India and Entrepreneurs

When I look at the poor villagers who are living their lives on farming and other small businesses such as by selling milk or by carpentry or by running small poultry farms, every time it reflects that there is a significant gap between urban India and rural India .

Today India is developing with a good pace, and more contribution towards development is of urban areas. Imagine if Indian villages or rural India will also grow with the same pace, then it won’t be very hard for India to become the ‘World’s Largest Economy’.Government of India is continuously implementing different policies to bring out changes; but somewhere we are lacking behind. Sometimes it is because of lack of funds, loopholes in those policies and sometimes it is because of our corrupted system. We are trying hard in last few years but are not able to overcome this situation. So few of us might have this question in our mind - Is there no way for villages to catch up that pace? Some wise person has said “Nothing is Impossible.”  So, there comes the ray of hope ‘Entrepreneurship’.

Entrepreneurs with their splendid ideas and motivation can bring that change. In recent times we have already seen start-ups which are turning into big companies just because these entrepreneurs have that motivation and passion towards their idea and they work hard for it. Development of rural areas will not be an arduous task for these entrepreneurs. But, currently E-commerce/ Internet based start-ups have become a trend in India while 70% of Indians live in villages and around 30% of total are below poverty line (in rural areas it’s even more). These internet based start-ups are increasing consumerism; also these start-ups are not coming up with any technological advancement.According to me entrepreneurs should address the large scale problems. Their ideas should primarily focus on rural areas, social problems and technological advancement. When I look at entrepreneurship it’s all about believing and working on an idea using the core competencies around. But unfortunately today’s Indian entrepreneurs are not focusing on core competencies of India. India has good fertile land and larger work force in rural areas; so their ideas should revolve around the same. There have been few start-ups which are very successful today which are addressing the problems of rural areas, one such example is SELCO labs. 

To conclude I would say entrepreneurs should work around the problems in rural areas and villages, in this way they can play more significant role in development of India and that day will be not far when India will be the World’s largest economy.

P.S.- I know I am too young to write on this, and I am currently working on Internet based start-up itself. But this was my perspective towards what role should entrepreneurs play in development of India.

नसीब (Destiny)

मैं तुझसे कितनी दूर हूँ,
और तू मुझसे दूर होकर,
मेरे कितने करीब,
हाय कैसा ये मेरा 'नसीब'.

जब तुझे देखा था पहली बार,
हो गया था मुझे तुझसे प्यार,
मन ही मन मैं तुझसे करता रहा प्यार,
कर न सका मैं तुझसे इकरार,
मैं हो न सका तेरे करीब,
हाय कैसा ये मेरा 'नसीब'.

एक दिन आया मेरे दिल में ख्याल,
शायद तुझे भी है मेरे प्यार का एहसास,
पर तुने मेरे कहने का किया इंतज़ार,
करते रहे हम एक दुसरे से प्यार,
लम्हा था वो कैसा अजीब,
हाय कैसा ये मेरा 'नसीब'.

एक दिन चली गयी तू मुझसे दूर,
रह गया मैं तन्हा और अकेला,
अपने को गम में धकेला,
तेरे प्यार में टूटा मैं,
सब कुछ खोकर हो गया गरीब,
हाय कैसा ये मेरा 'नसीब'!

Book Review: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

This time I picked up the book for reading “The monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin S Sharma. You are reading this review, may be this is one of the effect of the book because it says “you should share good things with others”. Writing a review for this book is just like adding a drop of water to the sea, but I think it is good to start off. So here it goes!

The monk who sold his ferrai is story of a lawyer Julian who believes in materialism and does not give any thought to anything apart from his law practice. One day Julian collapses with heart attack. He recognizes this omen as 'Awakening Call'. Now he wants to live more joyful and spiritual life thus he start his journey to the mystical land of India. After going through various places he finally reaches to the mountains of Himalaya and there he finds sages of Sivana, who knew all secrets of how to live a joyful life with simplicity, serenity and harmony. One of the sages Yogi Raman treats him as a student on a promise that after learning all the methods he will go to the west and pass on the message to others.

John, who is a friend of Julian and a co-worker, is narrating this story. Now Julian has returned from India and one can notice tremendous change in his personality and wisdom. He appears in front of John to pass on the wisdom and techniques he learned during his odyssey to India.

Now rest of the book revolves around seven methods to live a better, joyful and spiritual life. These seven sermons are based on different techniques such as “heart of rose”, “secret of lake”, “art of self-leadership”,” do the things you fear”, “Yoga”, “mantras”, “power of discipline” etc.   By practicing them, you can lead to state of self-mastery. Book also talks about “the ultimate purpose of life.”

John being a good learner asks questions quite frequently, which clears the doubts of reader as well and makes book self-explanatory. 

I felt great reading about the rich ancient Indian culture. Being an Indian I am sure you have heard of most of the techniques and have practiced some of them. But in the recent time we are getting inclined towards western culture and forgetting the ancient Indian culture. In one of the chapter’s book also says: “Books do not teach you anything new, they simply help you to see what is already within yourself.”

So I would suggest you to read this book if you are seeking a personal change in your life, if you are looking for tools and tips which can make your life more joyful and delightful. You never know this book may act as an ‘Awakening Call' for you.