Dear Rachita and Kriti,
It has always been my policy not to tell you what to do but to let you learn, instead, from what you see around you. I am hoping you will treat this letter less as a lecture and more as a glimpse into the stuff that has resulted in me becoming the person I am today and the father to two incredibly loving daughters.
If I were to look back over the years and to put my finger on the two or three beliefs that have helped me shape my own destiny, it would be the courage to be different, the willingness to take risks, the ability to have complete belief in yourself and above all, the motivation to work so hard that you become the expert in the space that you have chosen as your calling.
You are young now and on the threshold of a life that will take you along various paths, some smooth, others rough, and many a times the journey will be solitary. But what will come of help to you at such times, as it did for me, is the faith that if you are clear about where you are headed, the way ahead will open up for you. It might take some time but in the end, the path will clear up and you will reach where you always wanted to. The road that will take you to your goal, whatever and wherever it might be, is often not the road that the rest of the world will necessarily trod on, but if you know in your heart that it is the right path for you, take it, nevertheless.
I first realized the importance of standing your own ground at the age of 13, when my father’s bank job took us to the capital city of Delhi. My education till then had been at various convent schools across the country where his transferable job took us. And, my stints at these seemingly sophisticated schools had taught me a couple of things about education, including the fact that our schools, sadly, didn’t necessarily have the best teachers because our system did not encourage the best students to follow a career in teaching. I knew even at that point that our most important learning comes from the values and the practices that we pick up at home from our parents and elders. It may not qualify as ‘structured’ education in the conventional sense, but it impacts and influences us so much that there are chances of not forgetting those lessons in our lifetime.
Which is why, in Delhi, I decided that instead of undertaking a long commute to a reputed convent school, I would enroll myself in a government-run school near our house. My decision surprised my family but I stuck to it, pointing out that the education would be in English and I would also have the luxury of a swimming pool in the campus because this was one of the ‘model schools’ that the government was setting up. I never used the pool at school ever though!
Barely had I overcome the first hurdle when I ran headlong into a second, more formidable one. The school offered Sanskrit as an optional language and I decided I wanted to study the language since it would help me score much more than other languages. I had an obsession at that point about being the best in everything I did and scoring well in this language was in line with my strategy. Only, the school refused to allow me to take up that subject because I was the only student who wanted to learn it. When they failed to dissuade me, they summoned my parents and spoke to them about talking me out of it, but I stuck to my guns and simply pointed out that the school had a Sanskrit teacher and it was rule-bound to teach me the language if I wanted to. Eventually they gave in, I got my Sanskrit language training, and went on to score a lot of marks. That one event taught me the lesson that if you believe in something, don’t give up or back down just because popular opinion goes against you.
A few years ago, when I first wanted to start my 24-hour food channel, it caused quite a stir because it was something unheard of in India. My friends and colleagues in the industry, heads of other television channels laughed at me saying an ordinary chef had never managed to pull off such an audacious dream anywhere in the world. I would never be able to generate the humungous amount of money that would be required to fund such a project, they warned me. I refused to let the cynicism dampen my spirits and when the large industry heavyweights refused to buy into my idea, I got down to work silently, applying for a license, learning everything that I could about satellite television, the business model, and other technicalities. In the end, I started my own 24-hour food channel, FoodFood, and even if it was delayed—dreams often take time to become reality—I proved that a chef can, in fact, own his own television channel.
Belief has nothing to do with money. With money you may get the arrogance, but it won’t make your belief come true. Belief is a state of mind that tells you that you can do it.
My number one rule for my life has been to think differently and go after something that I want, with the belief that I can do it.
If you are willing to take risks, things will work out. Of course, you have to have your basics right and know your subject completely. Most people are bright, intelligent, hard working, but that is not enough. You need to be smart enough to enable yourself to visualize things for a longer term, be different, and then let destiny work its magic.
Prove your expertize
