PRESENTING PROFESSIONALLY For SUCCESS

COMMUNICATE, CONNECT, CREATE CONFLUENCE  

The modern executive is faced today with a world of work which is spinning so fast that the chances of success depends on the ability to make an immediate impact and lasting connections with the needs and expectations of a knowledgeable and demanding customer.

Speed and Accuracy of performance coupled with an ability to showcase skills and competences calls for making the most of opportunities in the spotlight to capture the attention and influence people who matter to make decisions that favour and support personal, professional and organizational growth.

This translates to the simple yet somewhat unpracticed ability to present oneself and one’s opinions and viewpoints with fluency, courage of conviction, sound advocacy and aplomb!

At Valmar International we offer you the choice of one or Two Day Programs held at our office location in Chembur and the opportunity to connect with skills that allow you to make your presentations a success.

The Program is an intensive analysis of your current presentation skills and assists you develop professional skills by identifying and filling in the gaps.

Being intensive in nature with individual attention to each participant, the batch size is limited to TEN participants with a minimum of EIGHT. We invite CORPORATES to nominate your executives and managers to this program. We also invite anyone interested in Making An Impact through Powerful Presentations to enrol.

To really succeed at presenting and build up effective presentation skills, there are several key areas that one needs to become skilled in. 

Key Skill 1 : Planning your  Presentation for Impact & Connect

Key Skill 2 : Using Yourself as a Key Visual Aid effectively

Key Skill 3: Presenting with Clear WI-FY “ What’s In it For You” rather than WI-FM “ What’s In It – For Me”

Key Skill 4 : Presenting with Confidence, Composure and Influence

Key Skill 5 : Audience Centric Behaviour and Ability to Invite and Answer Questions competently

Key Skill 6 : The ability to Influence people and create a powerful and collaborative presence

This helps you leverage these crucial

Communication Competences

Managing the  12 Cs of Presentations
1	CLARITY	Of Thought
2	CRISPNESS	Of the Presentation
3	COMMUNIC-“ACTION”	Of Analysis done
4	CORRELATION	Of Concepts / Models employed
5	CREATIVITY	In the Presentation
6	CHOICE	Of Medium
7	COMPOSITION	Presentation Design
8	CARE/CARING	Sensitivity to Audience needs
9	CONCLUDING	Powerful, Succinct and Memorable
10	CARRIAGE	Body language of the Presenter
11	CONVICTION	Passion of the Presenter
12	CONVINCING	Influencing Power of the Presenter

The Training Consultancy

 Valmar International is a Management Consultancy and as part of our Vision to ASPIRE for Excellence, motivate and collaborate with others whom we associate with, we offer several learning programs ranging from communication skills, interpersonal skills, managerial skills, team building skills, influencing skills right through to Managing Cultural Diversity through Cross Cultural Sensitization, Global Business Etiquette and  Leadership skills.  

At Valmar International we have Four Verticals

1. Competence Based Corporate Learning Solutions and Interventions in Behavioural Sciences & Soft Skills stretched right across the spectrum of competence based workshops. We design and deliver our own programs under our banners "Steering Wheel of Life" and "The Winning Edge" series of programs. 

2. HR Research Solutions & Value Add Services ( HR Audits, Climate Analysis, Exit Interviews etc ) - we are currently engaged by several Indian Majors and MNCs in a and also have an overseas collaboration for other worldwide clients 

3. Coaching & Counseling – Dexter Valles, CEO is an Internationally Certified Coach and we have a panel of qualified counselors at our Learning & Counseling Centre in Mumbai

4. Youth Learning Solutions ( Our Learn2Lead Academy is focused on delivering Life & Leadership Skills to the key stakeholders in the development of the youth , viz Students-Parents-Teachers ) 

Registration for “Professional Impact” Presentations

Two Day Program

    To register please email  us

VALMAR INTERNATIONAL

602, Rendezvous, Plot 464, 14th Road, Chembur Mumbai 400 071 , INDIA

Email : hrdsolutions@valmarinternational.com 

website www.valmarinternational.com 

GROWING PAINS

GROWING PAINS
Lessons in Team Leadership & Membership

The crown of thorns, purple robes, the cross of crucifixion and the wavering loyalties of disciples. Teams are powerful and painful, filled with times of glory and desecration, trust and betrayal, compelling vision and rank pettiness. But Teams are what deliver Results, Teams create Leaders, and Leaders co-create Wealth.

Together Everyone Achieves More. Or should.....

Michelangelo once famously said

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it. But that it is too low... and we reach it"

The learning curve in leading and managing teams to achieve more, read "ambitious" goals is not a gentle curve. It's more a twisting exhilarating scary ride on a monster water slide !

As a senior manager in a tall hierarchical organizational structure, one is given clear positional power and this often comes along with expert power. People influenced by that power acknowledge and accept it. You are supposed to demonstrate it and if you don't, it doesn't augur well. Strange yet true !

Moving on to managing high powered teams, and needing to manage relationships and commitments needs positional power released in favour of influential relationship power. Sudden flattening of the acknowledged power pyramid also has its consequences. Power sharing or empowering, although talked about a lot, is not a common experience on either side. Trust is a common casualty , trying to manage and monitor the process instead of learning to let go of what has been given and accept imperfect demos of its application as learning lessons and not misuse. Yet that is a reality too.

In powerful teams, of equals, or assumed equals, hierarchy is notional even if part of structure. Unlike among "unequals" for want of a better word, where power- sharing engagements by the leader are valued, in " equals teams " Leadership is not acknowledged unless it is first severely challenged. So managing the power line is challenging maybe because lines represent recalling or limiting the power shared and giving up or releasing assumed power is difficult. In the process accountability against commitments is lost in power struggles. The team leader's role and relationship is targeted, or team members are singled out and reprimanded, when team promises are not fulfilled, targets are not met and contagious contaminated victim- persecutor- rescuer role playing adds to the drama. So commitments are hurriedly put aside in favour of patchwork relationships. And now its difficult to get results and one accepts poor performance as part of learning to work better together.While the process is more important that the result, should the process be allowed to deny the result ?

In their book "First Among Equals" Patrick Mckenna and David Maister have interesting tips for the team leader beginning with clarifying the leader’s role and confirming the leader’s mandate as paramount for the team to know and acknowledge the leader. Then the leader needs to set about “building relationships – one at a time” , not just as a leader but also as a trusted advisor.

Team membership that contributes significantly to the team vision and goals requires that the team has established rules of membership to include setting levels of mutual accountability and shared contribution while establishing shared values. This helps build Team Trust, the emotional glue that holds teams together. According to Mckenna and Maister, the Elements of Trust are Sharing information about oneself and what makes one feel vulnerable, Following through of commitments, Letting others know if you can’t do something, Keeping people informed after asking for advice and Constructive disagreement – all of these needing guidelines to be based on demonstrable behavior. For example they say, one guideline for constructive disagreement could be “ if you hear an idea or thought that you disagree with , you cannot offer a contrary view until you have restated the initial idea and then propose a supportive or embellishing idea or thought to improve on that initial idea”

Declaration or transparency of personal goals is important too, to allay fears of hidden agendas. The team cannot manage a vision or a goal that dramatically leaves behind a personal desire and goal. Acknowledging compelling yet divergent personal goals is critical, so what's common can be included, and what's uncommon can be separately managed without too much extra energy and engagement.

To be “Effective Equals” needs the clamour for power and control to subside in the minds of all team members and replaced with shared values, practiced trust and the painstaking path of managing the alignment of personal goals with the team vision and goals.

By : Dexter J Valles, CEO & Managing Consultant, Valmar International

EQ-i 2.0 - the new Emotional Intelligence model 2011

Author:

Anna Stevens

This article is about the new field of interest for leaders, professionals, and researchers - Emotional Intelligence - 'a new science of interpersonal relationships'. You can discover the definition of EQ/EI, learn about 5 scales of the new emotional intelligence model EQ-i 2.0, and gain better understanding on how Emotional Intelligence impacts your performance at work, affects your personal relationships, decision-making process, stress management, and your life overall.

Have you ever wondered why some very smart people are lonely, unhappy, and unsuccessful? Do you remember anyone from your childhood who wasn\'t that smart, but was outgoing, confident, had a positive attitude, and later in life became very successful? We used to think that IQ can predict how well one will do in life. But you know from your own experience that often high IQ is just not enough. What is this 'other intelligence' that is so much more important for succeeding in the 21st century? It is called Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ/EI) was first mentioned in the 1920s by Edward Thorndike. He referred to it as 'social intelligence; emotional factors'. However, Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. is being considered as the father of Emotional Intelligence, which some people call 'a new science of interpersonal relationships', since his book 'Emotional intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ' was published in 1995. The interest in EQ has increased over the years, and as for today, there are several definitions of Emotional Intelligence in existence. Let me introduce them to you.

According to Multy-Health Systems, Emotional Intelligence is a set of emotional and social skills that collectively establish how well we: perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way.

According to Henry L. Thompson, Ph.D., Emotional Intelligence is a person\'s inner ability to perceive and manage his/her own emotions in a manner that results in successful interactions with the environment, and if others are present, to also perceive and manage their emotions in a manner that results in successful interpersonal interactions.

According to Reuven Bar-On, Ph.D., Emotional-Social Intelligence is a cross section of interrelated competencies, skills and facilitators that determine how effectively we understand and express ourselves, understand others and relate to them and cope with daily demands.

According to John Mayer, Ph.D., Peter Salovey, Ph.D., and David Caruso, Ph.D., EI is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional meanings, and to reflectively regulate emotions in ways that promote emotional and intellectual growth.

According to the father of Emotional Intelligence Dr. Goleman, EI is the meta-abilities of self-management and interpersonal skills such that self-regulation of emotions leads to interpersonal success.

Emotional Intelligence is built of 5 components. Each of them consists 3 subcomponents.

Self-Perception is the first component of EQ and it refers to one\'s 'inner self' determining how aware you are of your emotions and feelings, how you feel about yourself, and how satisfied you are with what you do in life.

First subcomponent here is Emotional Self-Awarness - the ability to recognize your feelings, differentiate between them, realize why you feel the way you feel, and know how the emotions you\'re experiencing affect people whom you interract with or your decisions. Emotional Self-Awarness is the foundation on which the majority of other EQ components are built, as if you are unaware of what your emotions are and how they make you feel, you can\'t understand why you act in a certain way and how it affects others. People who are high enough on this subcomponent recognize when they feel out-of-sort, irritable, sad, and understand why, so they are able to control thei behavior. As we know, a small change in behavior can lead to some very notable consequences. Emotional Self-Awarness is the key to building successful relationships.

Second subcomponent here is Self-Regard - the ability to accept yourself the way you are and to respect yourself. People with healthy Self-Regard know their strengths and appreciate them while accepting their vulnerabilities and successfully managing them. This subcomponent is usually associated with the feeling of security, inner strength, self-assuredness, and self-confidence. Those people have no problem openly and appropriately apologize if they made a mistake. Self-Regard is based on the healthy sense of identity.

Third subcomponent is Self-Actualization – the ability to realize your potential capacities. This component of EQ is manifested by your becoming involved in pursuits that lead to a meaningful, rich, and full life. It is a dynamic process, a commitment to life-long development in order to be your best self. People with balanced Self-Actualization are able to clearly articulate what they want, set result-oriented goals, develop a plan to achieve them, follow through, and adjust where needed. Those people make promises to themselves and keep them – that\'s how they make progress.

Self-Expression is the second component of EQ and it refers to one\'s ability to openly express feelings both verbally and non-verbally.

First subcomponent here is Emotional Expression – the ability to openly and effectively send messages to others on emotional level through the words we say, their meaning, the tone and the volume of speech, our facial expression, and our body language.

Second subcomponent here is Independence – the ability to function autonomously, direct and control yourself, without relying on others to guide you. Independent people may consult with those whom they trust, but in the end they make their own decisions. Making decisions and acting accordingly, following through and keeping commitments is what stands out about independent people.

Third subcomponent of the second component is Assertiveness – one\'s ability to express his or her feelings, thoughts, beliefs and stand up for own rights WHITHOUT BEING AGGRESSIVE. People with a healthy level of assertiveness always consider feelings and thoughts of others. Shortly speaking, your assertiveness should not prevent others from being assertive.

The Interpersonal Component is the third component of EQ. It is also called people skills.

First subcomponent here is Interpersonal Relationships – ability to establish and maintain mutually satisfying, meaningful relationships.

Second subcomponent here is Empathy – the ability to be aware of feelings and thoughts of others and, as Alfred Adler said, see with the eyes of another, listen with the ears of another, and feel with the heart of another.

Third subcomponent of the third component is Social Responsibility – the ability and willingness to contribute to your group, your company, and the society as a whole. As successful people say, if you have not succeeded yet, you have not yet helped enough people succeed.

Decision-Making is the forth component of Emotional Intelligence and represents the ability to deal with problems realistically, search for and find best solutions and control impulses that can prevent you from selecting the right course of action and following it.

First subcomponent here is Reality Testing – the ability to see things as they are, not as we want or fear them to be. People with a healthy level of reality testing think their views out, build arguments and look for supportive evidence. They are able to identify and address problems as well as recognize and build opportunities.

Second subcomponent here is Problem Solving – the ability to find solutions to problems in situations where emotions are involved. People with great problem-solving skills see challenges as new opportunities for creativity, development, improvement, and growth.

Third subcomponent of the forth component is Impulse Control – the ability to resist or delay an impulse in order to avoid making mistakes or rush decisions as well as prevent oneself from getting angry. This is the essential for success at anything you want to succeed at.

Stress-Management is the fifth component of EQ that refers to one\'s ability to confront reality in a flexible way and see the light in the end of the tunnel.

Flexibility is the first subcomponent of this component. It is the ability to adjust to the unexpected, the unknown, and the change. When new evidence presented, flexible people can adopt their way of thinking. They are open-minded and tolerant of different ideas.

Second subcomponent here is Stress Tolerance – the ability to effectively cope with stress in a positive way.

Third subcomponent of this last component is Optimism – one\'s ability to see a silver lightning in every cloud. It indicates the capacity to be hopeful and resilient as well as general positive attitude.

Emotional Intelligence assessment is recommended for measuring one\'s EQ/EI. Measuring EQ uncovers your Emotional Intelligence abilities and skills and allows you to focus on developing those you need most to achieve your success. We deal with our emotions on a regular basis, there is no way we can avoid it. However, emotions can have a good or a bad impact on our behavior which can either help us achieve our goals or otherwise. If you can become aware of your emotions, your behavioral patterns, your mental habits, then you can manage and guide them to take you where you want to be in your life.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/coaching-articles/eq-i-20-the-new-emotional-intelligence-model-2011-5148771.html

About the Author

Anna Stevens, JD, BBA is a part of the network 'Experts in Emotional Intelligence'. She is the owner of 'EQ for Success' (www.eqforsuccess.com) and a current MBA candidate at GA State University. In addition, she is a happy woman and mommy. Her burning desire is to help as many people as possible to uncover their potential and achieve their goals through Emotional Intelligence.

Anna started expressing the interest in mind power and self-development when she was only 12 years old. Since then, she has learned how to set and achieve high goals and became the one who always makes things happen. Her personal mission statement is 'I believe that each individual is unique and has a great potential for growth. I admire the differences in people and keep my mind free of prejudgments or prejudices. I believe in the power of mind and am committed to inspiring people to be proactive about their life success'.

From Human Doings to Human Beings

Planet Earth has been constantly evolving and every major evolution has accompanied a “shift” in the earth bringing about radical change, transforming the very face of the planet.

We too , the product of these major shifts have evolved along the way, but one wonders if we have understood our evolution or comprehended what we have really gained along the way from cave to skyscraper.

As we grew from togetherness and collective representations of ourselves to separation and individual representations of self, we stamped our presence and impact on the world, with what we uncovered, discovered, managed and created. Obsessed with evolutionary growth and in the quest of knowing more to create more, we manifest a world of perpetual striving, struggle, effort and travail. We drive ourselves to master every possible practice, process, skill to create capability and competence to create more and more to announce our greatness to ourselves and others in the quest to be accepted, honoured, recognized, loved, envied and even attacked as a measure of how much we have of what others want.

Our constant pre-occupation is with defining and re-defining ourselves often by the work we do, what we create , who we know, what we can do , in order to give ourselves an explanation about why it is important for us to control and dominate others who do not measure up.

Somewhere along the way we meandered away from the whole and complete people we dreamed to be to the people we are, mere representations of what we do. We transformed from being to doing, perhaps losing the soul of the human being to the shell of a human doing.

You may wonder what lies ahead. Will the world end with the next “shift”, will life as we know it change irrevocably ? We may not be as clairvoyant as some of the “light worker” writers who predict a major earth-shift to a brighter better future, but perhaps we can help ourselves return to the “human beings” we once were and connect our emotional mind-maps in a supportive relational manner that promotes true and fuller awareness, understanding and nobility of purpose to drive us to achieve our dreams of a more humane and integrated world.

Meditation teacher and originator of the Synchronicity Experience, Master Charles puts the whole issue in perfect context when he says, “We must focus on holistic models of reality… truthful, inclusive, love-based ways of being and living. We must invest in Oneness within ourselves… in a more holistic awareness… a more co-creative and mutually supportive relationship with each other and the planet. In other words, we must learn to live with balance and create a balanced world in which life-supporting values and experiences are the primary focus. Love must dominate over fear… truth over illusion… harmony over conflict… experience over concept… and we over me.”

We need to develop and raise our Emotional Intelligence to a level of focus and fluency in managing and directing the flow of energy and information in order to bring about Positive Change in the world we are creating day by day.

Bringing back the “Human Being” in us would need us to unchain and uplift the human spirit to soar with noble purpose and elevate, engage, enrich and enchant our and others lives with applied emotional-cum-social intelligence, balance and integration to deliver the richness and fullness of life.

Mad for Mumbai

• From:The Australian
• October 09, 2010 12:00AM

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Taxis in Mumbai: "I have wept more here than I have ever in my life ... But the longer I stay, the more I seem to relax, let go, let it be." Source: Supplied

Living in India is like having an intense but insane affair, writes expat Catherine Taylor

TONIGHT, as I waved my high heel in the face of a bewildered taxi driver, I thought suddenly: I am absolutely nuts in India. It's a thought I have often. Someone or something is always going nuts, and quite often it's me.

I was trying to get a taxi driver to take me home, a mere 500 metres away, but it was pouring with rain and my shoes were oh-so-high, and it was late. He, of course, was having none of it; no amount of shoe-waving and sad-facing from a wild-haired firangi was changing his mind, when suddenly I remembered the magic trick - pay more than you should. "Arre, bhai sahab, 50 rupees to Altamount Road? Please?" And off we went.

I have lived in Mumbai for almost three years. It was my choice to come - I wanted offshore experience in my media career and India was the only country looking to hire - and I wanted a change. I needed something new, exciting, thrilling, terrifying. And India gave that to me in spades. In fact, she turned it all the way up to 11. And then she turned it up a little more.

To outsiders, living in India has a particular kind of glamour attached to it, a special sparkle that sees people crowding around me at parties. "You live in India? My God, really? I could never do that. What's it like?" The closest I have come to answering that question is that it's like being in a very intense, extremely dysfunctional relationship. India and I fight, we scream, we argue, we don't speak for days on end, but really, deep down, we love each other. She's a strange beast, this India. She hugs me, so tightly sometimes that I can't breathe, then she turns and punches me hard in the face, leaving me stunned. Then she hugs me again, and suddenly I know everything will be all right.

She wonders why I don't just "know" how things are done, why I argue with her about everything, why I judge, why I rail at injustice and then do nothing about it. She wonders how old I am, how much I earn, why I'm not married. (The poor census man looked at me, stunned, then asked in a faltering voice, "But madam, if you're not married then… who is the head of your household?") I wonder how she can stand by when small children are begging on corners, how she can let people foul up the streets so much that they are impossible to walk along, how she can allow such corruption, such injustice, such A LOT OF HONKING.

But she has taught me things. She has taught me to be brave, bold, independent, sometimes even fierce and terrifying. She has taught me to walk in another man's chappals, and ask questions a different way when at first the answer is no. She has taught me to accept the things I cannot change. She has taught me that there are always, always, two sides to every argument. And she was kind enough to let me come and stay.

She didn't make it easy though (but then, why should she?). The Foreigner Regional Registration Office, banks, mobile phone companies and rental agencies are drowning under piles of carbon paper, photocopies of passports (I always carry a minimum of three) and the soggy tissues of foreigners who fall to pieces in the face of maddening bureaucracy. What costs you 50 rupees one day might be 500 rupees the next, and nobody will tell you why. What you didn't need to bring yesterday, you suddenly need to bring today. Your signature doesn't look like your signature. And no, we can't help you. Come back tomorrow and see.

It's not easy being here, although I am spoiled by a maid who cooks for me, and a delivery service from everywhere that ensures I rarely have to wave my shoes at taxi drivers. I buy cheap flowers, trawl for gorgeous antiques, buy incredibly cheap books; I have long, boozy brunches in five-star hotels for the price of a nice bottle of wine at home, I have a very nice roof over my head … on the face of it, it would seem I have little to complain about. But then, I am stared at constantly, I have been spat on, sexually harassed, had my (covered) breasts videotaped as I walked through a market, had my drink spiked, been followed countless times. I have wept more here than I have ever in my life, out of frustration, anger, loneliness, the sheer hugeness of being here. But the longer I stay, the more I seem to relax, let go, let it be.

But I do often wonder why I'm here, especially when I'm tired, teary and homesick, my phone has been disconnected for the 19th time despite promises it would never happen again, when it's raining and no taxis will take me home. But then a willing ride always comes along, and we'll turn a corner and be suddenly in the midst of some banging, crashing mad festival full of colour, where everyone is dancing behind a slow-moving truck, and I won't have a clue what's going on but a mum holding a child will dance up to my window and point and smile and laugh, and I breathe out and think, really, my God, this is fantastic. This is India! I live in India! She hugs me, she punches me, and she hugs me again.

Yet I know won't ever belong here, not properly. I know this when I listen to girls discussing what colour blouses they should wear to their weddings - she's Gujarati, he's from the south, she's wearing a Keralan sari. I know when my friends give me house-hunting advice: "Look at the names of the people who already live there, then you'll know what kind of building it is." (Trouble is, I don't know my Kapoors from my Kapurs, my Sippys from my Sindhis, my Khans from my Jains). I know this when my lovely fruit man (who also delivers) begs me to taste a strawberry he is holding in his grubby hands and I have to say no, I can't eat it, I'll die… I know I will never belong because, as stupid as it sounds, being truly, properly Indian is in your DNA. I marvel at how incredibly well educated so many of them are, how they can all speak at least three languages and think it's no big deal, how they fit 1000 people into a train carriage meant for 300 and all stand together quite peacefully, how they know the songs from every Hindi film ever made, how they welcome anyone and everyone (even wild-haired, complaining firangis) into their homes for food, and chai, and more food.

I've seen terrible things - someone fall under a train, children with sliced-off ears, old, old men sitting in the rain nursing half-limbs while they beg, children covered in flies sleeping on the pavement, beggars with no legs weaving themselves through traffic on trolleys, men in lunghis working with their hands in tiny corridors with no fans in sky-high temperatures. I've read heartbreaking things, of gang rapes, corruption, environmental abuse. I've smelled smells that have stripped the inside of my nostrils, stepped over open sewers in markets, watched a goat being bled to death.

I've done things of which I am ashamed, things I never thought I would do. I have slapped a starving child away, I have turned my head in annoyance when beggars have tapped repeatedly on my taxi window, I have yelled at grown men in the face. I have been pinched and pinched back, with force. I have slapped, I have hit, I have pushed. I have screamed in anger. I have, at times, not recognised myself.

I've yelled at a man for kicking a dog, and yelled at a woman who pushed into a line ahead of me when I wasn't at all in a hurry. When a teenage beggar stood at the window of my taxi, saying "F… you madam" over and over, I told him to go f… himself and gave him the finger; once on the train I let a kid keep 100 rupees as change. I am kind and I am cold-hearted, I am fair and I am mean, I am delightful and I am downright rude. I am all of these at once and I distress myself wildly over it, but somehow, India accepts me. She has no time for navel-gazing foreigners; she just shoved everyone along a bit and made room for me. She has no time to dwell on my shortcomings, she just keeps moving along.

And then, and then. I've been to temples where I've sung along with old women who had no teeth, I've held countless smiling ink-marked babies for photos, I've had unknown aunties in saris smile and cup my face with their soft, wrinkled hands, I've made street vendors laugh when I've choked on their spicy food, I've danced through the streets at Ganpati, fervently sung the national anthem (phonetically) in cinemas, had designers make me dresses, I've met with CEOs and heads of companies just because I asked if I could. She hugs, she punches, she hugs again.

In short, I have been among the luckiest of the lucky. She keeps me on my toes, Ms India, and I have been blessed that she let me stay for a while. She wanted me to succeed here and she gave me grand opportunities and endless second chances. She willed me forward like a stern parent. She welcomed me. And when I leave, because I know I will one day, I will weep, because I will miss her terribly. And because I know she won't even notice that I am gone.

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