Episode14 -Meet Dhimant Parekh, Simply the 'Better' (Entrepreneur)

[00:00:00] Hello there and a very warm welcome to episode 14 of the RJ SueJ Ikigai podcast.

[00:00:07] Our special guest today is definitely no stranger to podcasts, interviews or awards.

[00:00:13] Yet my belief is that the impact created by him so powerful that I want each of you in

[00:00:18] our podcast community to know more about what keeps someone like him going.

[00:00:24] Introducing Dheeman Parekh, a Bangalore based impact entrepreneur who's the co-founder

[00:00:29] of the positive news platform, The Better India.

[00:00:32] Dheeman believes in using storytelling to drive impact and has received several accolades

[00:00:37] for his work through the years including a mention by our Prime Minister on a nationally

[00:00:42] aired radio show amongst other things right?

[00:00:45] Over the years, The Better India has grown to become Asia's largest impact driven

[00:00:49] positive content platform and it gives me great pleasure to have the man Dheeman Parekh

[00:00:55] here himself.

[00:00:56] Welcome Dheeman, how are you doing today?

[00:00:59] Thanks Sujatha, thanks for having me over, really glad to be here.

[00:01:02] Yeah, I'm really glad because I know that you've been on other podcasts as I have already

[00:01:07] told our listeners and we do hope to see a very different side of you today and to

[00:01:11] introduce a purpose also besides the great subscribership that you have, the great

[00:01:19] things that you've done with The Better India etc.

[00:01:22] So let's jump right into it.

[00:01:24] Yes, let us.

[00:01:25] Okay, so first things first, what's The Better India because not everyone might know about

[00:01:31] The Better India?

[00:01:33] Absolutely, and to be honest I think the idea of The Better India has been evolving

[00:01:38] and shaping up over the many years.

[00:01:40] The genesis of this idea was that how could you leverage the internet to drive large

[00:01:45] scale impact?

[00:01:47] And our vision was that if you want to drive large scale impact you need to

[00:01:53] actually have a large scale community of people come together for a certain cause

[00:01:58] and so on.

[00:01:59] Then the question became how do you bring a community together?

[00:02:04] How do you build a community?

[00:02:05] And for that I think we just ought to say that in stories that bring people

[00:02:12] together.

[00:02:13] So how could we surface and showcase stories which would appeal to people, which

[00:02:21] would inspire people and bring them together.

[00:02:24] And then we could basically hope that people who come together reading these

[00:02:29] stories would then be able to collaborate and drive change.

[00:02:34] And that's the hypothesis with which we started.

[00:02:39] And started as a side project of course way back in 2008 when I remember

[00:02:46] currently it was more a weekend project of I'd rather was my co-founder and

[00:02:54] mine.

[00:02:57] But then we really started as a full time entity in 2015.

[00:03:03] Okay.

[00:03:05] And you know since then we've come a long way, we've of course kind of built

[00:03:11] the community that we wanted.

[00:03:13] And that community, I mean we didn't immensely gratify for us to see that

[00:03:19] that community has led to massive social and economic change across the

[00:03:24] country.

[00:03:25] You know things spanning from helping urban slum schools get funded,

[00:03:30] helping farmers come out of poverty, influencing government policies,

[00:03:36] bringing water and sanitation to villages, electrification in certain

[00:03:40] villages.

[00:03:41] I think a lot of, we had thousands and thousands of case studies have

[00:03:45] impacted.

[00:03:47] If you're listening, you could actually go to the betterindia.com

[00:03:51] and there's a section called Impact which will give you a flavor of

[00:03:54] the kind of change you know we've brought about.

[00:03:57] But having kind of you know started along that I think, and this is

[00:04:02] where I was talking about how the idea of the Mediterranean has kind

[00:04:05] of evolved over the many years.

[00:04:08] So when we started as saying that it would be a content driven

[00:04:12] community led impact initiative has now kind of evolved to a point where

[00:04:19] we are able, we have actually started to build different business

[00:04:25] verticals on top of this community.

[00:04:26] So the better it is now kind of evolving into becoming an ecosystem

[00:04:31] of everything good.

[00:04:34] And one of the pillars of that, the new pillars of that is

[00:04:38] you know we launched our own range of home products.

[00:04:42] Again, the good aspect here is that these are 100% sustainable

[00:04:47] sustainability focused product range.

[00:04:50] So they are 100% biodegradable, non-toxic and we have our own

[00:04:55] sort of programs where we use plastic waste and all of that.

[00:04:58] So the better home is now kind of a vertical that has been built

[00:05:01] on top of the community that the better India had.

[00:05:04] I think we are also going to be looking at many more such verticals

[00:05:08] coming up, but yeah that's the longest short of it.

[00:05:11] Wow and there's so much more that we still have to get into

[00:05:16] and this is a great beginning and even for the benefit of our

[00:05:20] listeners, please tell us about your subscribership and you

[00:05:23] know you would be also hearing from them right?

[00:05:27] So what do you hear in terms of what are people feeling?

[00:05:31] You know what's the impact on them?

[00:05:32] Apart from you know the financial impact or the other impact

[00:05:36] that you talked about where you've pulled farmers out of poverty

[00:05:39] or you influence government policies, you know what is the

[00:05:43] subscribership doing?

[00:05:46] Yeah so in terms of actual numbers we have a little over 200

[00:05:53] million people every month.

[00:05:56] Wow.

[00:05:57] Because you mark content across you know English and our

[00:06:01] other regional languages and all of of course all the channels

[00:06:04] that we have on.

[00:06:05] In fact just pick any social media channel and you'll find us

[00:06:09] having a significant following there.

[00:06:12] What does it make people feel?

[00:06:15] Well of course there's a lot of anecdotal sort of stories

[00:06:19] that we come across in terms of what it makes people feel

[00:06:23] but there's an interesting one that really stood out for me

[00:06:26] where someone who was in a conversation with

[00:06:29] would be following the Bahrainian for a while

[00:06:32] and she actually said that she views the Bahrainian as the nation's largest archive

[00:06:42] of you know the collective good of a nation right?

[00:06:45] She views this as an archive of the entire range of goodness

[00:06:49] that a nation is capable of and to me that was

[00:06:53] that was quite overwhelming to hear it that way.

[00:06:57] Amazing, amazing and to think that it started as a weekend project where

[00:07:04] you know and why do you think you actually started this project?

[00:07:07] I mean did you want to feel good?

[00:07:10] Did you want to make others feel good by the good things that you knew?

[00:07:14] What was it all about?

[00:07:17] That's a good question and we get asked this a lot

[00:07:20] as to why did this start.

[00:07:22] Way back you know both Adrada and I do consume a lot of content

[00:07:27] both online or offline and I think in 2008-09

[00:07:34] we would start our day with you know reading the newspaper over a cup of tea.

[00:07:39] The difference is that now we don't have a newspaper,

[00:07:41] we no longer subscribe to anything but then we used to start our day with the newspaper

[00:07:45] and it was just sort of jarring to notice that you're starting your day with

[00:07:53] an overdose of crime and overdose of everything that's going wrong

[00:07:57] and overdose of celebrity gossip.

[00:08:00] Pretty much nothing that helps set you up for the day or for the you know

[00:08:06] for the remaining part of your life and then we were like hey you know

[00:08:09] you know isn't there anything that could actually not only kind of inform you

[00:08:16] but also enable you to be a better person, to be a better version of yourself

[00:08:24] and our idea wasn't that hey you know none of this stuff that has been carried out in newspapers

[00:08:30] and all that the idea was that none of this stuff should be talked about.

[00:08:33] It should be talked about but we just felt that there was an over representation

[00:08:38] of the bad stuff as you know quote unquote bad stuff right.

[00:08:44] And we believe that that's of course a very crucial part in a democracy because you need to

[00:08:51] know what is broken in order to go fix it. However, however you also need to know what's

[00:08:59] working in the country because that is also equally essential so that it gets you thinking

[00:09:05] from a solution sort of a mindset and that's when the whole idea of you know what is now called

[00:09:12] solution journalism right it's more like you're leading a conversation with not just the problem

[00:09:18] and leaving but you're leading the conversation with a problem and the solution and the impact.

[00:09:25] So now people are not only just saying that oh yeah sure there's a garbage problem but hey

[00:09:32] here's how this man did it for his neighborhood and here's the impact.

[00:09:35] So you're trying to close the loop from a problem to a solution to an impact

[00:09:40] and that was the whole idea that came up and we searched online so we should read more stuff

[00:09:44] like this and we did not find anything at all. So we said hey why don't we start and you know

[00:09:49] those were the blogging days like you know blogs were like a big thing back then.

[00:09:53] So we started a blog in the better India the better Indian blog sport.com I think it was

[00:10:00] and we just go around weekends documenting people who are making a difference

[00:10:06] and yeah from that that whole journey started. Yeah and just to say Karwa banta so I'm sure

[00:10:15] that you know so many people would have joined this beautiful community of contributors as well

[00:10:20] you know I've read I've heard what you've spoken in the past now let's take you a bit more

[00:10:27] into the past in terms of your early years and your growing up years you know I'd like you to talk

[00:10:34] about some influence or you know some significant influence on you that led you to this work in

[00:10:42] impact entrepreneurship. Yeah so I grew up in Bangalore I was born in Bangalore grew up there

[00:10:49] and you know I think back then if you were in Bangalore very high probability that you would

[00:10:57] turn out to win engineer and I also you know took to the sciences I took to maths I was

[00:11:06] I was really good at it I loved it and so by nature of where I was and my interest in these

[00:11:14] subjects I of course evolved into becoming a computer science engineer and then I worked in

[00:11:19] large tech companies and so on but I distinctly remember some of the things that influenced me

[00:11:26] while growing up and a very very sort of a lasting influence was that of my father

[00:11:33] who was who was very philanthropic in nature who was very giving who was very open

[00:11:42] and who would always kind of look out for the not so privileged you know and this was largely

[00:11:50] because he came from a sort of a background which was not so privileged at all and you know

[00:11:57] with a with a large family to kind of take care of with I think of seven siblings so it was it

[00:12:02] was really tough times that he grew up in and as he kind of you know rose up the

[00:12:10] the corporate ladder and you know started getting a little more financially stable

[00:12:15] he always made it a point to help out people we had you know any anybody coming to our house

[00:12:21] to sell something and that would that would be keen to know his backstory that would be keen

[00:12:26] to know you know why is he doing what he's doing why is he not in school or college

[00:12:31] and there were enough instances where you know that would have asked him or her to not sell

[00:12:37] this anymore just go back we'll take care of your college fees or still you know your school fees and

[00:12:43] so on starting from that you know even the smallest of things I still remember me is to hear when my

[00:12:50] father used to drop me to school and this would be on a scooter and I would be standing in the

[00:12:56] front you know I was like my fourth standard third standard and and and you know dad would

[00:13:01] help out people who are stranded at let's say a bus stop because back then in manual you know

[00:13:06] I think the bus frequencies were crazy like you would get a bus in 45 minutes or something

[00:13:11] especially in the areas that we lived in on the outside and then when we graduated to a car

[00:13:17] we would actually start helping out two three more people you know going in that same direction

[00:13:21] which in today's world would kind of be very you know I think it would be looked at in a very

[00:13:27] shocking manner but back then it was just a matter of fact that you have to help out you

[00:13:31] have the means then why wouldn't you help out someone right and I think noticing that

[00:13:38] in fact a series of things that he did really had a tremendous impact on me and it made me

[00:13:45] starting I mean I would say it really made me to start looking at people who are at the fringes

[00:13:53] and how to kind of you know how can one start thinking about them and how can one

[00:13:58] start helping out too I think definitely there's this whole streak of empathy which sort of came in

[00:14:04] there right right and you you carried it through you know first via you know the blog and then you

[00:14:12] know into this great organization that you've created the month I think that's so inspiring

[00:14:18] and you know I was reading you know in one of the you know things about you where you had

[00:14:23] mentioned that your dad would always say look at the extras you know in a Bollywood movie and you

[00:14:30] know what is their life like and and that really resonated with me because it really touched me

[00:14:36] because that's something that stands out for me as well and it's always stood out for me since I

[00:14:40] was a child so I'm sure that you know your dad made such a huge impact on people's lives just

[00:14:45] because as you said you know he noticed the extras or the people at the fringes right

[00:14:50] and for you as a child the fact that someone was noticing it and actually creating a solution

[00:14:58] for that problem you know maybe left such a deep impact that today that that's what you're doing right

[00:15:04] yeah absolutely I think I think I think what I ended up having was my father had this effect on me

[00:15:09] on the whole philanthropy sort of having an empathy for the people who are at the other end

[00:15:17] of the spectrum and then I had my grandfather who was also back in those days an extremely learned man

[00:15:23] he had done his post graduation back then so he was definitely an outlier and he was one of the most

[00:15:31] well-read people I have ever met even till date you know and yeah his his English was impeccable

[00:15:39] his economics was impeccable and he and I actually got to study maths and stuff under his guidance

[00:15:48] so I think I think I had this whole academic sort of influence from him that's my grandad and then

[00:15:54] I had this other sort of you know sort of more of a social outlook from my father I think

[00:16:00] I think those at some point started just adding up I think amazing that's really really nice to

[00:16:06] know and the month I mean it's obviously fun to you being an impact entrepreneur but tell us about

[00:16:13] the other side you know how tough it is actually taking this and going on every day because as

[00:16:20] you mentioned and as we all know there's so much worse happening around and how do you really

[00:16:26] focus on the good so what are your sources and how do you keep this going yeah you

[00:16:34] surprisingly I think this is not the first time we've been asked this right that and people express

[00:16:38] sort of a surprise in terms of how do you how do you kind of keep this going how do you get good

[00:16:43] stories all the time and my simple sort of question to that usually is just just look around

[00:16:50] you right the circles you move and the people you talk meet 99% of the people are good people

[00:16:56] they're not you know they're not out there committing crimes in the real world right and

[00:17:01] the fact is that it's it's such a small percentage of people who are actually doing the bad stuff

[00:17:08] but because we've been conditioned to consume information only about them it's actually a

[00:17:17] blown up thing in our heads that the world is a terrible place and how can you even find

[00:17:22] good stories but but when you just go all the way deep down into your communities your

[00:17:28] neighborhoods you realize that there are great people all around that they're doing great stuff so

[00:17:33] you know that itself is telling in terms of how we've been conditioned to look at the world and I

[00:17:38] think that's a terrible thing it's really sad but I'm so happy too and glad to hear that there

[00:17:44] are more people like you right you know trying to make sure that we know about all the good

[00:17:49] that's happening yeah and I think so it's not hard so my point was that it's not hard to find

[00:17:57] stories of people doing great work it's all around it's just that nobody has been looking

[00:18:01] so the job is actually a lot easier than people think from the outside there's of course the usual

[00:18:07] challenges of building something right when you build something to scratch and you build something

[00:18:12] which is so contrarian to what society has been used to so it makes it doubly hard

[00:18:20] but I think I think the challenges for us have been totally worth it when every single day

[00:18:26] we get to see the kind of impact our work is happening you know our work is creating right so

[00:18:33] to me I think that's really the fuel that keeps us going yeah I completely agree and I can

[00:18:39] I can hear the passion in your voice the month so yeah great going on that now also tell me about

[00:18:47] I'm sure there are tons and tons of articles or tons and tons of projects that have made impact

[00:18:53] but a couple of them that really stood out for you and you know made you feel fulfilled

[00:18:58] that you know you're part of Better India um yeah so there are like I mean I think at last count

[00:19:07] we've published 20 000 plus stories um yeah so I mean it's just very hard to pick one but

[00:19:17] but you know the ones which always stand out are the ones which happened right at the beginning

[00:19:21] because those were instrumental in in certain decisions that we took and I mean I've quoted

[00:19:30] the story quite a few times and I still find it so awe-inspiring when I think this was about

[00:19:38] a year or two of having started the Better India as a site project

[00:19:42] and we had featured a story about a photography club run by visually impaired people

[00:19:51] which I thought was fascinating that it's a group of visually impaired people who are pursuing

[00:19:56] photography which you otherwise associated with you know vision and we wrote the story and

[00:20:04] a couple of weeks later we actually had a visually impaired girl who reached out to us

[00:20:11] via her friend and she shared with us that all her life she wanted to pursue

[00:20:17] photography and whenever she brought that up as a wish as a desire everyone around her you know

[00:20:25] would kind of rubbish it saying how is that even possible and apparently our article completely

[00:20:32] changed our life she went and joined that club and she was so grateful that we gave

[00:20:38] her a purpose in life um that she just couldn't stop thanking us and and this

[00:20:44] was when we were read by like a few hundred people a month I guess so to me this story stands out

[00:20:52] because A there was a first time I personally felt how some work of mine had led to um you know

[00:21:02] a massive change in someone's life but also because that this was the point when you know

[00:21:08] both are rather than I decided that this needs to grow we need to kind of scale this up

[00:21:12] if this is the kind of impact we can have with a few hundred people imagine the kind of impact

[00:21:17] we can have if we can get this to hundreds of millions of people right and I think that was one

[00:21:23] decisive sort of point and hence that story is is quite dear to me yeah I can completely imagine

[00:21:30] and 200 million subscribers over all the platforms and and one step one heart at a time right is

[00:21:39] I think what you are trying to reach and you know more power to you the month and the better India

[00:21:44] so demon now let's move on to the other side you were talking about other verticals and

[00:21:51] you specifically mentioned the better home so let's talk a bit more about that because people

[00:21:56] I think across are looking for more sustainable products and a lot more people have started

[00:22:01] caring about the environment and also the damage that the other products could do to our own

[00:22:07] health right so let's talk a bit about the better home and what's the idea behind it

[00:22:15] why you started it etc. Yes so you know like I said right our vision always was how do you

[00:22:22] leverage the internet to drive large scale change and the better India will manage to kind of

[00:22:30] build a community which was then coming together and you know all the kind of impact

[00:22:34] that we were starting to see now one of the things that really started standing out and it's it's also

[00:22:41] a personal sort of a cause is that of sustainability so the way with Agnada and I kind of try and

[00:22:49] need our lives is to look at how can we minimize the damage that we do on the environment or

[00:22:55] planet and how do we in general minimize you know or minimize consumption to a way that our lifestyles

[00:23:04] are as less damaging as possible to the environment so we began doing that and you know

[00:23:11] so we also started writing a lot of content around it featuring people who were doing some

[00:23:15] great stuff around sustainability and we noticed an interesting thing we noticed that

[00:23:20] our content around sustainable products are content around natural products are content around

[00:23:27] health and wellness started getting significantly more traction at one point I think this was in

[00:23:35] 2018 or so we started seeing a sudden surge in people's interest in these things so we actually

[00:23:41] reached out to our audience I wanted to really know more what is it that you know what is

[00:23:46] that sustainability means to you what is it that prevents you from going down that lifestyle and

[00:23:53] all whole bunch of those questions and what really emerged which was that people basically said that

[00:24:03] if there was a choice we would actually opt for sustainable products but it's just that we don't

[00:24:09] know what brands to trust because there's so many things out in the market and so on so then of

[00:24:14] course we asked them hey you know what if we guys decide to do something would you guys trust it and

[00:24:18] you know we had five six years of constant content that we've been putting out and there was that whole

[00:24:23] trust factor with the better India so people were like yeah sure if you try but obviously you

[00:24:28] can't just leave it at that so we decided that okay let us actually try and launch our own

[00:24:35] you know some of FMCG kind of products and it seemed very radical back then saying

[00:24:41] a content platform trying to get into products and it wasn't so daunting for us so I have worked in

[00:24:51] the in my pre-distance I've worked in e-commerce I've worked in you know so I've helped set up

[00:24:57] systems and processes in e-commerce so it wasn't like a complete black box for me but of course

[00:25:03] it was a marked shift from what we were doing on a daily basis but we were at the same time

[00:25:09] also clear that this aligns with our vision of how do you leverage this community to build bigger and

[00:25:14] bigger for impact kind of models so long story short really we we launched the better home

[00:25:22] we decided to interest the whole you know domestic consumption right so when you wash your clothes

[00:25:28] when you wash your dishes when you wash your house you're basically releasing contaminated water

[00:25:34] back into our sewage systems which eventually lead into our water bodies and we started thinking

[00:25:40] about this and said okay this is where it really needs to step at a very large scheme of course

[00:25:45] baby steps we needed to get launched and start with something small so we started with some

[00:25:50] four products largely focusing on laundry and dish washing and and floor cleaners and toilet

[00:25:59] so but the promise was very clear that these are 100%

[00:26:04] non-toxic and 100% bio degradable which means that when they actually get into our water bodies

[00:26:11] they do know how and that's how we started it it's been a little over a year I'd say

[00:26:18] and it's been phenomenal that we've actually shipped to more than 60,000 households in a year

[00:26:26] fantastic yeah yeah and it's been it's been it's been amazing to see the kind of reception

[00:26:33] these products that we don't even sell offline right so we have a largely on our own platform

[00:26:38] sell it on Amazon but in spite of that to have you know 60,000 households on a monthly basis

[00:26:44] are using our products and this is just year one so we're really excited about that wow

[00:26:51] and you know do you have other verticals in mind as you were saying anything that you might want to

[00:26:58] share at this point in time or any thoughts actually yeah you know one of the things we're

[00:27:04] launching very soon is called the better India Academy where the idea is that we've been featuring

[00:27:11] stories of people doing phenomenal stuff over so many so many years and the question then arose

[00:27:18] that how would we distill those learnings into courses that people could take and you know start

[00:27:27] sort of cross-pollination of ideas start kind of replicating things that have worked for someone

[00:27:34] in some neighborhoods and take it to other areas and neighborhoods and so on so

[00:27:38] so really we started thinking about how do you do this and then this whole idea of an academy

[00:27:43] was born where people could come in and learn life skills from the people who we featured

[00:27:49] and who've done tremendous stuff right and so the better the academy something we are working on

[00:27:55] right now and I think maybe in a few weeks from now we should be live just for record we're

[00:28:01] speaking in the end of July so I'm hoping that by mid-August or 10th of August we

[00:28:06] should be live at our academy oh wow wow and thank you so much for sharing this and it's

[00:28:12] very inspiring and you know who are the sort of people that you're looking as a target audience to

[00:28:18] say sign up with the better academy is it anyone and everyone any age groups anything in mind

[00:28:24] I think I think it's anyone and everyone who is looking to get life skills which can help

[00:28:32] them lead better lives right we're also looking for people who want to learn skills that can

[00:28:38] help them get more livelihood you know can you learn something here which helps you generate

[00:28:47] revenues for something and helps you sort of improve your life financially can we help you

[00:28:53] learn skills that you never there are never taught in school and you know help you lead a

[00:28:58] better life maybe socially economically and so on so it's really very wide right now but

[00:29:04] I think the onus is very clear that we're going to be focusing on life skills that help you

[00:29:10] help you lead better lives yeah the better I think the better is the key there you know

[00:29:15] tying in with the better India the better home and the better academy amazing amazing simply

[00:29:20] amazing and you know why I asked you that question right you know the age and you know

[00:29:25] anyone can join because you know I'm so excited you know I might be one of the first ones

[00:29:29] to sign up as well you know the slots are open so amazing so now let's talk about another

[00:29:35] facet of life Dheemant because we're talking about Dheemant Parekh I mean of course he's

[00:29:40] the founder of the better India but he's also a co-founder and you know he has a spouse working

[00:29:46] as the co-founder so tell us tell us a bit more about that how does that play out you know

[00:29:52] what are the good things and you know when do you have the bad days what do you do

[00:29:57] because there are a lot of people I know you know where the spouses are co-founders so how do you

[00:30:02] get over those challenges as well yeah I think more you know the way it's panned out for us I think

[00:30:11] we've seen it as a massive advantage that we have as a team going forward because I think

[00:30:20] what what ended up happening is that by the some background right so Anuradha and I both come from

[00:30:25] Bangalore we've had similar sort of school experiences and then we went to the same B school

[00:30:33] and that's where we met at that B school and you know post that when we spent some time together

[00:30:39] we realized that largely we had very similar things that we seemed to want out of life

[00:30:47] and the thing that really got this thing going is that as soon as we started this weekend project

[00:30:54] we realized we both were extremely kicked about it we both were extremely interested in doing it and so

[00:31:02] it was clear from day zero that this was something that got us both equally excited and

[00:31:10] as we started working together I think what really worked out for us is that

[00:31:15] turns out that the two of us have extremely complementary skills while Anuradha is

[00:31:23] excellent in you know operational detail very very process-oriented can set up things and

[00:31:33] her attention to detail is incredible. I have this I would say scale but I think my focus ends up

[00:31:42] being more in terms of steering the larger sort of picture in terms of where do we head what are

[00:31:48] areas that's coming up next what should we look out for and being able to you know bring in the whole

[00:31:55] technology aspect to it and I think just that dynamic helped both of us a lot because if you

[00:32:05] both have similar skills then it's really not much of value to the company or the organization

[00:32:10] as such but because we've been able to kind of you know divide and conquer so to speak right

[00:32:16] in terms of skills I think it really accelerated out here. Yeah I think that's largely the I think

[00:32:26] the disadvantage of course is obvious you end up talking work all the time even if you're on a vacation

[00:32:32] even if you're with family I think work does occupy a significant proportion of your conversations.

[00:32:42] No no I can really understand and I know where you're coming from

[00:32:45] now Dheeman tell us about Dheeman the person what does he like to do apart from running the

[00:32:51] better India and trying to make an impact how does you know how does he work on impact his own life

[00:32:57] like I know you're a long-distance runner so what would you say is the role of you know this

[00:33:03] sort of physical activity in keeping sane because I'm sure every day is a challenge right.

[00:33:09] Yeah so a couple of things I think I love running I've been running for seven eight years now

[00:33:18] run some really good marathons I've really enjoyed across the country and this is something I do

[00:33:25] almost every single day I run almost eight to ten kilometers a day wow and that's really my sort

[00:33:33] of meditation I would say it's yeah it's it's become more it's become more therapeutic for me

[00:33:39] than anything else so I think I start I don't think I ever looked at it as a physical activity that I

[00:33:45] need to do for my body but it has become more of an activity that helps my mental well being

[00:33:55] so that's one thing I diligently do and in other things I love reading I think I'll

[00:34:01] I'm a big follower of physics I read a lot of books in physics I also read a lot of fiction

[00:34:12] in general yeah love reading and off late it's been quantum mechanics and quantum physics that

[00:34:18] have been piling up on the terms of the books that I'm buying interesting there's a bunch of

[00:34:23] other things and of course spending time with you know family okay so yeah thank you for sharing

[00:34:29] that part of you the last question before we end is you know your message to others who want to

[00:34:40] follow their ikigai I mean I'm sure that people are going to be super inspired and I hope that you

[00:34:46] leave you know your Instagram handle or you know your Twitter handle so that people can reach you

[00:34:51] post listening to this show but what's your message I think just that whatever you believe in

[00:34:58] right just stay true to that and never give up I think half the battle is won if you just show up

[00:35:04] every single day and that's a very important thing and not a lot of people realize the value of

[00:35:11] persistence more than anything else more than strategy more than talent more than luck

[00:35:17] I think it's just persistence and just the act of showing up every single day

[00:35:21] and you will see wonders in terms of what you can achieve absolutely and you know as

[00:35:26] as far as I've heard you even show up for a run every single day so I think the persistence kind of

[00:35:32] came through pretty clearly I'm sure to all our listeners as well and Dheemant you are on Twitter

[00:35:39] or Instagram and also give out the Instagram handle of the it's simply the Better India

[00:35:45] it's it's the Better India yes it's the Better India on Twitter on Instagram okay so I'm sure

[00:35:51] that people will reach out and read and use your products and of course sign up for the academy

[00:35:58] we are excitedly waiting for the launch of the Better India Academy wishing you great luck and

[00:36:05] success you know in building your dreams and building the dreams of thousands and millions

[00:36:10] of people around thank you so much Dheemant thank you so much Surya Thaib it's a pleasure having

[00:36:16] absolutely I loved having this conversation take care bye bye thank you take care wow wow and wow

[00:36:25] well that was one super powerful and super inspiring conversation for sure right now what I'm

[00:36:31] gonna do is go take some really deep breaths and express my gratitude to the universe for actually

[00:36:38] making this episode possible I can't tell you how good I'm feeling right now and you

[00:36:43] can surely make me feel better by sharing this episode forward with as many people as possible

[00:36:49] and also sending your feedback to me on rjsuji at gmail.com so here's me saying take care stay safe

[00:36:57] and keep the love flowing folks ciao till we meet again