What 4 favourite Superheroes taught me about Parenting

“Take out the Spiderman book today!” yells my younger son. “No, let’s read Hulk”, counters his elder brother. This nightly ritual in our home is a daily negotiation for the bed-time story my sons and I read together once they are tucked in for the night. Of this hour-long event, the first crucial 20 minutes determines super hero selection. The negotiations begin amicably enough, with strong undercurrents of politicking, bribery and cross-influencing. Just when the dealings start bordering on outright violence, I use my veto power and decide on a third candidate (Captain America, arise!) who will grace our story session this time.

Stallion Realty & Translink Roadways - The Man behind it All !

In conversation with Abhishek Dasgupta or ‘Stallion’ as he is referred to by the team of the The Potter’s Earth.

What’s the story behind Stallion?

Stallion is the Realty and Roadways business that I started a few years ago. I began with real estate in Mumbai, and once that had grown and flourished, I was on the look- out for a new avenue to venture into. Two years ago when my mom came up with the idea of getting into roadways, I thought it was great, and a few months of research later came the birth of Stallion Roadways. Our research included speaking to current bus owners, manufacturers, agents etc. and once our initial apprehensions were mitigated, we were excited to get started. We picked the Pune-Nagpur route to run our buses because not only did it make sense revenue-wise, but my dad was in Nagpur so it would make operations more convenient. 

Making Life Beautiful !

After pulling out a batch of fresh brownies from the oven, I neatly cut them into cubes and packed them into 3 different boxes. One was for me to keep in the refrigerator, one was for my friends to gorge on the next day and the third was for an extremely special person in my life who I have looked up to since I’ve known her.

As I scrambled out of home at 8:30 pm, juggling the box of brownies, my handbag and a carton full of trash (a result of the seasonal cooking), I made my way to the car. While I drove, I thought of all the things I had pending on my plate for the next day at work, how my car needed to be dropped off to servicing and how I had to plan my dad’s birthday (which was the next day). At 9, I finally got into the elevator at my destination to drop off that last box of brownies.

Heena Shah (Heena Aunty as I call her) is Superwoman in disguise. She, like many other businesswomen in today’s world has an innate sense of balance between work and home. On a typical day in her life, she’ll wake up and ensure breakfast is on the table, make lunch, get ready and head out to work by 10am. She’ll spend the day at her parlor, having interesting conversations with her customers, overlooking the inventory or simply talking to her staff about their life. She’ll ensure she makes it home for a quick lunch break with her husband and son to catch up with them on their day, before heading back to work. She’ll be the last one out the door at work, lock up and come home in time to plan dinner, which she ensures is a family affair.

After I handed her the box of brownies, we sat down to catch up and I had to ask her how she did it !

  

The Incredible Journey of a Dancer, Writer, Therapist and Businesswoman !

A Writer, a Dancer, an Arts-based Therapist, an Entrepreneur, Founder- Director of Artsphere, Pune, a wonderful person and, most importantly, a very good friend are just some of the words, among many others, that I can use to describe Anubha Doshi.

4 Things To Remember if you want a Career in Music !

The Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day is a global phenomenon celebrated on the 21st of June every year to mark the solstice and first day of summer in many countries. Of course, in India, this day usually falls bang in the middle of heavy monsoons all over the country! However, that doesn’t hold us back from being a part of this culturally diverse and spectacular event. India played its part with multicultural musical performances all over the country showcasing folk and tribal, old and new genres !

I, on the other hand, decided to catch up with a close family friend who also happened to be my music teacher when I was a kid. Shitalchandr Kulkarni, apart from being the lead guitarist in Tungztn is also a fabulous music teacher, producer, composer and amazing human being. We got chatting about his journey over the years, how he pursued his dream to be a musician and his views on the independent music scene in India.

The Story of a Time-Traveler

As we all stared at the carvings on the walls of the ancient temple, trying to make sense of them, Kush effortlessly deciphered them for us, meticulously explaining what each panel depicted. He had an answer to every question any of us threw at him, whether it pertained to Rahul and Craig’s curiosity about Hindu mythology, Ritesh’s interest in architecture, or Khushboo and Ashley’s passion for understanding human behavior, culture and society. He was even able to provide snippets of information on how best to take pictures of the ancient ruins to ensure that Varun gets the best photographs. Kush Dhebar never failed to amaze us with his tremendous knowledge of just about everything on our short holiday to the historic town of Hampi, not to mention entertaining us with anecdotes of his previous excavations at different sites, much to the envy of outdoorsy Sagar!

3 things to know if you want to pursue a Career in Sports !

From injured physios and bitten defenders in the Football World Cup, to India winning 10 matches in a row in the Cricket World Cup, sports talk has been the pulse of conversations in social circles for the past year. In the wake of the nail biting and exciting year in the world of sports, I found myself in an interesting discussion with my friends about sports in the global context and the scope of being a sports person in India today. One of my friends in this discussion was Ryesh Venkatraman, a professional footballer and avid sportsman. He spoke of how athletics has been brought into the limelight in the past 5 years and how kids today have ample opportunities to pursue sports.

Thinking more on that conversation after I got home that day, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to Ryesh about his journey as a sport person and know more of his thoughts on the subject. Promptly, we met over coffee the next day and had a fun heart to heart on growing up, careers and sports! 

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 “When I was younger, my family and I lived in Bombay before eventually moving to Pune. As a kid, I spent my days at the Bombay Gymkhana, a club renowned for its social and sporting life. And I guess that’s what got me to fall in love with sports ! My family and I are sports fanatics and we love the outdoors. My younger sister Tishya and I grew up playing a variety of sports and our parents always encouraged us to have a life outside of the typical school-exam-classes routine”, he told me, talking about his initial interest in the outdoors.

How to start your own outdoors venture, and just about anything!

This is the story of a young software engineer-turned-outdoors entrepreneur named Ishan Sharma. This is the story of a small bunch of people who are determined to take people beyond their potential.

But this is also the story of every person who ever looked around their tube-lit classroom or hi-tech workplace, spied upon rows and rows of people staring into their computer screens, and then looked at the murky city sky outside and wondered...I wish I was out there!! 

It is the story of every executive who ever looked out of an airplane window at the rolling hills and green fields below, wistfully wished she could be down there, then picked up her bag and dutifully stood in line to deplane and go for that boring meeting.

It is the story of every person who ever stepped out of his multi-storeyed building into a traffic clogged street, covering his nose against noxious fumes, jumped into the nearest auto-rickshaw and asked to be driven to the market 2 kms away, grumbling about the 50 bucks he has to shell out for this short journey.

And if you have ever heard that voice in your head telling you to just do it, get out there, push your limits, then this is also your story. So read on...

5 Steps to the Right Career Choice for your Child

Medicine or modelling? Journalism or engineering? Sports or sciences? Teenagers today are faced with a multitude of choices when choosing a career. As parents and teachers, we are often faced with the difficult task to help them navigate and come up with the 'right' choice. But do we really know what's right for them? And if we know that a certain not-so-lucrative career is right for them in terms of leveraging their strengths and interests, should we advise them away from it towards more financially secure and stable choices?