Who am I

I am working in this industry for the last 6 years, the most frequent words that I heard in these years are “Deployment”, “Moderation” and “Work-Life Balance”. Today I am going to share my version of the “Balance”.

So, what is work-life balance? It is a combination of Perfectly Optimum Career and Perfectly Optimum Home Life. But, wait. I spent 10 hours a day in the office excluding 2 hours of transit time and 8 hours of sleep. That gives me 4 hours of Optimum Home Life and don’t forget these 4 hours consist of breakfast, dinner and the time taken for personal grooming. Is balance even possible statistically? or it’s just a myth?

Unfortunately, our society has set up an absurd idea that it is possible to do many things and that too with perfection. That’s why we hear so much talk about an elusive thing called: “Work-Life Balance”. This is a mad idea. Work-life balance is impossible because everything worth we fight for unbalances our life. We’re not going to be the ideal domestic chef, child carer, and Team Lead at once.

If we’re strung out across multiple roles, all will suffer, but that’s okay. That you’re doing too much and none of it without mistakes isn’t a sign that your life has gone wrong, that you’ve opted for imperfect variety over flawless focus.

But remember that the path you have chosen, you shouldn’t get frustrated, try to find the positive reasons in your unbalanced imperfect life. We all are humans; we all get monotonous at some point of time in our life, there may or may not be promotion this year, someone may get your credit at work. But that doesn’t mean that your life has gone blunt.

If you keep focusing on the negative side, you may end up at the bottom of the hole. You must focus on the laugh you shared with your parents that day, think about the gossip you skipped, be kind, generous and tolerant, plug yourself for some Netflix or IPL and the best thing, do meditate. Do whatever that makes you feel alive, zestful, energized and keeps your spirit high and remember to be always on the bright side of life.

Now, let me give you an example of my ideal balance day that I aspire to, wake up well rested after a good sleep. Read the newspaper, have good tea and go for a jog. Have breakfast with my family. Drive the kids to school on the way to the office. Do three hours of work. Play a sport with a friend at lunchtime. Do another three hours of work.

Meet some friends in the pub for an early evening drink. Drive home for dinner with my family, meditate for half an hour. Walk a mile before sleep. Go to bed. Now, think about how often you will have that day? We need to be realistic.

You can’t do it all in one day. We need to elongate the time frame upon which we judge the balance in our lives, without falling into the trap of the “I’ll have a life when I retire, when my wife has divorced me, my health is failing, I’ve got no friends or interest left.” A day is too short; “after I retire” is too long. There’s got to be a middle way.

But how we approach it? we have only 4 hours of the day with us. Clearly, our life is being dominated by our work, most of us struggling with the relationships that we have. How many of you think that there is nothing left in your life apart from the work? And to sort this situation how many of you decided to join the gym?

But, ever realized by joining the gym you will be the same, maybe just a bit fit. However, there are other parts of life, there is the intellectual side; there is the emotional side; there is the spiritual side. And to be balanced I believe we have to attend to all of those areas – not just doing 50 pushups. Now, that can be daunting, because you might say, “I haven’t got time to get fit and you want me to go to the temple and call my mother”. I understand, I truly understand how that can be daunting.

But an incident that happened a couple of years ago that gave me a new perspective. My brother called me up in the office on a very busy day and told me to bring a cake for my mother as it was her birthday, but, to my great grief I had completely forgotten about the day and I didn’t even wish her.

That day I left work an hour early, came home with a cake and I and my brother prepared a simple dinner for the family. We celebrated her birthday with just a cake and dinner. At night when I went to say goodnight to my parent’s room my mother told me with a teary eye and a lot of pride, that “this is been the best day of my life, ever”. I hadn’t done anything; I haven’t taken her to a restaurant or a trip she is asking me for the past couple of years.

Now, my point is that small things matter. Being balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your life. With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the equality of your life. Moreover, I think it can transform society.

Because if enough people do it, we can change society’s definition of success away from the imprudently simplistic notion that the person with the most money wins when he dies, to the more thoughtful and balanced definition of what a well-lived life looks like.

And lastly, those who know me personally like to hang around with me, because I have developed the habit in past years to be happy and calm in every situation. I deal with every challenge with a smile. I try to be kind to as many people as possible. I don’t interact with negative people, I travel whenever I get time, I blog about my travels too, that you can find out on my website.

I try to make everyone happy around me so that I don’t get any sorrow or negative vibe from them. I start my day not thinking of how long and boring it is going to be, I think about the new things I am going to learn today. The new ideas that I can add to my mischievous artifacts for later use.

So, in a nutshell, I would like to let you know that you stand a position with a 2-way diversion. One, go with the flow taking bits and pieces of every part of your life and balancing every aspect of it with a bright smile. Or chase your dream, the dream that doesn’t let you sleep.

Since a young age, I have actively volunteered at several non-profit organizations in West Bengal, India. I have worked to alleviate poverty for mentally challenged children. Additionally, I was engaged with a non-profit serving children with HIV/AIDS in rural East India.

My experiences led me to pursue Sociology as my major, where I studied how social processes and movements affect the global population, which lead to issues in public health. Further, I started understanding the role of social factors in contributing to health imbalances around the world.

While completing my Bachelors thesis, ‘Lives of Rural Women in India: A study on intersection of health care disparities, gender and socio-economic status,’ I began understanding complex phenomena surrounding health care in an overpopulated nation, and I attempted to unravel these through qualitative and quantitative research.

Henceforth began my journey, to make an impact in the realm of public health with my commitment to understand why health inequities exist, and how these can be eliminated.

My thesis findings revealed a drastic asymmetry in distribution of health care resources for men and women. Rural women received far less medical attention despite having serious health concerns, especially ones relating to pregnancy. Further, individuals belonging to lower socio-economic status faced more obstacles in accessing health facilities in India.

Inspired by these findings, I founded a non-profit organization during my undergraduate studies. The startup collaborated with struggling local non-profits, such as Calcutta Blind School and Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy to raise funds. I conducted bake sales online and offline throughout the city, to raise funds which were also used to purchase food and medication for underserved individuals belonging to these non-profits.

It also allowed the organizations an opportunity to reduce debt that was accumulated over a few years. While it was certainly challenging to balance my academics and my volunteering activities with my entrepreneurial ventures, which required considerable time and effort to get established, I learned time management skills that I have successfully applied to all spheres of my life.

Upon completing my Bachelors, I began working in Market Research for a national hospital chain. Utilizing research methodologies, I revealed areas for improvement in the quality of healthcare in North East India. I conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with individuals to understand the intersection between socioeconomic status and health care access in these regions.

Furthermore, I designed and analyzed quantitative surveys to determine appropriate pricing strategies for over-the-counter medication and feminine hygiene products.

My decision to pursue higher education led me to University of Michigan, where I am currently pursuing postgraduate studies in Business Management with an emphasis on Market Research and Analytics. I am learning how organizations function, and the factors that determine their decision-making processes.

Having been exposed to a wide array of coursework in micro economics, business analytics, operations research and more, I am equipped with strong quantitative skills to make informed decisions using large sets of data. Moreover, courses such as business communication for managers have allowed me to hone my communication skills in a professional setting.

Additionally, within the program, I collaborate with students from diverse backgrounds on assignments, which allows me to gain from a variety of perspectives and share knowledge from my experiences.

As a current student at Ross School of Business, I was also selected to serve on the One-Year Master’s Student Council as President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) Committee, where we work towards promoting awareness regarding mental health concerns and creating a safe and inclusive learning environment for students. Further, we aim to have a diverse student community within the graduate programs of the business school.

My background in social sciences and management, along with my experiences in non-profit, and in health research will complement a graduate degree in Health and Social Behavior at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

My research interests include addressing health disparities and gender inequalities in developing nations and advancing equitable access to healthcare, with a focus on vulnerable populations. The Master of Public Health program will provide me with the technical component required in research to improve the health status of the global population, especially those around us who are in need of a better quality of life.

Today, while trying to teach about given circumstances, I was asked “Why do you keep trying when no one cares.” I was not ready to answer, because the answer is deep and embedded in who I am as a person. I am a little stubborn and unrelenting. I know that a lot of people say they are stubborn, and I often don’t believe them, because I have met very few people as unrelenting as myself, but kids sure are stubborn.

When I was sixteen my brother, sister, and mom were playing a stupid game down in the kitchen with spaghetti noodles leftover from my mom’s spaghetti dinner. This game had certain rules and a very certain setup, which was designed to have only one solution. The noodles looked like a jumbled mess, like pick up sticks.

My mom had asked both my brother and sister to try before I arrived, and neither could figure out the pattern. She asked me to try, and my brother and sister sniggered with each other already aware of the failure that was going to occur. I tried and tried and tried, and the laughter stopped, and turned to mocking. “Dude, there is only one way to solve it. Stop trying you are never gonna get it.”

Even though I was had made little progress, after working for twenty minutes, I felt like I was coming closer to the answer, and then the mocking, “Travis stop. You’re never gonna get it. Why are you so dumb. We told you there is only one way. Let me show you.” My brother then came over and showed me, which I didn’t want.

Thirty minutes passed since I starting, and when my brother showed me I realized how easy and wrong I was. I saw how simple it was, but I still felt like I still needed to finish my thought process, so I kept trying. At this point my family started to really make fun of me, which is understandable now that I am older, but then all I could do was curse back at my brother, which made my mother upset.

She would tell me to stop being so rude. And finally, after continual mocking, I had enough. My brother spooned a mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth and while still open, he crossed his eyes with a dumb look and swished the spaghetti around, making an annoying noise. My mom saw ‘RED’ in my eyes and told my brother to run.

My mom got in my way to slow me down and so did my sister. I nearly caught him as the door slammed in my face. I had to slow down to open it. He was far down the street looking back, so I gave up, screaming bad words at him as he ran, unwilling to face me.

I wonder why I am telling you this story. Maybe to let you know I was a kid once.

I think I understand now though why that experience made me so mad and why I thought of it just now. Not only was my brother being annoying, but I wanted to try to prove something to myself. I wanted to prove that I was smart enough to come close to solving something impossible. I didn’t really think I could, but at least I wanted to make a solid effort. Maybe I question if I can help you and I want to make a solid effort no matter how impossible.

I want you to think, because you can! even if it seems pointless.

My first leadership skill that I want to improve is the third skill according to Covey which is put first things first. Which is mean that we have to learn how to prioritize and manage our time so that our first things come first not last. And overcoming our fears and being strong in hard moments. It’s about life management as well our purpose, values, roles, and priorities.

Making the prioritize things number one during the day. From my personal experience, I rate myself 5 in putting my first things first. Because, me as a student who live with the family have a lot of important things to do. And most of the time I don’t manage my time between my education, my family, and my fun time. My priority in my life is my education then my family time then the other life works.

Sometimes I spend more time doing fun activities or sometimes I spend more time with family and push my study and the important assignments to the end of the day. Sometimes I end up being unable to finish my assignment at night, Which I end up loosing a lot of points leading to decreasing in my educational level. There are many steps that I need to take to improve this skill.

I have to make a calendar and identify deadlines, schedule future appointments and exams dates, write down family time and free times. I must schedule my priorities, not prioritize my schedule. I should have to do list for things that should be done, which are the things that you have control over. I have to organize myself based on my to do list.

My second leadership skill that I want to improve is the last, seventh skill of the seven skills according to Covey which is sharpen the saw. Sharpen the saw is maintenance, taking the time to put towards the things that matter, taking the time to develop the self, taking breaks, which will make you last.

This is the habit that tells you that are with improving yourself and perseverance. By taking plenty of exercise, rest, meditation, etcetera, you will keep your body, mind, relationships and spirituality in balance. As you renew yourself, you create growth and change in your life. Sharpen the Saw keeps you fresh, so you can continue to practice the other life skills. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you.

Without this renewal, the body becomes weak, the mind mechanical. I can rate my self 4 for this skill. Because I spend almost all my time at home sitting on the chair studying, doing my assignment, cleaning or watching TV. So, I’m always stuck in the same routine every day. Which Causing boredom, inaction in tasks, frustration, stressed, scatterbrained, and generally drained. There are some steps I can take to improve this skill.

First of them should be changing my routine. I should get out of home, go to the gym get some exercise, eating beneficial, and get some rest. Second, I should pamper myself spiritually by spending some time in the nature, expanding spiritual self through meditation, music and art. Also, I can make some social and meaningful connections with others.