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Tag: Ratan Tata

How a chance encounter with Vinod Khanna changed my Life forever

He was not just an actor to me, he was a signboard that appeared suddenly saying, “This way, please…!”

Vinod Khanna passed on yesterday, at 70, claimed by, I am told, bladder cancer. Like many, many out there, I loved him too. As I told Vaani just now over coffee, “The sense of loss is deeply personal. Jaise Koi Apna Chala Gaya Ho…” I never got to meet or speak to him though. The only time I came face-to-face with him was in 1993. That chance encounter changed my Life forever.

This is how it happened.

The year was 1994. I was living in Bangalore and working with Business Today magazine. I was assigned to do a cover story on “Service Quality”. And that took me to Mumbai where I had several meetings set up with CEOs to understand how their teams were responding to the challenges of measuring and delivering customer delight. I had been trying to get a meeting with R.C.Bhargava, then Chairman & MD of Maruti Udyog (now Maruti Suzuki), in Delhi (where I was to travel next) to get his views for my story. Ramesh Krishnan, Maruti’s then PR Head, told me to come to the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, one evening as Maruti was launching its popular 1000 cc variant, the Esteem. He said I could be part of the launch and meet Bhargava. It turned out that Ratan Tata was launching the Maruti model. And so, almost everyone who was someone in Mumbai was there. I got to meet Bhargava for a brief while. And he agreed to meet me again in his office in Delhi. As I was leaving, Ramesh offered to walk down the stairs, with me, to the street. As we exited the Regal Room at the Taj, and started climbing down the stairs, in an awkward moment, when I came in their way, Vinod Khanna, flanked by sons Rahul and Akshaye, looked right into my eyes. They were coming up and we were going down. For a few seconds we all stood unsure of which way to move and who should make way for whom. After the momentary hiccup, I quickly made way for the Khannas and they went in to join the event that I was leaving.

As we continued walking down, Ramesh whispered to me, almost as if it was the most precious piece of information he was parting with, “Did you know that Vinod Khanna is Osho’s disciple?”

“Osho? Who’s Osho? I thought Vinod Khanna was part of some sex ashram in Pune led by a man called Rajneesh,” I quipped.

Ramesh laughed and clarified to me that Osho and Rajneesh were the same person. I tucked away that information.

I hadn’t heard the name Osho at all. I had known of Rajneesh though – vaguely. But something happened that day – either it was the magnetism in Osho’s name or it was the fact that it was Vinod Khanna who was his disciple. Whatever it was, I was drawn towards Osho and I started reading up on him. The internet wasn’t around then. So information was not so easy to get. Besides, there was this unnecessary, misguided, feeling of shame that I harbored in me – that acknowledging openly that I was an Osho follower meant that I was declaring my interest in his “free sex movement”. It was a ridiculous reasoning I gave myself, but that’s the way it was. So, for the longest time, I was a closet Osho follower.

I have immersed myself in Osho’s Life and teachings since 2004. I find him simple, practical and unputdownable. By then, the internet had arrived and accessing Osho’s thoughts was so easy.

AVIS-Viswanathan-Osho-Living-Dangerously

Every morning, during my mouna sessions (daily silence periods), I would devor Osho’s views on Life. My personal favorite is his book – Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. Going through a tumultuous, scary, phase – our bankruptcy (read more here: Fall Like A Rose Petal) – I found his perspective invaluable. Courage, he said, is not the absence of fear; but it is the total presence of fear with the courage to face it. I derived great clarity reading Osho. His other point about how, when there is no relating between people, then there is no point in them being in a relationship, really helped me make peace with myself over my relationships in my dysfunctional family, particularly with regard to the one I have with my mother. And the way he taught me to let go of debilitating emotions – anger, grief, guilt, hatred, worry, anxiety, fear; not by advising that I run away from them, but learning to hold them, examine them, and understand their futility. He says, do whatever you want, but do it fully. Which is why he encouraged free sex – as a means of unbridled human expression, of love, of uniting with the Universe’s energy. He says that suppressing or resisting anything will only lead to suffering. To be sure, Osho has empowered me to live a full Life, free from suffering. If Shirdi Baba taught me Faith and Patience, if I learnt the value of living in the moment from Swami Sathya Sai Baba, it was Osho who taught me to celebrate its beauty and to train my mind so that it doesn’t run back to cling to the dead past or race forward to worry about an unborn future. I am inspired speaker and writer today only because of the first-hand experience I have of intelligent living. And that experience may have never happened hadn’t Osho really, figuratively, held my hand and my soul, and taught me that intelligent living is downright commonsensical and simple. Interestingly, the title of my Book, Fall Like A Rose Petal, is inspired by a story that Osho used to tell his followers!

And, I may have well never have heard of Osho for a long, long time, unless I hadn’t come in Vinod Khanna’s way that night at the Mumbai Taj. They say everything – and everyone – happens for a reason. So, to me, Vinod Khanna, is not just an actor who I watched and adored as I was growing up. To me, Vinod Khanna was that important signboard on my journey that appeared suddenly saying: “This way, please…!” And that was the way of Osho, of living free, of living dangerously, and of living happily despite the circumstances!

 

Author AVIS ViswanathanPosted on April 28, 2017April 28, 2017Categories Happiness, Inner Peace, Intelligent Living, Life, Spirituality, UncategorizedTags Anger, Art of Living, AVIS Viswanathan, Bankruptcy, Business Today, Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously, Customer Delight, Faith, Fall Like A Rose Petal, Grief, Guilt, Happiness, Inner Peace, Intelligent Living, Life, Live Free, Live in the moment, Maruti Esteem, Maruti Suzuki, Maruti Udyog, Mouna, Osho, Pain, Patience, R C Bhargava, Rajneesh, Ratan Tata, Regal Room, Relating, Relationships, Service Quality, Shirdi Sai Baba, Silence Periods, Spirituality, Suffering, Swami Sathya Sai Baba, Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai, Uncategorized, Vinod Khanna2 Comments on How a chance encounter with Vinod Khanna changed my Life forever

What thinking about ‘Being Cyrus’ can teach you about being you!

When there’s no one to be touched, you will never be feel hurt, insulted or betrayed!

I am intently following L’Affaire Mistry @ Tata. Every time Cyrus Mistry retorts through the media, I can feel his pain. Vaani and I know what it means to be dropped high and dry, like a hot potato. About 11 years ago, the head of our Bengaluru operations migrated to a rival company en masse with our entire Bengaluru team. I took this purely business-related development personally. I was so hurt, I was suffering so much that I took a flight to Mumbai, barged into the office of the rival company, met its co-founders and demanded an explanation from them. While the conversation with them helped to the extent that I shared how I felt, as an entrepreneur, as a professional, as a human being, when I reflect upon it now, I realize it served so purpose by way of closure. It was just a knee-jerk emotional response from me. Perhaps banal I talk about this episode and how cathartic it was for me personally in my Book Fall Like A Rose Petal. bravado. Yes, of course, I learnt something from that experience – I learnt the power of forgiveness. I talk about this episode and how cathartic it was for me personally in my Book Fall Like A Rose Petal. I also learnt that you really must not expect fairplay from people and in Life. Because people do what they do because they think, and often also believe, that what they are doing is right. And Life never promised any fairplay nor does Life answer any questions.

I have realized that when you are hurt, offended, insulted or cheated by someone, you can let the hurt pass and ignore the whole happening or you can let the hurt pass and fight the issue or you can cling on to the hurt and also fight rabidly for what you believe is right. I have, since that episode in my Bengaluru office from 2005, learnt that letting the hurt pass and ignoring the whole episode is the best option. You may not want to agree with it. But this is what I prefer doing. If I must fight at all, I will prefer fighting the issue than invest my energies in avenging an insult.

avis-viswanathan-ignoring-a-hurt-and-letting-it-pass-helps-us-not-to-suffer

If you reflect on Life, you will discover that whenever you feel hurt at what someone tells you, or does to you, it is your ego which is acting up. You question, often bitterly, why someone has behaved in a manner that you don’t endorse. Your ego instigates you to fight back, to avenge that behavior, instead of constructively confronting the issue. And then the drama begins. You tell the person something harsh. That person retaliates. Then you must say something in return. And on, and on, this game of ping-pong goes on. Or in situations when you are unable to retort or get even, you suffer within. You carry the injury, the wound from the hurt, all the while. Your ego keeps reminding you of how unfairly you have been treated. It sets you off on a journey of anger, self-pity and grief. And you let the wound fester there – causing you more pain, making you suffer more – and more!

But think of what can happen if you choose to ignore the insult. If you refuse to let it affect you. What if someone calls you an idiot and you just ignore that expression totally? Then there will be no hurt. And therefore no suffering. To reach this state all you need is to remember that each one is entitled to their thoughts, their opinions and their actions. If someone expresses his or her opinion, take it on board if it is worth it. If it will cause agony – drop it. Or rather don’t even catch it. Let the comment, barb, jibe, insult – or even an action, whatever, let it pass.

I am not judging the way Cyrus is handling his crisis, his catharsis. I only say that I can empathize with his sense of pain. Ultimately, to each one, their own. Your individual “Being Cyrus” or “Being AVIS” experience will help you onward to being you!

Even so, you are already on this evolutionary journey. And you can help yourself better by periodically checking out how well you are faring. Choose a 24-hour period and promise yourself that you will not react or retort to whatever may be said about you – no matter what the context is or what the provocation is. Notice that you will feel infinitely better without taking on board all the comments – about you – that come your way. Or without having to react to everything that is done to you.

This definitely works wonders when it comes to dealing with hurts, insults and motivated actions against you. But it also is a great way to stay grounded – especially when a lot of praise is heaped on you. If you let both insult and praise to pass, you will never be allowing your ego to be in the driver’s seat! When the ego is not driving you, you cannot be touched. Because then, as per Tao and the Empty Boat story, there’s no one to be touched!

PS: If you liked this blogpost, please share it to help spread the learning it carries!

Author AVIS ViswanathanPosted on November 2, 2016November 2, 2016Categories Ego, Let Go, Pain, SufferingTags Anger, Art of Living, AVIS Viswanathan, Constructive Confrontation, Cyrus Mistry, Ego, Fall Like A Rose Petal, Fight The Good Fight, Happines, Happiness Curator, hurt, Inner Peace, Insult, Intelligent Living, Just Be, Let Go, Life Coach, Osho, Pain, Ratan Tata, Revenge, Self-Pity, Spirituality, Suffering, Tao, Tata, The Empty Boat, UnhappinessLeave a comment on What thinking about ‘Being Cyrus’ can teach you about being you!
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Advisory & Disclaimer

1. The author, AVIS, shares Life lessons here that he has gleaned from his lived experiences. AVIS has nothing against or for any religion. If the reader has a learning to share, they are most welcome. If the reader makes a communal or inflammatory or derogatory comment, or presents a view which may affect the sentiments of other followers/readers, then this Blog’s administrators may have to regrettably delete such a comment and even block such a follower. 2. The lived experiences shared here and the learnings gleaned from them are unique and personal to AVIS. The copyright for all original content here, that has been written/created by AVIS, belongs to AVIS Viswanathan. Important, AVIS has no interest in either infringing upon or claiming copyright of any referenced material published on this Blog. The images/videos used on this Blog, that are not created by AVIS, are purely for illustrative purposes. They belong to their original owners/creators. The author does not intend profiting from them nor is there any covert claim to copyright any of them.

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