My daily routine involves juggling balls. Not plastic or organs, but balancing different business ventures, each with a female business partner. My mother, my friend and so on.
The end of each day is good. Even if the meeting in the evening went bad. We try to create unique architectural designs (Arch & Curve); help people get flat on rent simply by reading and filtering a post per minute because the employee threatens to quit after every 1000 posts he reads, pulls his hair out, and approves/rejects/suspends/blocks/listens to verbal desi assaults from free marketeers not getting free service i.e. agents. (Flatandflatmates India)
I say all this not to promote but to satisfy myself every day that, yes, I am doing this for a reason. I must not quit. I earn. I work. I give back to society hence life is good.
Affirmation done. Call from manager ignored. He can go to hell. He will carry a phone there too.
The cycle is set. But my legs get tired. How many hours each day, must I pedal?
The problem is, in developing all my ventures, my dream of social entrepreneurship got realised. But each of them is like a developing country. Less resources, more expectations. And a socialist preamble.
Don’t get me wrong. All the experience gave me spices from different cultures, words from languages I didn’t know, travels to far-flung lands in my country amidst pagdi, looghdi, dhoti, and tanned songs of local history.
For one such site visit, I drove 182 km to Dantiwada. It was clear, humid noon and we had finished meeting the family we were designing and supervising for. After the bhumi pujan, they took us to the nearby dam, where the water was maliciously tempting, calling us to jump in.
But what if there were water snakes inside? Or thorns? No one came and added chlorine to it, like a pre-conditioned city pool. This was raw nature. And I have to let go of my initial fear and test the water with my toe.
Yep, it’s cold.
Isn’t starting a new business just like that? The fear of new experiences. What if my money sunk in the unknown waters? My life savings.
My friend/client told me the depth of the dam. Which helped. It made me calm and I returned to the exciting thought of entering in completely, not just the temperature checking toe.
When we have more facts, we reduce our fear of loss.
There were thorns hidden inside, scratching and hurting. But the satisfaction of doing something I like was enough. Nature is god’s balm. It soothes the pain of responsibility like Eno, kaam shuru 6 second me..
Because when you assume the role of a boss, you are constantly angry, because of acidity. Yes. It can’t be due to taking 1000 calls a day asking for favors or an employee scolding you for task B not being done, ignoring the completion of task A. The employees scold the boss. That should be told to all startup aspirants, before.
Why am I angry in 70% of my stomach? Because I drive around, a lot. And while driving, there is a constant vibration in my pocket. ‘Did the work get done? Was this bill cleared? Progress on-site? Post approved? Rehearsals?’
Same messages, every day, from different people.
And I tell myself, ‘It’s okay.’
Just like Dori, ‘just keep swimming’, ‘just keep swimming’, and ‘just get the leak in the car roof fixed’, and the brake wire cut by a mouse and 99 other problems.
Sometimes, I use social media to connect with people I don’t know but would like to.
I just wish that people who see me on Instagram or hear about me from any other platform, would stop assuming and say to me, ‘you never meet’, ‘you are always enjoying your life’ or ‘making body in gym’, or that ‘business is easy’.
Life shown online is pleasing to the eyes. Like a magician’s trick, it’s not real. No one would want to see a man/woman complain, shout or cry online.
Perhaps, at the end of the day, I should just go home and open a bottle of scotch. But I live in a dry state.
And the day hadn’t ended. Dropping my business partner at her home, I drove to the airport, checked in, flew up, and saw the water again. But this time, it was huge, as far as eyes would go, covering a little piece of visible triangular land.
I miss the small waterfall of Dantiwada. ‘Chirag photo mast aya’, Vipul Bhai was unbothered by the water drops falling on his camera.
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There is much I say about how to run a business, being a business consultant. It first means assuring people, with my presence. Then comes their problems, and solutions.
But what we really need is someone like Balram to Krishna or Jay to Veeru. Knowledgable and caring. We all need a big brother.
I don’t have him. I imagine someone asking me, ‘भाई तू ठीक तो है ना।’
The flight has landed. It’s 00:40 IST and raining. I am going to be soaking wet for the meeting, in a track and t-shirt.
“…Aapka din shubh ho…”
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