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.

Heart or Mind

Many of us struggle on what to depend upon – heart or mind – to decide everything in life. This is a genuine dilemma and most of us may have gone through it ,in some stage of our life. While heart tells us what we are passionate about, mind analyses it logically ,if we are capable of doing it.

In my book, we need to decide from our heart and plan to execute it from our mind. Many of us tend to wish through our heart and just dream about it. So, it invariably ends up as an unaccomplished dream in our life.

All of us have dreams and passions in our lives. It takes time to identify, what we really enjoy in life and that is absolutely normal. It is fine to change your mind and change it any number of times ,till you find your calling—Something, which fascinates you and keeps you awake at night too.

We all come from different economic backgrounds and it is possible that we cannot follow our heart ,till we reach a stage, where we can afford to do it. Let me illustrate this with an example. I have been passionate about driving and going on long drives. I started my career in 1981 and bought my first car in 1987 and but it took almost ten years for me, to undertake my first long drive with my family.

My financial status and family conditions ,did not permit me to spend money on this passion ,till I reached a reasonable financial stability. I never looked back after that. I could afford to drive different cars and go for long drives with family and friends, across the country in different cities ,I lived thereafter. Even today, I go on a drive once in a few months and enjoy it.

We need not feel bad that we are not able to pursue our passion at a particular point of time ,for reasons beyond our control. Everything in life has a time and place to become a reality and we need to evolve the patience and perseverance, to wait for the opportune time.

Let me give you another example ,from my personal life. I always was passionate about writing. I used to write articles for my school and college magazine and many a time ,for our company newsletters. But I could pursue writing as a passion and publish books only since 2016. This was more than three decades after I started my career.

We need to find ways and means to discover and rediscover our passions in life. It may take some time and we need to be patient ,to make it a reality. Although, we may dream about our passion, it becomes a reality only when we apply our mind and plan for it in our lives.

A dream remains a dream ,unless we systematically plan for it and make it a reality ,through diligent execution. I had a dream to go to the Kumbh for many decades but made it a reality this year ,through systematic planning and seamless execution. So, anything, we dream through our hearts ,can become a reality ,if we are willing to toil to make it happen and work hard through our mind ,to make the impossible, possible.

Let our hearts continue to dream but our mind should convert those dreams into realities through planning.

Let us begin today as it is never too late.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th Feb 2025

The train journey

I have been travelling in trains since the time I was born. As a child, we used to travel in second class compartments and non air conditioned coaches. Initially, the trains were pulled by steam engines and then diesel and nowadays electric engines

I loved the smell of the steam engines. I recall my first posting after my training period as a management trainee in a public sector undertaking. I was posted to an iron ore mine and the journey from the steel plant to the mine was by a passenger train pulled by a steam engine. It took us 3.5 hours for a distance of about 130 kms.

The joy of travelling by train has to be experienced to be believed. The best part of the train journey is that every ten minutes there would be a food vendor offering tea/coffee or snacks. We enjoyed getting down at every station and buying something – may be a newspaper or a magazine or just filling our water bottles.

Another interesting benefit of a train journey, especially a long overnight one ,was that ,we met people from different states of India. There would be interesting people to meet. Families, young boys and girls and elders. Many families carried enough food for their journey and invariably shared amongst all the co-passengers.

Some of the long journeys would take us two nights or more and it was more than 36 hours. We not only met and made new friends, who could turn out to be friends for life but also learnt a lot of things, from the interactions on the trains.

The train journeys improved over the years. The trains became faster and coaches cleaner. We also could upgrade from second class to first class and then to air conditioned coaches. Having tea in mud kulha (pot) and coffee in glass or steel tumblers was fun.

We also enjoyed snacks along the way and some stations were famous for some things. We used enjoy oranges at Nagpur or good mangoes in Vijayawada. Even ice creams was popular in some stations. The peda at Mathura and Peta at Agra were mouth watering.

My childhood, teenage and early adulthood was spent in train journeys. Even after I started my career, the first decade was travelling by train only – both personal and official travels. We looked forward to the company and the food ,shared in trains.

Watching the sun rise on the horizon or the moon set ,was mesmerising. The trees and the landscape along most routes, are green and breathtaking. Another good companion during train journeys was about reading books. I had a colleague at work, who was a book worm. He used to just buy a ticket from the starting to the destination station and carry a few books and finish them. He never got down. Just took a train to its destination and returned in the same train on the return jouney.

Today, when I look back, I can state that, life is also like a train journey. We start somewhere and end somewhere. We have stations on the way as the cities we move and live in. We meet people along our life journey. Some are entertaining like in the trains and some may avoid us like the grudging travellers, who do not like to interact with anyone.

We need to learn to enjoy our journey as much as the destination.

S Ramesh Shankar

20th Jan 2025

Value of a mother

Every one of us needs to realise the value of our parents, when they are alive. But, many of us realise their value more, when they are no more with us. I lost both my parents at a very young age. My mother at 23 and father at 25.

I have earlier written about my father and how he is my role model in life, even today. I have learnt patience and respect from him. I have seen him toil hard and become a self made man. He did not inherit anything from his parents and gave us the best of education and comforts, which he could afford.

Today, I want to write about mothers and how they contribute in our lives. My mother was an orphan child, who lost both her parents at a very tender age. She did not even remember her parents during her life.

She completed her schooling and got married off by her relatives to my father even before she could enter college. However, she was a very determined woman and stood like the pillar for the family. She brought up four children, ensured their education and most importantly disciplined us, to be good human beings.

A mother is the emotional bond between children and the family. She is the soul friend and guide for the children. A mother provides all the emotional support a child needs, right through their childhood. A father becomes more of the disciplinarian in the family, while the mother loves and cares for the kids.

In my case, my mother was a tough disciplinarian too. She taught us the rights and wrongs in life and also set the boundaries, which we should never cross.

In the past, mothers were often home makers and fathers went out to work and were the only earning member in most families. However, we need to realise that the home maker’s job is more than a full time job and one needs to experience parenthood, to understand their responsibilities as a mother or father.

Today, most women are working in full time roles and have to play the mother’s role, as double duties. They are working full time and at the same time taking care of their children and their spouses and elders in the family. I have seen my wife as well as my sister playing this double role, when they were working and being mothers, simultaneously.

We may not realise how much a mother contributes in our life, when we are children, growing up at home. Her services are unpaid and not valued till we leave home ,to stand up on our own feet. We miss the home cooked food ;we may miss the love and care and the emotional anchor, which the mother plays and we cannot find a substitute for that in life.

We need to be indebted to our parents, especially our mother right through our life. We need to realise that whatever success, we achieve in life, is because of our parents and teachers primarily.

If we forget our parents and teachers, after we have left home and are adults, standing on our feet, we are being ungrateful to them. Parents do not serve us, with any expectation of anything in return. But, our love and care for them, unconditionally, when they grow old, can be our invaluable gift for them.

Today, most parents plan their old age and can take care of themselves, emotionally and financially, as many of their offsprings move away from home, in pursuit of their career. However, if we fail as children to love and care for them ,as an expression of our gratitude for what they did during our upbringing, we are going to be losers, not they.

Let us learn to bow in gratitude to our parents always. I realise it more than anyone else in life ,since I lost both my parents before I could even settle in my career or life.

If your parents are alive, you are blessed and hence learn to serve them unconditionally.

S Ramesh Shankar

6th Jan 2025