese are great hosts, they overfeed you and most of the times, the food gets wasted, but I was told that it is always like that. I told my host to order less in order to do justice. So he ordered a dish made of tomatoes and eggs, and another dish of “eggplant” which is not my preferred vegetable, but I just kept quiet and decided to have it gracefully as a decent guest. I was surprised when the dish arrived, the eggplant dish looked like French fries and as I tasted it, it was having a tangy taste and was crisp. I loved the taste. I almost finished the entire plate. We also had a plate of steamed rice noodles each and we were feeling very heavily fed.

I reached back to Quingdao and checked into the Crown Plaza hotel, and as I entered my room, I realized that my official mobile phone was missing. I tried calling my host and checked his car but was unable to find the phone. I thought I might have left it in the restaurant on the way, my host knew the owners of the restaurant and called them up, but with unsuccessful results. I was feeling very bad that on my first official trip, I was irresponsible enough to have lost my official phone. Nevertheless, I immediately mailed to my office administration that I had lost the mobile phone. I was about to crash for the night when the phone rang in the hotel and I was surprised as it was about 2230 hrs. It was my host and he had come to the hotel as he had found the phone below the driver seat, I think it must have fallen from my pocket when I was driving the car. I was very relieved and thankful to my host.

The return journey was quite uneventful except that the domestic travel in China was as good as or even better than the international travel. I did not have to wait anywhere for more than 5 -10 minutes, and as I entered the Mumbai international customs clearance, the long serpentine queue was a sore to my eyes. To add to the sore, I found a number of people forming double and triple queues and trying to break the line. A lady tried talking sense to one gentleman who had casually walked with his trolley and joined laterally into the line in front of an old couple, but he was not ready to budge and continued moving ahead shamelessly. I wonder why people from India have to behave in this manner. Is it because our systems are inefficient and everyone feels that their personal time is more important than the other’s time, and rules are meant to be broken? While I agree that the number of manual checkings and systems in India are not yet efficient enough, patience is a virtue that needs to be ingrained in each individual. Respect for other people’s time and courtesies are another thing which needs to be ingrained, especially when we are travelling internationally and are exposed to the international systems. Even a country like China with a larger population than ours has managed to make their systems efficient and people are very well behaved there. So we cannot just blame our population, there is more to this.

Chinese have a tremendous sense of discipline, commitment and energy at work and it is something that India has to learn. While this comes from a fear of losing their jobs, this kind of competitive spirit is healthy for a country’s well-being. Sometimes I feel democracy is being murdered by our citizens when we don’t respect our own country’s rules and blatantly blame government and public agencies for their inefficiencies. If we ourselves don’t follow rules, how do we expect our government to do anything worthwhile? After all, people like us only are sitting on those positions of authority and responsibility.  So the good things that we Indians must learn from the Chinese is the integrity and sense of commitment to their work, but at the same time, we must retain our spiritual essence and respect mother nature, not getting swayed by greed for paper money. It is only by a combination of these two values that India can change and grow to much greater heights than what China is today. However much advancement in technology happens, when nature unleashes its power, nothing stands before it. Therefore we must learn to respect nature and look after our primary goods with utmost care and respect. Only then will this great “Hindu” land remain blessed.

Secondly, Indians take more pride in calling themselves Punjabis or Tamilians or Goans than Indians. Why do we have so much of fragmentation in our societies, while we are culturally diverse, we need to develop a sense of national unity and relate to each other, irrespective of which state we belong to. I have been asked innumerable times in Goa: “Where are you from?”, Since I do not have any ancestral property and have been all over India, I always reply proudly that “I am an Indian”, but they are not satisfied. They want to know, which place or state I belong to.  What is to be said if I do not have a state to name as my own, am I not permitted to live freely in any place I desire in India, do I really have to be a domicile of a state to enjoy the public services of any place in India? Why are these rules made to differentiate between people from two states? Why can’t it be more open and let each person decide where he/she wants to live freely as an Indian? I am ready to learn different languages and eat the kind of food that people eat in different places, so why can’t I be accepted as a Goan as long as I am living in Goa? Unless we develop unity in our rich diversity, we cannot grow as a country as we will never develop respect for a nation and always be short sighted in our approach. We have to stop forming “tribes” and be open to changes and mixed cultures. By the way, in my travelling experience all over India, I find tremendous similarities in various places in the way people live and eat etc.  so it is really not a big deal to accept an “outsider” as your own. So I request the Goans to consider me also as a Goan at least as long as I live here.

 

 

Finally out of uniform...yes

"How do you feel?" , "What is the feeling like?" are the FAQs being asked to me by near and dear ones. Well personally I have been looking forward for this day for more than 3 years and as per plan had shifted my family to Pune six months back. So I was travelling on weekends to Pune and I had just taken  long leave of 30 days prior to retirement. So when I finally shed my uniform and joined my family on PM 30 Sep 14, it just felt as if I am proceeding on leave once again, only never to return back. No more reporting back genforms and proceeding genforms. Other than that, having been in service for 25 years i.e. right after 12th standard, had joined the Indian Navy as an officer cadet, so there is a feeling of blankness/ vacuum in the mind which cannot be expressed in words. 

But this milestone has been an evolution for my thinking pattern and the same continues. Each day brings on new thoughts and visions and challenges, but each of them is fresh and exciting. It is interesting to see and observe your own thought pattern and how it evolves. Finally, when I have moved out of uniformity into individuality, it will take some time to align my inner aspirations with actual actions, because all my life in the last 25 years, I have done what I was told and expected to do. "Uniformed life" is about following orders and doing things in a particular manner: "You are here to do and die, not to question how or why" is the adage of  the armed forces. Now life needs to be lived according to one's own nature and aspirations. So I think one needs to just be and do whatever comes to the mind without trying to ponder and question it. This way, slowly the thought pattern will evolve and allow one to understand the deeper aspirations. I have been the questioning kind of person all my life and probably that is in my nature, so I have a feeling that I did not belong in the uniformed environment, but these are just feelings and let my life flow from now on-wards and let me not make any auto-suggestions about what I am and am not.  

As "BhagwadGita" says, one must do what is in one's nature and not be unnatural. Each one of us have been born in this universe to carry out certain actions as per our nature and we must do those actions to the best of our ability. Meditation will help in identifying those deeper aspects of our mind and nature which have been hidden by the daily noise of this world. So the process has begun for me and I have started enjoying it. I intend taking each day as it comes and savour the flavours of life that it has to offer. 

Life is really exciting and interesting and I have started looking forward for each morning to do something new. Am I enjoying this phase, well,  Yes and would like to continue this for some time to come...

So, Hey, Life.. Here I come.... anew, afresh bubbling with enthusiasm and energy to take on newer challenges and enjoy each moment... 

Signing off ...

Naveen ( New is the meaning of this word and so it shall be ever as I keep renewing myself....)

Thoughts of one Naval Engineer Officer just before he starts his second innings...

When I took the decision to leave service, I was advised by a senior of mine who was already out of service to answer one question to myself: WHY? What you will do and how you will do it can be worked out later, but the "WHY" has to be very clear as this would be the foundation on which the entire building of second innings would stand. As I have started penning down my thoughts, I am still serving and am on the verge of leaving service in a couple of weeks from now. I thought that when the mind is fresh with the memories of whatever it is going through, it would be better to pen it down. These would then be the memoirs which could be read some day in leisure when I have actually hung my boots from work. 

Well, service is the place where I think I can rightly say, I had a second birth after leaving the safety of home, parents etc. I still remember distinctly why I joined service, it would be surprising and annoying to some, if I said that I really did not want to join the military service at all. 

So let me take you back to where this whole story started for me. Well, it was 1989 and I had stayed my entire school life in a one-horse town called Bareilly in U.P. and I was on the cross roads where I had to decide which road to take to move my life forward. What were my major drivers/ motivations then?

 (a) Fear of joining the Bareilly college B.SC and therefore not being a professionally educated guy. Well, that was the impression then that if you are worth your salt, you should get through some professional entrance exam and join IIT/Roorkee/ MNR in that order of preference for an Engineer or AIIMS/CPMT/ AFMC in that order for Medical. CA was the third option which was easy to get in but difficult to complete. These were the three broad options available for a "professional" person. All the unprofessional people went to normal colleges for BSc or B.A etc.  This was fed into us right from our 9th/10th standard, so I actually took up Brilliant tutorials and Agarwal classes immediately after my 10th standard, as I had decided to become an Engineer( as I considered myself as very good in maths, so the natural choice was Engineering). I did not have a clue as to what an Engineer does or is supposed to do, nothing at all. But I was good at maths and physics so Engineering had to be the choice.

(b) Lack of funds and connections.  I was well aware of my father's occupation as a lower/middle level management of a factory and his lack of any social network. He never used to talk much, just go to office,  finish his work and come back, no socialising , no bad habits of drinking, gambling etc. and so therefore no network.  Today, we understand the meaning of "network" as "networth", but alas in those days, my dad was dead against all these things. So there was tremendous pressure to just somehow get into some engineering college through clearing a professional entrance examination, thereby removing the burden of responsibility from father's head. 

With this background of fears in mind, I prepared relentlessly for the entrance examinations. I remember that I never used to study for my boards, my only focus was on IIT entrance examination. There were a bunch of my class mates with whom I used to try and solve all tough and tricky problems of YG File (Young Genius File) of Brilliant Tutorials.  With all this preparation, came the time for the real exams, and in the first entrance test of Roorkee, there was a screening test, which I flunked as I was extremely nervous and my fingers were trembling when the paper came. My mind went blank and coupled with the time pressure, I just couldn't answer any question straight. So there goes one college out of the box. Next exam was IIT, I was very confident in Maths and Physics. Inorganic Chemistry was a killer for me as too much of cramming was required there. Physics paper was a debacle, I started solving the first problem and misunderstood a simple question to be an extremely complex one and landed up filling up four pages deriving some obscene Applied Mechanics equations in an electromagnetic induction question. Even the invigilator was astounded and after 30 minutes, told me that the question was not so complex. By this time, I had lost a lot of time and I landed up botching up the entire paper in nervousness. I kicked myself hard that day and cried. My maths and chemistry paper went off very well and I was sure I would score more than 80 % in maths paper. But my Physics would take me down. The third exam I gave was MNR ( Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College) which was actually meant for all RECs in India for UP quota. I did this exam well and got into the merit list. I selected B,Architecture at MREC Jaipur and joined there. In between , one of my friends had advised me about a Naval Engineering Course for which the requirement was to have at least 70% in PCM in 12th standard. I had 84.5 % in ISCE board which was considered very good in Bareilly those days. I was easily in the top 10-15% of my school/ colony. So I bought employment news and applied for this course. I got a call letter for the SSB interview scheduled at Bhopal. This was my first long distance journey alone. The main point here is I was not interested in "Navy" at all, only "Engineering" and the major attraction for me was that it was a fully paid course if selected, that means I have actually removed the burden from my father's shoulder. So with this in mind, I boarded the train to Bhopal one day earlier than scheduled, because there were rains and the train was being re-routed through a longer route. Once I boarded the train, the announcement came that the route was cleared and that the train will take it's original route. So I landed up at the SSB centre 24 hrs prior the appointment date. My train co-pasenger was a military PBOR( Person Below Officer Rank) who was travelling with his son and taking him for the same SSB interview. This young guy was studying some Maths/Chemistry book and I was seriously puzzled. Basically he also was as lost or maybe more lost than me as I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen in the SSB. All I was told by my cousins was that they would make me do some physical tests and all.  Thanks to this PBOR guy who knew people there in the centre, we were put up along with some jawans in their accommodation. I had military food with the jawans in their standard issue type plates in their mess. I slept in their dormitory. There were was one JCO who was also preparing for SSB, who actually briefed us on what was going to happen from the next day onwards. I think he was a GOD-sent for me. There is something called a Psychological Assessment done in which they show you vague pictures and ask you to write small stories based on what you see. So this guy explained, " Sir, just try and remember every Hindi Movie that you have seen till now and try and correlate it to the scene being shown." Because in those days, in every Hindi movie, hero always wins, villain always dies, good over evil all the time. This would indicate a positive bent of mind of the candidate. Bang on , man! This guy was a genius.

As luck would have it , next day morning, I had high fever and throat pain. I reported sick even before the interview started. I was given antibiotics and crocin tablets and I went and reported for the interview. I was the first guy and got "Chest Number" 1. Basically a BIB was given which was to be worn by us for all proceedings thereon for assessment. So I was the guinea pig for all the tests, as I had to start always, being No. 1 chest number. I don't think I fared well in any test because I was sick , I was physically weak and to an extent, nervous also. When I was asked in the final interview why I wanted to join, I blurted out honestly, that my father had no money to pay donations and no influence to get me through Engineering colleges, so I selected this as my best option. Well, I was truly honest and spoke my heart.Then the results were announced, out of 70 guys, about 10 were selected in my batch. I was one of them. I could not believe my ears as I knew I had not performed well at all. So this was my entry into military life. On the same day, the IIT results were declared and I could not see my number in the merit list. I was heartbroken as all my dreams were shattered. But God is kind.. One door closes and another window opens.  

There was a minor problem though. I did not clear my medicals and I was declared temporarily unfit as I had too much of wax in my ears and also had some problem of weak binocular vision. With this I was supposed to get myself cleared on both these counts in any Military Hospital and I would be good to go. The course was starting in November. This was the month of May/Jun. By this time, I had to decide about joining MREC Jaipur and since I did not want to leave the bird in hand, I joined the college. A great experience which I would remember throughout my life. MREC Jaipur was notorious for its tough ragging. I had my relatives as the Principal of the college and the Anti Ragging Squad Head. But somehow, I was too loyal to my seniors. I took all of it in good spirit and after finishing three months of tough ragging and just before the Fresher's party, I got this call letter from Indian Navy. I had gone on leave and got my ear wax removed and got some eye exercises to improve my binocular vision and got it tested at MH Bareilly and completed the formalities. All my seniors at MREC were very happy and gave me a farewell party wishing me all the best, saying that Navy is much better than MREC as in that year, the fourth year Engineering students were repeating one year due to lack of attendance.

Thus the journey began with six months of Naval Orientation Course at Naval Academy, INS Mandovi, Goa. The Naval Academy is actually meant for the cadets who join as Executive Officers, for us "techies" as we were called, we only spent the initial six months there and then had to go to INS Shivaji and join the Naval College of Engineering to do our B.Tech Course in Engineering. Or at least that is what we thought and it was in line with my aspirations. So I decided that after six months of all this navy orientation, we would get to some serious business of engineering at the Naval College of Engineering. We were also called the "Naval Engineering Course" and we were the sixth batch. So in Goa, we were baptised by taking a "crew-cut" haircut and then following strict routine from morning 0500 hrs to night 2200 hrs. Yes we got used to seeing time like this rather than say 5 a.m and 10 p.m.. Part of the military baptising process. We got a welcome letter from our seniors at Naval College of Engineering giving us an insight into life at Lonavala. The letter stated the beauty of Lonavala and the various waterfalls, disco nights at "fariyas" hotel. We were advised to get a lot of jeans and T-shirts and music systems/ walkmans as they would be required for the parties and jam sessions. We were all very excited and eager to get out of the Naval Academy and quickly join the Naval College of Engineering.  This whole thing was a cruel drama being played by our seniors. We were in for a rude shock when we reached Lonavala. Naval academy was a honeymoon compared to what we were about to face here. It was brutal.. It was raining incessantly, seniors did not bother, all were punished for a reason or no reason at all, punishment was compulsory. We were reporting all night running across rivulets/ streams to other buildings, some seniors were busy making us roll and do push ups behind bushes. It was normal to see many of us haunching, rolling, crocodile jumps etc. etc. at any time of the day, but definitely in the night. Then we were secured only to write impossible impositions, but not allowed to switch on any light. SO we had to hide in the bathrooms, put covering over lights and write the imposition. Soon itr was time to fall in for Morning PT and we would be searching for clean dresses and shoes as most of them would have got soiled previous night. We were also supposed to wash our rigs also ourselves. One week and I was feeling like a Prisoner of War. I had not joined for this, I wanted to be an Engineer, I only saw the first class lecturer and the last class lecturer, in between , I used to be in my dreams( fast asleep). I was utterly shocked at what I was going through, this was just too much, much more than the three moths ragging that I considered tough. I manage to sneak in a letter to my mom saying that I wanted to quit as I did not feel comfortable at all with what was going on here. I received a reply from my Mother which said: "Son, You have joined the defence forces, there are 69 other cadets just like you who are also undergoing what you are undergoing. If they can take it, so can you,. So have a heart and stick on, you will be proud as an officer one day." When I read that letter, I made my resolve to stick on and face whatever comes my way with a smile. So I am deeply indebted to  my mother to have given me the necessary courage at the right time in my life. Navy and it's training was excellent and it gave me a new birth. I used to be an academic geek who used to fall sick every two weeks and the amount of antibiotics that this body of mine has fed on till I finished my school would have really benefited the medical industry greatly. However, after coming to Lonavala, for three years of my training period, I don't remember a single time when I got fever or had to take antibiotics. This is when I understood the power of the mind. An idle mind and body breeds diseases. If you keep both mind and body active and busy, illness cannot touch you. Especially at that mould-able age of 17/18 years, the body responded beautifully to the physical torture/ treatment we got in our junior terms. I could not run even 1 Km comfortable prior to joining the Navy, and In Lonavala, we used to run 12.5 kms every weekend, and almost 5k every day. That was the beginning of my running life.

Other than the physical aspect, Naval life also trained us to handle engineering responsibilities on board ships and submarines. I have been fortunate to have experienced both ship as well as submarines in my tenures in the Indian navy. The physical and mental conditioning during the training really helps as it sets the basic spirit in place required to handle situations at sea.  "The harder you train in peace, the lesser you bleed in war" is a famous adage used in the Navy and the defence forces. Drawing an analogy , it could be said that "the harder you train, the lesser you suffer during your tenures". Every situation at sea is unique and mechanical engineering is truly practiced. The difference between merchant navy ships and warships is primarily the space available to carry out maintenance and defect rectification. Things can really become very difficult and complex, what seemed like a 10 minutes jobs could take hours because of one sheared bolt/ stud which is quite inaccessible. As a Lieutenant and a Lieutenant Commander, being at sea is the most satisfying as it provides you with all kinds of challenges and every time you return back after a sortie(sailing), your chest beams with pride and there is a feeling of achievement of "Mission accomplished".

As a commander, not everyone gets to go to sea due to lack of number of  ships/ posts at sea for a technical commander. So there is a selection process or elimination process in which only about 25% of the commanders get to go to sea. Having been trained to be at sea and handle situations, this tenure is something that most officers look forward to. So when that doesn't happen , it is also a clear indication that the officer is not being considered for further promotions and "stagnation" stares in the face for the first time. There are many opportunities where I could work and continue to perform without expecting a promotion. But there is a problem here. We are talking of officers who have put in 17-18 years of service, are aged about 38 years old and have more than half of working life available. Can a man just continue for 15-20 years without any aspirations for growth / upgradation? How sick can that be? I cannot imagine myself not growing as a person and in my profession. There is so much to learn in this world and so much that one can do.

In service, when you do not get promoted, you also lose the authority of the rank to take certain decisions and influence the top management to do things the way you want it to be done. It becomes much more difficult because you are not in the 'race' anymore, so the probability of your voice being heard and acknowledged is much lower than your counterpart who has been promoted. Exceptions do exist but are rare. Moreover, service positions at the top are generally for 2-3 years only so the number of stakeholders you would have to influence to get your point across and get things done in your way will be far too many to handle and extremely complex as each person comes afresh with different experiences and expectations. Accountability in terms of cost and scope is almost absent as each person on the top is focussed on his next promotion and how the short duration of 2-3 years can be leveraged to get his promotion. While this method is good and converges well with system requirements for a pure operations role eg. on board a ship as Engineer officer etc., this can have serious and adverse effects on long term projects.

So while I am truly indebted to the Indian Navy for all that I have gained as a man and the leadership qualities which I learnt during the various tenures, at this juncture, it is important to part ways and look for a different field/ area to grow. Selection of a pseudo-service  DRDO billet or a Public Sector Unit would also not be a good choice as it would be economically less rewarding and also not be exciting enough as the domain would be a comfort zone and not be challenging enough.This is the most common exit path chosen by fellow officers because of the stability and job-security that it offers. I believe that security and stability are words that take you into a comfort zone which inhibits you from performing upto your true abilities. So while there is an attraction/ pull towards the comfort zone, it would make sense at this juncture to cut away the umbilical and take a plunge into the seething oceans of opportunity. The rough weather and rolling & pitching will teach its own lessons of survival and one is sure to home onto another comfort zone sooner or later, but at a different level. At each stage, one has to take this step of cutting away and moving on till one reaches retirement and once again, you perform the cutting away, but this time it would be for good things in life which would entail giving back to society and the universe, maybe by teaching or other philanthropic methodologies whichever is suited at that point in time. But "stagnation" is never a choice in life for me, is what I feel at this point in time. I intend utilising my energies to its maximum in whatever way I feel it can be utilised to its maximum and will deliver the best of results in whatever tasks I undertake.

So the "WHY" for leaving service can be answered as:-

(a)  Provide myself with a challenging environment to stimulate my inner strength by delivering the goods/ rather the best.
(b)  Free to start own business/ enterprise while working with a Private firm. Ethically also it would not breach any norms.
(c)   Economically more viable to leave after pensionable service and join a private company so that you draw the advantage of a  full salary from the company as well as the Government pension. In case of a government service, the pension component gets reduced to half and not permitted to do own business. 

The period after deciding to leave and putting in papers for retirement till the retirement date is an extremely challenging phase because you are taking a plunge from a stale well into a seething and ever churning ocean with very high sea states. This will tend to unnerve a little bit and there are these cycles of thoughts full of anxiety and uncertainty, but as the BhagwadGita says, it is important to observe these thoughts and vanquish them with belief and certainty such that positivity spreads. Truly, I have found this phase very exciting and have learnt a lot about myself. There have been good days and some very bad days, and the good and bad have been actually my state of mind and nothing to do with the day. So whenever, I used to feel low, I made it a point to observe and think the opposite immediately so that positivity gets filled up. Anyway, I am enjoying this phase immensely and trying to figure out the kind of job that would be exciting enough for me. I am getting exposed to different areas of business like supply chain management, private shipyards, shipping companies, start up entrepreneurs, coaching classes etc.. I have also made a lot of friends through my second passion or what I call the oxygen of my life i.e. running. I have a group in Pune as well as in Mumbai and have friends in both these groups. It is fun to run and especially in a group. My course mates don't know me as a runner, I used to be mediocre in my cadets time in sports and was far away from athletics/ running. Today, I am considered a decent pace runner ( generally in the first 20 %) in my running groups. I am indebted to Indian navy for having gifted this to me. I will cherish my memories of service throughout my life. I intend continuing oxygenating myself till I leave this face of earth, and continue to search for my calling from within. I shall keep hovering and homing on targets till I find the correct target and then again move on.. so this is going to be my second life of introspection and discovery. Let us see where it takes me... God is Kind and Life is Exciting and cool...