Yesterday I had privilege to meet a wonderful person. A lady who is not so educated ,who works in social service firm , who is separated and who had two children. She is like every common person of India. She is concerned about her children eduction , food inflation and how to move ahead in life.

But ordinary chetna is some what different than many of us. Different in kinds of challenges which she has been facing. Challenges of separated woman , challenges of being less educated , challenges of being mother of mentally challenged kid and challenges of her own health.

If one listens to her story from third person , one would feel sorry for her but as soon as one meets her , one feels proud of her as human being. Yesterday I had that privileged to witness the winning attitude, the courage , the quest to move forward in life and being a fighter against all odds of life , when I met her.

Chetna was born in lower middle class family in a community which considers girl child to be more of a burden than a matter of pride. She was always discouraged to study since her parents believed that girl must learn how to cook and not how to read.

She still managed to study till 8th std but she was forced to leave her studies by her parents. As soon as she was 16 , she got married to a man who believed that wife is more a tool to take care of his needs than plain human being.

As soon as she gave birth to girl child , she started getting more problems from her husband and in laws. She was pressurized to conceive at earliest (as if it is in her hand). One year later she gave birth to male child.

Chetna was not happy with environment of her sasural. She was worried about her girl child’s future. Her husband was non cooperative and habitual drinker. She was soon getting fed up with the situation. Amidst all these she developed health issue ,which was considered to be too expensive by her in laws.

After years of struggling to take decision , she finally walked out of her marriage. Life was still tough , since she had not so happy parents (because of her decision) , she had 2 kids to nurture and she lacked skills to earn her livilehood. She started applying for job and manage to get job in NGO.

Right now chetna is doing reasonably well supporting NGO activities and impacting of society at large. She is providing right enivornment for her kids and is pretty optimistic about their future. Her health challenge still remains but she is looking forward to move ahead in life. She gave 10th exam an year back and want to become graduate in future. She also learnt english and is now learning computer.

What did appeal to me in chetna is her attitude towards life and her courage to face all odds and not give up. What I was inspired by meeting her was her determination and commitment for her children for better life.

It is ordinary people like chetna who keep India going .It is aam aadmi and their courage which makes India move ahead. It is these real stories which makes India. I salute chetna and wish her well in life.

Share on Facebook

26-11-2008 , the day which would go down in Indian history as black day. The worst terror attack on the soils of India. But 26-11-2008 would also go down in Indian history as day of courageous Indians where many people showed what humans can be in times of such attacks.

Tata’s Taj was one of main locations which came under attack by terrorist. The top hotel of India is dream job for all those who are in field of hotel management. Be it be cooking staff or house keeping or hotel manager or support staff . It is dream to enter TAJ as employee . The staffs are highly trained in providing various services in world class quality. The well mannered , client first staff are trained into everything to help them serve better except GIVING THEIR LIVES FOR SAKE OF GUEST!!!!!!!

No institute in the world except defense/Fire Fighters/POLICE/AIRLINES/ are trained to put their lives at stake for sake of other people. TERRORISTS too can be considered to be trained to put their lives at stake but not for protecting lives but for killing people.

When staff of taj has reported for duty on 26/11/2008 ,they were not aware that they would have toughest choice to make in their life. Choice of running away and saving their own lives or staying to protect their guest. Many people choosed later and gave their lives so that guest could live. Most were aware about safe routes which would have allowed them to live but they didnt escape. They ensured that they can hide their guest in safe places while they themselves stood in unsafe places where their lives were vunerable.

The general manager of taj had his family in his suite but he preferred to work for saving lives of guest than his own family. In documentary showed on discovery channel , many guest reported how staff guided them out of firing line but themselves stood in front of fanatic terrorist.

What ever it takes in punch line of cnn ibn but “what ever it takes” was in full implementation by those brave souls. I can just imagine what would be going on in their brains during those fatal hours. How and when fear of death itself dies in front of fullfilling one’s duty and responsibility?. It is paramount of human thinking, where lives of others (who are strangers) seems to be your responsibility while your own life seems worth risking for sake of it. Sitting in my office safe and assured , I can just try to visualize those faceless soldiers and feel proud about them.

26/11 and sacrifices of those brave soul is now going to be case study in harvard university. Case study about greatness which is part of every human being but greatness which reveals itself is times like 26/11.Case study which must be read , re read by every one in the world. It is this very courage which keeps humanity alive in front of kasabs of the world which want to bring dark ages on earth. The case study which assures every human being that courage is something which cannot bow down to gun , threatened by bombs , cut by knives and killed by terrorist. Courage which had let humans thrive , courage which has tamed nature  ,courage which has taken humans from jungles to present stage and courage which brings out paramount of humanity and defies quest of survival of own.

I hope this case study finds it way into every room of every Indian and take things forward for India.

Share on Facebook

The above mentioned are real heros of India. I thank ITA for recognizing them.

Share on Facebook

India is facing a new challenge. Student Suicides. The figures are rising and students are comitting suicide even when a semester exams go bad. Last week a young girl studying in second year of b com ended her life because she did bad in her economics paper . She didn’t even wait for her results and hanged her , ending her life.

Maharashtra and uttar pradesh have seen sudden rise in number of students committing suicides. While celebrities have come ahead to speak on this issue , it is not helping those much who are in depression , cannot take stress and are ready to kill themselves , ending most beautiful thing called life which has millions of possibilities.

Here , today we are sharing with you a true story of a man who failed in 12th science board exam. Failing in 12th has major fall out. We are talking about 20 years ago where failing in 12th was end of career in itself. Society would see a 12th failure as someone to pity for , parents would spend sleepless night worrying about their offspring’s future.

Ritesh also failed his 12th science exam. Ritesh’s father was leading architect in gujarat . Ritesh’s father believe that those in science stream are only people who are worth something while rest waste their life. While ritesh was least interested in science and maths. He was more interested in drawing , arts which his father rated as useless. His father pressurized him to take science which ritesh did without any interest. Tuition’s , class , good school , nothing helped ritesh who wanted to do something in arts stream. Inevitable happened when results came. He failed and his father passed the verdict that ritesh would be failure in larger test called life.

Ritesh went into depression and failed again . Now his father had lost all hopes about ritesh and he concentrated all his aspirations on ritesh’s younger brother. Hopeless , lifeless and depressed ritesh , manytimes thought of ending his life. He was feeling worthless and society was coming up with career options for him like working in small jobs.

Ritesh decided to change his stream and took arts stream. He finally cleared his 12th and then cleared entrance exam and got into leading college for fine arts.

Ritesh did found field of his interest and started excel. He got job of trainee in good advertisement firm and slowly started rising the ladder. Now ritesh is creative head of one of best ad firms in India and draws salary in six figures.

Ritesh was not dumb as his father rated him to be, neither he was a man with lower intelligence. Only problem with ritesh was that he was into something which didn’t appeal him. When he got into something that appeal his soul he excelled.

Failing in one exam is not end of life , neither it is certificate of how good or how bad one would perform in life. Life is precious and one can do wonders with it. All students reading this post do remember ritesh and his story. You never know what you can become. Honor your life and have faith in nature’s law. You are special and there is atleast one thing which you are good at , fiind it and pursue it , rest shall follow.

Share on Facebook

Books are one of best sources of inspiration. Books have power to change destiny, not just of individuals but even of nations. Here we are sharing with all a true story of a man whose life got changed because of one book.

Dinesh belongs to schedule caste category in India. Dinesh got admission into one of best engineering colleges of India. He did computer engineering from that college. Dinesh was never a good student. He was not interested much in studies but some how manage to clear exams and acquire degree. He didnt get job through campus interview .

He came back to his native state but different city to his parents. He used to stay with few bachelors . All struggling youths. Dinesh did use to give one -two interviews in a month but didn’t use to clear it. Direction less , going through motion , dinesh was not even aware about what he wants from his life.

Somebody invited him to a seminar and in that seminar the speaker stated name of few books and one of them was BE YOUR OWN CEO. Book from author of who stole american dream. Dinesh bought that book and it changed something in dinesh. He realized how he was wasting his time and in due course was in way of wasting his life!!!!!!!!!!!

He was changed person know. Determined to take charge of his life. Dinesh being computer engineer but not able to get job took a mediocre job in call center paying less than 100 Rs a day!!!!!!!

His first goal was taking care of his own expense. Luck favors perpared mind and dinesh was prepared to take charge of his life. Dinesh was prepared to make use of his time and luck favored him. On his way to his home town , dinesh met Mr parikh in train. Mr parikh was branch manager of a big insurance firm and coincidently Mr parikh was passout from same college as that of dinesh. He asked dinesh to give interivew for backoffice in his firm. Now old dinesh wont have even gone for interview. But new dinesh was determined to try everything to make things happen for him.Halo effect did work and dinesh landed up with that job.

Dinesh worked hard and his natural skill of public relations did help him. Dinesh slowly started climbing ladder of success and became assistant manager back office in that insurance firm. Soon dinesh was offered job by another insurance firm with bigger post and bigger pay package.

Dinesh now is business analyst in one of biggest Insurance company of India. His degree with experience in insurance helped him to take this post. He leads a team of programmers and insurance advisor to make product better.

Dinesh maintains a library now which contains most of self help books and devotes one hour a day to read books. One book change way he saw things and he makes sure that books remain his source of inspiration.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Born in poor family is never easy. Circumstances and situation often make children more vulnerable to crime. Today’s story is about one such man who was born in poor family. His parents understood importance of education since they themselves faced lot of hardships because of lack of it. Rajendra was sent to government school and he was average student. He was only son while he has younger sister.

Rajendra did finish his 12th but failed to clear entrance of engineering. Took admission in bsc. He worked in garage to make some money.

Having deprived childhood made him ambitious and not having right direction soon rajendra unfortunately entered the world of crime. Petty crimes stealing tyres of cars , stealing belongings of tourists.

It was mere his luck that he wasn’t caught and there was no police case against him. Later rajendra got involved in gang and his future seemed all finish till one day his father suffered a stroke.

His father was poor but honest . His father wanted rajendra to live a honorable life . When rajendra understood that and realized what he was upto , he decided to give hard try to entrance exam. His scheduled caste certificate was in his favor because it gave him waiver of age limit upto five years.

He studied hard and got into one of best colleges of India but habits die hard. There also he started same dadda giri , alcohol parties . He was more in canteen and less in classes. He failed to pass first semester and had to repeat another year. After an year he somehow managed to clear 1 st semester and 2nd semester. From 3rd semester something changed in rajendra. He realized that he was naturally inclined towards mechanical engineering. Machines appealed to him and slowly his grades improved.

He got job offer from Japanese firm in 8th semester through campus interview. Today rajendra is 39 year old and works as quality assurance chief in one of top firms of India.

His story can be said to be a man of potential who got into no entry zone but could take u turn before it was too later. Rajendra today says that he needed stroke of his dad and failure in 1st semester to fully awake. He regrets if that was not the case and he could have got into engineering when he was 18.

Rajendra is typical daaku vaali to valmiki type of story but the soul of story is you never know what you can become.

Share on Facebook

Today’s story is of a fraud . Five-Six years back business of network marketing was at its upper curve in India. While some were genuine companies who are still operation many so called better companies popped up. They were pyramid schemes with either no products or products high valued with no repeat business.

Mitul Desai born rich and an ambitious man ,aged 25 at that time himself entered into one of those network marketing companies. Citing huge profits , he them himself formed a company. High payouts and bonuses made his company successful and in one year he became crorepati . Needless to say crorepati from people’s money. Soon his so called network marketing ran out of steam. People were disillusioned and soon started asking for money. Some people filed complaint against mitul and he had warrant against him.

He absconded , went to rajasthan and from rajasthan , he went to Dehlia. From Delhi he went to Dubai. He kept absconding for two years till his brother got arrested. Being main culprit , tired of absconding and having guilt of making life of his innocent parents , a hell , he came back to Ahmadabad and surrounded before police. His total due was 7 crores. He was arrested and put behind the bars. He made settlement with complainers , his father sold few properties and they eventually cleared the dues.

Eventually he got out of jail and then started his business as real estate agent. Being smart in dealing with people , providing prompt professional service in unprofessional sector , mitul soon was able to establish himself in the market.

He earns well now and often states greed is good as long as it doesn’t harm anyone. After be fooling people , breaking trust and causing harm to them as well as his own family , mitul now believe being honest and rich can go together. Honestly doing business , providing best service is 100 times better than 5 star hotel seminars arranged to make money by disillusioning people.

Mitul learned his lesson in hard way but mitul story also shows that past , no matter how bad or worse it can be , there is always better tomorrow. If a fraud can become honest and succeed , coming out of mess , anyone with will and hard work can also succeed.

Share on Facebook

Today’s story is of ordinary man with little education , lot of responsibility , big dream and reasonable achievement. Today story is of one man who started selling door to door and eventually became millionaire.

Siddharth Desai was born is a poor family and to make matter worse his father died when he was just 12 year old. Being eldest in the family with 2 brothers and 3 sisters to feed siddharth started doing odd jobs.Working at tea stall in the day , working in dhaba in the evening , working as news paper boy. Siddarth did anything which was possible for him with single goal. Feeding his siblings and mother.

Siddharth earned a reputation of hard working , sincere boy. When siddharth was 18 , he got offer from a man (Ramesh) who wanted to make detergents. Siddharth became partner in this home made detergent venture. Ramesh use to make detergent and siddharth used to go door to door to sell them. Siddharth had bought a bicycle till then and used to work from 10-8 knocking door and selling detergents. He worked like this for another two years before a well established detergent manufacturing company’s sales manager saw him. Siddharth knocked his door and the manager could rate his skill. Siddharth was offered job in that firm . Siddharth had too little education but had grasped few English words during his selling spree.

Siddharth worked hard and in another two years he had direct sales marketing team of five people working under him. Siddharth being ambitious also took english course to master the language.

Fortune favored siddharth soon. Siddharth came in touch of a person (Vivek) who was equally ambitious ,dedicate and financially in same plane. Siddharth was thinking of quitting the job and doing his own thing. Vivek proposes business of supplying bottole to pharma companies while siddharth handling the bottle supplier system while vivek the pharma companies. Siddharth used all his experience of dealing with people in getting credits , getting suppliers give more margin.

Their business took off. Within two years both of them were well established in the market. But vivek and siddharth were ambitious people who could not settle for less. Luck favoured them again when a young business man , Gautam got gold import license. He need people whom he can trust and vivek knew gautam since long. Vivek and siddharth became part of gautam’s business and soon siddharth , vivek’s journey to become millionaire began.

Siddharth used to travel lot in those days. Quite often he used to board flight from ahmedabad to mumbai ,make the deal and within 4 hours he would be back on mumbai to ahmedabad flight.

Gautam’s business was expanding and siddharth , vivek were more busier than ever. Both didn’t work as his employee , both worked on percentage basis. They worked in gold market , cement , steel , scrap.

Later they entered real estate market. Having made enough money , they started investing in properties and even making residential buildings and selling it. They also invested gautam’s money and generate profit for him.

Today siddharth has office in one of prime location of ahmedabad. Siddharth’s brother are in his business. Siddharth has lot of investments in plot and has made a grand bunglow.

There is one interesting story regarding his buglow. Siddharth purchased plot for bunglow long back but his contruction of bunglow went on for 7 years. It was going on very slowly. When people asked him about why he lives in small flat and not make his bunglow bit faster. He used to reply that Bunglow has not to be contructed from capital but from profit. After making profit , I divide them in running my house , keeping some safe money and then constructing bunglow.

Other gems from siddharth is one liners like -’ There are lot of gautams who need trustworthy,honest,hardworking people’ .’Keep looking and growing’. ‘I am not graduate but educated’ .’Biggest satisfaction is not driving big cars but taking care of family’.

Siddharth’s story is perfect rage to riches story of a man who did lot of things for earning but his honest , zeal , dedication finally paid off.

Share on Facebook

Like haiti , gujarat was rocked by major earthquake in 26 January 2001. Epicenter was kutchh and its effect was seen 500 kms away in ahmedabad too. Lives was lost , properties got demolished and in around a minute , world changed for many.

One of such victims was Mrs Mansi shah. Working in government firm , she had everything in her life. Caring husband , bubbly daugther who was in 11th , tofaani son who was in 9th. Her life was good till 26/1. That approx 1 minute changed everything forever for her. Earthquake didnt just take her house but also her family. Her husband , her daughter and her son , all died in the earthquake that rocked gujarat that day.

It not easy when you loose loved ones that too all of them. That one minute snatched her life from her. She survived with injuries. Her physical injuries recovered but her mental injury caused by brutal quake?. She went into depression. She had lost all her zeal for life.

Her parents and friends tried to bring her zeal back. They consulted a psychiatrist. That worked and slowly mansiji came back on track of life. 2 years later she was pursuaded by her old parents to get remarried. It was not easy but finally her parent’s effort worked. She got in touch through matrimonial , a man who was himself same earthquake victim. He too had lost his family. Both could understand each others pains. Both got married. God was kind to them. At such a mature age too ,the wedding brought a new life in the world. A baby girl whom mansiji named after her first daughter.

Life was reborn and so was hope. Life moves on. Those who left us cant come back and their memories would always stay to be cherished but lifes other name is hope and hope lives inspite of everything.

Share on Facebook