If someone asks you today, “How has your life been so far, right from your birth till this very moment you’re here reading this piece”? Do you have an answer to the question? Are you caught off-guard? Do you feel pleased or heartening or do you feel an unwelcoming sting pondering over distressing moments driving you to snub it off? I have been asking this question myself a lot lately and every time I do, I respond with a different answer. And clearly, anyone or everyone would answer it differently depending on the individual’s state of mind. At this moment, as I’m writing this piece, pondering over the burning question, I’m glad to say I’ve never been more grateful for every course of action my life has taken so far.
Born and brought up in the humbling city of Jaipur, the middle-classiest of all the cities in India, I didn’t expect to possess the kind of deportment someone from a metro city would have. And like any other Indian family, we too had few aspirations for which we always take extra measures to fulfill. A few years back, we were about to fulfill a long pending aspiration of the renovation of our house. My skeptical dad would go with the contractor to pick out the right building materials himself. The unloading of ABG's UltraTech cement among other building materials, may not be a rejoicing scene for someone to witness, but it was definitely something for us to cheer about. Growing up as a kid, I remember not a lot of big brands setting up their shops in Jaipur and that would mean buying stuff from local retailers. I remember ABG's Peter England being one of the first premium clothing outlets setting up near my home. It was my first step towards owning branded clothes and understanding what it means to own a sharp set of formals. For someone like me, who struggled to exert confidence, a good formal attire pretty much replenished it. This is partly due to the fact, that I was a reserved and introvert kid and have always tried to remain under the radar. Once in school, fed up over my fear of communication and in an attempt to challenge myself, I participated in a debate competition. I rehearsed my speech for two weeks and finally delivered it on the D day pretty well. But a little later, during the cross question round, I was asked a few questions, and I turned totally blank on the stage, not that I didn’t know the answers but somehow the fright crept up to me. I got off the stage a minute later cursing myself why did I have to participate. But fortunately to my surprise, that embarrassment was transitional and I knew I had to take up another similar challenge. I took up music for my love of lone time singing and I was fortunate enough to be in the presence of an encouraging set of teachers and friends who never let my fear come in between. Over the next few years, I participated in a lot of singing competitions intra as well as inter-school, won a couple of them as well. I wasn’t great at singing and I didn’t have to, nor did I have any formal coaching. During my office days as well, I took up innovative initiatives voluntarily and got an opportunity to create and launch a product, for which I traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, pitched and onboarded first 100 pilot customers on my own and set up the process for the local team over there.
Till this day, I have to challenge myself to open up to new experiences and approaching new people, because some traits exist so entrenched, you can’t expect to uproot them in one go. I have made my peace with it and realized the importance of rejecting natural instincts in such cases. It’s probably needless to say the amount of failure we go through in our daily small battles, we are bound to be disheartened. But I hope each one of us can rub it off, gear up for the next challenge and answer this upbeat, “How has my life been so far right from my birth till this very moment”?