Author: S Ramesh Shankar

Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have been brought up in different parts of India. Graduate in chemistry and post graduate in personnel management and industrial relations. Have been a HR practitioner for 38 years in the industry and have experience in working in steel , automobiles, FMCG and engineering industry. Was head of HR for Siemens in South Asia based out of Mumbai till March 2019. Currently founded hrishti - joy forever, a social enterprise to give back to society and work as Chief Joy Officer.

New year reflections


A year passes by and we look back to reflect on what happened.  You are happy with some events and sad with others.  You look at the new year with hope. A new year is like the morning sun, which brings hope and light to life every day.  The old year is like the sun set, which fades into the past but still gives you the hope that the sun rise the next day will dawn new aspirations in your life.

While many of us pass new resolutions to exercise regularly, go to the gym or lose weight or visit parents, we tend to break them even before the dust settles on them.  Is it a weakness or the lack of will ?  I do not know but neither I want to. It is better to keep resolving till the day one is able to keep up to them rather than no resolutions at all.

I am a born optimist and hence never give up.  I may have made hundreds of resolutions in my life and may be fulfilled half of them.  It is a joy to make promises to yourselves and try to keep them up.  So what if we fail in some.  It is always better to try then to give up even before you make them.  A simple example could be that I tried to do yoga every day for many years and failed every single time.  But two years back I went to learn yoga in a authentic school in Lonavala and the teacher was so good that she inspired me to do it every day.  Today my wife and me practise it almost daily and voluntarily.

While every day can be a new year, why do we wait for the new year to resolve ?  It may be like having food every day, which we do religiously.  But, we have special food only on festive days.  A new year is a symbol of something new.  It helps us to pause and reflect.  It helps us to forget and forgive.  It helps us to commit more than we can deliver.

I love the new year.  It helps us to forget the miseries of the past.  It infuses hope and optimism in us.  It gives us reasons to believe that tomorrow may be better than yesterday and today.  It re kindles our wishes.  It gives us renewed energy to resolve.  It compels us to move on in life.  It is like the clock, which never stops until we forget to rewind or change the batteries.

It is up to us to rewind and recharge ourselves.  Nothing is permanent in life.  Neither joy nor sorrow will sustain forever.  Our ability to forget and forgive the past and hope for a better future will help us maintain balance in life. The dawn of the new year gives us an opportunity to do so.  It is an occasion to look back and move forward. 

The new year is like the morning dew in a forest.  It is ephemeral.  It is fresh.  It refreshes you and give you a chance to renew yourselves.  It is up to us to take charge and do it.  As the sun opens up in the sky, the morning dew is gone.  The same is with the new year.  As the days pass, the year is gone and we have to wait for yet another new year.

Let us wake up and resolve today

S Ramesh Shankar

Never say never again…


A colleague of mine narrated an interesting incident, which happened when she was on vacation in another country. She went on a long drive with her family and entered a restaurant to have lunch. After all the family members had gone through the menu card they realised that did not like the food listed in the menu.  Further, they did not like the smell of the place.  They politely got up and told the butlers that they had changed their plans and hence wanted to move on.  Actually, they left the place in a hurry since they did not like the food nor the smell of the place.  They told themselves that will never ever come to this place again.

After driving for about 50 miles they realised that one of them had forgotten her handbag in the same restaurant.  So, they turned back and decided to drive back.  They hardly remembered the name of the restaurant.  But with the help of the highway police, they could trace their way back.  When they reached,  they were promptly handed back their forgotten handbag.  But, they felt embarrassed by the turn of events and being touched by their grace decided to have lunch in the same restaurant.

When she returned from her vacation and narrated this incident, I was recalling how many times I have felt the same way – ” never again “.  But, after listening to this incident I realised that may be the decision should be to say -“Never say never again …”.  The reason is that we feel never again at the spur of the moment on many occasions and with no logic or reason.  Sooner than later we realize that our decision was irrational or sometimes even unreasonable.

Let us reflect on a few real life incidents.  We climb a hill top and after a arduous and tiring trek up we realize that this is not for us. This will be our last trek and we will never do it again.  But as soon as we reach the peak and admire the beauty of nature around us we realize that the efforts were worth it.  We may decide to try one more time since the results were much more rewarding than the efforts put in.

We may decide never to visit a shop again just because an employee in a shop did not behave well with us.  It may be a one off incident and if we brood over the incident, we may have provoked the emotions of the employee and hence his outburst may have been more due to our own behaviour than his.  So, we may end up going to the same shop again since the benefit of shopping there is that everything is available and it is near your home.

We may travel to a country and may face a lot of embarassment from the day of arrival.  It may be immigration issues at the  airport and then misplacing your baggage and the final nail in the coffin may be your hotel reservation is not confirmed although u had a confirmed voucher.  All this may make us decide never to visit this country again.  But, we never know that destiny may take us to the same country for our first job from our campus or on a transfer from our organisation and we may really end up doing well in our career.

So, the lessons learnt is – “Never say never again…  “.  Only time and reflection may make us wiser.  It may be worthwhile to reflect and take time to decide – ” Why never again ?” 

Have you been through such incidents in your life ?

S Ramesh Shankar

“How much is good enough ?”


If each of us ask ourselves, “how much money is good enough?”to lead a happy life, we may not give the same answer.  Each of us try our best to be successful in life.  Each of us define success in our own way.  There is nothing right or wrong about our own definitions in life.  After all, each of us have a way of defining success and happiness in life and have our own priorities.

As we grow in life and career, we work hard and put our best foot forward.  We assimilate  material wealth one by one as we gradually increase our purchasing power in life.  We buy a two wheeler, a car, a house and so on.  Every time, we think we have arrived in life, we dream for more.  The needs increase and so does the greed.  In my view, there is nothing wrong with this journey.  We all have gone through it and so will the future generations.

However, it may be worthwhile to understand why this happens ?  If you ask a college student, when she would settle and be happy in life, she may say, the day I get a job and settle down.   If you ask a single working professional,when he wants to get married, he might say that the day I am able to stand on my own feet, I will.   If you ask a newly married couple, if they have arrived in life, they would say yes the day they are blessed with a kid.  If you ask a young mother, if she considers all her needs in life fulfilled, she may say yes the day her child finishes her schooling.  Then, you may ask a middle aged parent, if he is happy, he may say the day his child finishes education, gets a job and gets married.  This way the cycle repeats itself.

Does this mean that we are never happy in life ?  Does this mean that nobody feels content with what they have ?  It may or may not be true.  It is human nature to seek more from life all the time.  As I said, all of us go through this cycle of life.  Some of us realize that this is an endless cycle sooner than others.  It is this ability of fulfilling needs and balancing greed, which may help us to the road  of happiness.

I remember I started my career with a meagre salary in 1981.  I have grown in my professional and personal life.  However, I did realize somewhere in my mid career years that happiness and wealth do not necessarily have a direct correlation.  You could be happy in life with whatever you have or be unhappy in life with all that you dream to have and elusive today.  Happiness is a state of mind.  It’s an attitude to life and living.  Happiness is derived from contentment and our ability to balance need and greed.  We need to fulfill our needs and not our greed.  

Hence, if I try to answer the same question today- ” How much in life is good enough ? ” – I would say that much, which fulfills all your needs.  The day we can draw the line between need and greed and also learn to be content in life, we may be happy.   Many a time, we wait for a tomorrow to be happy in life.  That tomorrow may not arrive.  It may be a good idea to enjoy today with whatever we have rather than regret waiting for that elusive tomorrow in life, which never arrives.

Like in the photo above, my wife was filled with joy after buying this attire in a road side shop in Cairo. It is not the brand or the price of the dress but the joy of being colourful and content with what you have.

The choice to be happy or unhappy is always with us. Enjoy today, forget tomorrow.

S Ramesh Shankar