Celebrations :)

Yesss, this is my moment of glory. My first 50 followers here on this blogging platform. Never scored that much ever in cricket :)

Three years ago in Sept 2016 when I published my first blog, I had never imagined I will be writing this long.

Initially, I used to write on and off but even those on and off writings were appreciated and maybe that kept me going. The knowing that yes even if not many but at least there are some who are reading my post regularly.

I enjoyed writing and for me, this served as a way of connecting with my inner self as in meditation. Yes, writing gives me that feeling of meditation where once I start writing all my energies get streamlined in one direction, and thoughts are just poured out without much thinking.

The momentum picked up since June 2019 and the frequency of writing and publishing my blog posts increased gradually. Also reading other blogs especially those from the long term and consistent bloggers motivated me.

Reading blogs of these bloggers gave me a sense of direction and it dawned on me that if I have to be here for long I needed to be consistent. So now I try to post at least two blogs in a week.

When I looked back today after seeing this badge (50 followers) I found that I have written and published 38 posts in just 3 months. My total published post count is 76 out of which one is a reblog of a fellow blogger and one of my earlier post so that actually comes to 74 posts.

From 74 posts in about three years to 38 posts in just three months is a major leap for me and this alone is enough of a reason for me to celebrate, 50 Followers badge is like a cherry on the cake :)

I take this opportunity to thank all you amazing people across all the blogging communities and platforms who took out time to read, like and share comments on my blog posts. Your support, feedback, and suggestions and encouragement has helped me come this far.

On this note, I remember the famous lines from one of the greatest poets of our Indian film industry Majrooh Sultanpuri Sahab...

"Main Akela Hi Chala Tha

Janib-e-Manzil Magar

Log Saath Aate Gaye

Aur Caravan BantaGaya"

Humbled

Love and Gratitude

Nilesh Sharma

I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites :)

Patience and Persistence Pays :)

I love all seasons and I have my reasons for liking them all.

Monsoon is also special in a way, not only because it brings relief from the blistering heat but also washes away the layer of dust on the tree leaves and thus magnifies the greenery all around us.

I wait all year for the show of Lightning and thunderstorms that come with monsoons. This year too I got to see this mystical magic of divine nature and also got the opportunity to capture it on my smartphone :)

After a long wait with the smartphone in my hands, I managed to capture that striking ray of light two times in the span of eleven minutes or so. The video is of more than eleven minutes but what I wanted to capture lasted for only microseconds.

Of course, all the while flashes and flickering in the skies were happening and drizzling of rain could be heard in the backdrop with whams of loud and spine chilling thunderstorms. It was such an amazing feeling that I cannot define in words.

This was last week but then as I was thinking about the whole experience it also dawned on me that as in this video which was of about eleven minutes or so, the most enticing sight lasted for just a fraction of second. More than 660 seconds of patience and persistence lead to the phenomena which came in flash will stay with me for my entire lifetime.

Isn't it the same with life. All those years of hard work with absolute focus and consistent efforts lead to achieving excellence in whatever one wishes to achieve. Stories of all the great achievers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachan, Steve Jobs, Sachin Tendulkar, Sonu Nigam, Sania Mirza, Pandit Ravi Shankar and so many more excelled in their fields only because of this simple mantra. Patience and persistence with absolute focus and dedication to their craft.

To see the results of my not so long journey but even those of few minutes which will last for a lifetime, please watch the below visible youtube link:

P.S: I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyfriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites

From My Diary- Choices I made ~ #5

In this series, I am sharing the choices I made as far as my professional life goes.

Why I took up my 1st job at the age of 17 is answered in my earlier post  "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #1" and then why I moved on to my 2nd one and why I left that can be read here >>. "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2" 

My journey onto becoming Self-employed could be read here "From My Diary - The Choices I made ~ #3" and From My Diary- Choices I made ~ #4

2009 was the times of turbulence and because of the troubles at my personal front, I was finding it hard to concentrate on my work. As a financial advisor especially as a planner concentration and focus is very imperative. And this is where I was having difficulties.

No amount of talking or discussing was helping me and eventually, after trying hard overcoming it, I decided to take a sabbatical from financial planning.

I went to all my then clients and expressed my incapability of managing their portfolio at least till the time I recover from what I was going through.

Many of my clients told me that this is my biggest mistake and that it will be too late if I do not change my decision. I had an idea what I was about to lose, yet I found it to give in to something for which my heart did not allow.

Very few understood me and pledged their support and stood with me. I told them that I may not be able to advise them on any new investments but I will service whatever I have done till now. They said okay and remained with me.

Now that I was no more advising and had lost a good chunk of my clientele income needed to be compensated.

In my working with clients in financial planning, I had helped a few with buying and investing in real estate. Because of my people's skill, I had also managed to stay in touch with few brokers. After some thinking, I ventured into real estate. My work helped me see most of Thane so I had a good idea about localities and the price range for most of them.

The most important factor being there was no long term commitment. Once a deal is done very little was left to do. Slowly and steadily I learned the finer details of this new business and was doing okay. Because of good work I started getting referrals and there was no looking back :)

Even today I do real estate business but now it is very exclusive. I only take an assignment if it comes with a recommendation. I have helped my clients buy properties in as far areas as Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad.

The most cherished client of mine is Mr. Amitava Banerjee. He was referred to me by his colleague when he first time-shifted to Mumbai. I helped him find exactly what he was looking for. He liked me so much so that when he was transferred to Pune he insisted that I find property for him in Pune. I did not disappoint him even this time. Now he is again in Mumbai and this new property is again something which I helped him with :)

He has already told me that he wishes to buy a house here within the next two years and I have to help him with that too :)

Such good clients and referrals coming my way I am the most happiest person :)

My sabbatical from financial planning lasted for about 4 years. Now I am back into financial planning and all my clients who stood with me in my turbulent times are still with me and most them say we knew you would come back :)

Financial planning is your forte and you are good at it, you should have never left it. All I can say is each phase comes with its blessings. The lessons I learned passing through that phase taught me one of the most important lessons.

What was that lesson and what price I paid to learn that is something which I will share soon. Stay tuned for one more post on this series "From My Diary - Choices I made #6"

"From My Diary - Choices I made #6" I will share about various other short term jobs I did and what each of it taught me.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my story. If you have something similar experience and wish to share your story with me do write to me at "nilesharma@gmail.com" I will be happy to read and respond to it.

Happy Day :)

With this post, I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 as #nilesharmaawrites for #BlogChatter

Ever-expanding horizons

I started blogging in September 2016, and then I had no idea what to expect. But then I also live by the philosophy of doing things without expectations. And as always the rewards I reaped were beyond imagination.

My journey to blogging started with blogger (blog-spot). I used to write posts as and when I felt like and that's it. I hardly read posts from any other bloggers. This continued for a long time. Writing brought a sense of fulfillment to me and so I focussed more on it. But then as they say to be a good writer you first have to be a good reader. So I started exploring the web to find other bloggers and what they write.

It was then that I came across IndiBlogger. I found that this is where most of the bloggers upload their content. I registered my self on IndiBlogger and started submitting my posts here. My blog's viewership reached out to more people. They read my posts and shared their thoughts. This gave me the opportunity to visit their sites and read their content.

I discovered that many of them used WordPress instead of blog-spot. I created my account on WordPress and did some experimenting before I migrated from blog-spot to WordPress.
The transition was good and more rewarding. With Indiblogger I could only read Indian bloggers content but WordPress gave me exposure to the global audience :)

Add caption

As reading increased newer discoveries came along and one such was BlogChatter. BlogChatter became my platform for Book Reviews. I have written two book reviews so far and this led to the addition of one more category to my blog "Reviews".

Here is the link to the Book Reviews I have written for BlogChatter "Book Review Program"

Book Review~ Missing Presumed Dead (Kiran Manral)

Book Review~ NOBODY'S CHILD (Kanchana Banerjee)

One of my well-wishers asked if I would be interested in participating in #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 campaign. I asked what it is all about and she explained to me all about it. I enrolled for the campaign and voila am I happy :)

Source~ Google Images

Why???

In addition to the blogs I follow now I am also able to read at least 8 more new blogs about which I had no idea. So yes I am now reading much more than I used to do earlier. Making news friends sharing notes and suggestions. This community has given me so much more and is helping me learn more and know more about so many things.

My gratitude and thanks to all of you who have supported and motivated me to write more. Special thanks to all who have helped me improvise my writing skills and language and for suggesting tools to keep in check grammatical mistakes. Aesthetics of this blog site could also be enhanced only because of keen observation and constructive feedback from one fellow blogger and for this, I will ever remain grateful.

Blogging has not only helped me share my experience but has also enriched me from the collective experience of all the fellow bloggers who share their stories and work.

I intend to take my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter

Teacher's day Special

Source~ Google Images

Today on this special day I wish to share with you all various teachers who taught me one thing or the other, and touched and transformed me to become what I am as of today.

First and foremost is without saying my Parents, who were instrumental in bringing me into this beautiful world. The value systems they passed on to us (me and my siblings) we are now passing on to ours. The love and respect towards each being is something which forms the core of their teachings.

Teachers from school and colleges had their own role to play.

The most I learned in my former years of career is from is my Boss Mr. Kailash Nath Sharma, he taught me things very invaluable which helps me even today, and helped me survive in toughest of times.

Through my childhood friend I learned the most important and the most difficult lesson that which most find difficult even today to implement and practice and that is "LET GO"

From my dearest and best friend, I learned the art of not giving in to temptations.

My ex was instrumental (indirectly though) in teaching me the importance of compartmentalization in my case keeping personal and professional life totally separate, irrespective of whatever the circumstance and challenges life throws at me.

Positive and long term benefits of the ethics and principles in business came from the insights of my ex- LIC mentor Mr. Deepak D Sawant.

The true meaning of the phrase 'Knowledge is Wealth", 'I think therefore I am", "Its never too late", "There is no age to learning" and many more was shared to me by my dear friend, guide, philosopher, mentor, Guru, Mr. Krishnan Raman Vedant. We met in 2001 for the first time and even to this very day he enriches me with his wisdom and knowledge.

These as mentioned above are some of the most important people in my life who played a very significant role in my life and shaped me into the person that I am now.

Then there are so many more with whom I crossed the path and they either learned something from me or managed to teach me a few things.

Then there are few lessons which no one can teach us but only comes from the mistakes we commit and these my friends is something worth living and cherishing all our lives.

Time as they say teaches us all that we need and being in tune with mother nature only adds to the learning. 

I think of me as a humble "Student of Life' and today by way of this post on this special day I am paying my tribute and gratitude to all who touched and shaped me in this life journey so far.

Thank you all for being a part of me and my journey.

I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 a campaign organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites

I always wanted to do this.... Did you too?

One of my favorite activity is to watch an eagle flying.

I am so blessed that I am staying in a house with a great view and a balcony to sit and or stand in :)

From here I everyday I adore the view of eagles flying high up in the sky and the mere vision makes me so blissful.

You might think what is so blissful about it?

Actually there is, but I am not sharing it now. That I have kept for my "My story" series which I am already writing and have already published 4 posts on the same on my blog-site. 

I always wanted to capture the sight of an eagle flying on my smartphone and its been more than four years now that I have been wanting that and guess what ? Today I got one. :)

As I stepped out in my balcony I saw one of the eagle flying at a very close range, taking circles. Luckily my smartphone was close by and I immediately grabbed it. I unlocked the phone, touched the camera icon and switched on to video mode. And VOILA !!!

This is what I managed to shoot. Please click the link below to the see the action of this magnificent bird and its swift and carefree flying.

I hope you enjoyed this post and the video.

Happy Day :)

I did not know this until now... Did you?

Source- Google Images

Learning something new is always such a fun :)

Today I learned  something new and found it very amusing .

[ I can add one more title to myself and it would be that of a "FOOL" :))) ]

Yes I love being foolish, why ?

[ I will share my reasons for that in my upcoming blog post series on famous Quotes.]

Yes very soon I will be starting this series on my blog-site, wherein I will write about my experiences and how the quotes seemed so appropriate.

For now, I wish to share what I discovered today.

I read other bloggers blogs and often write back to them if I find their email's on their site, if not then I drop comments on their blog posts. It's a great way of connecting with them and exchanging notes and learning's. I have met some amazing people this way and it is such a nice experience.

I read this beautiful post on parenting  and wanted to share it. So I clicked the 'twitter' button to share it on my twitter handle and 'facebook' button for sharing it on my facebook page.

I also saw "'re-blog" button so clicked that too :)

Until then I did not knew how re-blogging works, but soon I discovered the answer when I saw the 'like' notification on my "wordpress" account. As I opened it I found out that the like was for the re-blog I did, and that the post appeared on my blogging site.

Thus I learned that rather than sharing it individually of various social media sites, I can simply click re-blog button and the post will be automatically be posted not only on my blog-site but on all the social media sites as well to which I have connected my blog.

You all might have known this, but I just found it out today, so yes you may think of me as a fool, and may smile :)

Did you discover anything randomly, just the way I did ?

If yes please share your stories, I would love to read them.

Happy day :)

Nature's Jewels- The Orchid flower

As you all know I have a love for photography too. Although not with a professional camera but every now and then when I see something pleasing which makes me happy and smile I capture them on my smart phone camera.

I love nature and have shared some snaps from nature in my earlier posts. If you have missed them below is the list and links for my earlier posts on nature photography:

Sun Soaked Leaf

Amazingly Beautiful Skyline

Rain 'N" Clouds

On A Rainy Day Along The Creek

Invisible Butterfly

Today I am sharing with you the pic of an orchid flower from the gardens of one of my family friends with whom I stayed for two days during my road trip. They live at Pallakad in Kerala, India.

Orchid Flower

Isn't it a lovely and beautiful sight? Something that brings smile on your face :)

The Green stem is the slender body and the arms adorns the white flower signifying purity, and the buds represent a new life in progression. The subtle pink shade giving the impression that having known that I was admiring its beauty the flower seemed blushing, aware of the fact that there before her is someone who admires beauty. 

Yes or no?

If not let this pic and post be your reason to smile and acknowledge yourself for being the beautiful person you all are.

Beauty is all around us be it in stars, or in skies, flowers or birds, oceans and waterfall, people and their souls. Just put on the lens and look for the miracles unraveling itself everywhere.

Happy Day :)

Don't loose yourself, while pleasing others

Relationships are meant to help us grow and enjoy the company of the person with whom we are. The one where the involved person's are in a happy space and look forward to spend good time together. Isn't it?

And here I am not referring to any one particular sort of a relationship, I am talking about all kinds of them, that as a couple, or  friends, with siblings, and parents, your clients, colleagues etc...

Well it does not always happen that way, right?

Generally I am a happy go lucky person and believe in having meaningful and long term relationships and associations, yet their were instances where I had to turn harsh to the extent of being rude and let go of the person I once liked and was fond of.

Why I am writing about this ?

Well because often I see people doing more harm to themselves, trying to be nice and pleasing when they are suffering and in immense pain inside.

And why so ? So that they are looked upon as being a good person who care.

It makes no sense to be in such a relationship which is only doing more harm to you then good.

Source- Google Images

 I remember cutting myself loose of some people whom I had known for some time and even several years, one to the extent of almost 35 years of my life.

The person in question was someone I had known all my life and although she never did or intended to do any harm to me, but her pessimism and negativity was taking toll on my emotional well being.

I always patiently listened to her problems whenever she discussed it with me, and gave her solutions as to how she can do certain things in order to overcome them. I constantly tried to motivate and inspire her by citing examples of other people in similar or worst situations, but then came a time when all she wanted to see and talk about was negativity.

Finally one day I told her on her face, your negative approach towards life is not going to help you, but you comparing our situations ( I was also going through some tough times myself then) and blaming destiny and all is affecting me and I do not want to be party to this any more. If you can not stop doing that I will have no option but to tell this that "Please do not call me ever again"

It was that day and till this day,  I never heard from her nor did I called or asked about her to the people known to us.

Source- Google Images

Yes, it is not good to break any relation but if it becomes a threat to our sanity and leads you to depression and becomes an emotional burden then its always better to drop the baggage and walk off.

I never thought ill of the people with whom I cut off and I will never ever do that, its just that now I will never go back to them and its better this way.

If you have something similar to share please write to me I would love to read your stories.

Happy Friendship Day

Source - Google Images

We are all busy with so much in life that seldom do we find time to unwind or connect with our friends.

My close friends are from my college and school days. Few I made in the course of time while working. Most of them are married and are working 6 days a week. And since we all stay at different locations within the same city, so coming together makes it all the more difficult.

But then these are also the kind of friends who have seen me and been with me for most part of my life, so even if we rarely talk or might meet only occasionally it does not make much of a difference.
What remains important is that when we connect, we start from where we left and the time lapse just vanishes.

Today on this special day, I  called most of them to wish them "Happy Friendship Day" either over phone or text message and email :)

Did you wish 'Happy Friendship Day"?

From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #4

In this series I am sharing the choices I made as far as my professional life goes.

Why I took up my 1st job at the age of 17 is answered in my earlier post  "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #1 and then why I moved on to my 2nd one and why I left that can be read here >>. "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2 

My journey onto becoming Self-employed could be read here "From My Diary - The Choices I made ~ #3"

Yes, I did stop working as an LIC agent but that did not mean I left all my clients. I just up-scaled my scope of work.

How??? please continue reading to find out.

As I already mentioned in my earlier post I constantly learned and upgraded myself, so as I progressed on my journey as an agent, I realized that I now have gained enough knowledge of the financial products that I was offering that it's time to become a Fee based adviser rather than selling.

By this time (2007) I have had a client base of over 900 plus. Moving onto fee based advisory meant letting go some :(

But then I knew this was necessary if I want to take up Fee based advisory model. The choice was made so the next step was to meet all the existing clients and convey to them what I wished to do and how it will help them, should they continue with me as their adviser.

Most of the clients refused to continue since they could not digest the idea of paying fees for financial advisory service. I merrily let them go with a promise that even if I won't advise them going forward but then since they already were my client for whatever product they bought from me earlier, I will continue to offer servicing for them.

Now was the time to devise strategy for my new role as a Fee based adviser.  I worked out a strategy based on my working experience in financial service sector and the kind of income I was looking to generate.

It came down to having 96 clients max in my portfolio and that's it, I will be good :)

Since some of my existing clients accepted me in my new role, it was not difficult to gather more, as they offered references and thus the work was getting better for me.

Just the way I did annual review for my clients, I did my annual review and realized that managing 96 clients will be difficult so I reworked on my strategy and brought down my target number of clients to 72.

It was 2009 and I was doing pretty okay, I had already had about 55 clients  and the way  things were going in another two years or so I would have had another seventeen clients, and that was my target.
But life had something else in store to offer me, and things changed, this time it was something which I had never imagined or ever dreamed of.

What happened, that change the course of my life? What did I do? What choices I made then? To find out, stay tuned for my next blog-post of the series "From My Diary - The Choices I Made"

Have you read my earlier posts on this series? Is there something you wish to share with me or want to ask? I will answer to your email that is for sure, write to me at "nilesharma@gmail.com"

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my post.

Stay Happy :)

Simple joys of life...

Today as I was having my morning cuppa tea and looked out of my balcony, what I saw was simply beautiful.

Clear blue sky, with white patches here and there, a mountain showcasing its green blanket, with shades of green some dark and some bright green, and some laced with pristine sunshine, I knew I want to capture this and so did I. Although I could not get the scene as it is since it was shot on my smart phone, and at moments such as this, I always feel, the tinge on not having a DSLR camera :( 

Nevertheless since the pic was good and I wanted to share it with you all, I did some  some cropping of a long shot and tried to give you all a peek into what I saw and captured.

Beautiful Sky

I was happy :)

One of the luxuries of life which I am enjoying as for now is the flat in which I live. It offers both, best of the views (scenic and surroundings) and the breeze which comes in, I never felt the need for an air conditioner.

After soaking in the feeling of liveliness and this beautiful moment, I went on with my usual work. Nowadays it is mostly reading blogs of my fellow bloggers , and replying to comments and emails that I receive.

Around evening I ventured out with my family (brother, mom and aunty). My brother is considering changing his car so as soon as he spotted "Cars24" outlet he stopped by for a quick valuation for his car.

He went in and returned within few minutes only to inform us that it would take about an hour to get the valuations, since they need to inspect the car and take a test drive. With time in hand and nothing much to do me my mom and my aunt decided to take some walk.

The area we were in was a green patch and so walking around turned out to be a pleasant experience.

There I spotted this massive banyan tree in its full glory.

 Its roots hanging downwards all around the tree.

The view was breathtaking and once I again I took out my smart phone to capture the vastness of this banyan tree, which had one of the widest trunk I had not seen in a long time.

It was getting a little warm and my mom looking at the dark and cloudy sky said it seems heavy rain is about to pour in, and within 15 minutes it did.

As much as I love rains and every year in monsoon I want to get drenched in the them, it did not happen for couple of years. Now that I recollect it must have been more than 4 years since I went out and got wet in rains.

I guess it was because either I was indoors and too lazy to get into the elevator, climb down 18 floors and then come back all wet inside the lift, or was it because I am in the car (and I hate to even image sitting all wet inside the car) or out of fear of my mobile phone and wallet getting exposed to rain water was not something I seeked or wanted to do. 

But today none of these mattered, why???

Because my mom and aunt were with me and we were out walking and it was my brothers car which at that moment he was getting valued at Cars24 outlet :)))

So as soon heavy downpour started it gave me the perfect opportunity to have my fun moment. I handed over my wallet and mobile phone to my mom and bid them good bye. I took to walking the road and on the way informed my brother that I will meet them all at home.

Walking in the rain today was such a fun, heavy rain hitting me face, water draining don my forehand and face and then passing by my long unkempt beard and even longer tresses.

I must have walked more than seven kilometers enjoying myself passing by flowing water at some places while through flooded waters here and there. Most of the people were under some sort of shade to avoid getting wet.

I saw only two others enjoying the rains like me on that entire stretch of my walk in the rains today.
Who else they could have been but kids :)

Yes I saw these two friends returning from school all wet and when they looked at me and our eyes met we saw that naughty twinkling shine and we smiled and crossed the path.

It was a lovely day I have had in a long time, how was your day? Did you went out in the rains or there was something more magical happening to you? Do write to me and I would love to read all about it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Happy day :)

Who First ??

Me First!!!

It took me a long time to realize that this is possibly the only approach to embrace life in order to stay happy. 

I may sound selfish here, but then I need to be. 

Who is responsible for your well being and happiness if not you?

So yes, I am selfish

Like many of you, in my earlier days I too was a carefree and merry go lucky person, who found it difficult to say NO and believed in pleasing everyone.

When you have good intentions and wants to help everyone, usually people start taking you for granted. And most of the time the people who take you for ride are your near and dear ones. 

Then comes a time when you reach a point and you say enough is enough. 

All of a sudden you start saying NO more often then YES. People around you find it difficult to understand this new version of you.

As long as you were saying YES and agreed to do things there way things were fine, the moment you started saying NO and went into rebellion mode you became a problem or a threat. 

But then soon you realize that this too is not the perfectly right approach. 

So what is the right approach?

This is the time when you go into self introspection mode ( I did ), if you truly wish to seek the answers to what went wrong. 

Soon you get enlightened and understand that it is not because of others that you suffered, it was all because of you. 

From this point on you take charge of your life and the greatest revelation of this life dawns on you.

And what is this grand revelation???

"Balance"

Yes balance it is.

And this lets you learn and cultivate the art of saying YES when you truly want to say yes, and NO when it is absolute necessary to say so. 

I have learned a lot from mother nature, as even there you see how beautifully life is balanced by nature amongst the five elements viz Fire, Earth, Air, Water & Ether.

Any imbalance any one leads to natural calamity and destruction. That is the way of mother nature to bring back the equilibrium and such is our's. After all we are part of this divine creation.

Ever since I understood the power of this mystical wonder, my life changed and it changed for good :)

One other thing which I have made my life philosophy and have learned from our life cycle which I practice every moment of my existence is in the following order.

First comes "ME" then my "FAMILY" followed by "FRIENDS" and the last one in the order of priority is "WORK"

Why the above?

Well you will agree that only after YOU are born, does your FAMILY becomes relevant, then as you grow FRIENDS come in and then comes the necessity to WORK in order to make money 

to buy comfort and convenience. Isn't it so???

Whether you agree with me or have difference of opinion it does not matter, all that matters is you find your way of creating a balance in your life, 

I would love and appreciate if you take time out to drop your insights and comments.

Happy day, Happy LIFE!!!

"Insecurities and Possessiveness"

Today I am finding it very difficult to find the words for the feelings and emotions that I want to express, yet I can not stop myself from giving up on writing this post. So here it ....

I want to start with a question?

Do you have a spouse or are you in a relationship where one of the spouse is so in-secured and or possessive that he/ she won't let you have relationship outside the family???

I guess there are many....

In arranged marriages it is quite possible that you never got the chance to learn about this aspect of your spouse before your marriage, but I guess in love marriages you spend enough time with your partner in knowing them before you take the plunge.

One of the mistakes which most of the couples in love do is that they think I will change him/ her my way or things will change after the marriage. Does it???

I had an arranged marriage and my would be wife came from a very conservative family. 

I would not say I belonged to a progressive thinking family, but yes my parents were I guess open minded. May be that is the reason we never felt that it was inappropriate to have friends of the opposite sex, because we were never told not to speak or make friends with opposite sex. 

For us friend is a friend male or female doesn't matter as long as you know where to draw the line.

All my life I have had friends from both the sexes coming to my house, but that got significantly reduced after my marriage and I guess you all know why???

After few months into marriage my then wife asked me if I ever had a girlfriend before marriage. The answer was NO because I never had one. It does not mean I did not wanted to have one, it was just that the girl I was interested in was not interested in me :)))) 

The other question she asked me after this was a googly, she asked Will you remarry if I die???

Hard one wasn't it??? 

I tried to dodge that one and tried to change the topic, I mean I never thought about it and here she was hell bent on getting the answer, so after thinking for a while I did answer her.

She got me sweared and wanted an honest answer, which I gave her. 

It was YES, why not? 

I guess this was the first hint she threw about how possessive she was which eventually showed its face after few years into marriage. 

As mentioned already that I had friends from both the genders whom I continued meeting outside of house.

Of these one was my female friend whom I had known since we were kids and hence we gelled well. I would go to the extent of saying she is my soulmate. Before you jump to any conclusions read my post >>>"Soulmate"

She did not approved of my keeping any ties with her, may be because she was single (she still is) and I did not take her advise. 

According to my limited knowledge the foundation of a successful and happy marriage are  based on four key things. To know what they are as per me please also read "Marriages are made in HEAVEN"

Source: https://asriran.info/lists/b/broken-mirror-reflection-wallpaper/

I did not break my friendship to save my marriage. 

I am not seeking any endorsements from you for the decision I took, but yes one thing I wish to ask you all reading this mail is this... Why should any or both the partner expect that there should be no one else in your respective partners life while dating or after marriage? And by this I am not referring or promoting extra marital affair or adultery. 

What harm in having a platonic friend. Is it that difficult a fact to digest or do you belive that such kind of friendship's do not exist? 

If you are possessive as a partner or are in-secured about your relationship it's time you ask some tough questions to yourself and to each other.

Above all if you find it difficult to trust your partner despite all their assurances which actually may be true, then I guess it will be wise of you to "LET GO" off one of these two, your INSECURITIES or your PARTNER

Not all relationships have Happy endings but each one of us is empowered to make a choice of living a Happy life.

How??? go figure out..

I shared my story as I think there are many out there who either had gone through the same experience or are going as you are reading this.

What did you do or what do you think you want or wanted to do? share your thoughts or ask me if you want to know from my insights.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post is solely mine and the sharing is from my personal experience and is not to be construed as a PROFESSIONAL ADVICE 

From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #3

In this series I am sharing the choices I made as far as my professional life goes.

Why I took up my 1st job at the age of 17 is answered in my earlier post  "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #1 and then why I moved on to my 2nd one and why I left that can be read here >>. "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2

The first two jobs is about me as Salaried person.

Here now you will read about my journey of transition from being salaried to becoming Self- employed.

I was brought up in a lower middle class family. No one from my family ever ventured into business, I was the first one to take this path. Naturally every body was worried about me.

I wanted to do something where money was not required as a capital to start something. As it is we did not had enough money, and then asking for help from my parents for business was not something I wanted to do, so I explored my options. I was prepared to do hard work and long hours.

A friend of mine told me about "Life Insurance Corporation of India" (LIC). During those days I was staying at Ambarnath and there was an LIC branch I was aware of. So one day I went there and met Mr. Deepak D Sawant also called as DD by his colleagues and friends.

DD is a very dashing personality and he spoke very enthusiastically about his work and how his agents working under him was doing both professionally and financially. He introduced me to few of them while my meeting with him.

One thing I observed about him was that he was different as compared to all the other Development Officers there. His approach was very professional and he was not trying to push me into anything.

I came back home and went over with all that he spoke. The decision was made and I enrolled myself under his mentor-ship to become an LIC Agent.

I had to undergo IRDAI training for 100 ours in order to get my License to do LIC business.
I completed the training and procured my License. In the meantime DD encouraged me to meet people and talk to them about my new profile and how I could help them in securing family and saving money for various provisions of life.

Before I did that I had made two of the most important principles which I followed, the first one was "I will not ask for business from my family or friends" and the second one was that "I will not do unethical business"

DD believed in learning and hence encouraged his agents to do the same. So I also involved myself in the learning. Usually all the agents preferred agents manual for easy premium calculations but DD made sure that all his agents also learned the basics of calculations manually as prescribed in LIC's agents manual which I call as LIC's bible.

Thus DD was instrumental in incorpoarating in me the habit of working from basics, and I am very grateful for him for this. Even today I start with working at the basics first and then gradually move to the advanced stages.

Within a very short span of time I knew about all of the plans offered by LIC the purpose they were meant for and how it worked.

At LIC I also met one of the most important person who further groomed me at various levels. He was an MBA Finance who also joined LIC like me as an agent under leadership of DD. His name is Krishnan Raman Vedant.

Krishnan and me became very close friends and our friendship has grown stronger with each passing years. He is lot of things for me a great friend, a mentor, a guide, a teacher and an incredibly brilliant and well read individual. With Krishnan it's never a dull moment.

We started our journey in the financial service sector together and are still walking the road together.
It was Krishnan who introduced me to Mutual Funds and shares. He taught me about FD's and NCD's, Bnnds & Debentures.

I owe a lot to these two people whom I met during my course of working with LIC.

You must be wondering what the heck, did he left LIC too :-/

Yes, I did that because it was time to take the next big leap. What that next big leap was and when and why I decided to do it?

You will learn all about it in my next post on this series, till then keep wondering and if you have any questions please feel free to write to me at "nilesharma@gmail.com" I assure you that I will respond to your e-mails within 48 hours

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my posts.

Stay Happy :)

Taking baby steps in Video making...

Life is all about acquiring new skills and learning.

Keeping up with this philosophy, I recently acquired a new skill, that of making videos using video editor tool.

Although I have been taking photographs and shooting some scenic videos from my travels, but putting them in an album or making a slide show out of them never occurred to me.

But that has changed now.

I have decided to make an album/ slideshow from the travels and compile a video of it and share with you all on my channel "Nilesh Sharma- YouTube"

Yes, I know it may sound silly, but then I acquired this skill only very recently.

I took help from some online tutorials of some fantastic Vloggers on Youtube.

A very special thanks to "Billi 4 You"

His video "Best Video Editing Software for you"really helped me the most :)

I am taking baby steps, one at a time. Mistakes are bound to happen, but so will the new learning. 

With time I will master the art, in the meantime enjoy my kiddish work on display for you all to laugh and have some :)))

Find below my video which I have uploaded very recently, in an attempt to make a presence on new platform which is "Yuotube"for me.

If you want to know more of  this trip , I had also written in detail about it on my blog "River Rafting @ Rishikesh"

Please revert with your feedback and ideas as it will help me greatly.

I look forward for suggestions and support from you all. Thanks for reading,

Happy day :)

#billi4you

From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2

This is the second post on the series "From My Diary - Choices I Made" 

In my earlier post on this series I wrote about my first professional choice. If you haven't read it by now please read "From My Diary - Choices I Made ~ #1

After I resigned from my first job and there after finishing graduation, I was now out looking for a job.

I applied for the post of 'Medical Representative' and got selected as one for a major Pharmaceuticals company named "Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited"

By the way here is a confession I wish to make,  I never wanted to be an MR (Medical Representative), but here I was starting my work as an MR. Why?

Because the money seemed good, it was a field job, the company was well known and besides image of MR's looked nice. well groomed with Tie and shoes, meeting Doctors, first class travel everything seemed good.

I was always good with communication and people (that is what all said) so getting in tune with my new job profile was not a problem.

The job involved meeting Doctors, reminding them of our existing brands and briefing on new launches, and finally asking them to prescribe my company product.

To ensure that the prescriptions were honored, ensuring the availability of stocks at pharmacy store was also vital.

During the course of job I learned the difference between a General Practitioner (GP) and a Specialists and super Specialists. Up until then, doctor was a doctor. I soon got to know the various kinds of doctors and their relevant degrees and line of specialty.

The two things which I was not very comfortable with were the samples that we used to get and the morning and evening doctors calls.

As it is the homes in Mumbai are not very spacious and in that, to make an extra room for samples was something I did not like.

Also their should be continuity in the flow of  working hours. But then  since most of the doctors would meet only during mornings or evening hours depending upon there convenience or patients, we had no choice but to meet them whenever they allowed us.

Besides these two things I loved my work :)

I guess I was the only person in my company at least, who did the least number of evening calls.

It was over two years now on the job , when one day sometime in August or September 2001 ( I do not remember exact date now) my then Regional Manager (RM) Mr. Himanshu Desai came to work with me.

Mr. Himanshu had a very dashing personality and I remember asking him why he did not go into modelling ;)

Mr. Himanshu was the one who took my final interview during selection process.

He was to meet me at 10:30 am at Mulund station near platform no. 1 indicator. I was there before time but he came only after 11:00 am . After exchanging greetings the first thing he told me was this:
"I have heard lot of things about you and that has not portrayed a very good image of you." 

• You do not do evenings,
• Do not meet VIP doctors enough
• Only do the prescribed 10-12 calls
• Do time pass with girls, etc

Now what I could have said to all this as some of them was true. Well I always believed in smart working so as required was doing the prescribed number of doctors. VIP's I did not concentrate much was, because according to me they already had reached their saturation of prescribing the number of prescriptions for me. I instead believed in catching hold of new doctors. I used to meet them when no one else went to see them, because of this I not only developed great rapport with them easily but they were the first to prescribe my product first. As far as girls were considered, we had very few females working in this industry then and because of my easy going attitude they found it easy to talk to me. That does not mean I only talked to girls in fact my core group of friends were all males and we still meet as and when we can even to this date.

Anyway with the impression my RM had for me, we went on to work. We did few doctor calls, chemists visit and lot of waiting in between calls.

By the time it was 2:30 pm we manged to do about 10 calls. which included 3 VIP doctor calls

We went for lunch and it was then what he said made my day :)

He said,  "Nilesh I have been working with you today and I saw your style of working. You have great rapport with your doctors, the prescriptions are coming, the stocks is available at the medical store and your equation with your colleagues too is great. I must say I will have to change mu opinion about you"

Before he left for the day he said, Nilesh you work smart and I like the way you work, I want you to be an FM (Field Manger) start preparations for interview this coming March.

Now what do I say to that :)

So did I go for the Field Managers interview???

"NOPE", I did not.

Before it happened, I had already made up my mind to resign from my job.

Now why did I do that??

Well, after working for more than 4 years under someone else, I realized I was not cut out for a job. I did not liked to be answerable to anybody, nor was I interested in chasing  the numbers the so called big targets. I wanted to do my work my way as per my convenience. But above all, the most important thing which inspired and motivated me to resign was this simple logic :
" If I worked  even half of  what I did here for myself, I will end up making more money, and that too with less working hours "

I resigned in the month of October 2001, to venture in to a totally different industry of which I knew nothing except for the fact that I wanted to be a "SELF- EMPLOYED"

The job as an MR at Torrent pharma was good, money was good, company was good too, but yet again I wanted more, and this time too everybody in my circle and knowing advised me against leaving the job. 

My field manager even went to the extend of saying that I could choose to do both, work at your thing as part-time. What if  it did not workout as you think, at least with job financial security is there?

Yes the risk was there, but then I had read and  heard a lot and knew the "Risk of not taking the Risk" 

Was this next "CHOICE" which I made then was worth the risk I took?

To find out do follow or subscribe for my next blog-post "From My Diary - Choices I Made ~ #3" coming out soon...

What do you think about the choices I made in my this series so far ? Have you made any such choices which led to greater gains or did they ended up giving pain ?

Do write and share with me your story. You may drop a comment or write to me as an email on "nilesharma@gmail.com"

You may also ask me for any guidance and help if you need and feel that I can contribute with. I will be more than happy to help you if I  can ,from my rich and diverse experience.

Happy day :)

From My Diary - Choices I Made ~ #1

Life is all about making choices at every juncture...isn't it ?

Like you all I too have had made many choices in my life some of it turned in my favor yet some were not. Yes that's how it is with all of us, won't you agree?

Today here I wish to mention about one such choice I made about twenty years ago. Rather my life's first major choice.

I was working then for a commissioning agent firm "Sai UnicornGroup of Companies" which back in year 1995 was offering its services primarily in FMCG markets for defense sector. Now it has come up with its own brands and has emerged as one of the  market leaders in retail markets.

I was one of the best performing employees and was the only one in the firm who got five increments (Yes you read it right) five increments within a very short span of service of  about two years with them. 

I had joined the firm in order to help my family financially. 

The thing was that my father was a Government employee ( an honest one, of which I am very proud of). During that time he was posted in B D Bari (Jammu) and we were at Mumbai. 

We had bought a modest one bedroom apartment in suburbs of Mumbai and his salary was not enough to support the expenses of two houses (he being posted at  B D Bari & we staying here in Mumbai) and the EMI of our new house.

Being the eldest one I took upon myself the responsibility of doing something about it  I decided that I would do anything I can to help my family get through this, and thus came into this job at Thane.

The salary was okay but the profile was good and the bonus was that it gave me the opportunity to travel to all the major cities of India. The only catch was that back then I was a student, pursuing my graduation in science stream and this job kept me from attending science practicals, and hence I discontinued my studies then.

I really wanted to do study, but  for me it was not my priority at that point of time of my life. My priority was to help my family through those financially troubled times. 

I am a living example of this famous Quote

I had not read the book nor was I aware of this very famous quote by world renowned author "Paulo Coelho" from his famed book "The Alchemist" (which was apparently also used later in one of the blockbuster Bollywood movies "Om Shanti Om" ) 

Now when I look back something similar happened with me. Yes I very much wanted to study and at least finish my graduation and so it happened :)

It was year 1998 when the Fifth pay commission was announced and when it came into affect I got the opportunity to go back to my studies. The increase in my father's pay scale almost compensated my salary :)

I decided to quit my job and carry on with my studies after a gap of almost two years. But the decision was not easy, why? Because during those times I was making good money. Better than some of the graduates I knew. 

I was my Boss's favorite so he did not want me to resign. He tried all he could to keep me. He proposed to me a very tempting offer, which not only would have been good for my pocket, but he also offered me a designation of "National Sales Head" with several other perks which included company provided vehicle.

When I talked about this with the people at home and my fiends and some of their parents, they all advised me to continue with my job. They all said I would be a fool to let go such a great opportunity in order to fulfill my dream of completing the graduation, which gave no guarantee of a job. in future.

What they said did made sense at some level but somehow I was not feeling right about it. 

The choice was difficult for me then. At one side I had a job which most would have wanted and on other I had my desire to complete graduation which came with no promises. 

I chose to let go of that opportunity and followed my heart . 

I resumed college, finished my graduation. Worked in corporate culture with one of the biggest names in pharma industry, and later in 2001 came up with yet another situation similar to this...

What happened, what was this new job and what were my circumstances and choices then....

to find out do come back to read my next phase of life story...

Till then read my other posts and if you like them do share and subscribe. And if there is any thing you want to suggest or ask please drop your comments in the comments section at the end of this post and I will revert to them as soon as I can.

Thank you for droping by and reading this post :)

Have an amazingly Happy time !!!