What do you perceive as your greatest professional asset?
- I have had the opportunity to travel across the length and breadth of India.
I have travelled extensively to over 100+ town and cities within India and to
over 25 cities in abroad. When you travel extensively, you expand the horizon
and world view. Amongst all other things, I value this aspect of my
professional career as the greatest asset.
Could you provide a concise overview of your professional
history? - Yes, certainly. My entire professional career was in the field of
Construction Equipment Sector, spanning over 22.5 years. I started my career
with a German Multi National, as a Graduate Engineer Trainee in 1997. Worked
with the organization in two stints for about 6 years (in between these two
stints I did my MBA from Pondicherry, Central University). My second company
was a British MNC, with which I was associated for over 16.5 years. I joined
them as an Area Manager and my last position held was, National Sales Head for
a Product line.
What strategies do you recommend for parents to ensure
their children's responsible use of social media? - Social media have become
essential part of our lives. In fact, the Gen Z and Gen Alpha are also called
the digital natives. However, if we don’t control the usage social media from
the beginning, it can have a very harmful effect on our younger generations.
Young Children at home replicate what they see at home, essentially, they model
the behaviour of their own parents, elders at home. So, the most important
strategy would be to model as good and responsible parents and elders at home
with respect to use of social media. Some of the simple techniques I follow as
a parent, are; Phone always in zero notification mode, No personal Facebook or
Instagram Accounts, No mobile hours (between 9 pm to 9 am) etc. If the parents
can follow these, I am sure the children also will adopt them eventually.
In what ways does parenting differ when raising multiple
children, and are there strategies to navigate these challenges? - Today, India
average reproduction rate is about 2.14 in 2023, which means on an average most
of the young Indian couples have either 1/2/3 child. As a parent myself, I feel
two children is ideal for the family and also for the children’s cognitive
development. While raising a single child is less expensive, the social skills
of a single child may take more time to develop as he/she may not another
sibling at home to interact with. In today’s time, more than two children is a
luxury keeping in mind the cost of everything required to raise a child. This
is my personal opinion, but it all depends on the individuals’ own choices and
we should leave it at that.
What advice do you have for newlywed couples or
first-time parents? - Whatever good
values you want in your child/children start behaving or modelling them at
home. Because the young children at home are constantly learning from what they
see around themselves and especially at their parents/elders.
How do you view the growing generation gap between
parents and children? - The concept of generation gap has happened in the past
and will continue to happen in the future as well. The reason being every
generation experiences the world in a different way in their childhood. Broadly
post the world war, the generations from different eras are termed as
The silent generation (born before 1945), Baby Boomers
(born between 1946 to 1964), Gen X (1965 to 1976), Gen Y (1977 to 1995), Gen Z
(1996 to 2011) & Gen Alpha (2012 till present)
In every era the world was a different place in every
aspect. Hence the gap between the generations. This is very normal, and we have
parents, teachers, mentors have to learn and adapt with the new generation
kids.
12 май 2024
