The point of a goal is not what you achieve. The point of a goal is who you become!!!

June, 2020

Dear Friends

This splash of pink against the dark night sky is an expression of the meditative mind of Ratnamala Hegde, the pillar of our firm. Amidst the demanding clients that she handles, she finds time on the weekends to unwind with her easel and brush. She is into Yoga in her own way I would say. “Stilling the fluctuation of the mind” or “Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah”, as propounded by the Father of Yoga, Patanjali.

International Yoga Day was celebrated on 21st June all over, albeit in confined spaces this time as against mass asanas over the last few years. Well, practising asanas or postures is for the body and only one aspect of yoga. There are 8 other aspects with Meditation (Dhyana) being an important element that enables us to escape from the ‘monkey mind-cycle’ temporarily. This brings in the other aspect of Focussing attention (Dharana) as part of Yoga.

Another yogi for me is my young nephew who has managed to co-publish a scientific paper on Artificial Intelligence even amidst this pandemic that has created pandemonium all over the world. I would say he is practising Dharana !

My cousin’s wife who is regularly posting yesteryear’s golden melodies sung by her on Smule is a sensation of sorts now. Despite a demanding day job and young children to take care, she is finding time to rediscover the singer in her. Almost everyday her beautiful voice transports us to a bygone era. Isnt this meditative yoga too ?

What do we call an initiative of a celebrity who is feeding millions of people everyday in India when he himself is living in New York ? Recently I watched a BBC interview of the famous Michelin Star Chef (only one from India) Vikas Khanna. To a question from the journalist, he answered with his typical smile “What motivated me to start mass feeding during this crisis time is not the hunger experienced in India during my struggling days (Amritsar where I grew up feeds hundreds of people from the community kitchens it has) but the hunger experienced on the streets of New York. I slept on the benches and went hungry for days as it was tough for a brown-kid who wanted to make a name for himself during the post 9/11 days”. He also recalled how the initial efforts to mass-feed people failed and he had almost given up, until his mother’s admonishment shook him up and he started with a different strategy of partnerships to achieve the goal of Anna Daana (Food Charity) during COVID-19. Without a still mind and focussed attention, an initiative of this scale and magnitude is not possible. Isn’t he an Yogi of sorts ? Someone said “The point of a goal is not what you achieve. The point of a goal is who you become.” Be it my colleague, my nephew, my relative or the celebrity chef, I am sure all of them have ‘become’ someone while pursuing their goals – whether professional or social.