30 Years of Life

 

As I write this birthday post, I bid goodbye to my late twenties and hit thirty. As I look back on the way birthdays were a few years ago and the way birthdays are now, it has changed. Earlier birthdays were so fast, meeting so many people and having a jam-packed schedule throughout the day and coming back home by 11. Now birthdays have been days where you get to talk to some special people and catch up on life, take in all the amazing birthday wishes pouring in on various platforms, spend time with loved ones and ending it with birthday musings.

As I reflect back on 30 years of my life, I feel blessed for everything that has happened in my life, every life experience (be it good or bad), every person who has come into my life for a clear reason. 30 years seem like a construction shell which shall make sense only after it is completed. These have been the foundational steps for a bigger picture and I am excited to explore what's in store for me. As much as I know my life's purpose, putting it in action someday and living a life towards it is what excites me every single day. Having said all these, it is always about being in the right place at the right time and preparation of mind every single day to make it happen is what the journey is about.  

These 30 years have been about character building, good friendships, good relationships, strengthening the beliefs, finding the core values to live for, good adventures, fun and laughter and learning many things in this journey. I look forward to a new decade of growth, fun, laughter, happiness, satisfaction and peace. There is no destination. Its always the journey.

Cheers to Life,

Naveen S N

How far can you go for your own bag?

        It was 5.15 AM in the morning. The bus conductor shook me up from my sleep screaming 'Vijayawada' signalling that its time for me to leave. My long sleep which was interrupted took some time to come back to terms. I woke up with a neck pain due to wrong sleeping posture and that was hurting real bad. I took my laptop bag next to me and got down telling 'Thanks' to the driver as always. As soon as I got down, auto drivers started making a conversation on where to go and negotiated for the charges. Two to three drivers started talking to me and I was talking to them in koncham koncham telugu that I know and one person agreed to take me to my room for Rs.100 for exactly 1 km. I came to my room and checked in. I was planning on how I could sleep for 2 more hours before getting ready to start my day at the client place. Then it stuck me..... Was there any missing detail in what I just told?

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        Did I actually take my luggage in the bus? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It was this shit moment when I suddenly realized how can I miss my luggage in the bus and check in to the room. Absolute stupidity, carelessness and irresponsible behavior. All this because I was feeling sleepy and got carried away talking to the auto drivers. I realized how stupid this is. It was 5.35 then. 20 minutes since I got down. I immediately ran to the reception saying what happened and pleading if they can help. We called the driver and there was no response. When we tracked the bus, it was already moving in National Highway towards Hyderabad. If the destination was Vijayawada, then it could have been very easy to go and get back the luggage. The bus was already moving very fast and there was no way to chase it like in movies and get your bag and the bus will not stop just for one stupid passenger making others wait. 'What to do?' was the question in my mind.

        The receptionist asked me to go to the travel office 2 kms from the place so that they can see how best they could help and helped me with an auto. I went to the travel's office and told them about my issue in broken telugu and mixing it with all languages I knew :P He at least understood the emotion behind it. He told the vehicle is already 30 kms far off from this place and is going to Hyderabad. The same vehicle shall come back in the night and then you can collect your luggage. I was here on an important audit review meeting and I was thinking on how can I go there in my T-shirt and track pant(the one I was wearing all night). I was like this is very important luggage and please help me. He gave back saying 'If something is so important, how can you even miss it?' I was in no way to explain why and how it happened especially with the broken telugu I knew, as constructing a sentence in mind could take more time than getting the luggage back :P I just made my puppy face.

        The receptionist called back and gave a brilliant idea to ask the driver to keep the luggage in the nearest hotel on the way and then we could go collect it from there. The travel guy asked the driver to do the same and he readily agreed and within 2 minutes gave a call back as to where and whom he is handing over the luggage to. The auto driver who accompanied me till the travel office readily declared that he will help me get the bag. By then the bag was placed in a place which was 40 kms from our place. There I was trusting this one guy I knew to go in an unknown direction to get my bag at 5.55 AM in the morning. How can I trust him when I have just met him? But then sometimes do you have any other option apart from trusting someone blindly and taking that leap of faith?

        I asked him if he is sure to drive 80kms just to help me get my bag and he said lets first go and then you can pay me whatever you want. Money was the last consideration then and we started. It was 6 AM and the morning lights started coming out and there were few vehicles on the street as he drove faster. He promised 40 minutes drive to reach the place. He moved fast, taking me to the outskirts of the city, took some detours, told me about few places in Vijayawada and then joined the National Highway. Whenever he was silent, I used to construct my next sentence to ask in Telugu so that it doesn't sound offensive. A simple 'nuvvu' instead of 'meeru'(respectfully) could make a lot of difference. The sun rose and the journey continued. By then it was a complete surrender to the process. All the thoughts of can I really trust this guy had slowly vanished and it was only about lets see how this goes. 

        6.45 AM. Somewhere in the outskirts of Vijayawada.

        Finally the hotel came and I was only hoping that this should now not be some other bag instead of mine. That's the worst thing that could happen to you after travelling such long and then......... 

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        There I saw my blue color trolley with my name on it from the flight baggage tag and it was such a feel good moment. I wanted to kiss my bag at that very moment but then it would have been so inappropriate. The old lady asked me to confirm if I am the owner and I put the driver on conference to prove my ownership and after her due diligence and when she was satisfied, she asked me, "How can you miss your own luggage?" and then when I was about to make my puppy face, the auto driver told, "It sometimes happens when you are sleepy and you just feel laptop bag is the only luggage you have" and she smiled. We had tea there and then the journey back to the hotel started. The driver asked me if I was happy and I told him "Chaala chaala thanks anna" some multiple times which would have got him worried if I would really pay him or just tell thanks and say a bye :P

        It was 7.45 AM. As we came back to the same roads we started, the shops were still shut. But there was so much that happened in my mind in those 2 hours. I prayed God for everything that happened today morning. Anything could have happened and I could have got my luggage only in the night but I met some strangers who went above their limits and tried to help a stranger in the city for no real reason. It was not the duty of the receptionist or the bus driver or the auto driver's to help me out and everyone played their role. I was glad. Every adversity could lead to something so beautiful is what I thought. The auto driver got paid the exact amount he expected but with a lot of 'Chaala thanks anna' in between. I did get to take my bath and wear my formals for my meeting and the day started with a lot of bizarre adventure. It makes me tell sometimes your own stupidity takes you places :P

They say you cannot trust strangers in an unknown city and that's the only thing I had to do today....

Good day everyone

 

Loads of love,

Naveen Nagaraj

COVID-19 and Entrepreneurship: An honest confession

#Newyearpost

I was just thinking about how the last 2 years have been for us and everyone at large. 2020 and 2021 for everyone has been quite challenging and emotionally draining. Now if you narrow it down to entrepreneurs, the challenges faced were humungous. Every aspect of an organization has undergone a change. The world changed so fast these 2 years. Almost seems like a flash.

Now if you further narrow it down to entrepreneurs who have just started in these years or a year prior(like us), the way an entire functioning underwent a change has been too rapid and sometimes too overwhelming. Entrepreneurship runs purely on HOPE every single day. Things start moving in a particular direction and when things start going well, a COVID wave hits us and we are back to ground zero. Now we get up and gain the strength and move forward and another one hits us. This time we are at least aware but the hit is still a hit.

The same thing happens with the third wave now. There is so much anxiety and uncertainty everywhere YET AGAIN. But with all these, just like the graduate class of 2020/2021, I feel we entrepreneurs who have started our journey in these years have grown so much personally and professionally. No Crisis management lessons of MBA school can prepare you for something like this. Its a lot of effort emotionally to regain and rebuild and that's how life teaches us lessons and makes us stronger. We have lost, we have suffered and we have still gotten back to function and that's MORE important.

In the end, all these are just adding up to the stories you tell your close ones or your children on how we all together survived a major pandemic.

Find your #home

         I watched this heartwarming feel good movie #Home on Amazon Prime and more than just writing a review of the movie, I wanted to ponder upon few reflections in the movie. So, this post is definitely not a movie review but much more. This movie did make me think about a lot of aspects. The movie is about a family which was once closely stuck together loosens up with time and the generation gap created by the social media and how the father tries his best to bridge that gap between his children by wanting to be part of their digital world. 

        Simple story, isn't it? But the reflections which comes out of the movie without being preachy at anytime makes you think. What were mine?

• We all do this or have done this at some point in time in our day to day lives. When someone is talking to us, we are buried in our mobile either ignoring them completely or replying back to them looking at our phone(I have done this too). Now this is how the world has become. But how do we feel when we are on the receiving end? Do we like it? Is it really cool to do so? ENERGY. Everything we do has energy. When we are talking to someone, we are giving them time and more importantly we are giving them our energy. Can we do it more intentionally, being more aware and being there completely. Real human connections are made when we talk heartfully and when we listen intentionally. So the next time when someone talks to us, can we answer them looking them in their eye rather than looking at our screens?
• With social media and the so called influencers, we start defining indicators of our success to the number of followers, likes, comments etc and start measuring ours with a yardstick which is a utter bullshit. Its about comparing apples to oranges and it will always be. The real work happens behind the Instagram, behind those cool post workout selfies and the constant 5 AMs to hustle before those good morning posts. This is often not considered but the outputs are. This could lead to creating a entire generation of people who are never present in the moment anytime and that's dangerous.
• How beautiful it is to spend your morning coffee time or evening tea time talking to your own family? Why is it that we present our best selves to our bosses, clients, acquaintances and show our grumpy, angry, always irritated side to people who love us? Is it because we can be ourselves with them and feel home? Is it because they are our constants and we believe they would not leave? Have we not taken them for granted? Have we ever thought how do we look with that grumpy, angry, always irritated face of us from the receiving end? People do stupid things. They show their best side to the people whom they don't really care and show the worst side to people whom they really care. 
• From when has expressing your thoughts been considered weak? Was there a change in syllabus and this was inserted? We, human beings do some terrible mistakes. We love people and constantly make them feel like we don't. We fail to express to people on how we feel around them. We think people do live on forever for these talks when we really know that they do not. Our days are numbered and our time is limited and still we fail to express how we feel. Continuing this will lead to creation of an entire generation which lacks emotional quotient. Next time you find a team member working really well- appreciate them in public, next time you feel like thanking your spouse-thank them, next time you feel like telling an 'I love you' to your love out of nowhere-please do. There is never an auspicious time for all these. 
• As we grow, I have realized that the pursuit is less about the money, position, luxuries but it is about RELEVANCE. Being 'considered' relevant with time and being relevant among the people in your world becomes the biggest struggle to overcome. This is constant struggle be it any age but this struggle becomes more difficult as time passes. Will my son or daughter consider me relevant for their generation? Will I be able to adapt to the tech savvy next gen or will I be left behind? Will I still be able to understand the ever evolving businesses in my workplace and add value to the table? Will people continue to ask me suggestions or will they assume he is not worthy anymore? The struggle will be real and it will be about relevance. It makes me think about how we need to RE-INVENT ourselves at every stage of our life. At no stage of life will life settle down unless you choose to do so. We need to keep reinventing ourselves to stay current and relevant.  

Home is where the heart is and writing could be my home 😀 But if this blog post makes you get back to your own self or gets you closer to your home, that's what makes me the happier version. That's the intent and that's the goal always. Find your #Home in the world outside the virtual world. 

Love,

Naveen Nagaraj 

Life, Death and everything in between...!!

        

        Its been a while writing and I suddenly wanted to write when somebody texted me saying they read my blog post before sleeping that night. I realized then that words do matter, words do influence someone, words do impact someone and how important it is to do that when your words matter to people(few people atleast). I was just thinking about how fragile we are as human beings. Leave about the strong face we show to the outside world. Leave about the strength and courage we display when it is really tough. I am talking about our inner conflicts every single day...

        Day in and day out, every single person out there goes through so much of conflict just inside their head. Our mind is a battlefield and everything happens there. We are constantly juggling between one thought to another leading to 60k to 80k thoughts in a day and that's way too much. In all these, I think about how fragile we all are emotionally. Someone tells something unpleasant to us and that occupies this space and takes over everything else. We get swayed away by that one unpleasant thought leaving hundred other blessings to count on. How emotional we are even if we do not acknowledge it?

        I was thinking about the harshness of the second wave of COVID-19 that hit the entire world. What would the families of the people who have lost a dear family member thinking at this time? What would they feel when they open their gallery and look at those happily smiling photos? What would they feel when they are constantly remembered that the person no longer exists? How would they come to terms with such harsh realities? Something changes in their lives and life alters for a different path. But with all these one thing still stays. The void of the person who has left their lives FOREVER. Can you still ask them to take it positively? Can you go and still tell that this is all happening for a reason? Can you still tell them that this grief will reduce with time? Will you have the courage to do so? All you can do is just sit with them in silence and just be a helping hand.

        When I think of all these, I feel like our entire life is like a river flowing continuously from one point to the other. The river just flows finding its way even after hitting a rock. The rock is unexpected in its way but now that it has hit it, it finds a new path to reach its destination. The river wants a smooth ride too but when it doesn't happen, it recovers staying calm(like it always is) and finds its new path to reach its destination which is the ocean(and for us it is our higher pursuits). The river's natural tendency is to stay calm and keep flowing like its only duty through out. Can we be like a river?

        All the thoughts that come to us has come in only because we have allowed it to come to us. Even when what's happening in our life is not in our control, how we respond to it is in our control. That way, our mental health is always in our direct control. Sometimes, when a situation is too difficult to handle and life seems dull and miserable at that point in time, its okay to feel bad about it. Its really okay to cry it out. Its really okay to take a break and just be with yourself. Its really okay to acknowledge and tell people that you are going through a rough patch. What is not okay is to deny this and live a life which is a facade. This could be the beginning of something very dangerous. 

        So please know that what you are feeling NOW is completely okay. Know that your mental health is more important than the image you want to create about yourself with other people. Cheers to Life

                                                                                                            -Naveen S N

Yet again?

Yet again? 

Feels like just when things were seeming a recovery and of fresh breeze, the lessons do not seem to be over. Did we not take the course fully last time? Maybe not.

Yet again? 

The entire human race seems to be on its knees and there is fear, anxiety, despair everywhere. It's gloomy everywhere quite literally. Hmmm Mental health? Don't ask. 

Yet again?

Livelihood seems to have hit a roadblock with 'just living' taking precedence. What do you currently want? Healthy life or those bigger aspirations? Just basics.

Yet again?

Its just like the sudden rain in the city splashing on your new dress and dampening the spirits. New year and new goals. But yet again going just with the flow? Certainly uncertain. 

Yet again?

What can even do? Apart from holding to the only friend we ever know who helps. HOPE. Who else do we go out for help? Not that he will do any help. But it is still comforting

Yet again?

Let's hold onto this one branch like it's the last resort, like it's the only way forward, like it's the only thing we as humans can do. Will it help? Oh!! We survived last year.

Yet again?

Let's just Hope...

-Naveen Nagaraj

Two years later...

        It's two years to the dream we first set our foot into. April 6th 2019 was the beginning of the journey into the unknown with nothing already in place except a clear vision. As we complete year 2 and move into the next it seems like a baby which is growing in its infant phase. Each day seems new, each experience seems new and each small step calls for a celebration. It has been the same feeling for us. What started with two individuals now has thirteen of us striving to work with the clear vision of 'being concerned.'

        2020 which goes into the history as an unusual pandemic year, has taught us a lot. The year had a lot of emotional setpoints and a lot of ups and downs at every juncture. When we drew out a three year vision and action plans for the firm during March 2020, that is when the world got into a serious threat caused by an unprecedented event. Nothing ever mattered to any of us except for the safety and wellbeing of everyone and the families. Almost 6-7 months went by working from home where "Are you able to hear me now?" was the only constant :P

        This year has been about holding onto our beliefs much tightly like its the only way forward for us. There is always a reward for holding onto your beliefs which comes only in the end. Despite of this being a tough year, we have taken much tougher decisions in the best interest of the organization and that only helps us sleep peacefully at night. Stronger work ethics, professionalism and working on everything with utmost concern is what we strive for every single day.

        We are proud of the clientele we are associating ourselves with and we are so thankful to each and every client who have believed in us. We are thankful to our team that we are really proud of, for choosing us. We are thankful to everyone who has wished nothing but the best for M S N A and the way forward is to only spread good vibes in each others' mutual growth. We whole heartedly thank everyone who are part of this journey with us and everyone who has wished us good from far apart. 

        Cheers to another year of learning and new challenges in the entrepreneurial journey...

Gratitude and Love,

Naveen S N