By | Clifford Mohan Pai – GPHR, ACC | Vice President, HR Business Leader & Head Employee Relations
I grew up in a close-knit environment where everyone knew everything about everyone. Sharing and thinking of others before self was the norm of the day. My father trained me on various aspects like how to ride a bicycle, how to have a growth mindset – always searching and always learning and more importantly how to care. However, it was my mother who kept asking me – where I was heading to, what did I want to do and what did I want to achieve. She informally took on the role of a Coach and helped me firm up my goal even before I realised it.
While in college I remember, I wanted to understand the power of trusting the Universe to take care of me and how I could live life frugally and on limited means by way of an experiment. I spent time with runaway adolescents who had turned themselves into ragpickers and doing various laborious jobs in the city of Mumbai to sustain themselves for living. I lived with them for precisely 28 days and understood the true meaning and value of life, living simply and living in the present. Apart from facing hardships like sleeping on the footpath of Marine Lines and doing menial jobs, they found happiness in every single thing and in every small thing they achieved – even as simple as the meal of the day. They lived consistently in the moment. It is the moment that only mattered to them.
And imagine, in those days we didn’t have a mobile. So, my mother was not even aware of where I would be and if I was safe every single day. Just one thing she told me before I left home for this experiment – “find happiness in what you do” and “do what you do, do well”. Today when I look back, I firmly believe that it was one of the best counsels I received for life.
