Why Am I Here?
Thursday, 7. September 2006, 10:50:54
Growing up in the 1950s, I came in close contact with presidents, prime ministers, teachers, businessmen, priests, politicians, ambassadors, soldiers, sailors, printing press technicians, IAS officers, educators, tailors, publishers, business executives, salesmen, shoe makers, launderers, writers, actors, poets, singers, musicians, sailors, engine drivers, farmers, and many other categories of people.
I was surrounded by men and women who had made a firm decision in their lives about what they were going to contribute to their new country – and went out and made the contribution. They were, for the most part, well rewarded. Whatever their circumstances, they were always up to purposeful, productive work, interesting conversations that were about national or community issues, and, at the end of the day, fun, films, theatre, song and dance, and parties!
Theirs was a bootstrap generation that was involved in literally lifting a newly independent country, India, out of poverty by the sheer strength of its ideals and values. They inspired me with their vision, energy, tenacity, sense of community, and love
I had inspiring role models as I was growing up in New Delhi, India.
Newly freed from British Rule, India was in its first bloom of new nationhood. The fragrance of freedom and the dizzy heights of accomplishment were all around. Certainly, there were stories of the immense inhumanity of the partition. Many of my family escaped the butchery of Lahore by a hair’s breadth. Arriving in Delhi, they were penniless, but free. They were, for the most part, well educated. The heady incense of freedom and a new life to start over with gave them the impetus to start a new business, or a career. My mother was an editor, a journalist before India’s partition from Pakistan, and her skills were, as we say today, transferable. She turned to radio journalism, set up the first quality travel agency, and a small publication called Delhi Diary that still serves tourists today. My father, after a stint in journalism, joined the newly formed ministry of foreign affairs as a career diplomat. Both made contributions to country, community and family that have been recorded in the annual Who Who’s publication of India.
When it was my turn to answer the question, “Who do you want to be?”, I wanted to be all of the above, and life became very confusing.
Somehow, the drive behind the vision of my parent’s generation lessened by the time I was in my late teens and twenties, in the 1970s and 1980s. Corruption, dictatorial methods of government, shoddy business ethics, bad products and services, outdated educational institutions, and stagnation overtook the country.
In 1968, circumstances took me to the US where I studied economics, and started my career by being a – Hippie!
In the course of my 55 years, I have made many career moves and changes. By the age of 24, I was managing a chain of hotels in Washington DC. I had been a magazine editor, a movie hall operator, and a desk clerk before that. In my late twenties, I went to London, and turned to marketing on Oxford Street, and in Ealing, in London. Returning to India in the late 1970s, I reluctantly entered advertising, but stayed on with an enthusiasm that lasted for 28 years. I built major brands in India, and went to Muscat, Hong Kong, and Singapore on exciting assignments. By the late 1990s I had also made my mark as a writer in international journals on marketing and advertising, and on satellite technology. I write travel articles, some of which you can find on the Internet. I have edited prestigious journals and books dealing with archaeology, marine biology, and other subjects that fascinate me.
But even with substantial accomplishments in the fields that I entered, something at the back of my mind said, about the work that I was doing, “Not this. Not this. Nope, not this work, either!”
As I examined this nagging thought over the years, I finally came to find the message that was being given to me.
It was so simple, yet it took years to discover. All my life, I worked merely for myself. The lesson of my parent’s generation went out the window once I had my hands on the driving wheel of my life. They received great energy, satisfaction, and fulfillment because they worked from a much larger context – they contributed. To their country, to the city, their community, and to their family – not just to themselves.
When I connected with this large perspective, I stopped and looked at my life. In the process, I swung into a wholly unexpected career as a life coach. I’ve trained myself rigorously, every day for six years and taken myself apart to see what the design of my life has been. And then, with love and respect, I’ve put back together this sacred thing called life, and started life over again, this time, with a conscious commitment to make a difference in your life. That's why I'm here.
Take whatever you need, whenever you need it. I’m a comment or an email away
I was surrounded by men and women who had made a firm decision in their lives about what they were going to contribute to their new country – and went out and made the contribution. They were, for the most part, well rewarded. Whatever their circumstances, they were always up to purposeful, productive work, interesting conversations that were about national or community issues, and, at the end of the day, fun, films, theatre, song and dance, and parties!
Theirs was a bootstrap generation that was involved in literally lifting a newly independent country, India, out of poverty by the sheer strength of its ideals and values. They inspired me with their vision, energy, tenacity, sense of community, and love
I had inspiring role models as I was growing up in New Delhi, India.
Newly freed from British Rule, India was in its first bloom of new nationhood. The fragrance of freedom and the dizzy heights of accomplishment were all around. Certainly, there were stories of the immense inhumanity of the partition. Many of my family escaped the butchery of Lahore by a hair’s breadth. Arriving in Delhi, they were penniless, but free. They were, for the most part, well educated. The heady incense of freedom and a new life to start over with gave them the impetus to start a new business, or a career. My mother was an editor, a journalist before India’s partition from Pakistan, and her skills were, as we say today, transferable. She turned to radio journalism, set up the first quality travel agency, and a small publication called Delhi Diary that still serves tourists today. My father, after a stint in journalism, joined the newly formed ministry of foreign affairs as a career diplomat. Both made contributions to country, community and family that have been recorded in the annual Who Who’s publication of India.
When it was my turn to answer the question, “Who do you want to be?”, I wanted to be all of the above, and life became very confusing.
Somehow, the drive behind the vision of my parent’s generation lessened by the time I was in my late teens and twenties, in the 1970s and 1980s. Corruption, dictatorial methods of government, shoddy business ethics, bad products and services, outdated educational institutions, and stagnation overtook the country.
In 1968, circumstances took me to the US where I studied economics, and started my career by being a – Hippie!
In the course of my 55 years, I have made many career moves and changes. By the age of 24, I was managing a chain of hotels in Washington DC. I had been a magazine editor, a movie hall operator, and a desk clerk before that. In my late twenties, I went to London, and turned to marketing on Oxford Street, and in Ealing, in London. Returning to India in the late 1970s, I reluctantly entered advertising, but stayed on with an enthusiasm that lasted for 28 years. I built major brands in India, and went to Muscat, Hong Kong, and Singapore on exciting assignments. By the late 1990s I had also made my mark as a writer in international journals on marketing and advertising, and on satellite technology. I write travel articles, some of which you can find on the Internet. I have edited prestigious journals and books dealing with archaeology, marine biology, and other subjects that fascinate me.
But even with substantial accomplishments in the fields that I entered, something at the back of my mind said, about the work that I was doing, “Not this. Not this. Nope, not this work, either!”
As I examined this nagging thought over the years, I finally came to find the message that was being given to me.
It was so simple, yet it took years to discover. All my life, I worked merely for myself. The lesson of my parent’s generation went out the window once I had my hands on the driving wheel of my life. They received great energy, satisfaction, and fulfillment because they worked from a much larger context – they contributed. To their country, to the city, their community, and to their family – not just to themselves.
When I connected with this large perspective, I stopped and looked at my life. In the process, I swung into a wholly unexpected career as a life coach. I’ve trained myself rigorously, every day for six years and taken myself apart to see what the design of my life has been. And then, with love and respect, I’ve put back together this sacred thing called life, and started life over again, this time, with a conscious commitment to make a difference in your life. That's why I'm here.
Take whatever you need, whenever you need it. I’m a comment or an email away
WIDGETIZE