Conversations on Life, Training and Mumbai

I got this advice this morning from a dear friend and it took me a while to gather all the pearls of wisdom during a conversation about life in general.

“Know something? Somebody who does wrong always know they have. And no matter how they pretend otherwise, they carry it with them all their life. That is their punishment. We don’t need to do anything else. They do it to themselves. That’s the way the creator made us. This is why we need to be true to ourselves. The world comes later. Because at the end of the day we live for ourselves. All others don’t really count. I think you were true to yourself. Leave others to handle their own problems of guilt and fairness. Don’t take it upon yourself”

Sometimes I wonder if we need religion when we have good friends who can provide you pearls like this?

My article on mobile banking is being published on microfinance focus this month. It’s a privilege to featured with Nachiket Mor and Bindu Ananth who are a part of the same issue. Essentially, we worked on the same things and I took off on one of the threads that was started while I was with the Trust. In some ways, I definitely owe it to them. Although, I must say that if I continued with the Trust, I would have not learnt as much and would not be doing the things that I was doing. Honestly, I was used more for my tamil speaking and negotiating skills and I did not see a way out that role. Also, in Balaji/Karthik and Prashant, I see strong mentors and I look upto them mainly because they are simple individuals and know how to steer a start-up forward. They are not the Bill Clintons or the Mittals of the world but they know what they are talking about and with a little push, they will clock plenty of miles. It’s just like the 33k of a marathon for these guys now where they need to pass through the wall. Once that’s done (just 15 minutes guys), they can clock a 100 plus miles with ease.

Clocked 16km fast yesterday (10km – morning and 6km evening) and did it pretty smooth. Did not feel it on my legs at all and that’s good. Today is a 13.4k with 1.5 jog, 2.5km *3 fast with 800 mts breaks and 1.5 km jogs to finish off. The thought of it is what is the most difficult thing. Once you are there, its actually a breeze. Leaving for Mumbai today and can’t wait for this trip. Marine drive, Totos, walks in Juhu, some more beer somewhere, masala chai, maybe some vada pav, more roadside food and definitely some fun company is whats on the agenda.