24 Hours with an Esselite

Department and Location:

Corporate Brand Development, Mumbai

Role Description:

Layouts of in-house creatives and other desktop publishing jobs

Personal Mantra:

Helping hands are more effective than praying lips

My Day Starts with:

Yoga for about 45 mins in the morning. Yoga refreshes me and has helped me stay healthy for many years now. I started yoga as an alternative to allopathy and have achieved tremendous results. It is one of the reasons why I have never suffered Monday morning blues.

My Typical Day in Office:

My typical day entails working on creatives and formatting FPCs to send out to the press. Month-ends are usually more hectic than the rest of the month. Then of course, there are times when there are big scale events or when QFRs are released.

Lunch Hour Means:

Home-cooked food and a stroll with my colleague Sajiv Vasudevan. We often discuss topics related to spirituality and social work. Between us, we have always maintained that we never discuss official matters or colleagues. Our chats are often engaging and help us both de-stress.

My Passion:

I first donated to an orphanage in Vasai on the occasion of my son's first birthday. From thereon, the seed was sown to do whatever little possible for the underprivileged. I was soon joined by a few friends who also realized the importance of contributing to the society.

In 2005, I co-founded Vidhyadhan Yuva Mandal, a social organization that works for bright, needy students from rural areas. Today, our Mandal provides for 15 children from BPL (below poverty line) families and has built a hostel at Javhar in Thane district for them. We provide these students with school kits and Rs 15,000 a month as donation amount to arrange for their food.

While the donation amount may look meager and our effort to help only 15 at a time small, we believe that it is these small steps that we take as individuals that can contribute to significant change.

I have always been inspired by Swami Vivekananda words - 'If the poor boy cannot come to education, education must go to him.'

My Day ends with:

Spending time with my wife and son. I often narrate inspirational stories to my son. We take turns – one day he is the narrator, the following day I am.

Before I retire to bed, I pen at least one suvichar (wise saying/good thought) for the day. I have a compilation of about 2000 such lines.

I also write a brief diary every night to keep an account of all the events and people I have met in the day.