Balance between ambition and contentment

I wrote a blog on “How much money is good enough for being happy in life”. On reading this blog and liking it, one of my ex colleagues asked me ,if I could write on “How to balance ambition and contentment”

In my view, ambition and contentment are like goals and happiness in life. We need to fulfill our goals , but when we get greedy, we lose the race of life. It is like ,a sportsperson realises, when to stop playing actively and retire from an active sport. However, if the sportsperson continues to play even though his body signals to stop, he or she may end up with some avoidable injuries.

Life is no different and neither our career nor business ambitions, are. Let me first illustrate this with a simple incident, I experienced in life. We had a chaat shop in our township, when I worked in a steel plant, at the start of my career. This shop still exists at the same place, even today.

It is very famous for their chaats and gulab jamuns. They open at 6 pm and close at 9 pm sharp. When I visited the shop after about 30 years and enquired why they have not expanded or changed ,the owner gave me a very insightful reply.

There is a huge demand for the chaats and gulab jamuns. Customers queue up even before the shop opens and almost have to be evicted, when they shut down. They have more demand ,than they can cater to. He said he earns enough ,to take care of his family and is very happy with the way his business runs ,and has maintained his quality and service. He does not want to get more greedy and destroy his reputation, built over decades. It was a great lesson on contentment in life.

Our careers have to be evolved this way. We need to ,set a goal for ourselves. We need to work zealously ,to reach that goal post. We could stretch ourselves ,if we think we have not yet realised our potential. But we have to learn not to stretch beyond our limits, as otherwise ,we would break down. It is like stretching the rubber band. By instinct, we know when to stop. If we break a few rubber bands, we learn by our experience and stop at the right time later.

So, whether business or an organisational career, we need to set goals and sub goals and strive our best to achieve them. The day we realise that the rubber band in us ,is fully stretched and may now break, we need to stop. It is like ,when a player retires, everyone asks – “why now?”, rather than “Why not now ?

Life gives us ,a lot of innate warnings. We need to learn, to listen to our own body, mind and soul. The individual is the best judge, as to when to stop. A coach cannot and should not guide a player, to retire from a game. It is the player, who has to realise, when to retire with pride rather than being dropped from the team, unceremoniously.

Ambition takes us where we want to go and contentment teaches us when to stop. Contentment and gratitude keeps us happy in life. So, we need to be ambitious enough to achieve our career goals and stop when we feel content. We also need to be grateful to all the people, who made us achieve our goals in life – parents, teachers, siblings, friends and colleagues.

Let contentment help us balance our ambition in life.

S Ramesh Shankar

27th June 2025

Life lessons from the Allapuzha boat race

72nd Nehru cup 2026

At the outset, let me wish all of you a “Happy Onam – 2026” today.

I attended the “72nd Nehru cup boat race” at Allapuzha, Kerala on 22nd August 2026. This race happens every year and is a spectacle to be witnessed, to be believed. This was one of my life long dreams and it became a reality in 2026. It was not just about attending a boat race and enjoying the same but it offered me a lot of life lessons.

If I have to summarise the key life lessons I learnt from the boat race, they would be the following :

  1. Working hard with a goal in mind: The participants in the race work hard and practise for more than 2 months before they enter the race. They have to build their physique as much as their mental strength where the gap between competing boats are in milliseconds almost like a 100 metres sprint. This is in spite of more than 100 rowers rowing in sync to win the race.
  2. Life is all about team work : One of the most important lessons we learn from this race is that the winning team has combined well to make the mark. Individually other teams may have excellent rowers but the team that synchronises and reaches the destination with collective efforts is the winner.
  3. Emotions & passion : If you participate in the boat race even as a viewer, you realise that winning the race is combination of emotions and passion apart from team work, hard work and synchronisation. Life is no different. If we are passionate about our goals and are willing to put heart and soul into it, nothing is impossible in life. All world class sportspersons prove this in every sport. The musical beats and rhythm leave you wonder struck
  4. Secularism in action: When we see the participants and the organisations supporting it, we witness secularism in action. We cannot associate any religion, caste or creed to this event. Whatever we witness in reality is what our law makers envisioned as “Secularism” in the preamble of our Constitution.
  5. Goals versus means : As Gandhiji said – “ The means to the end is as important as the end in itself”. The rules of the game are clear and everyone has to follow it while striving to beat others along the way. There is real time observation through umpires and hence the means to end is as important as winning the race.
  6. Sports unites communities: The boat race is an event held once in a year but this is like a festival, which unites communities rather than dividing it. The spirit of the sport is always more important than the sport itself.
  7. Winning or losing is part of the game: There are multiple teams participating in the race from different cities. They compete fiercely but ultimately gracefully accept winning or losing as part of the game. Just as in life, we may win some and lose some but we need to lead life harmoniously.
  8. Rich cultural heritage : The boat race happening consecutively for 72 years , year after year is a symbol of our rich and diverse cultural heritage. We not only have to be proud of it but need to preserve and promote it.
  9. Fight to the finish: The boat race had a nail biting finish with the time gap between winners and loser in milli seconds. This teaches us an important lesson in life that we need to fight till the finish. We may never accept defeat till the race of life is over.
  10. There is always a next time: We had one winner and many losers in the race. But the competitive spirit taught us that there is always scope for improvement and aim to win the race the next year. Winning and losing is part of the game of life too but never giving up at any stage.

S Ramesh Shankar

26th Aug 2026

Social Entropy

I heard three incidents in the last few weeks and felt very disturbed. All these incidents were shaking ,the basic foundations of social institutions in India. The rich Indian culture was getting shaken by such incidents and our belief in them , getting shattered.

The first incident was when a young couple got married and went on a honeymoon. There, the wife kills her spouse by hiring goons ,since she wanted to marry her lover. I am not against anyone marrying anyone they love. But, what I could not understand is, to marry someone against her own wishes and then killing her spouse during her honeymoon.

This shook the institution of family and marriage. Her own parents and siblings could not believe how this could happen and have rightly disowned her ,after this incident and supported the late son in law’s family.

The second incident was ,when an elderly couple were admitted to an old age home by their son ,stating that his parents did not like the food cooked by his spouse. His parents in their eighties ,committed suicide by hanging from the fan.

We were further told that the son had admitted his parents earlier too, forcibly ,in an old age home a few years back and they returned to his house, since they did not like the environment in that home. The roots of “family” as an institution is being questioned. How can one think of admitting his/her own parents in an old age home, when you are in the same city and are capable of taking care of them.

The third incident was when I got news of a friend’s death in a distant city ,two days after his death. When I enquired from some other friends living in the same city ,in his neighbourhood, they were are not even aware of his death. Are we getting so socially alienated ,that we are not aware of a friend dying in our neighbourhood.

We are making a lot of progress technologically and science is taking us to places. Artificial intelligence may make life easier and more comfortable for us ,than ever before. But, what is the use of all this, if we cannot be honest in our relationships. We cannot nurture family, friends or respect our own parents.

Although, I was not personally impacted by any of the above incidents directly, I had no tears to cry. I felt as if my tear glands had dried up like the wells and lakes ,during a severe drought in some states. What is the use of living a life of prosperity ,when we cannot take care of the people, who made us prosperous today.

In the past, if something happens in our village, the whole village would come to know of it and everyone will try their best ,to contribute. I agree that urbanisation has made us alienated and distances have broken relationships. But what is the use of technology, if we cannot be in touch and nurture those relationships.

I am a born optimist ,in general. But, today I would say that I prefer to die rather than live in a society, which tolerates spouses killing one another after marriage ,to marry a lover. I would hate to live in a society, where parents cannot be taken care of ,with love and are sent to old age homes, where they end up committing suicide as they feel unwanted. I regret to live in a community, where I am unaware of my neighbour’s death ,even though I live in the same neighbourhood.

But, being a born optimist, I hope the worst is over and the next generation ,will realise ,that the rich Indian culture ,was always built on the foundations of family, marriage and extended communities ,as social institutions.

Let us look within and contribute ,to bring back the glory ,of the great India culture.

S Ramesh Shankar

27th June 2025