Business to the Buddha

Tag: History

  • Business and Humanity






    The visionary thinks beyond his company or his immediate profit. He thinks of the larger good. And, that is what makes him different. There is no place for labor exploitation and harassment of workers in such an enterprise

    I have been thinking about both Business and Humanity repeatedly. The above quote was one that caught my attention. This blog was due in Sept 2014. Yes a lot of things come in mind and thus ideas get spread, and forgotten at times.

    I revisited this title with reference to an interesting news of recent past – Donating the milk of human kindness. This kind of businesses and business ideas impress me a lot. There are a lot of social enterprises that work on the balance between Business and Social good. I have written a couple of blogs on social enterprise earlier. At times it is very difficult to survive in competitive markets with such a cause. There may have been a lot of other companies that probably we (I) might not know and were wound up due to financial crisis. When such closures happen, I start questioning myself again – what is the purpose? Why we work? and many other such leading questions. These points make me wonder many a times, that perhaps when we did not have the concept of money, humans were valued more. With Humans, human values were respected more. With human values, we probably were more caring, just and welcoming.

    The other thoughts going on in my mind were – my recent vacation to Ganpatipule and a video clip of actress Mahira Khan which is going viral of late. In Ganpatipule I visited “Prachin Kokan” a tourist attraction there. It is a place to know about how was Indian social fabric in past, for those who have never lived in Indian village or are kids growing up in tier-1 or tier-2 cities in India it could be a place to know how was our society. Though caste system was depicted there, I could not find a mention to “untouchables” there, so I may be able to write on what was wrong in past – compared to what we learnt in schools. In that museum I could relate to business and humanity working together in historic India – such as a bangle seller would not take money from a baby girl of village. At the time of the girl’s marriage, father of the girl will give this bangle seller gold coin or something. I wonder if we were less ambitious (perhaps driven less by wealth) – as a society – during those times. I could relate this museum and that society to gratitude.

    Gratitude, made me connect to the opinion and viral video clip of Mahira Khan. In this video I felt that if this actress had problem with India she should have refused working here. Though the interviewer is talking more in the clip, but if a person has so much issue with a whole country he or she should just keep oneself away from them isn’t it? This shows a person being opportunistic and thankless. This thought makes me go round to business. The actress is doing business, by acting in Indian movie. Agreed! The question again comes back – can we club or say compromise – “business and humanity” and “business and our self-respect” and “business and our values”?

    Quote – Business Standard article – Buddha at Work

    Disclaimer – author has not seen/visited the website of BabyChakra (referred in the donating the milk of human kindness), nor is related to the company.

  • Lady’s Finger Recipe






    Nope, this post is not about how to make, it is inspired by a grandma making Lady’s Finger.

    When I was in schools, my brother once told me for the subject of history that I did not like – “You have to study it irrespective of your choice. Our system is such that to graduate to the next grade you have to pass each subject, even if you don’t like or enjoy one subject. So better be sincere for the subject, forget scoring well in that at least get passing grades.” After that he added – “Do not think too much about liking or disliking the subject just give it some time to sink in. Just study it do not be feverish about it.”

    This was a good start for some of the things I did not like. It does not mean I enjoyed taking every subject sincerely. I never enjoyed History as a subject, until I had to pass the subject upto grade 10 (include English language upto 12th). Reading anything on history later on was interesting though. There was no pressure to “passing” the subject anymore, no need to remember anything. This point made me somewhat more sincere to “what I did” and somewhat in learning rather than the grades. Well, it still does not mean that I became a great student – I was just an above average student. After all these exercises, I learnt one thing – put some efforts, dedicate time and energy to what one is doing. Sincerity and dedication were two takeaway words from there. The lesson is on and off with me.

    My wife is always interested in cooking new stuff. She keeps on learning new dishes and experiment with those. Recently, she was watching ‘Lady’s Finger Recipe’. Out of curious I too started watching the video with her. To my utter surprise, the cook was not working in a high profile kitchen. It was some open space, not on a good quality burner, but on a chulha, an open air temporarily made fireplace. The first glance made me even more curious. I started watching the recipe. What made me stuck to the video was the dedication of the cook.

    I and my wife spoke to each other – wow! She is so content, no pressure of running to office after cooking food and packing it in tiffins. No pressure of cooking, dinner, washing utensils and sleeping to get ready for the next day either. She looks so peaceful making this. This kind of devotedness one needs to be happy in life, isnt it? No worries of getting passing grades and dislike for doing what you are doing.

    This kind of work ethics remind me of meditation. Work does not remain work, it becomes a prayer.

    Isn’t there a lot of learn from grandma in this small 8 min video?

    Related blogs – Truth is something you really do.