My Fintech Yatra

Value: the regard that something is held to deserve.

So I want you to think strongly about this word, think about the definition above, what comes to your mind? Is value something we expect to have or expect to be given?

Most people in this world expect value but never realize that they fall short in their own distribution of value, I challenge you to audit yourself. Not only value through people, I want you take your attention on value through information that people create on different internet platforms.

What are available on the internet are documents and documents to me always describe the conclusion of the journey of learning, and are dead resources.

Above & Beyond, I met a man who says ‘Take me on the journey of learning by talking and whiteboard with me’ ,a righteous instance who vividly demonstrated what it is to give value.

Leaving his job, it was quite a perpetual bias for people (including me) to think that this is absurdly insane. To which he explained: How do you convince people that you can do something else? As I learned, YOU SHOW THEM.

Also, I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘The Tipping Point’ and particularly remember his mentioning of one of the three types of people ‘THE MAVEN’ who can spread ideas. These people seem to have an inside knowledge on a market, idea, trend, community and are known as people who spread change through their knowledge. Abhishant, the maven has definitely been a tremendous aggregator of information that people value and I am glad I met him.

In a country of 132 crore people, financial inclusion is not an easy task and I always resonate with the fact that our banks are perceived to be anachronistic business models, stuck in efficiency trap. So Is Indian Financial Inclusion and Fintech success stories from reality. One can only find out by meeting the fintech heroes on the ground, Abhishant with his 270 hours of 1on1 conversations has definitely created the biggest market connect in fintech space.

I was fortunate to travel Delhi-Noida (46.7km),  Jaipur (281km) and Ahmedabad (678.5km), exactly 1/9^th of his exceptional yatra of 67 days. 

Creativity comes from within and experience helps you enhance it.

On this yatra, I understood there are lot of entrepreneurs who want to participate in global connect forums, but cannot do so due to financial constraints. Cost of travel, accommodation, logistics is not something early stage startups can afford. Hence they keep loosing opportunity to showcase their product to the right set of people.

When a man decides to travel to them instead, the wealth of exchanged knowledge and impact is first of its nature.

This Yatra has made me curious about the stories people live than the ones they tell.

I will keep growing my fintech knowledge and work towards financial inclusion.

Independence through Freedom and Slavery

🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳

"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery" is a translation of a Latin phrase that Thomas Jefferson used: "Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."

As India celebrates its 72nd Independence Day on August 15, I came across the above thought provoking quote which gives me a chance to ponder upon what is freedom and slavery in today's world. 

Happy to hear what it means to you then just being forwarded an Independence day image.

(FREEDOM)
To me freedom is to be able to make decisions and choices independently, to be able to breathe freely.

To me freedom is getting an opportunity to know who I really am and discovering my strengths and weaknesses.

To me freedom is living the way I want to, wearing clothes that I like, eating what I relish, speaking to whomsoever I want to or going to wherever my mind wanders to.

Freedom is the basis of reason. To be able to question everything before blindly accepting my fate. To question what is right and what is wrong without being afraid of any threats.

To me freedom is to be able to connect with my responsibilities I associate myself with.

(SLAVERY)
All too often I see people with their noses stuck to their iphones, iPods, even when they are publicly with someone else.    

I think we all have different reasons for using social networking but..

Slavery to me is when i find it hard to keep my nimble thumbs off my key-pad for just a few moments of digital satisfaction.

Slavery to me is when i am unable to decide who needs my undivided attention and respect, when social media has an irrepressible hold on me.

Technology means we’re always on, always plugged in, always stimulated, always in a constant state of self-presentation.

But just because we invented a powerful technology doesn't mean we have to become its slaves. 

Thus, with this introspection on our independence day, i would work towards improving my human FREEDOM and reduce my technological SLAVERY.

What about you?

Happy Women's Day

Thanks for these beautiful words that brought me back to blogging.. :)

Tanya, the woman that you are!

Hey dear God, there is this woman out there
Day in and day out she cherishes that flare
Independence runs through her veins
The more she knows, the more she gains -

Her eyes, Oh good Lord
With happiness they share a chord
Her nose, so elegant
Inhales the optimism, eminent
Seen those ears spread out?
They listen to her heart aloud
At the sight of her lips you'll faint
Emanating enlightening knowledge
They'll make your grey cells acquaint
You dare ask me about her skin
Mesmerizing fragrance to the natural flowers akin
I'm not as yet done, her sixth sense I can't shun
She knows it all, she has it all
From the moon to the sun

Hey dear God, Come here beside me
And marvel the creation that's made by thee
A long way to go yet you have come so far
Hola Tanya, kudos to the woman that you are!

4th April it will be again

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

A day I will always remember and look upto to become a better me always.

Merry Christmas

Each one of you is a special gift on the planet! You are the Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree points upwards and its branches grow on all sides. The Christmas tree has many gifts to offer. It is evergreen throughout the year. It bears gifts and lights not for itself, but for all.

We all have that capacity to blossom to the fullest of human potential.

The gifts you are carrying in your life are for others. You offer the gift of service to anyone one in need, and you will wonder how your needs are being taken care of!

Keep your learning antenna up

Take a first step ASAP

We have an idea. The next step is planning and flushing out the idea- white boards, getting feedback and market surveys. Right? No. The recommendation is to skip all the intellectual masturbation and get straight to action. Don’t think too far – just start! Maybe take 30 mins to do something about your idea. Try your product on someone you meet ( even if they are not the ideal user). As Prof Yunus said, find the first user (or customer) , whack together a very basic product(minimum viable product) and get cracking!

Keep gathering momentum – bite sized improvements

If your MVP works, we tend to go back to the drawing board. You want to foresee the future of your product and plan towards it. But plans work only in a stable world – our world changes very quickly. Change your mindset from planning the entire product to creating iterations of a fully functioning product- keep adding features or making improvements. This gives great momentum and energy. This is particularly useful if you work on some ideas as a “side job” – lack of momentum kills many ideas. Remember your ideas won’t save lives – only the implementation will. So keep pushing out versions of your product. Keep learning and improving.

Fail fast, learn faster

To allow the iterative development process to work, you need a major change in mindset. You need to learn to fail and fail fast. Accept that you are going to screw up and just screw up quickly.  You can’t be an adult without being a baby. Treat each iteration of your product as a lesson and fix one thing at a time. Over time the failures will reduce and the successes increase. But please fail fast and learn quicker.

Ek bachpan aisa bhi

Happy childrens day......

Superb Poem...!!

Ek bachpan ka
zamana tha,

jisme khushiyon ka
khazana tha;

chahat chand ko
paane ki thi,

par dil titli ka
deewana tha.

Khabar na thi
kuch subah ki,

na shaam ka
thikana tha;

thak haarke aana school se, par khelne bhi jaana tha.

Maa ki kahani thi,
pariyon ka fasana tha;
barish mein kagaz ki naav thi, har mausam suhana tha.

Har khel mein saathi the,
har rishta nibhana tha;
gum ki zuban na hoti thi,
na zakhmon ka paimana tha.

Rone ki wajah na thi,
na hansne ka bahana tha; kyon ho gaye hum itne bade, isse achha to
woh bachpan ka zamana tha.........

Rajasthan ki mehak aa gyo

The Chowdhri Joy bawri ho gyi..

For The Love For Rajasthan

Finding it's bits and pieces in everything I m buying these days...

The realiZation of the Limitless

Avoid Prejudice

Prejudice is the greatest evil, rather the deadliest poison to ones existence. It keeps one confined to himself, losing all access to a broader vision. It creates narrow-mindedness, and all prospects of development and progress are lost to those who pin their soul to it. Prejudice breeds hatred towards others and it is nothing but a feeling of false self-superiority in a disguised form. If you nurture this evil, you thereby add one more link to the existing chain of egoism. Consequently you remain farther away from reality. The realisation of the Limitless thus becomes an impossibility.

Me an My Balcony

When you sit in the balcony..
#FeelingGreen
#FeelingRain
#Thoughtless
#ThatsWhatNatureDoesToYou

Ghagre wali Joy promises

I promise

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness,  and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To give so much time to improving that I hv no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To forget the mistakes of the past and PRESS on to the greater achievements of the future.

Take that much needed break :)

Only one who knows how to be intense and relaxed at once will know the tru JOY of activity.
The bane of humanity is that people have forgotten

how to relax without turning lax;

how to be intense without turning tense.

That is why a break becomes so important in our lives.
It is important to consciously relax atleast once a week, relax the survival instinct, drop all calculations, jettison all blueprints for self and simply be.

#SundayForJoy
#Playingwithmykiddos
#MakingShoeRack
#RevivingMyLoveformyScrapbook

We are still not home !!

Gym Class Heroes..
My swiggers..
Letsss zooooooom more!!

ghar nahi jaana ??

That's more like me and my princess

Spending the holidaysss this way..

*It's Not Easy*

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are

I had to find you

Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh, let's go back to the start

Running in circles
Coming up tails

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh, take me back to the start

I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart

Do not speak as loud as my heart

Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh, and I rush to the start

Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard

I'm going back to the start.

All we ask is a chance

The first time I met you I thought you seem very cunning, and I'm usually very wary of cunning people and I try to stay away from them. But as I got to know you over time I realized you're just simple and very transparent. I though id never meet somebody like this ever because I can only imagine me finding such people rarely.

When you tell me stories I tend to get lost in your voice and eyes because everything is so pristine that it makes you wonder where this person had been all along.

I love it when you ask me questions, ask my opinion, give me your opinion, that look you give me when you see me at a place you don't expect to see me

I love how we can be together and talk about anything at all and feel like I'm talking to a counterpart of my soul. I love how we smile in the middle of our conversations for no apparent reason. I love your pauses, when you look for vocabulary words to fill and enrich your sentences, the childish looks we give each other. I love it all.

The last few days I've been in awe to find out how somebody I thought would be a cunning girl has turned out to be more than a potential companion. The little kid inside me has been so excited to find someone so clear and pleasant that I've grown extremely fond of you and wanna get to know you more and would like to grow as an individual with you. I never tell my friends about a girl I have a crush on/ would like to date/ somebody I see as a potential partner; but this time it just felt right.

I understand that such things always need to be two sided, and my affection and attachment doesn't decide it all and infact is as good as ek haath ki taali (known as a thappad). So if you hav any faith in me, all I ask is a chance for us to be friends, spend time together, and see where it takes us.

Going to college on Teacher's Day

What a day to visit your college with your company!!

To every one who taught joy something on her journey deserves a big thank you :)

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. 

Thank you for guiding, inspiring and making us what we are today.

A very happy Teacher's Day!!

Echo @ Barclays

Proudly finishing a month at Barclays.
Will probably have to write a book or start a new blog (*under construction*)on my scintillating journey here.

An experience that really makes your eyes glittering and that spark on your face is out of scope for this ink.

Understanding the learning so faaaaar
Life is an echo..
What you send out, comes back.
What you sow, you reap.
What you give, you get.
What you see in others, exists in you.
Do not judge and you will not be judged.
Radiate and give love..
Love will come back to you.

#MyHappyBarclaysFamily

When you dream

Found this somewhere,
Worth a read :)
When you have a dream then it is so easy to get lost in planning how you will
accomplish it. To drift away in daydreams about how it will be. But also to get
stuck in fears about failing with it.

So you make a common choice and wait - and wait and wait for maybe years - for
just the right time to take action and get started with making that dream into
something real.

Now, to be realistic, not every dream may be something you can get started with
right now. But there are many that you can get going with.

The key here is to make things easy on yourself. You don't have to dive in with a
big and extremely courageous jump. If that was the case then only the bravest
people in the world would do and achieve what they want.

Instead, take a small step forward. Take one small action. That is it.

Then tomorrow you can take another small step forward.

The important thing is that you get started and get going instead spending so
much time on just waiting and feeling more and more frustrated and unhappy
about the state of your dreams.

Focus on that. And step by step start making this autumn into what you deep
down want it to be.