Happy Daughter's Day!

 Happy Daughters’ Day! 

Today, I don't just want to celebrate daughters.

I want to celebrate the parents who believed in their daughters.

Because if we look back just a few decades, we realise how much has changed.

For generations, girls were often expected to adjust, compromise and follow a path decided for them. Education was not always considered equally important for daughters. Career choices were often secondary. Marriage was treated as the destination, while a girl's own dreams sometimes came much later—or not at all.

The world has changed significantly since then.

Since the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, more girls are going to school, child marriage has declined, adolescent pregnancy has fallen, legal protections have expanded, and women have gained a much stronger presence in professional and public life.

But behind every statistic is a family.

A father who said, "My daughter will study as much as my son."

A mother who said, "You can have a career and a family."

Parents who said, "We trust your decision."

Parents who stood quietly behind their daughters when society questioned their choices.

And for those of us who grew up in the Boomer or Millennial generations, we know what that support meant.

We know that the freedom we sometimes take for granted today was not always available to women of our mothers' and grandmothers' generations.

Sometimes, it was a parent who quietly challenged an old belief.

Sometimes, it was a father who refused to differentiate between his son and daughter.

Sometimes, it was a mother who made sure her daughter knew that marriage was not the end of her dreams.

And sometimes, it was simply someone saying:

"Go ahead. I am with you."

Those words can change a girl's life.

Today, millions of girls around the world still face barriers. UNICEF estimates that 122 million girls remain out of school, nearly one in five girls globally is married in childhood, and adolescent girls continue to face violence and unequal access to opportunities. Progress has been real—but it has not reached every girl equally.

That is why Daughters' Day matters.

Not just because daughters deserve to be celebrated.

But because every generation has a responsibility to make the world a little fairer for the next generation of girls.

And today, I want to pause and say something that perhaps we don't say often enough:

Thank you, Mom and Dad. 

Thank you for believing in us.

Thank you for giving us the courage to make our own choices.

Thank you for supporting our dreams—even when they were different from what you had imagined for us.

And a heartfelt thank you to our in-laws too—for accepting us, respecting us, supporting us and giving us the space to remain the women we were before we became daughters-in-law.

We may have grown up, built careers, become wives and mothers, and created families of our own…

…but somewhere inside every daughter is still that little girl who remembers who stood beside her when she needed it most.

So today, let's celebrate our daughters.
Let's thank our parents.
Let's acknowledge those who supported us.
And let's make sure the daughters of tomorrow inherit a world where they never have to ask whether their dreams are "too much" simply because they are girls. 

Because the greatest gift we can give a daughter is not a perfect life.

It is the confidence to believe that she deserves to choose her own. 

Happy Daughters' Day. 

Titan: A built in India, designed in India & eventually made for the world Leadership Story

 Titan: A built in India, designed in India & eventually made for the world Leadership Story

“When the future is unpredictable, what can a leader make predictable?”

Titan story provides a powerful leadership example through Xerxes Desai, Titan founding managing Director. It is not merely a story of a successful Indian watch company. It is a story of visionary leadership, strategic thinking, exemplary execution & most importantly the importance & power of the people or the team.

Back in the 1980’s when Titan entered the watch market, it was predominantly dominated by the traditional big & established brands. But the visionary leadership of Mr. Desai challenged the traditional & trusted paradigm. The leadership lesson was not simply, “How do we make a better watch?” but “How do we change the way India experiences time?”. The watch was transformed from a functional instrument into a fashion and emotional product. This is the essence of visionary leadership.

Titan did not try to win simply by competing on price. Rather it chose a different strategy which relied on reliability, contemporary design, Quartz technology, understanding consumers & building trust around the brand. The strategic lesson is powerful: You do not always win by doing what competitors are doing better. Sometimes you win by changing the basis of competition.

From management to Leadership: One of the most important thing that differentiates a leader from a manger is inspiring people to act. Titan's journey demonstrates how a compelling vision can align designers, engineers, marketers, retailers and thousands of employees behind something bigger than their individual roles. This is where leadership becomes different from management. A leader makes people understand “Why does this matter?”.

And last but the most important lesson, one which is the most talked about in recent times, which is empathetic leadership (Understanding your people).

“Markets are unpredictable. People are the constant.”

Consumer preferences change. Technologies change. Competitors change. Economic conditions change. But people continue to be driven by fundamental needs: trust, recognition, dignity, belonging, aspiration and purpose.

A great leader therefore does not try to predict everything.

Instead, the leader builds an organisation that can respond intelligently to uncertainty.

Titan's greatest achievement was not simply making watches in India.

“Its greater achievement was demonstrating what Indian leadership could imagine, build and inspire.”

A leader sees what others don't see.

A leader makes strategic choices when there is uncertainty.

A leader gives people a purpose.

A leader creates trust.

And a leader makes people believe:

“I can be part of creating something bigger than myself.”

Because ultimately, markets don't create organisations.

People do.

Technology doesn't create transformation.

People do.

Strategy doesn't create value.

People execute the strategy and create the value.

And therefore, when the future is unpredictable, the greatest responsibility of a leader is not to predict the future.

It is to build people and organisations capable of winning in that future.

That is the essence of Leadership.

 

Down the Memory Lane....

Down the Memory Lane… 17 Years Later

Some places don’t just hold memories—they bring them back to life.

I joined IndianOil in August 2009. Soon after joining, our induction programme was conducted at IIPM (IndianOil Institute of Petroleum Management), Gurugram—then Gurgaon—the apex Learning & Development centre of IndianOil.

Exactly 17 years later, I found myself back at the same institute.

Same institute.
Same month.
Same accommodation.
But a completely different feeling.

The moment I entered the premises, memories of my very first day at IndianOil came flooding back.

I still remember my parents dropping me at IIPM for the first time. I was excited, yet nervous. Excited because, as a Chemical Engineer, I had always wanted to work in the core industry. And I felt truly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to begin my career with India’s largest energy company.

Walking through those familiar spaces after 17 years felt almost surreal. It was as if time had folded back on itself.

Time really does fly.

It feels like it was only yesterday, but in reality, almost two decades have passed. So much has changed over these years—professionally, personally, and around us.

Life at IIPM during our induction was much simpler. There was no internet, no Wi-Fi and certainly no constant stream of notifications demanding our attention.

Our entire batch was one big group of friends. After classes, we would play carrom, table tennis or go swimming. We talked, laughed, played and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

We didn’t have smartphones to capture those moments.

But perhaps that’s why we remember them so vividly.

Looking back, I realise that those were not just days of induction. They were the beginning of friendships, experiences and memories that became an integral part of our journey at IndianOil.

And returning to IIPM after 17 years was more than just a visit to an old workplace.

It was like meeting my younger self—the young Chemical Engineer who walked into those gates in 2009 with excitement, nervousness, dreams and a whole lot of hope for the future.

17 years later, the place is familiar, but the person standing there has changed.

The corridors may look the same, but the journey in between has made all the difference.

Grateful for the journey.
Grateful for the memories.
And above all, grateful to IndianOil for a journey that continues to add new chapters.

Some journeys take us far,
Some bring us back to the start.
And some places never really leave us—
Because they quietly live in our heart.