September 13

I have always had a dream - the dream that Conduira would touch the life of each and every student and be their change maker - helping each student dream heavy and motivate him/her to work heavier to convert that to reality. I have always believed that we should lead the ONE life we have our own way - if rich (famous) is what we wish to be, then rich (famous) is what we need to be. We should put all that we have, to achieve what we believe in, and wish to become. With this belief, and passion we, Conduira, are/is entering Tamil Nadu - by setting up a center @ Tambaram to start with. Having conquered the minds and hearts of the Telugu (afterall - my girl is also a "Telugu girl")), it is time to conquer the minds and hearts of the Rajnikanth fans. And conquer, we shall... after all we are in the business of dreaming big, and becoming big...:)

September 16

I received a sweet mail from a GVP girl seeking help - the placements are due next week and she has messed her life till date. Help me, she said. I wonder, how I am in a position to help, when there are so many things in my life, I have messed. But then, over the years, I have come to understand two things (a) Tomorrow is a another day - a chance to fight another battle afresh (b) The will to change, is a powerful force - without which we will continue to fail, but with which, we script a new beginning. For me the greatest hope is - if after all the messing up, I can survive, there is hope for the everyone. We just have to start fighting harder...

September 21

It is placement / CAT time :) For all those who are tensed - remember, fear precedes success. If you are not afraid, you have either set goals which YOU KNOW are very easy, or ones which YOU KNOW are simply impossible. So sweethearts - fear is good :) All the very best. Let's fight and succeed - after all WE KNOW we really do deserve to win...

September 27

Recession or no Recession, Quality ALWAYS has demand. Congrats to GVP gang for the work well done. 238 placed. GITAM your turn now. Fight on!

September 27

Success is beautiful. There are 238 souls from GVP who today are the heros not just of themselves but also of their friends and families. But there are also many others for whom, atleast for a short duration,

the world has come to an end. Failure sucks! When Deepti and I started Conduira not knowing what to start with, we started with Spoken English course. The first day which started with a lot of apprehension and excitement ended in a sour note with the realization that the students expect us to teach English in Telugu. So, Conduira started with a batch which closed even before it began! The day sucked and so did life. Then GRE and CAT happened. Even today the batches, some times and of late quite often close before they start but thankfully because they become full. Failure sucks. But it happens, but then we just get up and start moving forward. I am sure there are many from AU, and would be many more later from GITAM and other colleges who would qualify to be called the heros but in case we are not in that category one particular day I really hope we keep telling ourselves that failure is an opportunity to fight and win the next battle. But win, we will For all the souls who did not make it today - cry now, but tomorrow you fight...meanwhile, we - your family and friends - wait with faith... All the best sweethears...Life is beautiful, if we just sit and look at it the right way...

October 10

For all those writing CAT: Sweethearts - all the very best. Fight on! How ever good or bad you have done in your proc Mocks - remember - tomorrow is another day - and I hope - it is going to be your day. And for those who still have a few days to write CAT - do not let your momentum fall - no fight is over, till it is really over...

October 11

These days I am coming across quite a few students / friends who are down with high degree of unhappiness professionally as well as personally. I have come to believe that life in general sucks. But I have seen a few people who simply do not agree with this. These people come in either of the two categories. One people who accept life the way it is, and learn to embrace and live with it all ha ppily. Second - people who are ready to fight against what shit life has to offer and compete for what they want. This however requires us to move out of our comfort zone and take big decisions. This, in my own personal experience is not very easy. The moment we start staring at the problem closely, and start thinking about this big decision, we also tend to give ourselves hundreds of genuine reasons - why this big decision is not possible NOW. What however sucks the pleasure out of our decision of not taking the decision - is our awareness - heart of hearts that these genuinely genuine reasons are not genuine at all and that only adds to our mental sickness. Big change does require big decision May we all learn to take the big decision or, accept what life has to offerwhich frankly, is not worth much. Thankfully, there are people who have dared to look at the moon, from the moon, rather than the majority, who have just appreciated the beauty of the moon, standing on Earth It is these people, who are our role models giving us hope and faith that if they can, one day, we can

October 12

In my previous post Sudha Lavanya made one comment I have heard many times everything happens for our own good. I am sure when she meant this, she said this as a strong statement of acceptance. But most of the time however, when people tell us this, or when we tell ourselves this it is when they / we cannot help us / ourselves. This statement then is no more a statement of acceptance but becom es a statement of resignation. What fate has so far given us, we cannot help. But what we do with what fate has given us and how much we fight for what it has not, are in our hand. We all have only one life, and I therefore see nothing wrong in questioning the fate, and scripting our own. We have a real choice not to run away from a problem and accept is as a fate. We have a choice to believe that every problem has a solution, and bigger the problem - brighter the solution. When we have fought to our best and then tell ourselves that what happens NOW is for our good then it does not remain anymore a statement of resignation it becomes a statement of acceptance. I have one life I will lead it my way When we have the drive and passion (Conduira), we have a life

October 25

Further to Nazar's comment to my previous post: 2002-2005, for three years I taught my school students History, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography and Mathematics (...all those which I struggled to pass as a student), while Deepti taught English, Hindi and Telugu (for people who do not know - she is great in Telugu literature). Took classes from 6 am to 10 pm during board exam times. These we re for classes 7th to 10th. Why? Because we did not have 3000 bucks for recruiting a teacher! Someone righly said - entrepreneurship is enter-penuryship! What did those three years teach us? The meaning of hardwork, facing tension & uncertainity, building team & systems, and the art of teaching. And yes, the most important of all, the meaning of the word perseverance. There are quite a few here in facebook linked to me now, who belong to my first few batches of school students/ my first barch of GVPCOE - who, as I implied earlier, were also my teachers in a very different way. Love you all, and you guys will always remain my first love :)
November 8

Last couple of days has been about the US Presidential elections. Apart from most of us, Indians, following the same, quite a few of us, Indians, have also compared, through our comments in FB, the beautiful systems existing there versus the corrupt system in our own country. For god sake, lets be proud of our country. We seem to be concentrating on the ills of our society thanks in no small measures to the Indian press and forget the fact that the same ills haunt even the US. Poverty, corruption, money power in politics and in every part of ones life, rapes, murders, castism in its other form of racism you name it! If we have one problem they have many! That is not to condone our country. But that change has to be brought by us. We fight against fuel price hike, removal of other

subsidy, exit of government from non-critical sectors and yet, expect government to make enough money to provide for facilities. We expect government to fight corruption and take others black money, while being a part of corruption and making black money ourselves. I love my country in spite of all the chaos and dirt because I am amazed, how my country with all its problems and diversity which if present in any other country would have killed it much earlier has not just survived, but has progressed to become that one country which still provides hope to those born poor to grow out of poverty and make a life for themselves. Most of us, are ashamed of our Indianness when standing in front of the whites. Jai Hind is a two word phrase. Lets not treat it like a four-letter one. If only we can be proud of our country our country would make us feel proud of ourselves.
November 9

No person who knows me would ever call me narrow-minded or chauvinistic. The previous post was not a post on the superiority of our nation (compared to the whites a term that I mentioned not in derogatory way not in a racial perspective, but in economic one India versus other developed economies including Singapore, etc.), but a comment on the perceived inferiority of our nation among mo st of our own nationals. Inferiority complex is a situation where we compare others strengths with our weaknesses, forgetting the fact that others have their weaknesses and we have our strengths. Unfortunately most of us, in our nation, suffer from this. We focus chiefly on the goods of the so-call developed economies and the faults of our own. To cite an example show me one America movie, where their army, its President, or general public is shown in a negative way. May it be an action packed movie, or a sport oriented one post watching it, you are filled with pride. And Indian movie politicians, police, as well as society as a whole are all shown as corrupt in all sense of the word. Watching this, who in the right mind, would wait in the queue in hot and humid weather and cast their vote. And if we do not have faith in our own politicians, can we ever be a true democracy? I say, with quite a degree of shame that most of us have given up on our nation, or its systems. For us Obama gives us hope Manmohan despair! Relationships are best when they are between equals. We need to ask ourselves do we really think we are equal. Till that equality is seen both in our thought processes and in our actions we would always be the browns, and they the whites. The mistake of us feeling inferior to the whites, is not a mistake of theirs but a make of our own.
November 23

This in response to a student's query how do I sound so sure of myself? Am I not afraid? I am great. I am great not because I was born great, but because I strive for greatness.

During my interactions with young minds across various colleges and geographies, I find lot of brilliance and talent around. But when I look around I also notice that most of us try to play down our brilliance and our greatness. The chief reason for this is that we try to reduce the expectations that others have of us that way in the future if we do face any failure we do not have to cut a sorry figure. However what we forget is that by driving down the expectations of our self in the eyes of others, we are also driving down the expectations of our self in our own eyes and mind. What in effect we are doing is killing our own brilliance, and a chance to be truly great. I have heard many people say be realistic about your goals and your talent. I agree. But how do we really know what we really are capable of unless we try. Personally, I never knew I could speak. I never tried speaking not in the school nor later even in the college. Even when I was doing my MBA, I never tried. Looking back, probably one of my great victories of winning the Class Representative position at MDI, was on account of my victory in a debate (over one of the greatest speakers I have ever met though even today I consider that less my success and more his failure) and thus my ability to speak. However this latent talent was truly discovered by me only later, when as an entrepreneur, I was forced by the circumstances to speak. Today any one who truly knows me would attest to the fact that what I am today is on account of my ability to speak. Most of the time, it is the force of circumstances which makes us discover what we truly can be. But many of us, not forced by, or running away from, circumstances, die without knowing what we truly could have been. Yes, greatness in many cases is thrust upon us. But imagine, how great we can be, if only we genuinely tried discovering ourselves every day. To feel great, is the first step towards greatness. And then comes backing this feeling with effort. However we over value the second part for me, without the first, second probably is not a possibility. It is normal to have fear in the heart but to allow it to dim either our image of our self, or to stall our movement towards what we wish to be, is to stop living. We have one life we should live it the true way.
December 2

A student commented Sir, you are a James Bond, I can never be what you are. Most of you guys who are connected with me in FB know of the second version of Abdullah. Today, I write on the first version Abdullah per-Engineering College, because you people need to know me really. My childhood was one of the worst any one can ever have something which was of MY OWN making. I had a problem a s a kid my one-year elder brother who is and was the best guy I have ever seen. The problem was I then thought my parents did not love me, and society did not respect me, because I was not as good as he was in studies. The result of which was: *I did not speak to my mom for over 5 years because I thought she did not love me.

*My elder brother for over 4 because for me he was my greatest enemy. *My younger one for over 3 for what I have no clue. *My dad I had to, I needed money once in a while so spoke very sparingly. *I belonged to that section of the student community whose stomach would get upset before the exams and before the results. *I passed quite a few of my exams because I mastered the art of copying. *Had not one friend till my 10th even today cannot recall any names. *Was invited thrice by my Principal to come to the front of the morning assembly all the three times to be suspended for doing something wrong. Three times when I was caught for many others when I was not. *Would have flunked my 12th class board exam, but for the fact that one of my teachers saw that I was seated next to a real James Bond he being instructed to help me out. *Did nothing in the school apart from playing cricket in which I sucked was never a member of any team. *Missed my picnics in the school because I did not have money or the motivation to ask father the money. Would sit in the corner and cry I guess, because I loved to be in picnic but was egoistic to go and ask my dad money. Well, the list is too long and thankfully my memory is quite poor but as they say, a few events you simply cannot forget. My life changed when I realized my elder brother was a friend frankly, I could never have made to my engineering college but for the fact that he on his own came forward started speaking and helped me make it. It also changed because when he left home for his engineering I suddenly became the eldest child in the family and thankfully also found a few great friends for the first time in my life in my 12th class. And it changed for sure when I ended up in hostel during my engineering with people who did not know my past and therefore were not prejudiced. Why am I sharing this sob story with you all? (a) So that you guys know that - most of you guys are much better than what I was at your age. This gives me immense faith in the fact that you guys would do great when you reach my current age. (b) My childhood stupidities taught me not to be judgmental about any student who sits in front of me and talks about his/her failure or mistakes. When I listen to them, I see myself in most. So it is ok. (c) Most of our current problems are of our own making. If we can look at closely, may be take help of our friends/family for the same, we could solve that and correct fast. In my case I was lucky - situation helped me change what we need to do in todays highly competitive and pressurized world is not wait for the change to come, but proactively seek the change. (d) There is one more important learning if you ever come across anyone who you think is a James Bond do remember there are skeletons in everyones cupboard. You are not the only person with a problem. Two more points. One, I am not ashamed of my past. It has made me a better person, and what I am today is on account of what I learnt from my problems of then. Second This has given me my lifes greatest learning Past is NOT a reflection of the Future. People can change. And for me if I can change I see hope for every single kid sitting somewhere thinking that the life has come to an end.

Btw when I say all these, do not every think I have a low opinion about myself. Today, I am too damn sure about myself. I am not just good I am great. :)
December 1 Recently I was in a forum where I got a chance to interact with quite a few successful, not-so-

successful and trying-to-be successful people from top B Schools across India. Interacting with them I learn something about being a successful leader. A successful leader (gender neural statements used), I notice has the following characteristics. (a) He has a vision a dream this is the second most important thing he believes in. The first being himself. But then, these two are connected like the proverbial hen and egg case. (b) He has the ability to communicate that dream to his team in a language the team understands. (c) He is the father-figure of the team - the team knows that he shall fight for them, and take care of them, but can be strict when they are in wrong. (d) He is the role model for the team and the team believes not just in the dream, but also in the ability of the leader to take them to that dream. Some time when I look at these leaders I ask myself a question can these be learnt? If I am not a leadership material today, can I ever be a leadership matter tomorrow? I would like to believe that it is possible. Would like to believe that, with hard work and perseverance, and with experiences both successful and those ending in failures, it is possible to become a successful leader. I would like to believe in this because this then gives me a hope that I too can become a successful leader at a later date. Genes and initial circumstances may have failed us hopefully we ourselves would not.
December 5 I am stunned by the response to my previous post. Why? Because it never seemed so special

to me or inspired me! As much as people said they were inspired by my story, I have found my own inspiration in many life stories of my own students. Two stories that I often fall back on whenever I have self doubt: First, a girl who got married when she was in her tenth husband being a small time vendor . Husband encourages her to study and she completes her intermediate and then enters an engineering college thanks to the fee reimbursement scheme. She works hard, manages her family, AND her child, and then gets selected in three companies. Reinforces my belief that when we really fight for what we want, the forces around us do conspire to make it happen. Second, an MCA student of mine, who had three years of break in his academics. When quizzed he told me a story, which has defined my meaning of family value. The student came from a very poor agricultural family. He had to discontinue his studies due to poverty. His parents and he worked hard in the fields and educated his younger brother who after finishing his education got into an IT company. Now, it is his younger brother who is financing this boys education! Frankly, inspiration is everywhere. The only question is - Are we ready to be inspired?

10 hours ago

I am a strong believer in the concept of Nothing is Impossible. I, today, am very confident about my ability to run and do things because I have done it. Was I always like this? No! Six years back, my confidence was not as much. And ten years back when Deepti and I were in our second year of entrepreneurial life we were ready to leave this life and run back to the corporate because we wer e sure success in business was not ours. Confidence comes with success. The more we succeed, the more confident we feel. What we therefore need to do, is to learn to win and if we are not confident how to - first lets win SMALLER battles which we know we can win if only we TRY SERIOUSLY. Initially small successes would lead to small increase in confidence. These small increases would give us the confidence to fight larger battles. And then, without even realizing it, we would start tasting greater successes, and this would translate to greater confidence. It is a great cycle: small victory boost in confidence confidence to fight larger battles confidence general in life. We just need to start and run this cycle todayand every single day Once we start fighting small battles every single day, we really start living. Battles we take up to stretch our self a little bit further and to slowly discover our limits; to overcome our fears and phobias; and to question our beliefs in self but all these battles we need to fight with only one final objective to win. Because we know each victory however small - helps us become a little more confident and a Life of Confidence is worth fighting for. STUDENT failure is an opportunity to fight and win the next battle. But win, we will For all the souls who did not make it today - cry now, but tomorrow you fight...meanwhile, we - your family and friends - wait with faith... All the best sweethears...Life is beautiful, if we just sit and look at it the right way... Mohamed Abdullah My inspiration...
few questions- ages and stages of the sample space .. I am a little curious to know the difference between progressions of.. 1) Belief in oneself 2) To have a tangible dream for oneself and linking 1) ( Not a vague random, fed, copied or imposed dream-which most us believe we want to live.. but an internalized one)... and 3) a stage when the dream is communicable or can impact others 4) when one is ready to lead or impart December 1 at 8:12pm Like

Jignesh Talasila Prathibha ji, I believe, it is your own self who can answer the above questions. Infact if someone out there can answer them for you... then he/she will be the busiest & Richest consultant while there will be no more failures

after one consults him. Because you either win as he said or you will not even give a try as you are told that you are not ready. All that I can say is the more you believe in you, the more you believe in your dream. The more you believe in your dream the more you get connected to it. The more you connect with it, the better you can express it and obviously the better you express the best you impress. All these things together, only can make you ready to lead. Abdullah sir, reading the four traits mentioned, I can recharge my cells again... Thank you.