Rama Moondra

I am not a lazy person. If I get a clean footpath, I’ll walk. I love walking a lot. But once back in India,its reduced a lot. Nah…don’t get me wrong. No traffic jams or bad pedestrian laws here.

When I walk I also see dogs walk. I see dog’s crap on lawns. I see dogs run. Street dogs and leashed ones too. Now I have another reason to hold against dogs. Dogs need to be trained. Dogs are also dependent on the owner. India is full of street dogs and people who are dog lovers, especially on the street, in name of kindness. They feed them; make it difficult for walkers with any kind of bag to pass by and two wheeler owners have many bad memories of the same.

That’s why I absolutely abhor some hate for dogs. Especially when they pass me on my walks and start barking their heads off and trying to come towards me and all the owner does in a boring voice is “No,beta,” Then looks at me assuring of its well mannerism. Hush..Who taught them? You?? I suppress my question all the time.

Owners need to start training their dogs from an early age. Not just when something happens. The owner takes on the responsibility by getting the dog. It makes it their job to train it, long before it starts biting and pouncing on every known face in the neighborhood.

It’s not only big dogs, small dogs are actually the worst to me.Big dogs are supposed to bark like beasts, because they’re big, but your small dog barking is like a broken piano.

It’s not only the barking or the biting either. It’s also everything else: the pooping on public places in open. If they are your children (Dog owners are serious on this), why can’t you potty train them as well in your toilet.

Can a dog owner really expect to neglect all proper training and assume that if they yell at their dog it will learn? Sorry to break it to you, but that doesn’t work. Animals don’t speak human in the real world, so settle down and train the Dazzles and Tigers so they don’t end up being misbehaved and owner labeled as father to them.

” Guess What??”  Nikhil,my new client is a fitness freak. His excited voice made me nervous. Must be a new protein bar has hit the market. I let my horses of imagination run loose.

“hirrr!! New gym ..same place where Goldshield operated. Now great Mumbai chain of a celebrity fitness guru is opening here.” I sighed. Not out of relief but disappointed. How can it be??

Market sensitivity and research is vital before starting any business venture. Any product or service needs to identify itself with market need and then meet it too. This is a tough economy so survival is only of the fittest.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet its so amazing, how many people don’t get it.

A new gym has just opened up where the earlier one shut shop. I do not believe it is a good idea. Why? It was at a disadvantage because it was at a place which has no parking space. Most others do operate in residential and do have parking facility.   If the gym doesn’t have a place to park, how can one patronize business? If parking the vehicle itself  is an exercise then how to get takers for the gym?

So the best thing to do is not to touch such property at all and that too with repeated business failure history in a saturated market with mature competitors.

And after all good businesses need is someone with a bit of common sense but sadly most businessmen are lacking in that skill.

People do not sell profitable businesses, unless of course they are retiring, and expect it to cost a fortune if that is the case. So, unless you are doing something radically different, don’t bother buying a cheap business. It is like catching a bullet at shootout scene.

Ancient Egyptian believed that to go to heaven, you need to know two significant answers to most basic questions.

“Have you experienced joy in your life?”

“Has your life brought joy to others?”

Simple, isn’t it? Not really, if you sit down and try answering it deep within your heart. Your mind may get cluttered with more painful thoughts of you trying to bring joy or get one but failing.

Honestly, joy is simpler to get and give. It’s not about buying a new car. It’s about getting perfect caramel popcorn in a boring movie. It’s not about having a great house but about making a great home you want to come back to. It’s about getting a good job and not about a boss you secretly wish to vanish away from mother earth.

Joy is understood by even the smallest child. They are drawn to it and captivated by it. They know that is precious. As we grow older we lose the understanding of what joy is. We become distracted by what others would have us believe joy is. Joy cannot be found in possessions or in social status. It is found in who we are. Laughter is the easiest way to describe joy, but even that word falls short.

Watching a child take its first steps is joy. Feeling an unborn child kick for the first time is joy. To spread laughter is to spread joy.

So, what’s your recipe of spreading joy this morning? Mind if I make a simple suggestion? Go and make breakfast for someone who you like to give joy.

On a bad hair day, I always tip the waiter extra or give an extra ten to auto-rickshaw and see them surprised and smiling. It just cheers me up seeing that I am reason of someone’s happiness.

And who says, it needs a lifetime to last? Begin today and it has no boundaries.

Off late, I am working a lot with voices. Ohh..Did I mention my course of Voice –Over Artist that I took last year. They taught me how   to play with tone but right now, I am writing about telephonic conversations. People judge a lot by the voice they hear. I do  transition coaching on phone and have heard my coaches react sharply to different voice-modulations.

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a voice is priceless.  Many things a voice can reveal that are worth knowing about someone. Certainty, cooperativeness, authority, and attention are  natural traits that are visible  :) on phone, and a savvy person knows how to leverage them .From umm’s to huh’s, voice is filled with signals that might make a person repeat, skip, or rephrase a question. I do that a lot to get cues in training hall.

In the world that we are in, Internet rules our life. We talk with fingers and learn with eyes glued to computers. Long that you spoke to an old friend wishing New Year. It’s about e-cards and sms.

A lot of conflict resolutions can happen in colleagues if you do not cramp the mail box and call the person. The more we learn with our eyes and tell with our fingers, the less we’re hearing what’s being said.  Voice communication will prove ever more valuable as  the social networking and search engine optimization crowd our world.

A word that comes from a person’s mouth and not their keyboards is going to become as precious as ever. Number-crunching will  get the point across, but voices amplify the meaning.

Listen up.

Let us talk a little business today.

Remember the neighborhood store you used to go to when you were tiny and choosing a chocolate was the biggest difficult decision you made. Every child in your vicinity knew about your latest possessions. You told people about you and how did you get that winning stuff convincing your father.

You talked about yourself then but you do not now. You go unnoticed so many times. So if you are thinking of starting something new or are a small entrepreneur, read on.

It was a time of small towns and family owned businesses. Why were they doing brisk business in those days? What has gone wrong? Blame it on the malls and stop FDI . But small entrepreneurs need to revisit the power they have and underutilizing it. The power of you, talking about yourself. Who can do it better? That’s the way you create “Word of Mouth”.

Talking was the secret to all those family owned businesses way back when (you know, in the 70s and 80s) but it really wasn’t a secret to them; it was just common sense. If you want someone to know about what you’re doing, then tell it to some and they will tell the rest of the world.

In a world controlled by the social networks and media, People love to talk. So, if you are running any small business, got a new practice set up, started a new venture. Speak up, talk about it. Share your vision that you have for your enterprise. Don’t worry about creating a sales pitch. Just convey your passion you have for the business and people will want to tell someone else.

Go ahead..Speak up. That’s the only way people hear you.

One more year has gone by. From the place I am standing right now, I tiptoed to look at what I left behind. Not so surprised that, my eyes are moist.

The year as usual has been losses and gains but losses of humans and gains of more work and success.

Though the year saw lot of goodbyes of big names, for me Jagjit singh was the biggest. His velvet voice was only respite in lonely freezing cold U S days. Tucked in remote western America, I related a lot to his voice. Ghulam Ali echoed my sentiments when he said,” Mera yaar,dildaar chala gaya.” Dev Anand and Mario were next two. Café Mondegar at Colaba Mumbai has been a favourite hangout for me. Mainly because the walls are adorned by Mario’s creations bringing Miss Ninmbupani,Miss Fonseca alive.

My Babuji lost his speech and is now bedridden. Seeing him this way, has taken a lot from my soul. I am slowly waking up to the fact that it’s a countdown of a person who shaped my life in various ways. I wish. I can reverse this and see him the way he always was. Unable to bear this pain, I reel under it.

This year I learnt the biggest art of my life and still practicing it. I finally graduated to treat people the way they treat me. (Have been inhumanly patient with this trait.).  Understood a small fact that door can be locked from both sides.

Three new big names came in client list and brought amazing satisfaction of creativity and strategic implementation of policies which has been my core strength.

I am little more recognized, a little more wanted and though never ever did any business development, I am blessed with an enviable clientele who patiently waited for my dates. Thanks to them and to god almighty.

“May your fan –following increases.” This was a wish sent by a client, who sold two hundred DVDs of my video in one hour.  I now give my video s too with reading material and it has been a great experience.

I also look forward to the journey of becoming a master coach. It takes seven years minimum of brain training and I am on the first step. Exciting but draining every drop of my energy, the four hours study, has cut down on my sleep by two hours. Now I sleep only five hours and hope I master this too.

Right now, after a great new year beginning while watching sun rising from the sea, I am writing this with a faith that the New Year will bring the best for all of us, I hope, not to let go of golden leaves of any plant for this year.

May health, wealth and peace be yours and everyone you love. Happy New Year.

To  Ahmedabad from Bangalore, a normal journey of two and half hours late night flight turned out to be strange experience yesterday.

After three grilling days of Neuro-leadership series coaching, jam-packed schedule, dinner with fellow participants at the airport, I looked forward to some quiet time then after.  Finally delayed flight took off. While listening to an audio -book on my iPod, I felt a little tap on my seat. The cabin crew stood there offering a sandwich.

I politely refused. “This is complimentary.” He clarified.I  refused again smilingly  though asked if I can get a cup of tea.

“Sorry, we do not serve hot beverages in this flight.” I went back to listening mode. Soon the crew came back with a smile. “Regular tea will do for you?” I acknowledged gleefully and thanked twice.

The tea came in and the crew member stood next to me introducing him with a shake hand. I did reciprocate though a bit surprised. “Listen, I have given you my tea so now you at least owe me a coffee in your city.”

I tried getting the context right. “Are you talking to me?” Shocked and bewilderment writ large on my face I asked.

“Yes Yaar! Now I can’t ask you for a drink in that boring city so let’s begin with coffee.” He smiled constantly bending down to talk.

I tried not to look strikingly zapped.“Have we met before?” I gave one chance to assure myself if its case of mistaken identity. “No, but now we can .I come to city every week. Are you married or dating anyone?”

I excused myself sternly now giving a clear stance that it may result in complain. He grinned at me. “It’s ok  …don’t worry. You look so charming. You talked nicely. No one thanks us politely. I thought you will make a good company. Chill now.”

This incident may look very normal though I am a bit shaken. The value system of our younger genre is different. Woman at all ages and strata are deemed as “available” or at least “give it a try”. Is being polite means  signal of any kinds?

This morning, I called a friend to ask that can it be a complaint in writing since I cannot prove the incident. He laughed, “Be happy! It’s a compliment from a male half your age. Don’t act like a sixty year old.”  I hung up even more awestruck.

Is my value system too ancient or have I not been able to catch up with changing times?

B.S.Nagesh,Founder and ex managing director of retail chain Shoppers Stop  has signaled green to “Trrain Foundation.”  A unique concept with tried and tested training modules designed by Aptech, Trrain will build employable capacity in retail staff.

Air-conditioned classroom in a shipping container  fitted into a truck and parked outside shopping malls makes it easy to attend classes for an hour .Coupled with affordable fee Trrain sounds like a viable business model.

Rural India can be second possibility to groom talents from tier three cities and hence increasing employability.The next step can be to explore models of training  physically challenged people that can be employed anywhere, not only retail .

All dreamy, good stuff? Only if government works out on the decision to ease foreign investment in organized retail. Government has to wake up to the fact that FDI is going to increase jobs and the only person suffering in the process is the middle man or intermediaries. The kirana shopkeepers are rich community anyways. Most of them own shops worth crores . So, the friendly neighborhood Kirana guy will exist to make deliveries at home and get you that new coffee brand on demand with apologetic smile of storing your choice next time.

India will take another 100 years to grow up to online shopping of everyday FMCG consumption. Till then, it’s the capacity building process which is the need of the hour. Not banning the growth or revolution.

We all are surrounded by people. Love them, hate them but cannot ignore them. They are all around us. Creations of god almighty exists in full glory everywhere.

Over the years I have become a “reader” and proud of my ability to “read” people.  I believe I have an accuracy rate that is somewhere around 80% of judging others. As for the remaining 15% it doesn’t really matter.

They are residents of cookie cutter categories, (all of them behave alike.) I would rather appear illiterate. Oops…got my math’s wrong…Remaining 5%? Well, those are the ones; I am bonded to emotionally (Read Blinkered.)

So those 80% are shaping my life everyday and every way..oops..typo again.” Their way” if it works.

Some of them are travel agents and send me on guilt trip (free of cost! Mind you).Some people are Frenemies. Friends who are disguised enemies. Continuously proving them right and me wrong.

The third ones are difficult souls. (As if the first two were easy?) Perennially unhappy and trying to be perfect, a sense of pride engulfs them always. “Acquired Reformist” I call them. They try desperately to seek attention and  that too  by pure criticism. Sometimes even without getting any detail about the topics mentioned.

Well, I did not mean to denounce any types. They are colorful and leave indelible marks on my life everyday in some form.

As they say, “variety is the spice of life” and different characteristics are just another spice.  Though sometimes it’s like Coriander on a dish. Does not make a difference if it’s not there but added up, may enhance flavor. So, otherwise mundane life is better with these people and they sure add new dimensions of human psyche  to my training sessions.

So, I might grit my teeth, keep my patience by fake smiles and sometimes hurt, the fact remains intact that all kind of  people are flavor enhancer and I will be kind of lost without them.

The collage refuses to fade. Though my own cup of memories is overflowing, a part of this post is for Amandeep. A son who saw his father’s situation going bad to worst and watched helplessly, feeling wasted despite the best he could do. I now know how it feels.

Today, I am sitting quiet since morning remembering each time I got late returning Babuji’s call. He loved listening to my caller tunes and most of the time his first conversation will begin with discussion of song he heard.

I am born and brought up by extremely perfect parents so nothing, absolutely nothing could have gone wrong by any means in our daily routine. Going to Babuji’s place was such a breather. I could jump around bare feet, cycle on dusty road, eat loadful of sweets in one go, read endless comics, watch TV, apply nailpolish and sleep on sofa.

Though my parents always said that I become a spoilt brat when I visit him, I would turn an oiled angel before going home. My mom struggled with my curly, unruly hair to tie them neat and it would always end up as a soggy tale with no ponytail but Babuji would know how to oil my hair without pain. Till my last visit, he would sit and oil my hair himself scolding on fashion statement of dry hair.

I tried gulping when he looked at my dry hair this time and blinked. “You be alright and oil them soon.” I said trying not to choke.

Fathers are so important figure in our life. They shape our value system, teach us to face life and above all, accept us the way we grow.

One cold night of Christmas, while coming back home, I slept in his lap but woke up feeling cold in face. He made a cup of his palms and covered my ears. The effect was balmy. Years after years, snowy Christmas of different spans of life have given me a lot of chills but the soothing effect continues.

I am sure he will speak again. Till then his hands protecting me on cold nights will keep my heart warm.

For, all those who have seen fathers fading and reeled under it. I pray for my Babuji and everyone who needs it.