The World of my Own

I have had the good fortune of having great guides or mentors all my life. Starting my ultimate guide/mentor - My Dad. While he was with us, I looked up to him and went to him for everything. I (and my brother) owe all basic values and behaviors to him (my mom refined those values in us). After him (i was 27 by then), I sought mentors, especially for my professional career. I found many - some of my direct supervisors, other leaders in my firms, and many virtual ones in good books. These mentors have been very influential in my career, in my life, and where I am now. I am so grateful to them for their time and counsel. I always felt mentors are always needed to guide us. Even Indian Gods and Heroes like Ram and Arjun had mentors or teachers that guided them in time of need (Simba had Mufasa).  Multiple TED speakers confirmed this idea. But, recently I interacted with people who told me that mentoring is no use to them. And that they are different than most other people an...

Every day we read about the Water Crisis around the world. 2018 included news of Day 0 (the day when a city or regions runs out of water) for Cape Town and our very own Shimla. We hear of farmer suicides across India - one of the main causes is lack of water for their crops (I know oversimplifying a complex issue).  Our groundwater is at the lowest levels ever. Yet we are not seeing a comprehensive a water management or water conservation policy from the center or the states. But last week, we took a step in the right direction with a new ministery for Jal Shakti . Hope at last India will look at its water resources holistically which is the desperate need of the hour. I will be the first to admit; I don't conserve my water use. I try but I think I can do better. I let my son play in our shower for 15 -  20 minutes almost every day. But he is so happy when he is playing there. I believe we all deserve these simple pleasures. And we, Mumbaikars, can afford it if we manage ou...

A lot has happened since I last wrote a blog post. Lost my rock, my dad to diabetes. I got married to a wonderful lady. Spent 5 years in the most amazing place in the world, Southern California, enjoying each other’s company and exploring the world. Then we had our amazing son; who is two now. Professionally, I grew a lot within Arcadis in Los Angeles. Was lucky enough to graduate with an MBA from UCLA and that too with no debt. But this post is not about all that. It is about my move back home to Bombay (Mumbai) among other things. It has been more than 6 months since we moved back. This move was three or so years in the making. My wife and I made a decision to leave our life in SoCal and move back home to with our family and be part of India growth story. To be truthful, I also wanted to make up for lost time. I missed being with my mom (and late dad) for 14 years. I missed being with and being their for my brother as he navigated through adult life without me. They never asked for ...

I wrote this when i was in Praha 2 weeks ago during my eurotrip but for got to post it. The reason for for my euro trip was to get know the country's culture and i got the with 35 km bike to karlsten castle from prague. My ride was hard. Changes in slope, losing my way, running out water, friends with cramps; i face every issue imaginable. I even had flat tire on one bike. But i fixed it. Anyways, the post is about the czechs. They helped my friends and i every time we were in trouble. Like a fellow cyclist who helped us get to a different to find part of the route. Like the lady in the middle of no where came out of her house to get us back on the right route when she saw that we were lost. Like the bartender who directed me to the next town because he did not have what we wanted. Like the restaurant owner and worker who helped us with some multivitamin drinks and a smile :-) All these czech people live outside of prague. They were so courteous. Always smiling. even if we did not...

It is funny how "not so well off" people end up giving so much and touch your help when you least expect them to. I was returning to the airport from my hotel in Denver last week. My hotel had called a super shuttle for me. It was bang on time. A normal looking black d00d came out and took my luggage. After placing in the booth of his van, he opened the rear door for me and i sat there in one of the seats. He silently then started driving to other hotels around downtown Denver to pick other passengers. He did not seem to find any. At his last pick up point, there were a lot of people and traffic but non for his van. I knew my hotel was fully booked for the weekend and this one seemed the same. I proceeded to ask him if there was a big event in Denver over the weekend and he told me there were several. This was start of a nice conversation with him. To make our conversation easier, he invited me to take the passenger seat next to him. I politely obliged as i love to ride shotg...

My friend Sonal recently recommended to me this blog about personal finance for young people. It is called http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com. Sounds like a scam, doesn't it? At first i was skeptical too. Reading the blog and researching it over the web made me realise - this guy can really help me. The blog is written by a recent Stanford guy, Ramit Sethi . Yes, he is of Indian decent. I think for me, this fact strengthened his genuineness :-)He also recently realised a book under the same name - I will teach you to be rich. I have bought that book. Personally, i think i am ok with personal finance. I am risk taker by nature.and I have been putting a lot of time into reading about it and learning. I have also taken some advice from a financial advisor for my investments. But I was having problems managing simple things. I needed a method to manage the zillions of accounts that i have currently. Yah, I have managed to do that like most young guys just out of schools. Most of the...