Pic courtesy: https://www.selfhelpdaily.com/secret-to-happiness/
I would call myself a Multipotentialite. My interests span diverse fields.
Maths Science and the languages
As a child, I found all the subjects interesting… Maths and Science were my favorites. But so also were History, Geography, and languages.
At school and college, I excelled in Quiz competitions as well as in Debates and Essay writing events.
Sports and physical fitness
After I left college and entered the workplace, I started learning yoga. Soon enough, I got hooked on the habit that continues even to this day.
The next skill I learned was Swimming. In it, I became adept at all the styles… Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Butterfly Stroke.
In 2009, I started learning Karate. After practicing for 3 years I earned a Blue belt. Then, I had to discontinue the practice owing to a change in the job posting.
In 2014, I started my Marathon journey and have kept it up to this day. To date, I have run quite a few Half, Full, and Ultra Marathons. My longest run was in Oct 2021 when I ran 161 km at the Hennur Bamboo Ultra event.
Starting new ventures
I love reading books, especially the Non-fiction, Management and Self-help books.
It was in 2009 when I came across the book Simply Fly, written by Capt. Gopinath (founder of Air Deccan – the first low-cost airline in India).
In this book, Capt. Gopinath chronicles his entrepreneurial journey – from serving full-time in the Army to leaving a cushy job and starting on his own.
The book is an inspiring read. It stirred up a new interest in me – to start my own venture. And so, within a month of reading the book, I launched my first business venture in my mother’s name.
It was the franchise outlet of the popular retail brand First Cry. In fact, ours was the third franchise store the brand had opened in the entire country. It was a bold move as none of my family members had any business background.
We ran it for about three years. And though it was taxing to juggle the business with a full-time job, I learned some very important business lessons during this time, while having fun.
Subsequently, in 2018, I left my full-time job to start another venture.
This time, I clubbed my interest in Maths and passion for teaching into opening a coaching academy Vedabala Coaching Academy.
We started with teaching students for their school and college exams. Slowly, we transformed the business to provide coaching for competitive exams, especially CAT (Common Admissions Test) for MBA.
At present, the business is running in fully Digital mode where we are selling Digitized version of the coaching programs as well as live coaching Online.
Other hobbies
I also love to cook exotic dishes for my family on weekends.
In addition, I love to spend leisure moments with family which includes my parents, wife, daughter, and my pets – 4 dogs and 2 cats… all of them we adopted from local animal shelters and animal rescuers.
And when I get time, I go on long solo road trips on my bike – KTM Duke 200.
And when the family is in vacation mood, we go on long trips in our car.
There are many more activities and interests on my bucket list. Because I believe that my life well spent in meaningful pursuits, is a life well lived!