My thoughts and emotion in a New Country

Good to Great

Book Summary

The book is the findings of the author and his research team on why some good companies are able to break out of their peers and become great companies. Out of the S&P500 companies, they were only able to find 11 companies that performed as good companies for at least 15 years and then they outdid the market by 5x for atleast 15 years. The book is a good read for anyone who is starting out a new company or running an established company and wants to take it to the next level. The 11 companies are Abbott Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Kroger Co., Nucor Corp., Philip Morris Cos. Inc., Pitney Bowes Inc., Walgreens, and Wells Fargo. Let us see one by one what these companies had going for them, that they were able to become great companies.

Level 5 Leaders

When we hear the word leader, the names that come to our mind are often the headline worthy CEOs who have created a mark in the market. However, most often we find that as soon as these leaders step down or lose their focus, their company starts to crumble. The author of the book calls such leaders level 4 leaders – leaders who are able to inspire a commitment and pursuit of a vision, capable of extracting better performances from others.

However, the author argues that for a company to grow from good to great (a great company has beaten the market by 5 times for at least 15 years), the leader is able to create an ecosystem where the company still grows even if they are replaced. They are able to inspire others to grow into leaders and create a culture within the company of debate and transparency. A common trait seen in these level 5 leaders is humility. They will give all the credit to their team, but if something goes wrong, they will step up and own the responsibility.

Right people in the right places

All level 5 leaders understand that they need a good team. So, one of the first things they do is assemble their team.

Assmeble the best team.

And it is not just enough to get the right people, but they need to be in the right seats also. Someone could not do justice to the role of marketing, but could be the best fit for economics. They should be comfortable in expressing their ideas and views and all discussion should be for the betterment of the company and not for personal validation. Such a team can present the best way forward for the company, much better than a brilliant CEO.

Confront the brutal facts

Once you have the team in place, it is time to understand where your company stands. Quite often, people shut themselves out from negative outcomes, hoping somehow the problems will be solved in due course of time. However, someone who deliberately closes their eyes and walks is eventually going to hit a tree. It is very crucial to know where the company lags, what is stopping it from growing and what it needs to stop doing. Before looking at competitors, look at yourself to learn your strengths, know your weaknesses and discover opportunities.

A few things to keep in mind are that things go wrong and you do not blame, but understand it is part of the game. Learn from your mistakes and never repeat them. Lead with questions rather than preconceived truths. Let data and facts speak openly. And most importantly, engage and engage with your team.

Hedgehog strategy

Once you know where you are, it is time to discover where your company needs to go. In the book, it is defined as the Hedgehog Principle. It is called so because, unlike a fox, which comes up with multiple creative solutions to catch a hedgehog, the hedgehog has a very simple but effective solution to save itself – curling into a pricky ball. The author argues that to become a great company, a company needs to identify its core competence, and follow it with great discipline. This core competence lies in the intersection of three questions.
1) What are you passionate about ?
2) What can you do best in the world?
3) Where can you make money ?

Discipline

Consistent action in any field yields extraordinary results due to compounding effects. Be it going to gym to workout or eating healthy food or investing your money. Similarly, to become a great company, you need to consistently act within your hedgehog principle. You would have to say NO to great opportunities if it does not fit your hedgehog principle, stop doing certain activities if it does not fit your hedgehog principle and, most importantly, not change your hedgehog principle every week, because it is boring to follow something in a disciplined way.

You need to be consistent with it so that you can set the flywheel in motion. Once you have got it going at great speed, then the flywheel can keep moving on its own. The initial resistance is replaced with momentum on your side.

A drop of water over many years can erode even the hardest rocks.

Technology Accelerators

Technology is a great thing because it accelerates everything. If you go in the right direction, it can help you reach there faster. However, it is a double edged sword. If you are going in the wrong direction, it can be too late before you realise your folly. Hence, make sure you have a hedgehog principle in place before incorporating technology into a company that fits the principle. Do not do something because it is the talk of the town, but rather because it fits perfectly into your core competence.

Conclusion

The author argues that the most important step in this process is that a level 5 leader is at the helm of things. This is so because they naturally follow the remaining steps. Conversely, if you follow the remaining steps with humility, you will eventually become a level 5 leader. They are both interwined.

Once you have the right driver and right passengers in the appropriate seats, decide on the route you want to take. After that, stick to it religiously. Use technology as boosters to reach your destination faster. All the best for the ride that you will remember for the rest of your life.

Cashflow Quadrant

Book Summary

Cashflow quadrant is the sequel to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book by Robert Kiyosaki. In the previous book, author argues why one should be focusing on investing, while in this book, the author explores the question of whether investing is for all and what should one go through to become a successful investor.

In this book, the author proposes that every earning person belongs to one of the four quadrants. They are either
1) an employed person
2) self-employed person running his own business
3) business person
4) an investor

In the opinion of the author, each person is conditioned to be in one of the quadrant by his immediate surrounding. A child of an employed parent would eventually end up being an employee while a doctor who has a friend circle of other doctor’s operating their own clinics would eventually end up opening his own private clinic. However, the activities done by each person in a quadrant is quite simple and straightforward, seldom is a person able to move from one quadrant to another. Just because someone is a proficient businessman does’t necessarily mean that he will be equally good at investing. The reason is that each quadrant is not merely defined by their activities, but more so by their mindset.

(Personally, I felt most of the views the author expressed for each quadrant to be quite stereotypical. Maybe, he needed to be so to drive home his message)

The first quadrant, in which most of the world population falls currently, is the employed quadrant. The author has found that the people in employed quadrant are people who genuinely seek security over freedom. They understand that the risk of the enterprise they are working for is not on them, but on the management of the enterprise. Hence, in a way they are risk averse. Financial planning and accounting are not necessary in this quadrant, as an assured pre-determined salary would credit to their account every month.

The second quadrant belongs to the self-employed people. This quadrant is dominated by highly skilled professionals. It can be CA or doctors or highly experienced engineers doing consulting. They understand that they too skilled to working for someone else and also want to cash in the on the fact that their services are valuable. They do enjoy a lot of protection and privilege from the government as they come under small and medium enterprises. However, this sector almost always fail in scaling up. It is because they are sole hero of their business model. They might have other employees but they would be limited to assistant roles. Hence, the biggest gap in their business model is that the owner gets no passive income from the business. Earnings are dependent on the work hours of the skilled professional.

The employed and self-employed form the left side of the quadrant where there is no passive income built or a property that can be inherited by their children. This is the main difference when we go onto the right side of the quadrant.

The third quadrant are business people. From my point of view, this is the hardest quadrant with highest risks, but also enjoys the highest growth potential. There is a reason why almost always the most richest person in the world is an owner of a business and not that of a investing firm. Businesses create economical value in a society that are then capitalized by people in every quadrant. The trick to their success is not that they just have a product or an idea that recolonizes the world, but it is that they have a system through which this idea or product can reach the masses. The system ensures that the company is functioning even without the active involvement of the owner, leaving the owner enough time to plan for further expansion.

Finally, we have the investors. The single quadrant that earns all their income through passive income. For a business person, it takes a lot of resources to upgrade themselves as technology progresses. For example, take a look at the automobile sector. Tesla is currently leading the EV sector while other automobile tycoons that have been in the market for decades are lagging behind. However, for an investor, it is just a matter of hours before he sells off his old shares and buys in from the upcoming company.

The author urges that for an individual to move from one quadrant to another, they need to change their mentality, through education and guidance. Reading books and biographies is a great way to do so, however, the best way is to find some mentors. The author also says that it is important to surround yourself with skilled self-employeed people to get their expert opinion such as CAs and lawyers.

The Checklist Manifesto

Book Summary

Before I start with the summary of the book, I want to share how I came to reading this book. The work I am doing currently entails several minute steps that are critical for the success of the project. In some projects, if you miss a certain step it would bear no consequence on the project while in other projects the same step would decide whether the project will be completed or the project come to a stand still. This varying degree of significance of each step means that our brain fails to prioritize them and we are bound to forget a step or two if we are doing them from our memory. Hence, me and my boss decided to come up with a checklist. Being the bookworm that I am, I just used the excuse to read this book. But I am glad that I did as it had several tips that I used in creating my checklist.

The checklist manifesto is written by an American surgeon – Atul Gawande. He is a general surgeon who got introduced to the concept of using checklist in a operation theatre when he heard certain hospitals are using checklists to reduce failures from human errors. In the first chapter Atul describes how a checklist was introduced in the takeoff procedure of a new Boeing fighter jet in WWII. The newly designed fighter jet was a beast in its own right, however during its test trial it unfortunately crashed. The reason was not a technical fault, but the pilot forgot a critical step. Boeing realised that with increased complexity, one can not just rely on memory despite how experienced or trained the person is. Thus, checklist was introduced in aviation.

Similarly, checklist is also used in the contruction industry. Construction industry has a lot of seperate departments like plumbing, electrical, concreate etc that has to work together to ensure the succesful completion as well as the safety of the building. In construction industry, a checklist plays another role in addition to usual task of ensuring every step is followed. The additional role is increasing the communication between all the relevant departments when an anomaly props up. When something unusual is noticed, a review meeting is called and a consensus is required from all the involved parties before project can progress. From outside it may seem an unnecessary bureaucratic step, however some mistakes in huge constructions can mean lots of money and in worst case a building failure that can claim lives.

From these examples, Atul was convinced that a well established checklist can be cheap pragmatic solution that can easily scaled to every operation theatre across the globe. However, the first checklist he created was not the masterpiece he expected it to be. The checklist was too cumbersome, too long and too distracting. You don’t want the doctor and nurses to be doing a roll call in an operation theatre in front of a patient.

In attempt to fix the checklist, Atul decided to go to the checklist specialists – Aviation industry. Both Boeing and Airbus have special departments whose sole purpose is to create checklist for various processes so that pilots can always fall back to them in case they need to. Atul realised the following points that are required to make a succesful checklist

There are two types of check list. The common read-do checklsit and the do-confirm checklist. In a do-confirm checklist, one would complete the entire process and then go through the checklist to ensure that all the critical steps were taken. So, the first point is to decide whether the checklist needs to be a read-do checklist or do-confirm checklist.
Only have critical steps in a checklist. A checklist is not a user-manual. It is just a reminder. The idea is to reduce the text in a checklist. One can use lower case and upper case to improve readability. Even font color can be used for the same.
The checklist needs to be quick and precise. There is no need to have repetative steps. For example, you need someone to drink water, you don’t need to write Step 1, open the bottle and then Step 2, drink the water.
Checklist needs to have all the frequently missed steps.

A checklist is an iterative process. With time, certain steps would be included while others will be removed. A checklist can be much more than just reminder with enough creativity. It can aid in increasing communication. It can help in delegating power for example from the surgeon to nurses. It can save time and money while improving reliability. The same can be said for the checklist that was implemented in the start-up I am part of, and for the past two months it has work exceptionally well.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Book Summary

This bestseller from Robert Kiyosaki intends to highlight the lack of financial literacy in the general public. Robert Kiyosaki expresses this through the lens of two men who influenced his life – one that of his real dad, who was highly educated but remained relatively poor without being able to generate any real wealth and the other being the father of his close friend Mike, who was not highly educated but was able to build an empire of wealth by understanding the nuances of our financial world.

The author states that the present education system is a relic of the bygone era, that of the Industrial Age. In the previous age, it was enough to study hard and be loyal to your company. Your employer would take care of you even after your retirement. However, that is fast changing as a result of globalization in which the fierce competition doesn’t leave enough margin for employers to sustain employee welfare programs like pension schemes or retirement plans. This places the burden of future expenses on the individual. The author argues that the present schooling system does very little to prepare an individual to look after their own finances and thus putting a large section of the public at great risk.

As his first lesson, the author puts in a tremendous effort to differentiate between an asset and liability. An asset is anything that puts money into your pocket while liability is anything that takes money out of your pocket. This seems pretty straightforward, at first glance. However, when the rule is applied strictly many of the properties that we intuitively believe to be assets, are truly liabilities. An example that best showcase this is a home. A roof our your head is the best investment that anyone can make – or so we are told. But according to the author, we take a home loan to afford a home and then spend a good portion of our lives trying to repay that debt. On top of that, a home can have other expenses like maintenance or renovation expenses. So, home is a liability because rather than putting money into your pocket, it takes money out of your pocket.

My initial thought was that is the author trying to say renting a home is better than owning a home ?? Or is he saying whether an individual should avoid debt at any cost ? The truth is that he was saying neither. The author just wants the reader to understand the difference between an asset and liability. He doesn’t want anyone to invest into a liability mistaking it to be an asset.

Now that the difference between an asset and liability has been firmly established, the author proceeds to explain a financial statement. Even without money, by glancing at how cash flows in a financial statement, one can understand whether the person is poor or middle class or rich. Any financial statement has an income column, an expense column, an asset column and finally a liability column. The following figure shows the financial statement for a poor person. Almost, all of the income goes to their expenses. There is no surplus that goes towards to asset building.

When we look at the financial statement of a person from middle class, we can see there is a surplus. However, this surplus is not devoted to asset building, but rather to pay off debt. The author argues that the middle class do not understand how to make the money work for them, but rather only to work for money – as taught by the schools. Hence, they fail to see the opportunity they possess and fall for short term goals that give the impression that they are doing well. However, the reality is that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with no thought given to retirement or future.

Financial statement for a person from the middle class

The financial statement of a poor person and a person from middle class are similar. The only difference is the latter is able to have a job that puts more money in the income section. However, more money just translates to higher expenses and larger tax. The society presumes that the lifestyle led by the middleclass is a successful one, and hence the focus to make sure a child studies hard and gets a well paying job. However, though the middle class person enjoys higher luxury than a poor man, he is unable to have more security or lead a lifestyle that is stress-free. The salary obtained by him is equivalent to the number of hours worked by him. In order to increase his earnings, he has to sacrifice the time he can spend on a vacation or with his family.

The rich follows a different rule. They understand that true richness means to have assets. They invest first in assets that generate passive income rather buying up properties through debt, i.e. liability. Passive income from assets is able to afford all the needs of a person. This helps not only in having more time for family, but is also the best way to save money on tax. Wealth is measured by how long you can sustain your lifestyle without a job, that is after you retire. Rich people have enough assets that generate passive income well into the future even after their death.

The author, through this book wants to provide an alternative path apart from the study-work-retire path provided by the society. The path is to learn about money and how to make money work for you. Personally, I do not agree completely with all the nitty-gritties presented in the book, however, the overall message seems about right. One should focus on assets rather than unknowingly building an empire of liabilities. If not handled properly, rather inheriting assets, our children might inherit liabilities.

CAA and BJP Politics

In 2014, with the victory of BJP, something fundamental about Indian politics changed. Vajpayee once lost floor test in Parliament by just one vote. In spite being the largest party in the house, this is second time Vajpayee was losing the floor test in a span of 2 years. A BJP leader, during that time, said that Muslims in India have veto power over who rules the country. Well, in reality, Muslims in India actually do not have any special powers. They just vote like any other citizen. It is the failure of BJP to win Muslim trust. This statement, however explains how important are muslims for the prospect of any party to form a government in Delhi.

The same message led to UPA government formation in 2004. The difference between Congress and BJP was not much in terms of number of seats (Congress just recieved 7 seats more than BJP) but rather in the number of allies supporting them. Post Godhra riots, no party that respects social harmony could be seen supporting the BJP. Third time in less than a decade, BJP failed to form a government mainly because it failed to win over the trust of muslims.

However, in 2014 everything changed. A party that has negligible Muslim vote share won majority. Such a thing has never happened before in independent India. Independent India has seen a lot of things. In its initial days we saw dominance of personality based politics (Nehru family in Congress).

source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/16-stops-on-the-journey-to-2019/articleshow/68352141.cms

Post Mandal commission implementation, it was the time of Caste arithmetics. From Bihar, UP to Tamil Nadu caste politics dominated. In 2014, BJP came up with a new strategy. Development and anti-corruption served on a Hindu nationalistic plate.

Every party to strengthen its vote share has indulged in polarisation. DMK in the south made a vote bank by polarising against the Brahmins. CPI by polarising against the zamindars. However all these parties achieved their ends by direct polarisation. It could be achieved by very simple acts like reservation for their vote bank. Even BJP started its journey with such similar tactics (Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue). 2014 victory meant BJP can no longer be seen to indulge in direct polarisation. It had learned its lesson from 2004 defeat. But, without polarisation, they can’t ensure a vote bank. End result – counter polarisation.

Make a bill with subtle baits for opposition, allow the opposition (in its attempt to please the minority) to seize the opportunity to polarise, eventually someone starts attacking Hinduism, and give it enough time to see the counter polarisation happening. So, BJP ensured three things
1) keep Sangh parivar happy by implementing their long demanded goals
2) ensure hindu polarisation without doing anything for Hindus as such
3) finally divide muslim vote share between all the parties attacking BJP

I personally believed Modi-Shah after the 2019 general election would be looking for a new strategy (I will talk about this more in a later post). Adding “Sabka Vishvas” to their famous slogan “Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas ” just adds merit to this arguement. However, CAA was pushed through and this move has bought the strategy to its climax. Now, what one can do is wait and watch, to see where time will take us.

My Past – XI and XII

Nothing much happened in this phase. I somehow managed to not to go to a coaching centre. If ever in doubt on which business to start, just start a tuition centre or coaching centre. No need to do any marketing. The entire society from neighbouring aunty to long distant relatives will tell you to go for coaching. And if a student studies hard and gets a good rank, hijack the effort, print his photo in your brochure and use him as your marketing tool.

XI was mundane. Same stuff on repeat mode till I fell in love with a girl (or so I thought back then, but now looking back it can pass as a crush) towards the very end of XIth class. But it was fun, meeting her, talking to her and spending time with her used to give an exhilarating feeling.

In XIIth, due to lot of luck and friends support I got into school football team. It was lot of fun but by the time it all got over by September, I was in lot of trouble. I think, I took XII too lightly.

And then started the phase where I study. I guess I did this phase well, I somehow managed to come first in school. I almost forgot, I was supposed to talk about Physics teacher. Unfortunately he was taking Physics for bio students and I was in Computer class. The day when he actually took class for me was in February just before the XII board. It was a combined class for both biology and computer students. I was seated in the last bench (I never sat in first bench after that day in IX standard). He asked a question. Few people answered it. He asked a supplementary question. Fewer people answered it. I was waiting for my time. And then finally he asked a question that no one answered. I knew it was my time. I raised my hand. I answered it. In his style, he asked a couple more questions. This time I didn’t fall for his trick. I took my time and answered them, one by one. I looked at my classmates. They looked puzzled. They had never seen me so effervescent while answering a question. My teacher asked another supplementary question and I answered it also. He said good, at least there is one student who has understood the concepts. And that was my acquittal.

I also did well in my entrance exams and got into a good college in Mangalore. I was so full of myself that I believed nothing could g wrong. I went to my crush and proposed. She simply said no. I don’t remember much from that day, but I remember she saying lives are not movies. Remember that friends, it is true.

Well you would all thing that is the end of that chapter. But no. Remember when she said lives are not movies. Well, I didn’t buy that. I thought, like any masala Bollywood movie, if the Hero stalks a girl enough, she will say yes. Which girl says yes in the first time. So I used to call her even after going to Mangalore. Over time she didn’t warm to me, she got cold to me. One fine day, I called her multiple times till she finally picked up and asked “What you doing? My father was right in front of me and what will he think?”. In my entire life, I have been a pain in the ass for several people, but I never felt guilt like this. She was one of the real friends I had, stood with me through thick and thin and this is the way I am repaying her? And my friend, that is how that chapter ended. With guilt.

You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain

My Past – VI to X

On looking back, my childhood was bit tough. But I was too young to realise it. Better have tough days early rather than have them later in life. Let’s leave the past in past and talk about my secondary schooling. There was shuffle in class and I got put into section A. There were one another guy from previous section. Everyone else were new to me, including teachers. My home was also not in colony. I started feeling lonely. Even at home, my brother had the monopoly over TV remote.

So what will a 11 year old boy with nothing else will do ? I started studying. Then the results of our first term exams came. First paper give out was Maths. My name was called out and I went to receive it. Mam said excellent and keep it up. I thought sarcasm was at play. I looked down and saw 40/40. If I got 100%, most of the class would too. But they didn’t. I was the only one. Same in Science, 40/40. That was the only two papers given out on that day. But that day changed my life.

I realised that, just like I know no one in class, no one knows me too. I have a clean slate. I can do whatever I want with it. I was also liking the new attention I was getting. Teachers using my name to give example of ideal student, parents who used to complain that me visiting their home during evening to play is the reason why their child was getting distracted, now started saying to learn from me. Over the years I have seen people who used to get good marks to getting low marks. But I have never seen a story like mine. Zero to hero in one day.

I also understand how our society is. Hypocrites to the core. If you get low marks, everything you do is a problem. Going to music class, or playing cricket – everything. But if you get good marks, no matter what you do, it’s fine. Teachers, parents, why even students themselves subconsciously segregate class room into good for nothing students to golden students based on the marks they get. No other criteria applies.

Not that I am complaining, I was having the time of my life. Entry into the elite toppers gang, teachers used to sent me for representing the school (I have never won anything for my school, but I used to have lot of fun) and never reprimanded, no matter what you do. My classmates used to adore me. Teachers used to adore me. Quite an accomplishment for the shabby old student.

Like every good thing, even this came to an end. In XI class, classes again got shuffled. I was back in B section. Most of friends were here too. Also, new thing started – tuitions. Most of my friends started to go for tuitions. But, why would on top of the world Jubin go to tuitions. I wouldn’t say I started doing bad in exams, but everyone else started to get good or better marks. But that never put a dent into my big headedness, till the fateful day came.

One day, our regular teacher was absent, so our Physics student who usually take classes for XI and XII came to our class. He asked a simple question, what is gravitational force. No one was willing to answer. My friend beside me told me that he likes to mess around with people who answers. But he that going to stop me. Hell no. I am after all everyone’s favourite student. I raised my hand. He allowed me to answer it. I did. Then he fired some three more questions at me. I couldn’t think straight. I panicked. What will people think if I can’t answer a question.I got confused and gave a wrong answer. For the rest of the class, I was standing there (in first bench, isn’t that what toppers do) while my teacher went on taunting me.

From model student, I instantly became the subject of mockery. For an entire half an hour. My teacher went on to say how I am the shining example of the failure of our education system. He even invoked couple of lines from a Taare zameen par song
O rat rat ke kyon tanker full
Aankhein band to dabba gul
The worst part was that I didn’t know what was meant by rat. But the class were having a good time. Guess, they didn’t really adore me. They just wanted to be in my good books so that if they needed anything they could ask a favour from me. Complete and utter humiliation. Nothing had changed from IV standard.

Lessons learnt – I actually had very few friends, people who actually cared for me. All those things that I took for granted, can go away just as easily as they came. And finally, focus more in Hindi classes (I was horrible in languages). By the way, to rat is to byheart. What my teacher wanted to convey to my class through me is not to byheart.

For the rest of IX and X, I tried hard to broaden my friends circle and also had made a resolve. That I am going to make that teacher eat his words. I was hoping he won’t get transferred away in the meantime.

That is all for today. How a Zero became a Hero and also how he was shown the mirror to his face. Also, I the students who started getting better more marks than me was just a phase. No one can make you study, you have to study yourselves. Next time I will talk about my XI and XII.

PS: The sad part of Indian society is that it measures a student with his marks. If I had become a cricket sensation overnight by winning the local tournament, would have I received the same partiality ? Hell no. I was just lucky in this society 😦

My Past – Primary Schooling

I was born in Wayanad, Kerala but was my entire childhood was in Bengaluru. I seen it transform from a silent city to the traffic mess it is now. When I was about 2 or 3 years old, my mother got a job as a teacher for the Kerala government. So, she shifted from Bengaluru to Kerala. She used to visit once or twice in a month. So, from that age till I reached schooling age, my Grandmothers used to come and take care of me and my brother.

After I reached schooling age, things changed and house used to be taken cared by my brother and father. Now, that I think about it, my childhood was harsh. Me and my brother had chores to do while our friends were playing. But, now a days I feel childhood was more harsh to my brother – on top of everything, he had take care of me also.

In my primary school, I was just an average student. I used to be fine with Maths and Science, but I used to struggle in languages. Since my mom was not with me during my primary schooling, I had to be washing my own clothes. And I hated doing it. So, like you all expected, I used to look just shabby in class. Teachers hate average students who don’t dress well also. I also used to take bath in evening rather than in morning, adding to my shabbiness in my class.

All this changed in my 4th standard. Every year, we have school inspection. People from regional KVS office come to see the standards of our school. Teachers are all worked up and tense on that day. They want to present themselves and their class in the best way possible. On that day, I was in my shabbiest as usual, was seated in first bench. Our class teacher came and start taking the first period. After some time, her eyes fell on me. She didn’t scold me, but she did something worse. She just humiliated me in front of my class. She asked whether I take bath, do I even have good clothes to wear and so on. My entire class was laughing. What more to say, sad day.

That day I decided, take bath in morning also, and wash dress extra clean. You are what you look. A simple lesson, but learnt it the hard way.

About ME

Hey, everyone. I really don’t know if anyone will read my blogs, but that shouldn’t stop me from making one, right?

What can I say about myself. I am a laid back who tends to take obstacles with a smile. Often feels sad and defensive when someone gives a negative opinion about my work. But, all this changes when I am on a work. Recently, I am beginning to understand that I am a workaholic. I just love to work !!

Another thing I absolutely love to do is, to read. I am currently reading India after Gandhi. A beautiful read which dwells into out history that is never taught in school. Which reminds me, I love history, religion, and economy. Basically everything that shapes politics.

Currently I am far, far, far away from everything I hold dear in my life. My family, my friends and most importantly my country. I am doing Master’s in Solar Energy in Dalarna University (Sweden). I always wanted to do something for my country and I thought why not provide energy to people who need it. Hence Solar energy.

In my next blog I will be writing about my past. In subsequent blogs I want to write my views on current energy scenario in India and world, politics in India and my future plans. See you all then.