The Most Underrated Profession In India

Originally Published on 02th Sept 15

Mochis ( Cobblers)

In the modern time, the lifestyle of cobblers is still primitive. They don't earn enough despite being skilled and fine workmen . They are like car mechanic who repair things. Shakespeare was more generous in his appreciation and has compared them to surgeons. 

Thou art a cobbler, art thou? Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes.
William Shakespeare

I have failed to appreciated cobblers. I appreciate a Barber every time I am happy with my hair cut. I let a Tailor know that the suit he stitched looks beautiful. I appreciate salespeople for their effort even if I don't buy their product . 

I am courteous while responding to telemarketing callers as they are just doing their job. They have to earn to support their family and I have no right to make them feel bad even when I can't accept that free credit card. I wave at Watchmen at office, will say something nice to the lift man, or the sweeper. The Mochis are one of the most underrated profession  for me because I had never appreciated them when I was their regular customer. 

But, the answer I am giving is based on my last experience with Mochis. They reminded me of the endless times I visited them as a kid, I used to get my sleepers repaired n numbers of times. But, I had never said them that they did a good job even when they deserved.

Why travelling by State Transport Bus is not a bad idea? 

Yesterday, I went to Alibaug with my cousins and it was a welcome change from the fast paced life of Mumbai. I did crazy things; convinced my cousins not to hire a taxi and rather take a state transport bus (I loved it as I remembered the scenes from the movie Swadesh but they regret this :P). I had a secret desire to explore a place on a shoe string budget just for the heck of adventure.

I was doing things without thinking about getting judged. May be I was tired of being too formal and sophisticated and so was doing things that were definitely outside my comfort zone. 

At Alibaug, We trekked Colaba Fort of Shivaji Maharaj and were amazed at it's beauty. It was raining in the sun and we took shelter under a tree. It was an amazing experience. We saw rainbow, played silly games and I was jumping in water like a kid, I was living my childhood and all of a sudden I realized that  my sophisticated sandals could not hold the thrill and were severely damaged. I was not in a position to wear them.

I thought of dumping them in Garbage Bin and buy myself new pair of sandals. But, I didn't throw them as I was enjoying carrying them in hand and getting some pictures in different poses.

Even after searching for shops for shoes/sandals, I couldn't find one till a kilometer or so. It was hurting my legs as due to being in water for  long time, they had become sensitive and walking bare-foot was really painful. 

Only when I lost all hope of getting a new sandal, I saw a Mochi. My eyes glowed with hope. I went to him and requested to get my sandals repaired.  He did that within 10 minutes and during that time, I was just inquiring about him like I had been doing with many others on that day.

(He seemed immersed in his work but was patiently responding to me)

Finally He said, "Sir, it's done". Twenty Rupees.

I paid him what tiny amount he asked plus some extra money. Then, I got down and sat near him. I told him that I was desperately looking to get a sandal or shoe but couldn't find a shop. I was really thankful to him. I requested for a photo and he happily obliged. Before leaving, I told him that I will write about this on my blog.

He gave a big smile and said that, "I am just doing my job". [I felt he was saying thank you] 

(By this time, three girls had arrived and they were clueless about what was going on. I happily leaved the scene with a smile)

Mochis work really hard, they don't own a shop, they work on footpath 365 days a year. Really, No work is Small.

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Book Recommendations: Books that can change your Life

Note- You will need 5 minutes but I am sure that it would be worth your time. Summary of the book "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" is the highlight.

The Alchemist-  A book that made me believe in my dreams. It's a must read for someone who is new to reading books.

Malgudi Days- The simplistic writing of R.K Narayan has made me love all his writings. He is just a pleasure to read.

The Home and The World -Collection of stories of Rabindra Nath Tagore - All his writings are a treasure of wisdom. He is a pleasure to read. He will make you love literature.

Old Man and the Sea - Ernst Hemingway has written about an old man and his experiences. It is a classics and you will love this.

Stories of Munshi Premchand- He wrote in hindi and will help you learn about the life of people during his time. His writings are evergreen and all his novels and stories will enrich your life experiences.

Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank was 13 when she started writing about her life in hiding during the second world war. She is my inspiration. It is so nice to read about the life experience of a girl living in a different country in a different era and that too during the war and the regime of Hitler.

The monk who sold his Ferrari 

The Monk who sold his Ferrari is a wonderful book written by a great author, Mr. Robin Sharma.

It is a fable about a trial lawyer who was obsessed with his work and more precisely with his life.  He had all the worldly possessions one could dream of, yet he was unsatisfied because something was missing from his life .He sold all his possessions like his holiday home, Ferrari car, etc and decided to go to India on his personal odyssey due to a self-imposed exile. 

He decided to connect with India’s vast pool of ancient wisdom on living a more rewarding, fulfilling and enlightened life. He totally transformed his personality from a over worked tired man to an enthusiastic, radiant and enlightened human being by practising the following 7 timeless virtues of enlightened living.

1.    Master your mind
2.   Follow your purpose
3.    Practice kaizen
4.    Power of self control & discipline
5.    Stopwatch (value your time)
6.    Selflessly serve others
7.    Embrace the present

You can read in detail  about the 7 timeless virtues painstakingly summarized in my article Learning from the Monk who sold his Ferrari. Trust me, it will be worth your time.

Wings of Fire- Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam. It is really inspirational and a must read to learn from the life of the great man.

My Experiment with Truth- The autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi and lessons from his wonderful life in India, England and South Africa.

Harry Potter & Philosopher's Stone-This book has taught me the importance of dreams"- Gaurav Munjal, Founder of Flatchat. He gifted me this book and I loved it too. You can read more about this at Rohan Sinha's answer to What are some of the most important life lessons that you've learned from strangers?

Some More books that I have read:

• Old Man and the Sea- By Ernest Hemingway- It is a wonderful piece of literature showing a person's commitment and his experiences
• Around the World in 80 days- A book full of fun and entertainment.  Extremely simply and worth reading
• Rich Dad Poor Dad - Teaches us about financial literacy
• The World is Flat - A wonderful insight on Economics
• Saint, Surfer & CEO- By Robin Sharma
• India Unbound- A book that will provide you good understanding of India's Economics, History and culture in a candid way. It's brilliant!

Picture Source- Google

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Rohan Sinha Quora- Bio

1. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) - A 30 Years old Organisation of repute honored me with the title of "ASCI Ambassador"
2. Business Insider has featured my suggestions on Interpersonal Skills and Life Lessons
3. Poems Of The Week- An Ambitious dream Project to get 100 poets published in a sequel of 3 books- An Inspiration from 60+ poets who paints in tandem on Poignant Painter. Are you Interested? Let's meet at PP.
4. I won many Writing Competitions conduced by Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
5. I worked for 4.25 years of my Life on Building the National Jewel-Mumbai International Airport Terminal 2, Tallest ATC Tower, etc
6. Working on "200 Things My Colleagues Taught me" which is based on the theme that "Let's celebrate the uniqueness in all of us".
7. I love to do a lot of things...a lot many than I can finish and it has helped me in staying in the moment and value time.
8. I did my B-Tech in Mechanical Engineering from KIIT University
9. I've played a crucial role in withdrawal of misleading advertisements from MNCs out of the TV screen. This was the reason for Sr. No-1
10. I wanted to Quit my Job. I was Coward. I was tied with 2 Years Bond. I failed to Quit. It transformed my Life. I Love my Job.
11. I am a Project Management Professional with expertise in Project Procurement, Contract Management, Strategic planning, Commercial Negotiation and Claim Settlement for mega Projects.
12. I pour my heart in my Personal Journals. I study Human behaviour, Psychology and conducts various activities & experiments to deduce Psychological Patterns- now a Quora blog with hundreds of followers.
13. I am building an Archive of 1000 Best Quora Answers. It's a Quora blog named "Diamond Archive".
14. My Proudest accomplishment is to use writing to raise some fund and create awareness about Blood Cancer Fighter Shivani Yadav among 20k+ people.
15. I am cheerleader for the Quora Blog for Poetry- Poignant Painter.
16. "The Secret Project" is a blog where I share about unique, real life experience with life lessons that I acquired from thousands of people.
17. Are you struggling with any Life or Career woes and are feeling sad. Feel free to ping and share your worries and accordingly get customized " Happiness Kit".:)
18. I am a niche blogger with 17 blogs on Quora which covers Self Improvement, Career Tips, Poetry, Human Psychology, Blogging, Storytelling, Life Experience.

If interested, you can find links to my productivity hacks, how I utilized Quora for personal development and writing, how to get the most in the same 24 hours. Read at Rohan Sinha- Quora

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Rohan Sinha- Quora

I utilized Quora as a platform to hone my writing and observational skills. I'd conducted a personal project which involved series of experiments and activities to study human behaviour to find out psychological patterns. I've now decided to give back to the community through various blogs with Specific Niche
My Blogs : Poems Of The Week I Coal Mine I Psychological Patterns I Life is Beautiful I Writing is Painting I Career Consultant I Poignant Painter I Campange: A Campaign for Change I Diamond Archive I The Secret Project I Mom teaching Cooking I Kalam I Literary Fest

• Are you jobless. Get inspired from my brother Rohit Sinha who is also going through the same phase with rock solid determination. He is honing his programming skills at Bangalore and aspires to get a Java Developer Role.
• Do you want a spot at Poems Of The Week- An Ambitious project to get 100 poets published.
• Insight from personal project to study human behaviour-Psychological Patterns
• Business Insider featured my suggestions on Interpersonal skills. 
• Read hundreds of Self Improvement tips at Coal Mine 
• The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) featured me as ASCI Ambassador for fighting against misleading advertisements.
• Read tips to prepare for CAT/GATE/PSUs/ Placement on Career Consultant
• Building an archive of the 1000 best answers on Quora- Diamond Archive
• Raised fund by writing about the real story of Shivani Yadav : The brave heart fighting blood cancer - A minute contribution but one of my greatest accomplishment.
• Do you want to know more about me?- Here is my Bio
• An Archive of Hundreds of poems written by 60+ Poets.The platform for budding poets on Quora to learn from experts as well as other budding poets. Let's write and grow together as a poet on Poignant Painter
• A Comprehensive Study on Dowry System and it's New Avtars: Psychology behind Dowry. I need your feedback. Won't you help me?:(
• How to find 7 hours beside your day job: Best productivity hacks
• Want to be a Blogger, Storyteller and/or Writer. Learn Tips at Writing is Painting

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When You lost And We Both Won

Raj said, " Check Mate... I defeated you in my first game of chess"

His Father, " Oh! Well done... I'm so proud of you.

After 15 years, Raj asked his dad, "How I could've defeated you as a kid in chess. You were a champion, Dad.

His dad smiled and said that you have not defeated me. I lost the match and we both won.

( Raj is a rising star in the world of chess and really his dad won even when he lost that one game of chess).

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Adorable Moments

Someone asked her what kind of boy, you want to marry.

She replied, "Someone like Krish".

Well, she is my 2 year old niece and Krish is a 3 year old cute neighbourhood boy.

The way she says "Krishhh jaisa" (like Krish), it's so adorable. We keep asking her the same question for 20 times to enjoy the way she tells it.

Please mimic her response like a 2 year old kid and it will bring an instant smile on your face.

Kids are adorable.

(People who are child-like, not childish are also adorable.)

When the last time we met, my sister hold her ears and made faces asking me to forgive her for hurting me. (Fun is that I wasn't hurt when she was pulling my leg, in-fact, I was enjoying and adoring the creative ways used by her while asking for forgiveness). Then, I coldly said then that I am not angry, still, I forgive you.

The next moment, she folded her hands and asked me to put my hand on her head to bless her. I was taken aback. It's not we do. I felt  a sensation which can't be explained. Next day, she had a flight to Bangalore and I faked my sadness as my anger for being teased by her. The results blew my mind. She is adorable, her act is now registered for eternity.....sisters are adorable.

Thank you God for giving me a little sister and a younger brother too.:)

Once, she read an article where I used "little sister" for her. She had a heartily laugh and the she said, "Little sounds like I'm a 5 year old kid". Ah..her smile was so adorable.

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Welcome on Poignant Painter

Hi Everyone,

Poignant Painter is a platform for budding poets. If you write poems, don't hold back and do submit your work to this blog.

I'm sure this will help you hone your poetry skills.

Currently, this blog is not having any rules or regulations. It's a free world as that's the conductive environment for the budding poets.

Tips for newcomers:-

1. Don't restrict yourself to just one or two emotions. Please explore and write about different emotions- love, joy, happiness, friendship, betrayal, innocence, sadness, hope, growth, Inner voice, healing, Inner strength, self respect, satisfaction, etc.
2. Write stuffs from your heart. Don't worry....nobody judged me here.
3. Don't write for audience but know your audience.
4. Don't use cuss words as there are many other words in the dictionary for each one of them. This will grow your vocabulary.
5. Push your limits and get out of your comfort zone to write on topics which are not easy for you.
6. This is not a site to cry. It's a blog where you can transform your tears into words. Beautiful words.
7. Always remember that No matter what happens, control the outcome. Don't give charge of your life to anyone. Happy Writing!
8. Tag relevant topics with your poems to reach interested audience.
9. Add last line, "Read more at Poignant Painter " to your posts.

Our Team with their bio:

1. Anjali Kriplani - Anjali wants to inspire people. She shows path to those beautiful souls which are lost somewhere within them. Her mantras, "What I read I just write my heart out".
2. Pradeepta Yadu - Pradeepta is a doctor. She wants to heal your heart through her words... what a doctor... Just you'll love her stories.
3. Vinita Punjabi - Vinita is a novelist in the making. She will teach you a lot about CA through poems.
4. Malvika Shanker - Malvika is a black rose. She will get into your mind with her powerful poems. The blog has to keep up to her standards.
5. Zeel Patel- Zeel is a poet who is a delight to read. Her poems will spark curiosity. She is a poet who is interesting to read. She paints this canvas with the colors of beautiful emotions.
6. Karthika Krishnakumar- She is a magician who plays with words. She don't need any introduction as she is a famous name on Quora. Follow her to know about other poetry blogs.
7. Rohan Sinha - Rohan is the weakest link on this blog. He gives writing & blogging tips at Writing is Painting . He studied human behaviour as a part of personal project and shares the patterns he found on Psychological Patterns.

You can learn the background story of this blog which is really interesting.Rohan Sinha's answer to How was the idea of poignant Painter conceived?

It will make your belief in the following quote stronger.

Amateurs built Google and Facebook, Professionals built the Titanic.

PS-

Note 1- Dear owners/authors- Please edit this post to add anything else you would like to add. I nominate Anjali to lead this blog and guide us all to reach new heights. You can start some kind of poetry competition and We all are there to support it. Others members are requested to pitch in their views. Over to you, Anjali... discussion in comments appreciated.

Note 2- Please check and update your bio, my sincere apologies if I failed to paint your bio correctly.

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Ten dirt simple hacks to say goodbye to "Over thinking"

1. Have your emotion for less people and things.
2. Don't get overtly attached to something or someone.
3. Success is temporary, failure is not permanent.
4. Have a 10 minutes daily ritual for overthinking at 8:00 PM.
5. Learn to be disciplined and teach your mind to overthink at 8:00 PM.
6. Channelize your overthinking into beautiful piece of art. Draw sketches, write poems, stories, fiction, etc. Get the creative juices flowing.
7. Be busy in meaningful things. Engage yourself constructively and there is no time for even that 8 PM daily ritual. Trust me!
8. Start giving back to people around you online, offline.
9. Don't expect anything from anyone. It's difficult yet possible.
10. The positive vibes you'll release now, travels to far off places, even thousand miles away to help, cheer and inspire others. And, when someone gets inspired, you get back the positivity spread by you, which is now ten times stronger that what you released.What goes around comes around getting stronger. (But, remember-S.No-9)

You can learn writing, blogging and storytelling tips at Writing is Painting . Read 100s of poems, hone your poetry skills by writing poems at Poignant Painter . This answer is part of the lessons learned while looking for patterns, Psychological Patterns.

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How Can A New Blogger Attract Audience?

I am in a good position to help you because of my diversified experience as a blogger with multiple blogs on quora and google.

Here are some lessons that would be vital and valuable for you as a blogger to attract audience.

1. Nobody is interested in making your blog a success. You gave link to your blog but pardon me, as I didn't checked it.

2. Be Interesting. You could've written a  brief description about your blog. My friend, you missed an opportunity to convey what kind of blog it is. (See how I'm describing my blogs)

3. Target Audience - Who are your target audience. Find them. No...create value foe them and let them find you.

4. Quality surpasses Quantity.

5. Don't start blogging if you want to earn some quick money. Only start blogging if you've a passion for writing and helping people.

6. When you write about your experiences that has high value for people then they would come and follow your blog to learn.

7. Don't ask anyone for a favour unless you've helped someone. It's better to give favors. What goes around comes around. :)

I run many blogs. Here is a glimpse.

Writing is Painting is all about writing. For writing and blogging tips and tricks, follow this blog.

Life is Beautiful (blog) is collection of my journey as a blogger. It has more than 400 posts about my life experiences, struggle, frustations and lessons learned in life, career advice, creative writing, blogging tips, travel experiences, weird experiences, advice for startups, fictional  series, writing challenges and many more things that made me who I'm today.

Psychological Patterns is a blog on Quora started by me. I've studied human behaviour, found psychology patterns and verified it using several activities and experiments as a part of my personal project. Now, I share the insights from my learning at that blog for giving back to the Quora Community which helped me unknowingly.Psychological Patterns: Insights from personal project to study human behaviour

Poignant Painter is a blog I co-own with many others who are amazing poets. It's a platform for budding poets to showcase their talent. Give it a try.

Library of Kalam  is a collection of stories and lessons from our beloved Dr Kalam.

Campange is a blog where I am campaigning for making Quora free from Plagiarism. I am a lone warrior and would appreciate if I get support from those who believe in this cause.Library of Kalam is a collection of stories and lessons from our beloved Dr Kalam.

Diamond Archive is a blog to share the best answers that I read on Quora.

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Session with Rohit: Learn Tips to crack PSU Interviews

If you have queries related to ISRO or anything else that might help you crack interviews of PSUs. Shoot your questions as comments. I will then act as a medium between you all and Rohit. I know he don't likes writing but he is a wonderful guy-my college roommate and one of my best friend. I will interview him and get your doubts resolved.

Follow this blog Career Consultant to get notified.

Know a bit about him,

My friend Rohit Mittal cleared ISRO's Interview and here are some things that I learned from him which will help you crack it.

1. Focus on Fundamentals and have a sound technical knowledge.
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, he rated the interview's difficulty as 8.
3. During his time, only 15% weightage was for Interviews and balance 85% weightage was for Written Test. Hence, if someone is too worried about the interviews then they can score better in the written test to compensate a little lacuna in the interview.
4. The same guy cleared Jindal Steel and Power Limited, worked there for 7-8 months, paid a little over two lakh as bond breaking value.
5. Finally, he joined BHEL as the joining came before ISRO.
6. He was the same guy who came out early in an exam and when I asked the reason as the paper was lengthy, "He replied that he has wrote enough to pass the exam".
7. He is sharp. He is a child prodigy.
8. Toppers from my college failed to get into any of the PSUs and this guy was cracking one exam after another.
9. If many people are interested, I will look forward to request him to reply to your queries.
10. Haven't I told you that he is one of my best buddy. Dost fail ho jaaye to dukh hota hai...dost top kare to jayada dukh hota hai... Kidding :P (It feels bad when a friend fails, it feels worse when a friend Tops an exam)

Follow the blog Career Consultant to get notified about career tips.

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