Business to the Buddha

Tag: South Mumbai

  • Butterfly Effect, is it?







    One fine day morning, a very strange thought came in my mind. Whatever we are doing, is it creating any problem in the nature or it is development?

    I shifted to suburb some time back, I found that there is relatively less cleanliness in suburb compared to where I used to live in South Mumbai (SoBo). Almost everyday there used to be swapping of the roads and all. By noon you could not find foliage on the roads. Why did this strange thought of swapping came to mind mind?

    In my suburban apartment a pigeon has made a nest with leafs. The same happens & happened in SoBo apartment too. I have seen at least three (actually five) times the pigeon could not properly hatch the eggs. Whereas I believe the suburban pigeon’s hatching could be better. In SoBo, pigeon’s nests were not as warm as Suburban pigeon’s nest is. This is because SoBo pigeon did not get foliage leafs whereas suburban pigeon did! Three times I observed eggs ended with no baby pigeon because proper warmth was missing! Had I done something for the nest, pigeon wont have accepted it. I tried it once threw some cotton to help him/her.

    So both these pigeon’s a suburban and a SoBo made me think – when we do something for “Good” e.g. swapping for cleaning roads, are we really doing something good for the nature? Who knows!

    Is it butterfly effect – no matter how small, an event can change the course of the universe forever.

  • Impermenance







    Recently, I relocated from Posh South Mumbai to Suburban Mumbai. There were reasons for this move. I used to travel 2+ hours one way in different public transports (a meager 35 KM distance). Not that I cannot afford a personal vehicle (or can not drive); I do not want to buy one. Considering various issues in Mumbai (India) – parking, traffic jam and notwithstanding petrol prices.

    So, after a troublesome one year travel of 4+ hours each working day, I decided to move on from the coveted South Mumbai (SoBo) to Suburban Mumbai. Now I travel 20-25 min (walk). Considering the kind of horrible experiences I had in last one year, this was a wonderful change. Alas! it had cost associated with it. (If you want to achieve something you have to let go of something else!) One one side I was happy that I am saving more than 3 hours of travel daily but the flip side was the kind of royal life e.g. three swimming pools (one Olympic size), track (again Olympic size well maintained) Golf Course at backyard (yes you can see a hole from 1 window of my bedroom), Happening place etc etc.

    I knew since day one of shifting to SoBo that I cannot afford it and I don’t belong here (at least currently). I always knew that this is not a permanent place for me. However, when I moved out of that comfort I felt strange as if that was my permanent abode. While I am yet settling down in Suburb, I know this is also a temporary abode (rented apartment). Yet, slowly we try to settle down as if we are to stay here forever. This transfer taught me good lesson on impermanence and our inability to come to terms with life and change. Change is difficult and change makes us uncomfortable.

    As an individual I found a very important change difficult; this must be even more difficult for organizations where many do not even realize the need for change, many are not willing to change and many just can not withstand change.

    Now I remember my MBA Marketing class with Prof Lopez, even more. He told me – “Pravin Marketing is like playing golf, you need to swing naturally.” Now there is no Golf course view from my bedroom and I did not move out of SoBo Naturally! Everything is impermanent even Sachin Tendulkar (God of Cricket) playing Cricket for India.