BEAUTY AND ITS BEASTS - SALONS AND SPAS SURROGATE GRANDMAS?

Mondays to Saturdays gruelling office hours and maddening sales targets to reach. The weekend after a flabergasting week seems like a fabulous retreat. An oasis in the desert.

 "Beta wake up, its Sunday morning, come sit on the terrace balcony with me and soak up the morning sun" said my granma "I have prepared the castor oil and egg mixture, I'll massage it into your scalp. Its very good for hair conditioning you know" "Daadiii! I don't like castor oil and eggs in my head. Its my hair and not a french salad bowl for Christs sake! "I don't like the smell either, and moreover I have an appointment at the parlour today for a deep root hair conditioning spa. That should take care of my mane" and I kissed her on the cheek and bear hugged her while she made a face that clearly said - God give these children some brains! 

But I dint wait too long to decipher and decode her facial expressions and cuddled my pillows back to catch a few moments of precious sleep. I had to reach Bandra by 11:00 am. It was only 8:45 which meant I could stretch my sleep time by about another half an hour atleast. 

As I was about to enter my beauty sleep my cellphone vibrated uncontrollably with several *beep* *beep* tones. With one eye open I saw the popped up whats app window. It read "wake up its 9 and I'll kill you if you are late!" "Meet me at the junction and pick me up from there" It might rain heavily and mind you I hate getting wet so dont be late" ....Yeah! That is a typical KJ message. My sweet, yet stern and endowed with supreme values friend - KJ. Salutations is just not her thing. She uses technology for 2 purposes. One. Important communications like I just received. And Two. Very very important communications like GOSSIP. 

But I loved my indulgent Sundays with her. Parlor trips. Shopping at malls. Lunches. Movies or pulling her leg while doing all of the above. I am usually the mischievous devil and she's forever busy taming me down (success rate being horribly low :p) 

I quickly showered and reached the spot I was to pick KJ from and drove straight to Bandra - just in time for the appointment. Okay about a ten minutes late. But that's because these Bandra lanes don't have enough parking spaces! Otherwise I'm bang on time. Every time. *wink wink* 

"Yes mam. We have your appointment booked with us, wait here while our staff takes you inside for your individual treatments" said Mary. KJ had booked herself and me for a herbal foot massage and pedicure, a fruit facial and a deep conditioning hair spa. A total pamper retreat after a crazy week at work. A bumper to our pockets but then relaxing and destressing doesn't come for cheap they say! 

We came home totally rejuvenated and crispy fresh! My dadi dearest was happy to see us back home and offered us to sit and talk to her along with steaming hot chai and bun maska khari (a typical parsi tea time speciality.) "so lovely ladies tell your old grandma about the latest in the cityville" "how was your parlour trip" I being the bubbly mischief brat thought of taking dadi on a virtual tour of the parlour experience. (Just to show off and prove parlours are so much better than castor oil egg mixture stuff!!) 

So I began telling her... "We reached the parlour just in time and the attendant with a cute pink tee and jeans and a smart apron came walking towards us and first guided us to the pedicure section of the parlour. She filled the tub with warm water and added Epsom salts to it with eucalyptus oil and dipped my feet in them. She scrubed and cleaned them with a pumic stone and applied a vegetable peel mask all over. She then massaged them with olive oil and moisturised them with rose water." 

Dadi was about to say something but then I gushed in with more... "The fruit facial was fantastic" I said.."she mixed strawberries with rosewater milk and cream and massaged it onto my face. I was glowing like a bulb after she washed it off. I could see my grandmother smiling and visibly impressed. While I was almost feeling the sadistic pleasure of proving it to her that parlours are just so kool!

 I continued "and you see my hair daadi? Protein pack! She applied a thick natural protein packed creamy mayonnaise in my hair and massaged it gently and steamed my hair for optimal absorption and then she washed it and blew dry!" Dont they look simply fabulous! And KJ had to add.. and dadi all this pampering for just four thousand five hundred bucks! 

I could actually see my grandmother begin to giggle and chuckle. And I was wondering what was amusing her so much. (Yes I am an entertaining entity when I get talking, but this wasn't the usual amusement. ) There was a hidden hint somewhere in her expressions that said ... "Hahaha Moron!" 

Every woman who manages her family is automatically an excellent finances manager. My grandmother who has brought up her sons and daughters on her own and taken care of her house, husband and inlaws is indeed an extremely practical and a smart one. 

So she says. . "You paid (blew off is what she really meant) a 4.5 thousand for all of THAT ! " "I must say that the service industry is booming indeed."

 "We grandparents offer you the same treatments and even more for free and you girls cant stand em eh. Of course we wear pink cotton sarees and not cute aprons!" She smartly mocked at me. And this time my mom who was over hearing our conversation giggled aloud! "And my darling intelligent granddaughter do you know that the power packed protein mayonnaise pack is actually castor oil and eggs whipped together."

 These two wisecracks were enough to get me and her both crack up and begin laughing on my silly stupidity. I hugged my rockstar grandma promising to book my next "Sunday beauty retreat" with her! - " ahhh haaa.. not until you pay me 5 k young lady"

 -- I remember this incident so fondly now. We often take our age old methods, techniques and recipes for granted. We spend hundreds of bucks at salons to get beautiful skin and shiny hair. But, we forget that our kitchen has all the home beauty remedies for every kind of skin problems and skin types. 

There's a very apt proverb in hindi that my grandma uses often. "Ghar ki murgi daal barabar" which in short means even if you have the best available at your own disposal you don't value it. But if the same thing is wrapped in a more presentable manner or is offered by someone else it automatically grabs our attention! 

Exactly the philosophy on which the beauty spa industry is booming and blooming today. Haldi chandan becomes turmeric exfoliating face pack for extremely oily skin. Strawberries become skin whitening booster with alfa acids .. After all...its just the service that your paying for. Products are in your kitchen! 

;) Jaago Grahak Jaago! 

Here are some of the remedies my grandma suggests which I now do to get salon beauty treatment effects at home and the best thing about this is that it saves me a lot of money ! ;) 

For a salon like glowing skin, make a paste of gram flour, a pinch of turmeric, and 1 tbs. of rose water. Make a semi thick pack of this mixture and apply on your face and keep it for 10 minutes. After it gets dried, gently rub it off from face. This way you remove dead skin as well as small unwanted facial hair. Wash the extra mixture with water.

If you are suffering from dandruff problems, mix one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in two to three tbs. of warm coconut oil. Apply this on your scalp and massage lightly. Keep this in your head for 40 to 60 minutes and rinse with a good shampoo and conditioner.

To remove sun tan from skin, mix grated cucumber and curd in equal proportions. You can also add 1 teaspoon of lemon if you want. Apply this mixture on the face, neck and other sun burn affected areas and wash off in 15 minutes. If you don’t have cucumber, try using fresh tomato pulp which will give you same results. 

For those who are suffering from dry skin problems, mix equal amounts of glycerin and rose water with few drops of lemon. Apply this with the sterilized cotton bud all over the face and wash off after few minutes. This works as a natural toner for your dry skin. 

We all wish for smooth and silky hair but by over exposure to the sun, hair tends to get dry and dull. To take care of hair, use warm coconut oil to massage your scalp and take a hot towel and wrap it on your head for 20 minutes. Make sure that the towel is not too hot as it will damage the hair. The steam of towel will allow the oil to seep deep into roots of hair. Shampoo and condition your hair after this and you will immediately feel the difference in hair texture. Follow this routine once a week to get smooth and shiny hair. 

To get rid of uneven skin tone, take a raw potato slice and rub it on wet face. Make sure you rub in a circular motion for 5 minutes. This will increase the blood on the skin and even out the skin color of face. 

With our hectic life, numbers of skin and hair problems have increased. Instead of wasting money on expensive cosmetic products and salon treatments, its best to try some effective home remedies to get simple solutions to any kind of beauty problems! Says my grandma.

 Shazy D signing off.

 Happpppyy Skin Care! :D

Navroze Mubarak! - the bawa talks

The Festival of Navroze, the New Year celebrated on 21st March marks the change in season ushered by the Spring Equinox.

Its origins lie in the seasonal festivals of Central Asia and it acquired a religious significance for the Zoroastrians, followers of Prophet Zarathushtra, who preached his philosophy in ancient Iran around 1600 BC.

A small little miniscule community of "happy go lucky" people as it is fondly identified with, we are almost all over the place.

You surely cant miss a BAWA!

"Bawaji" "chal ni dikra" "su karech" "jamva chalo ji" these are phrases you must have surely heard once. One cant seem to miss these in movies, theatres, plays with parsi characters!

If you don't know a bawa for real (makes us sound like dinosaurs) you'd sure know one "on screen"

A lot of us know parsis, bawajis, iranis .. but most of us don't know anything about the festivals or rituals or celebrations of the community.

Navroze is one of the bank holidays parsis contribute to your annual holiday list and you ought to know why we celebrate it and its significance atleast!

But before I write about Navroze (my real intention to write this blog) a little introduction to the community ...who are parsis?!

We are a small religious community, which exists mostly in Mumbai and Pune and in smaller numbers in other cities of India.

The religion of Zoroastrianism was established by Zarathustra in 6th or 7th century BC.

The followers of this religion exiled from Iran in the 7th century AD because of the religious persecutions by the Muslims.

They arrived in India at the Gujarat region and were warmly welcomed by the people of Sanjan. Since then we came to be known as "Parsis" (since we had arrived from the land of Persia)

Parsis believe in the existence of one invisible God. We believe that there is a continuous war between the good forces (forces of light) and the evil forces (forces of darkness).

The community practices the philosophy of Good thoughts. Good words. Good deeds.

We preachfire. The symbol of light which signifies purity. And hence our temples are called the fire temples.

The holy language of the Parsis is an ancient language spoken in Iran, Avesta. However most parsis in India have adopted gujarati as their mother tongue.

The Parsis are less then 0.02% of India's population but their contribution to India is much more than their proportion in India's population.

The rich Parsi families contributed enormously to establish institutions of all kinds in India. Even today some of the bigger finance houses in India belong to followers of this religion.

Aahhh... a lot said about us ... Coming back to where I began...

Navroze is the beginning of the New Year for the Parsis of India and is also celebrated as a Spring Festival by the Kashmiri Community of India.

Navroze is a part of the Zoroastrian respect for the environment. This festival of the agricultural season became dedicated to Ahura Mazda(Lord of Wisdom) and the Amesha Spenta (Holy Immortals) as part of the Gahambar(celebrations of the seasons) 

Navroze or the New Year is the largest and most holy celebration, dedicated to Spring, Fire and Righteousness.  Navroze has links with the dawn of Zoroastrian history and the legend of King Jamshed of Iran. This is why among the Zoroastrians it is also called Jamshedi Navroze. 

Celebrated on 21st March, the Spring Equinox, it is the time of cleansing the house and spiritually rejuvenating the self. It is characterized by a sense of new life, the ploughing of the fields for spring planting, the wearing of new clothes and the sprouting of fresh greenery, which is placed on the specially decorated "Navroze table".

In honour of this feast, there are a series of customs marked by the number seven. This number represents the seven Amesha Spenta (the special Angels of Zoroastrianism) and particular food items are prepared in homes to be set on this table. 

There are special dishes for breakfast - one is 'Ravo' prepared with suji, milk and sugar and the other is 'Sev' fried vermicelli cooked in sugar preparation and decorated with dry fruits.

After breakfast, Parsis and Iranis visit the Fire Temple or Agiary for a special thanks-giving prayer called, 'Jashan'. They also offer sandalwood to the Holy Fire.

There is also a custom to keep a copy of the Gathas(holy books) , a lit lamp, an Afarigan (live holy fire), a bowl of water containing live fish, a shallow earthenware plate with sprouted wheat or beans for prosperity, flowers for colour, a silver coin for wealth, painted eggs for productivity, and sweets and rosewater in bowls for sweetness and happiness on a table.

Apart from these, the table also has seven foods beginning with 'sh' and 'sa'. These are meant to symbolise creation.
Food forms an essential part of Navroz celebrations.
‘Faluda’ i.e. milk flavoured with rose essence, is the traditional drink prepared on this day.

Pulao, rich with saffron, is a must for the lunch on Navroz.

’Ravo’, a popular Parsi dish is also made on this day.

The Navroz table has seven food items beginning with ‘sh’ (in Persian):
1. sharab (wine)
2. shakar (sugar)
3. shir (milk)
4. shirin berenjor (sweet meat)
5. shahad (honey)
6. shirin (sweet) and
7. shira (syrup)

The table also lays down seven eatables beginning with‘s’:
1. sirka (vinegar)
2.sumac (spice)
3.sumanu (pudding made from wheat germ)
4. sib (apple)
5. sabzi (green vegetables)
6. senjed (sorb tree berry) and
7. seer (garlic).

Each of these food items signifies creation.

Along with these, fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, and various seeds are also placed on the table.

The lady of the house takes the visitors to the table, traditional rituals are performed and then everyone sits down to share and eat these food items and celebrate.

I wish all parsis and iranis a vajtu gajtu haastu raamtu Navroze Mubarak and a humble invitation to all my friends and relatives to visit us on the 21st March 2013 or on anyone of the 13 days thereafter to celebrate the onset of happiness and prosperity.

Excuse the length and detailed description of the blog. But I simply can't cut it short sometimes! (Most times)
:p

Love
Shaz

THE ROSE WITHIN

A man once decided to have a small rose garden of his own. He religiously bought the seeds and sowed them in a flower bed in front of his little house.

He would water the flower bed faithfully every day in anticipation of having beautiful roses bloom in his garden.

One day whilst he was watering the rose plants he decided to examine them closely.He fixed his eye on the bud that looked like it would blossom soon. He noticed that there were thorns upon the stem of the bud. Looking at the bud he thought to himself, "How can any "beautiful" flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp "thorns"?

Saddened by this thought, he lost the motivation to water the plants. He neglected to water the rose bed then on, and dint bother much. The roses due to lack of attention and water...dried and withered.

Just before the roses were ready to bloom into beautiful flowers... they died!

If you notice, its the same story with most of us and so it is with people around us.

Within each one of us there is a ROSE. Beautiful and ready to bloom.

The God-like good qualities planted within us at birth, grow amidst the thorns of our faults and mistakes.

Many of us look at ourselves or others and see only the thorns, the defects, the faults. (our negatives)

We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come out from us owing to the negativity.

We neglect to water the good (positive goodness) within us, and eventually the good within " withers and dies".

We fail to realize our own potential!

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them.

One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns of another, and find the "rose" within them.

THIS is one of the characteristics of LOVE.. to look at a person, know their true faults and to accept that person into your life... all the while recognizing the nobility in their soul.

P.S. Help others to realize that they can overcome their faults.

Show them the "rose" within themselves & they will conquer their thorns.

Only then we will all blossom many times over...

Love SHAZ

THANKS MAA

Effervescent bubbling kids, colourful costumes and anxious and excited parents all over a playpark themed studio set.

I wrote this blog just after I was watching a reality show meant for drawing talent out of the little kids between the age of 3 - 12 I'm guessing!
And while I saw.. I just cudnt help smiling and gigging away to glory looking at each little bundle of energetic nerves perform!

Took me back to my kiddy days when I was a little pampered kid myself. Was?!  ... I still am ... just not "little" any more! :p

Like every daughter... I was an "out and out" daddy's girl (photographic evidence attached herewith). I saw a "superhero" in my father and couldn't get my eyes off him. My day began with running into his arms, seeking attention, getting pampered, bragging about him in school to my friends, waiting for him to come home so that I could hop into his car and go out for fun.

He indeed was my rescue man. He was my knight in shining armour who would save me from all the disciplinary protocols my mother had set for me. Things like "school" "homeworks" "getting up early" "having milk" ... urrghh!! Disgusting rules I'd say to myself !! (See my face in the picture with her?? Proof enough!)

I almost thought and was reasonably convinced that my mom hated me with the kind of rule book she had for me. Of all the things she would plan for me to do throughout the day,not a single activity in the entire agenda would even remotely mean "funnnn" for me!

I even proposed to my dad once (in supreme overconfidence) about getting another"nicer mom" in exchange of the one I had! Of course my super hero dad smiled and humbly explained to me that she was indeed a veryyyy nice mom and it's just that I need to understand her better.

Never understood what he really meant! :p. ... But I was just glad he never mentioned my grand idea to mom then.....else I'm sure I wudnt be alive today to write and share it here... ;)

Those were the days.. pampering dad and beating to pulp mom .. what a combination I say! Tee he hehe

One little incident in this reality show caught my attention. There was a little girl who superbly enacted a solo performance on a dialogue between a mom and daughter. The judges applauded her talent and asked if her mom was around. The smiling girls face suddenly turned pale and tears brimmed her eyes. She tried her best to keep them from rolling onto her cheeks but failed. Her 5 year old self was perhaps not experienced enough to hide the strong emotions that filled her up on her mom's mention.

The judges nudged her and asked the crew to call her father. That's when her father who accompanied her told the audience that she had just recently lost her mother. In no time I and I'm sure most people in the audience had goose bumps all over. I was awed at the kind of strength and will the little girl had in her to hide or atleast pretend to hide such a huge void in her life.

Throughout her performance she was commendable and nothing about her reflected her vulnerable side.

We sometimes so easily take things for granted.

Life takes us through different phases. Some good. Some difficult. We make mistakes. People come. People go. Some love you. Some hate you. But... that One force. One voice. One strength. That constantly continues to say I love you...is your MOTHER.

At 3, 13, 30 or 60 we still feel like little children in front of our mothers. I DO.

Though these words were written by Ms. Celine Dion to express her love to man who loved her the most.

I find them aptly fitting my love for my mom. This one is for you maa!

"You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see You saw the best there was in me Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'coz you believed
I'm everything I am Because you loved me

You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I'm grateful for each day you gave me Maybe I don't know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you

My world is a better place because of you maa !

I'm everything I am Because you loved me ...

P.s.. Love your moms! However monstrous they seem to you sometime or the other in life. They are the amazing powerhouses of love strength and care God gifted us with. Im so glad dad dint take my "exchange proposal" seriously!

Love you maa!

NEVER SAY NEVER

Hey all! Greetings!!

I was reading a couple of online articles today like I usually do. Secrets to success, how to make the most of your time, effective techniques of managing resources, finance management etc... while I was reading those, this particular statement marked in bold in an article caught my attention...

If You Haven’t Buried The Words - "I CANT", You Will NOT prosper. It instantly struck a chord in my head and made a connect.

As a working professional in the area of marketing and business development and an aspiring serial entrepreneur myself, (my dream is to own multiple business houses in various industries, and just like there are "serial killers", be a "serial entrepreneur") I completely and totally related to the above statement!

Think about it, If we don’t decide to eliminate the words “I CAN’T” from our dictionaries we just cannot progress .. and hence I think the above statement is so true!!

If you don’t believe so, try reading up on success stories of business tycoons online or ask successful entrepreneurs the "secrets" to their blooming and expanding empires - You will notice that it isn’t the formulas they produced or the many theories they came up with or the product lines they discovered.

Most stories usually revolve around one common point that determined their success - the literal stance to WIN regardless of the present situation or circumstances.

It is the eternal belief and the stubborn determination they have in them ...that emerges them as WINNERS...

How POWERFUL a thought is that!!

What if WE knew we couldn’t fail at all...? What if our success was already determined ? It’s the way we THINK about our current situation that determines if or not will we be successful...

Try this out.. Pick up a book called “Think and Grow Rich Through Persuasion” by the great Napoleon Hill. Or read "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. Read at least 2-3 pages per day from these books and try to keep the same mindset you’ve always had..

I DOUBLE DOG DARE YA.. It’s going to be impossible for you to stay the same..
The problem in succeeding in your business or any work you undertake is NOT ALL ABOUT the amount of leads you can generate, nor is it about all the new cool tools, blogs, and capture pages you can whip together in seconds..

Nope..

Not even close..

It’s literally about your "awareness levels"

It’s about how long you can stay focused without being distracted.

It’s about having FAITH to know that no matter what - you will WIN!!

It’s about tricking your subconscious into visionary success..

It’s about getting around people who are Big Thinkers and Super Doers.. and getting INSPIRED.

We live in a volatile world, so thinking about the future makes us more nervous, than excited. If we are left all by ourselves - we might perhaps eventually lose focus and quit.

Here is yet another mantra I read and truly believe in and would like to share,  that promises to increase the odds of us having a brighter future.

It says "Be a generous expert, trustworthy and clear, open-minded and adaptable, persistent and present"
I'd like to suggest that you commit this sentence to memory, or print it and paste it on your desk and that you do your best to live by it.

Let's break this mantra down and decode it for our better understanding.

1. Be Generous: help others long before you need their help. Focus on other people in a sincere and giving manner. If you do this well, when you are blindsided by events, others will have your back.

2. Be an Expert: become competent in one or more areas that others value. It also means that whenever you take on a new task, do your best. In a tough situation, you will be one of the people to whom others will turn to for help.

3. Be Trustworthy: take ownership of your words and actions, and recognize that you live in a world in which they will increasingly be recorded, remembered, analyzed, and replayed.

4. Be Clear: know what you want and to be able to communicate it effectively. It doesn't matter if you have the best ideas in the world; if you can't express them clearly, no one will ever understand your insights.

5. Be Open-minded: no matter how much of an expert or successful you become, never stop listening and learning. Even the wisest among us are probably only correct 60% or 70% of the time. When you start believing that you are always right, you are on your way to being always wrong.

6. Be Adaptable: keep your options open, so that when the world surprises you, it won’t be that surprising. Don't bet it all on anything, ever.

7. Be Persistent: keep trying, even when times are tough and you are tempted to quit. This will come in especially handy if times get tough all around, not just in your neck of the woods.

8. Live in the Present: learn from the past and be prepared for the future, but above all pay close attention to the present moment as it unfolds - otherwise, you will miss vitally important details.

But before you do all of the steps above..

Go and bury the words – >> I CAN’T

I Did and so can you..

Let’s Win Together :-D

Cheers!!

WALK LIKE AN ELEPHANT!

"A for apple.. B for ball.. C for cat and D for doll... and E for???" "ELEPHANT!! "

We often hear kindergarten kids learn their alphabets this way. As kids we are taught a specific trait about every new word we learn so that we remember it better... like for e.g. Lions are king of forests... Apples are red... Elephants are FAT so on and so forth.

All throughout my childhood, I was this little cute chubby baby kid everyone loved to pull cheeks of and laugh at. The over-loved, over-pampered kid.

Cousins and peers would pull my cheeks and call me "baby elephant"

"Cute my foot!!" I would think to myself, No one taught me about elephants being "cute" in school! All I knew throughout my academic period of pre school was that elephants were fat and huge! Exactly what I hated to be called...

"Grrr... I hate people calling me baby elephant" I would tell mom everytime I was mocked in school or college. I used to hate the damn word! The moment someone would equate me to a baby elephant.. However cute it would have seemed to them, I wanted to punch the admirer in his face.

The word had such great impact on my psyche that involuntarily in my subconscious I always had this aversion towards the animal and never really liked it either! (sounds silly I know! )The poor cute animal lost all its brownie points on my appreciation list. My fav animal always remained the lion.

Until a day in a college workshop I discovered ...

It was one of those bright sunny Saturday afternoons that your college teachers decide to ruin by organising workshops meant to develop your personality and groom you as an individual. (i admire the effort, but why waste my holiday, why cant we do all this on a weekday?! )

"Good Afternoon everyone" said a vibrant voice of a wheatish brown man tall enough for us to stretch our necks up and see and size huge enough not to be noticed but yet a personality you cant ignore. "Elephant" my inner voice instantly mocked in my head and I wickedly grinned. The sadistic pleasure of being on the otherside of mocking is pure pleasure sometimes. The class greeted him with equal enthusiasm, "Good Afternoon Sir" most of us curiously waiting to get done with the session and begin our weekend.

The college had organised a 2 hour lecture cum workshop on managing ourselves as individuals as a part of our usual personality development lectures every other weekend. The session began with the speaker asking us random ice breaking questions on how we feel about standing up on stage, about giving presentations, about how many of us loose our tempers and get angry or sad when someones mocks at us etc. While most of us were throwing chorus answers to his generic questions. He was perhaps preparing us for a fabulous lesson.

"Please take out a small piece of paper and write your name on it and alongside your name mention your favorite animal." He told us. I instantly tore a sheet off my notebook to scribble my name on it and right next to it I proudly wrote LION. I then kept the chit in my notebook, awaiting further instructions

"Before I ask you students to read out your chits, allow me to participate first... My name is Mr. Joshi and I simply love elephants !" The entire class burst out laughing at his sense of humor. The fact that this statement was coming from an overweight fat man himself made it even more funny.

"Wow he is fat and isn't shy about calling himself an elephant! So cool! " we thought. An "instant hit" trick it was in striking the chord with the class. He grinned back at us and said "Why are you guys laughing? Aren't elephants cute? Dont you want to be elephants?" Now what kind of question was that I thought! "Who wants to be an elephant??"

I continued to listen to him more intently now since I wanted to figure out why was an elephant the favorite animal of a cool professor like him. It was perhaps the soul searching moment for me (I love drama)

He said to class.. "Next time you are in trouble, or you have a stage fright or you are scared to face a crowd or you are trying something new..remember these golden words.. say to yoursef, walk like an elephant!" And showed us the picture of an elephant on a LCD projected slide.

This is how you must be he said pointing at the picture. All of us were still looking at the picture trying to figure out a logical explanation of what he just said, while he continued.

"Although elephants are huge in size, they are the most loving and humble animals of the animal kingdom."

"Elephants are loved by adults and kids alike. They are popular and fun to be with. They are strong yet humble and playful. When angered they can cause mayhem, uproot trees and their strength cannot be matched by the mighty lions or the fearless tigers! Barking dogs dont bother the mighty elephant. They are intelligent and  their emotional connect is closest to the humans. When they walk their path they don't get bothered by other animals around them."

"That's how you guys should be" he said.

"Don't be bothered or intimidated by the so called achievers or stars or whoever is around you. Be nice and humble to everyone around you. Smile and make others smile. Use your anger and strength only when someone seriously bothers you. Be playful and fun and don't worry much. Eat well and enjoy being magnanimous!"

The class was quiet. I don't know about the others but I was jaw dropped. What an awesome change in perspective.

I never thought of the elephant the way sir just explained!

I took the chit out and right next to the word lion, I wrote elephant with a  :-)

...and ofcourse then on I did not mind being called the ELEPHANT! ;-)

STAYING ALIVE!

You would perhaps have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesman reported back, "There is no potential here - nobody wears shoes."
The second salesman reported back, "There is massive potential here - nobody wears shoes."

This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways - negatively or positively.

When reading this story... I thought of narrating my own story where I made an interesting "choice" too..

I always jokingly called myself a challenge to the medical fraternity, the industry I was very much an integral part of as a professional as well. I would often kid with people who knew of my health concerns that, “if I could think of an apt nick name for me it would be a ‘medical catastrophe’. I knew more doctors in the city than my relatives! Beat that for a statistical analogy.

But having said the above, there was never a dull moment in my life, be it my attitude or the way I prefer to deal with things. And that is one reason I have always managed to keep the smile pasted on my face despite all the challenges life has thrown at me.

One such milestone moment I am proud of is conception of my own consultancy TAG.

“…..I SIMPLY LOVE MYSELF!” – I told KJ, my friend who had come to see me at the hospital where I was recuperating from a hip fracture, “What on earth keeps you so pepped up all the time, when most of these times you are in deep shit…” she asked. “Now this wasn’t the first time that I was encountering such a remark from someone or for that matter KJ herself. I am quite a health disaster that way! Troubles love to find me. On this fateful day, after torrid clinical investigations from head to toe, I was informed about the mother of all reasons that had caused me these miserable health rollercoaster rides – a brain tumor! As filmy as it may sound, I had BRAIN TUMOR. I instantly felt like the female hybrid version of a Shahrukh Khan from Kal Ho Na Ho and a Rajesh Khanna from the movie Anand! (Sorry! I love drama) Ofcourse I would feel like that! after all, this is the least a happy go lucky, popular 25 yr old would expect to hear at a time when she is making plans to scale new heights in her career, speed date with her boyfriends, hang out and party with friends or is scheduling an international holiday with her own earnings!

“How are you Madam?” KJ asked me with all the concern she could gather in that one breath. “If I was any better, I’d be twins” I said with a devils grin and wink back at her. She slapped her head in disgust to say, “You are simply impossible! “THIS IS ME” I said..,

Each morning I wake up and say to myself – Dear Girl, you have two choices today.

You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose to point the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, this is YOU.  It's not that easy to keep this positive all the time," she protested making a dirty face at me. "Yes, it is," I said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life. And I choose not only to live but to STAYING ALIVE!”  

The doctors had asked me not to take up any kind of strain inducing activity, both mentally and physically until the treatment was on. Now this could mean anything from 6 months to 3 years. I have two problems in life, I get bored with monotony too soon and second, quitting isn’t an option I consider so easily. So sitting at home with restrictions in mobility and no physical activity as a protocol to the treatment for so long didn’t go down so well with me. Seriously! I can’t sit idle!

Doctors continued to inform me, “your condition is life threatening but “reversible” if treated correctly and in time. REVERSIBLE – Now that’s the word I caught onto.  Call it attitude or technical default, I was born this way. I see a positive streak in everything around me. I’m shamelessly positive!

This was again one of those moments, where I had to make a CHOICE. (Just like the story above)  I said to myself either you choose to cry your lungs out in despair and whine away to glory criticizing the sudden turn in destiny or make the most of this challenging time and create something out of it. A couple of weeks after I came home, I began thinking of what I can do with my gigantic resource and talent pool and limited physical ability. Thanks to my management education and admirable experiences with a lot of great mentors I had the skill to gather the right resources for the right purpose. I began with creating a website and some basic digital and social media network marketing material. This took about a month or so followed with a face book fan page and LinkedIn invites. Oh boy! What would one do without social media networks! I conceptualized TAG in 2010 as a staffing agency specially catering to the clinical research industry, along with two parallel business verticals catering to corporate event management and creative business model designing and marketing. Although I originally belonged from a larger market of clinical trial business development, I realized the need for a personnel agency that filled a void left by other temporary and permanent placement agencies which recruited and hired over various domains and lacked the technical insight and know-how of the clinical research and pharmaceutical industry. I had experienced this void myself while I was working. Now that’s where I saw an opportunity I could grab on! I established TAG out of the desire to contribute to the clinical research industry. The right mix of presentation and communication skills brought me my first training and placement project. Through the distinctive combination of industry expertise I had through professional acquaintances, an extensive candidate database and a comprehensive career lifecycle and background screening process, I managed to secure the  right professionals for my clients - on time, every time. That kick started the staffing vertical.

The office set up was no rocket science. The well known K.I.S.S. formula ( Keep It Simple & Sweet) worked fine for me. I began operating from home and created a virtual office. A mobile connection, a wireless landline, a super fast broadband wi-fi router and a well equipped laptop connected to a printer and a comfortable wheelchair to maneuver me all over was all it took for the infrastructure bit. Yea! I was on the "roll" .. ;-)

 I believe that leadership is something that you are born with - and that is defined by the choices and actions you take. Choices as simple as – waking up with a smiling face every day or as complicated as giving up on your usual daily lifestyle and adapting changes to accommodate an absolutely new one so as to deal with the herculean challenges life brings to you on the platter!

I'm glad you actually read my ramble upto the end... you ought to be proud already! And I sincerely hope I have managed to motivate you to see your problems differently.. more as opportunities and less as hurdles... :) cheers!!